Overview
In the fifth seal, “souls underneath the altar” cry out to God for revenge. That is often used to support the popular belief that humans have immortal souls that survive death and that believers go to heaven in a bodiless state when they die. However:
1) These souls come alive when Jesus returns (Rev 20:4), meaning they are not alive today.
2) These souls are resting (Rev 6:11), and Daniel and Revelation use the term “rest” to describe Death as a sleep (Dan 12:13; Rev 14:13).
3) These souls are not literal people underneath a literal altar (Rev 6:9) but symbolize that God’s people are sacrificed ON the altar. [Show More]
4) This vision does not present these souls as in heaven because they are underneath the altar, which is on earth. [Show More]
5) These souls are not literal people crying out to God for revenge (Rev 6:9-10) because God’s people do not cry out for revenge (e.g., Luke 23:34). It is the injustice to God’s people that calls out to God to restore justice.
6) Since Revelation is a book of symbols, and since everything else in the fifth seal is symbolic, these “souls” should not be taken as literal people. [Show More]
7) Revelation uses the word “soul” seven times but never uses it for an immortal, conscious part of human beings. It refers twice to living animals (Rev 8:9; 16:3) and twice to living humans (Rev 12:11; 18:13).
8) The idea that humans have immortal souls comes from Greek philosophy. In the Bible, the soul refers to the entire human being (cf. Gen 2:7; 1 Cor 14:45). [Show More]
Purpose
In Revelation 5, God gave Jesus a book “sealed up with seven seals” (Rev 5:1, 7). In Revelation 6, Jesus breaks the first six seals one by one. When He breaks the fifth seal, John wrote:
“I saw underneath the altar the souls of those who had been slain because of the word of God … they cried out with a loud voice:
‘How long, O Lord, holy and true, will You refrain from judging and avenging our blood …’ And there was given to each of them a white robe; and they were told that they should rest for a little while longer ….” (Rev 6:9-11). |
It is often claimed that these “souls” are disembodied but conscious souls literally crying out to God. It is then argued that a human has an immortal part that survives death. This article opposes this conclusion:
Discussion
These same souls come alive when Jesus returns, meaning they are not currently alive. |
Revelation 20:4 is part of the description of Christ’s return (Rev 19:11). It describes the same group of people as in the fifth seal because it also refers to “souls” who have been killed for their faith. However, 20:4 says that these slain souls will come alive when Christ returns, meaning that these ‘souls’ are not alive today. [Show More]
The souls are resting, a term used in Daniel and Revelation as equivalent to ‘sleep.’ |
The souls under the altar “were told that they should rest for a little while longer” (Rev 6:11). In other words, they were resting and must continue resting. Both Daniel and Revelation use the term “rest” to describe death as a state of inactivity (Dan 12:13; Rev 14:13). [Show More]
When Christ returns:
“Many of those who sleep in the dust of the ground will awake” (Dan 12:2).
Therefore, the word “rest” strongly implies that the souls under the altar are not awake.
They are not literal people under a literal altar but symbolize God’s people as sacrificed. |
John saw the souls underneath the altar (Rev 6:9). According to Revelation 16:6, the people of the world “poured out the blood of saints and prophets.” This refers to the Old Testament sacrificial rituals in which the blood of the animal sacrifices was drained into a basin and poured out at the base of the altar of burnt offering. [Show More]
The fifth seal converts this into a metaphor. It presents God’s people as “underneath the altar,” meaning that, when God’s people are persecuted and killed, they are sacrificed ON a symbolic altar and their souls (blood or lives) are poured out at the base of the altar. Therefore, symbolically, they are “underneath the altar.” Therefore, John did not see a literal altar or literal souls under the altar. [Show More]
They are not literal people because God’s people do not seek revenge. |
The “souls” underneath the altar cried out for revenge (Rev 6:10), but God’s people do not seek revenge. Rather, like Jesus and Stephan, they would ask the Father to forgive their murderers (Luke 23:34; Acts 7:60)!
God said that the blood of Abel cried out to Him from the ground (Gen 4:10). Similarly, it is the injustice God’s people had suffered that cries out to God, not living beings. It symbolizes God’s awareness of His people’s suffering and promise to set things right. [Show More]
In the vision, they are not in heaven but under the altar on earth. |
When the “souls” “were told that they should rest for a little while longer,” they were also given white robes (i.e., confirmation of salvation, or guarantee of eternal life) (Rev 6:11). In other words, they did not receive that guarantee at death, meaning that they could not have gone to ‘heaven’ immediately when they died. In the vision, they are under the altar on which they have been sacrificed, which is on earth.
