Régis Burnet is a professor of New Testament at the Catholic University of Louvain. With Pierre-Edouard Detal, he has just published Armageddon. A Story of the End of the World (PUF, 269 pages, €21), where they go back to the biblical origins of the concept of Armageddon, to better analyze contemporary representations linked to this apocalyptic motif. In an interview with World of religionsthe theologian deciphers the genesis and evolution of this important notion of Christianity, which has become a reflection of humanity’s great fears.
The expression “Armageddon” appears in the book of Revelation (16:16). What does it mean for the apostle John, under whose name this book is placed?
There is only one occurrence of the term in the Bible, and only in this verse: it is what is called a “hapax.” John describes events that take place on Earth and that will lead to the destruction of the forces of Evil by the forces of Good and the “descent” of the “Heavenly Jerusalem”, a “holy city” described as “resplendent with the glory of God.”
Armageddon is the starting point of this great battle of the end times. The term designates the place of the coalition of the forces of Evil, but also the site where they will be defeated. Therefore, Armageddon is also the place of God’s victory which allows the Apocalypse – from the Greek apocalupsis, “revelation”, “unveiling”.
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Popular culture has only retained the most dramatic part of the book of Revelation, that is, a series of catastrophic events whose goal is not to destroy humanity, but Evil. The final word of this Revelation is the descent of the heavenly Jerusalem, a place where life is restored in an ideal city with God in its midst. In a way, the lost paradise is restored in the form of a city.
The book of Revelation, which was very peripheral for 1,500 years, also fueled much of the fighting around the Reformation. Each camp claimed to be on the “side of the white horseman.” mentioned in the text and accused the other of being that of the evil “Beast”. Many interpretations of the mysterious number 666, the one that the Devil places on the foreheads of his troops in the story, have been proposed. Some have argued that it was the number of the Pope, others that the Beast was Luther himself…
What is at stake in this final battle and who are the protagonists?
Armageddon mobilizes all the “kings of the Earth”, described as negative powers. It all begins with the descent to Earth of the “great Dragon”, an incarnation of evil, which takes up the myth of the fall of Satan, the fallen angel. He has a faithful auxiliary, the “Beast”, which can be interpreted as a personification of the Roman Empire. [selon une interprétation largement partagée, l’auteur de l’Apocalypse, qui écrivait probablement sous le règne de l’empereur Domitien, dans la seconde moitié du Ier siècle, dénonçait ainsi l’oppression du pouvoir romain].
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