{"id":1343,"date":"2020-06-29T15:35:40","date_gmt":"2020-06-29T20:35:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.ancientfaith.com\/wholecounsel\/?p=1343"},"modified":"2020-06-29T15:35:40","modified_gmt":"2020-06-29T20:35:40","slug":"war-famine-disease-death-and-hades","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ancientfaith.com\/wholecounsel\/2020\/06\/29\/war-famine-disease-death-and-hades\/","title":{"rendered":"War, Famine, Disease, Death, and Hades"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"The Apocalypse of St. John contains countless evocative images and creatures demonic and bestial.\u00a0 One group of figures who have become well-known even outside of religious circles, entering into popular culture in a variety of ways, are the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse as described in the sixth chapter of Revelation.\u00a0 This chapter is structured around one of several cyclical depictions within the text of Christ, here the Lamb, executing judgment to retake the creation and reestablish justice<\/a>.\u00a0 In St. John’s vision of the divine throne, Christ has taken the scroll which is the title of ownership for the whole creation, being the only one found worthy to do so.\u00a0 This scroll is sealed with seven seals (Rev 5:1, 5-7).\u00a0 Christ’s establishment of his own kingdom, his reign over the creation, is enacted through judgments which issue forth as he breaks each of the seven wax seals.\u00a0 As he breaks each of the first four seals, the four cherubim surrounding the divine throne call out, and a rider on a horse comes forth to ride out across the earth in judgment (6:1-8).<\/p>\n

The text itself names only one of these riders, the fourth and final one to emerge, who is Death (6:8).\u00a0 Following alongside him, like a companion beast, is Hades.\u00a0 Thanatos, the Greek word which occurs here, is the name of a Greek god as, of course, is Hades.\u00a0 Their portrayal here in Revelation, however, does not correspond to their typical Greek or Roman depiction.\u00a0 Thanatos is the god of a peaceful death, as from old age.\u00a0 Offerings were made to him by his worshippers to request of him such a quiet death.\u00a0 Thanatos was conceived as the brother of Hypnos, the god of sleep.\u00a0 The horseman Death, on the other hand, slays a quarter of the earth through the sword, famine, plague, and wild beasts.\u00a0 He is seemingly the exact opposite.\u00a0 Likewise, Hades was the lord of the underworld, part of the triumvirate with Zeus and Poseidon, brothers who governed the world, not a crouching beast who served Thanatos.<\/p>\n

St. John’s vision, however, does correspond to the more ancient Canaanite depiction of the god of death and lord of the underworld Mot.\u00a0 Mot was a god of both death in this world and the tyrant of the next.\u00a0 Mot was depicted with a retinue of other gods who he sent forth to slay for him.\u00a0 He collected the lives of those so slain and fed them to Sheol, the grave or the underworld, who devoured them forever.\u00a0 Understanding Death as Mot, the naming of this fourth horseman, then aids the interpretation of the identity of the other three.\u00a0 The sword, famine, and plague of v. 8 are not activities undertaken by Mot, but his agents.\u00a0 Agents described in the preceding verses.<\/p>\n

Though it has been the topic of the most debate in modern history, the identity of the first horseman, described in v. 2, is the clearest as he was one of the most popular gods of the ancient world.\u00a0 He is described by St. John as sitting on a white horse, armed with a bow, and riding forth to conquer.\u00a0 The odd-sounding circumlocution at the end of the verse, that he went forth conquering and in order to conquer appears to be a piece of Hebrew syntax, an infinitive absolute, reconstructed in Greek.\u00a0 The god Resheph is attested to in the Ancient Near East from the third millennium BC.\u00a0 So popular was this deity throughout the millennia before the birth of Christ that his cult was assimilated from the West Semitic region into Egyptian religion wholesale from the beginning of the New Kingdom.\u00a0 In Cyprus, his cult and depiction were assimilated into that of Apollo.<\/p>\n

One of Resheph’s primary appellations was ‘the horse rider’.\u00a0 This was depicted both in terms of the god riding on a horse and in a chariot.\u00a0 He was typically portrayed as an archer.\u00a0 His name is the word for ‘plague’ or ‘pestilence’.\u00a0 He is the one who smites or burns.\u00a0 He was also a god of war.\u00a0 His influence is detectable in the portrayal of Apollo in the Illiad (1.42-55).\u00a0 Ancients were aware of this connection and Greek authors of the classical period often refer to Resheph as, for example, Phoenician Apollo.\u00a0 He is one of the gods called to bear witness to the treaty between Hannibal and Philip of Macedonia because they considered him shared.<\/p>\n

