Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

WRATH

Of the four words for anger in the OT, the most common is ʾap. While it may be etymologically related to the word for “snorting,” an anthropomorphism of God snorting in anger is not indicated by usage. In the LXX and NT the major word groups are related to Gk. thymós and orgḗ. The former may have had the sense of an outburst of anger (2 Cor. 12:20), but this distinction is not consistent in biblical usage, and usually the words are used interchangeably.

In the ancient world there were competing theories as to how the deity should act. The Greco-Roman myths frequently portrayed the gods as angry and vengeful. While performing the proper sacrifices might turn away divine anger, the gods were unpredictable and hard to appease. Divine wrath is a driving theme in Virgil’s Aeneid, Aeschylus’ Prometheus Bound, and Ovid’s Metamorphoses. Meanwhile, the deity of the Greek philosophers was perfection itself, and perfection was thought by many to exclude the vice of anger. The hellenized Jewish thinker Philo believed that anger was inappropriate for God, and that statements about God’s wrath were merely an accommodation to the readers. Similarly, some modern readers have taken the wrath of God as a carryover from a mythological worldview, or a metaphor of the automatic consequences of sin.

The God of the Bible, however, is unlike both the pagan gods and the impassible God of the philosophers. He experiences real anger against the wicked. In fact, the vast majority of the references to wrath in the OT (save in Proverbs and Ecclesiastes) concern God’s anger against Israel for its sin, especially for idolatry. Warnings abound not to “provoke Yahweh to wrath.” During the Exodus, Israel habitually drew God’s anger, e.g., at Meribah (Ps. 106:32) and Kadesh (29:8). Other nations too may feel the heat of God’s wrath (Ps. 2:5; Jer. 50:13).

Still, God is unlike the pagan gods. Since he becomes provoked by offenses against his revealed will, God’s anger is neither capricious nor unforeseeable (contra human anger in Prov. 14:17a). Unlike the impotent idols, God is capable of following up his wrath with punishing deeds (Hos. 13:9-11). Nevertheless, he also reveals himself as “merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. He will not always accuse, nor will he keep his anger forever . . .” (Ps. 103:8-9; cf. Isa. 57:15-17; Jer. 3:12). God is swift to forgive and to show mercy (Jonah 4:2; Mic. 7:18). By the same token, he transcends mere human emotion, never neglecting justice or forgetting offenses (e.g., Mal. 1:4). When Jesus displayed his anger in the clearing of the temple, it was an incarnate display of the wrath of Yahweh in Isa. 56:7: “My house shall be called a house of prayer.”

By definition, God’s anger is always righteous anger. Human beings may experience righteous anger too if they view sin from God’s viewpoint (cf. Exod. 16:20b) while leaving ultimate justice in God’s hands (Rom. 12:19). God instituted human government to execute, albeit provisionally, the divine wrath against evildoers (Rom. 13:4-5).

The wrath of God may be represented by metaphors: the pouring out of anger from a bowl (cf. Ezek. 7:8; Rev. 16:1), or the trampling of the wicked as if they were grapes in a wine press (Isa. 63:1-6; Rev. 19:15). But the most common symbol is heat (Zeph. 3:8) or a consuming, burning fire (2 Thess. 1:8), the fire that culminates in the lake fire.

The wrath of God is delayed until the last times. John the Baptist warned his hearers to escape the eschatological wrath of God (Matt. 3:7 = Luke 3:7). At the end of human history will come the “day of his wrath” (Lam. 1:12; Zeph. 1:18). This may be synonymous with the day of the Lord, which brings darkness and judgment on the rebellious (Joel 1:15).

The “wrath of God” comes to the fore in the gospel as the equivalent to God’s judgment and the antithesis of salvation and life (John 3:36). Rom. 1:18 even states that God’s wrath is revealed in the present (cf. Eph. 2:3), but the outpouring of his anger will take place in the future (Rom. 2:5). The death of Christ provides a “propitiation,” a sacrifice that turns away God’s wrath both presently (Rom. 3:25; 5:9; cf. 1 John 2:2; 4:10) and in the eschaton (cf. 1 Thess. 1:10). Revelation in particular focuses on God’s anger against rebellious humanity (e.g., Rev. 14:10).

Bibliography. G. C. Berkouwer, Sin (Grand Rapids, 1971), 354-423; F. Büchsel, “thymós,” TDNT 3:167-68; H.-C. Hahn, “Anger, wrath,” NIDNTT 1:105-13; H. Kleinknecht et al., “orgḗ,” TDNT 5:382-447.

Gary S. Shogren

Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

WRATH

Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible (2000)