Since Revelation is a book of symbols, we should assume that these are not literal people. |
Interpreting the souls under the altar as disembodied but conscious persons requires a literal reading of the text. However, Revelation is a book of symbols:
1) The first verse of the book says that the visions were given in the form of signs (Rev 1:1). [Show More]
2) Many things in the book cannot be literal. For example, a harlot woman rides a seven-headed dragon (Rev 17:3). [Show More]
3) Even things that seem literal are symbolic on further investigation. For example, the New Jerusalem in Revelation 21 is really a symbolic description of God’s eternal people. [Show More]
Given the pervasive symbolism of the book, the safer route is to assume that everything is symbolic unless proven otherwise. The same applies to the souls under the altar. Until proven otherwise, we must assume that the souls under the altar are symbols of realities.
More specifically, since everything in the fifth seal is symbolic, these souls are not literal. |
It is not a literal lamb.
The seal begins by saying the Lamb broke the fifth seal. It is not a literal lamb but a symbol of Jesus (Rev 5:6). It is also not a literal seal of a literal book. Previous articles identified the book as the Book of Life and the seals as Satan’s accusations against God’s elect. By breaking the seals, Jesus refutes Satan’s accusations and shows that God’s election is perfect. [Show More]
John did not literally see anything.
John wrote that he saw “souls” (Greek: psuchas) under the altar. What did he see? What does a soul look like? How did he know that they were killed, and why? John did not literally see anything, at least not with his physical eyes. These are thoughts that the Holy Spirit gave directly to his mind (cf. Rev 1:10). Perhaps he simply knew things in vision, rather than receiving visual images. [Show More]
The souls were not literally killed.
In this vision, these “souls” were “slain” (killed) for their faith. In 20:4, they were “beheaded.” However, 20:4 adds that they came alive “and reigned with Christ for a thousand years.” Therefore, the martyrs in the fifth seal include all of God’s people of all ages, including those who have not been literally killed. [Show More]
They are not literal bodiless souls.
Since they receive white robes, they have bodies. But “souls,” as the term is often understood, do not have bodies. The white robes are symbols of “the righteous acts of the saints” (Rev 19:7-8) and serve as God’s guarantee that they will be resurrected to eternal life. Furthermore, since these “souls” “cried out with a loud voice” (Rev 6:10), they seem to have mouths.
They did not receive literal white robes.
The souls underneath the altar are given white robes (Rev 6:11), but these are not literally white robes. The robes symbolize salvation. White symbolizes purity. [Show More]
It is not a literal number.
The “souls” were told to rest “until the number of their fellow servants … who were to be killed … would be completed also.” This is not a literal number but means that God’s end-time people would be completed QUALITATIVELY in character. (Read Article)
Conclusion
Since everything else in the fifth seal is symbolic, the souls underneath the altar cannot and should not be taken more literally than the description of Jesus as a bleeding lamb (Rev 5:6).
Revelation uses the term “soul” seven times, but never for an immortal part of humans. |
The word translated as “soul” (psuché) is used seven times in Revelation:
It refers twice to animals (Rev 8:9; 16:3). In other words, if humans have “souls,” animals also have souls. Furthermore, in both these two verses, the soul dies. It refers, therefore, to animals’ natural mortal life on this earth today. [Show More]
It also refers twice to the normal mortal life of humans (Rev 12:11; 18:13). In 18:13, the “souls of men” (Interlinear Translation) are included in a long list of things sold by merchants (Rev 18:11-13). Therefore, it cannot be an invisible, immortal part of human beings. [Show More]
It is also used to refer to a person’s innermost being rather than an immortal, conscious part of a human being: “The fruit you (psuché) long for” (Rev 18:14).
The two remaining verses are already discussed above. One is in the fifth seal (Rev 6:9), and the other is the resurrection text (Rev 20:4). These two verses refer to the same people, namely, God’s people who were killed for their faith. However, 20:4 states that these souls are made alive when Christ returns, meaning they are not alive now. In these two verses, the “soul” survives death but is not alive. It may be understood as existence in God’s mind and the promise of resurrection, not as an immortal, conscious part of human beings. [Show More]
The idea of an immortal soul comes from Greek philosophy. |
The idea that humans consist of two parts – a physical body and an immaterial and immortal soul – comes from Greek philosophy. In this view, when a person dies, it is the body that dies and disintegrates into nothing, but the soul lives on in a disembodied state.
In contrast, in the Bible, the human being is a unity. The soul refers to the entire human being, consisting of God’s breath (or life principle) and the material body (cf. Gen 2:7; 1 Cor 14:45). In other words, human beings do not have souls, they are souls. (See the articles on Death and Eternal Torment.) [Show More]
God’s people are resurrected immediately after death. |
At death, the memory of the person is retained by God. However, with God, time does not exist. God exists beyond time. Therefore, although time seems to pass after the death of a loved one, from the experience of a person who dies, no time passes between death and until Resurrection Day, when the dead person receives a new body. Rather, she or he is instantly resurrected after death and are immediately with both their parents and their children. [Show More]
Other Articles
The Seven Seals
Other
- I recommend Jon Paulien’s commentary on Revelation for further reading. For general theological discussions, I recommend Graham Maxwell, who you will find on the Pineknoll website.
FOOTNOTES
- 1C. Yannaras, Elements of Faith (in Greek), p.55