Resheph appears, by name, repeatedly in the text of the Old Testament where he is portrayed as a demonic figure unleashed by Yahweh the God of Israel as a form of judgment.\u00a0 So, for example, in the pronunciation of curses in Deuteronomy 32:23-24, Yahweh says, “I will pile evils upon them, my arrows will I exhaust on them.\u00a0 They will be wasted with hunger. They will be devoured by Resheph and Qeteb the poisonous.”\u00a0 Psalm 78\/77:48 describes the seventh plague on Egypt during Israel’s deliverance as Yahweh having, “given up the cattle to hail and the herds to the Reshephs.”\u00a0 Habakkuk 3:5 describes Yahweh coming to render judgment as having Deber, a Canaanite god associated with epidemics going before him and Resheph following behind.<\/p>\n

Some may be inclined to interpret these texts purely within the vein of polytheism, with these beings serving in the retinue of Yahweh rather than Mot in Canaan or Marduk in Babylon.\u00a0 However, the continued enmity between Yahweh and Resheph is also described in several texts.\u00a0 So in Psalm 76\/75:4, Yahweh shatters “the Reshephs of the bow” as well as “the shield, the sword and the weapons of war.”\u00a0 The plagues and pestilence issued forth from the arrows of Resheph are something from which Yahweh delivers his people, as the “sons of Resheph” which fly high and afflict Job (5:7) or the “arrows that fly” amidst a litany of demonic powers enumerated in Psalm 91\/90 (v. 5).\u00a0 Though there is nothing in St. John’s description that mentions plague, pestilence, or disease, the traditional identification of this horseman as Pestilence reflects the preserved memory of his identity as Resheph.<\/p>\n

Within the Hebrew Bible, there are three feared causes of death.\u00a0 These personified as demonic spirits associated with pagan gods.\u00a0 Resheph, pestilence is the first and the second and third horsemen complete that triumvirate of deities feeding Mot and Sheol.\u00a0 The second horseman rides upon a red horse takes peace from the earth and leads humanity to slay one another.\u00a0 He is best identified, however, by the ‘great sword’ which he is given.\u00a0 “The Sword” as an entity is one of the ways in which the Hebrew Bible speaks of violence and bloodshed.\u00a0 The other is the word “Blood,” generally in the plural, “Damim” in Hebrew.\u00a0 This speaks of a demonic being responsible for violent death, including murder, war, and other bloodshed.<\/p>\n

“The Sword” as an entity is described often as one which Yahweh threatens to unleash in judgment (Ex 5:8; 22:24; Lev 26:7-8, 25; Num 14:43; 20:18; Deut 28:22; 32:25; 2 Sam 2:26; 11:25; 12:10; 18:8; Ezra 9:7; Job 5:15, 20, 22, 29; 27:14; 39:22; Ps 22:20; 37:15; 63:10; 76:3; 78:62, 64; 144:10; Is 1:20; 31:8; 37:7).\u00a0 The language of “the sword devouring,” which action is also generally ascribed to Mot and Sheol, is common.\u00a0 Likewise, “Bloodshed” is depicted as a force of vengeance upon those who have shed blood themselves.\u00a0 This idea of an avenging demon runs parallel to the Greek conception of the furies who descend upon those guilty of crimes of blood to drag them to Hades.\u00a0 Likely the most famous example of this is David’s prayer to be delivered from ‘Bloodshed’ in Psalm 51\/50 (v. 14).\u00a0 This imagery is also seen in Abel’s blood crying out from the ground for vengeance (Gen 4:10-11).\u00a0 Joseph’s brothers express concern about this potential vengeance after harming their brother (Gen 37:22-26).\u00a0 In the context of Revelation 6, this is represented by the cries of the martyrs after the opening of the fifth seal (v. 10).\u00a0 These martyrs had been “slain,” the same verb used of the activity of the second horseman.\u00a0 This understanding, further, is why sin offerings of the old covenant were often described as being a ransom for the life of a party guilty of blood and therefore Christ’s self-offering as a “ransom” (eg. Matt 20:28; 1 Tim 2:6).<\/p>\n

The third horseman comes forth with scales, with a balance.\u00a0 The cry which accompanies his arrival describes a shortage of food, a famine (Rev 6:6).\u00a0 The terms in which this famine is described are important to the nature of justice in St. John’s vision.\u00a0 Famine in the ancient world had its most devastating effects on subsistence farmers, on the extremely poor.\u00a0 St. John’s vision, however, describes famine here unleashed as a judgment in terms related to commerce.\u00a0 Meaning, this is a judgment coming against the cities, the civilization, the wealthy, and the rulers of the world.\u00a0 The poor have already gone hungry and been deprived by the wicked.\u00a0 This judgment brings justice in the rebalancing of those scales.<\/p>\n

Famine, again personified as a deity, “Ra’av.”\u00a0 Ra’av is the third deity in the retinue of Mot who feeds him and Sheol those whom he devours.\u00a0 Jeremiah, in particular, frequently speaks of Ra’av and “the Sword” being unleashed in judgment as a pair.\u00a0 In a few cases, he also includes pestilence as the third (Jer 2:30; 4:10; 5:12; 9:16; 14:12-16; 15:2-3; 16:4; 21:7-9; 24:10; 25:16, 27-29; 32:24-26; 42:16-22; 44:12-18<\/span>).\u00a0 Zechariah portrays these three figures and death as charioteers, a foreshadowing of St. John’s vision (Zech 6:1-8).\u00a0 Here again, however, the prophet portrays these three beings as being set loose by Yahweh the God of Israel to enact his judgment.\u00a0 Mot does not seem to have been the subject of direct worship in the Ancient Near East.\u00a0 Resheph, Ra’av, and various spirits of bloodshed and vengeance, however, were objects of worship, or at least of sacrificial appeasement.\u00a0 Sacrificial offerings were offered to placate these spirits and keep them at bay.\u00a0 Charms, amulets, bowl inscriptions, and various other forms of magic were used to ward them off.\u00a0 They were seen to be lurking in the world and constantly threatening the people of the nations.\u00a0 Jeremiah’s enslavement of them to Yahweh, despite their demonic status as spirits of evil, turns this on its head.\u00a0 They, in and of themselves, are not worthy of fear because they are controlled.\u00a0 They are likewise not worthy of worship or appeasement.\u00a0 Rather, it is Yahweh, God Most High, who ought be worshipped as the one who can deliver humanity from all of these hostile powers.\u00a0 When these powers afflict humanity, it is repentance before the God of Israel which will bring relief and healing, restoring justice.<\/p>\n

In our contemporary world, much ink has been spilled on the subject of theodicy.\u00a0 This is, literally, the attempt to justify God.\u00a0 The presuppositions behind this entire discussion are founded on a loss of the understanding of the Scriptures described above.\u00a0 There are seen to be two kinds of evil in the world.\u00a0 The first originates in man and his decisions to do evil.\u00a0 The second is sometimes called “natural evil.”\u00a0 It includes things like disease epidemics and natural disasters.\u00a0 The former have a human agent.\u00a0 The latter is seen to be the product of essentially random chains of material cause and effect.\u00a0 In both cases, it is objected that God ought to do something to stop both of these or to disallow them entirely.\u00a0 This presupposes that God stands away and apart from the created order.\u00a0 It assumes that the only conscious agents in the created order are humans.\u00a0 It assumes that creation other than humanity operates on purely material principles.\u00a0 All three of these presuppositions are false.<\/p>\n

Rather, God is intimately involved in the created order.\u00a0 His grace, his working in the world, permeates the entirety of the creation which he is transfiguring and bringing to perfection.\u00a0 Sin came into existence through evil spiritual powers that have rebelled against their creator.\u00a0 Human persons who join in their rebellion mediate their evil into the created order as humanity was created to mediate between the invisible and visible creations.\u00a0 That humanity is not irredeemably demoniac and damned living in a creation transformed into a literal hell on earth is purely the gracious work of God.\u00a0 God has done all that he has done, preeminently the incarnation, death, resurrection, and ascension in glory of Jesus Christ, in order to redeem the created order and humanity in particular.\u00a0 He has given us this life for repentance.\u00a0 He makes use of the rebellious spiritual powers which hate him in order to bring about the repentance, healing, and restoration of human persons.\u00a0 It is for this reason that he handed all of humanity over to death (Gen 3:2-23).\u00a0 It is to restrain man’s evil that his life is foreshortened (Gen 6:3).\u00a0 As in the book of Job and all the passages here cited, he gives the powers of evil limited leash to afflict the unrighteous in order to bring them to repentance.\u00a0 The Apocalypse describes how, in the last days of the last days, as part of the final judgment, all of these forces are unleashed fully.\u00a0 The sinful angels of the days of Noah and their spawn are set free from the Abyss (Rev 9:1-12).\u00a0 The Devil himself is set free from the chains with which Christ bound him at the harrowing of Hades (Rev 20:7-8).\u00a0 The four horsemen ride forth to the four corners of the earth (Rev 6:1-8).<\/p>\n

The means through which God has chosen to restrain these powers is prayer, specifically the intercessory prayers of his people.\u00a0 In the old covenant, this took the form of Israel as a kingdom of priests and the sacrificial and festal worship of the tabernacle and temple.\u00a0 In the new covenant, this takes the form of the Church as a royal priesthood and her life of prayer, most especially the prayers accompanying the sacrifice of the Eucharist.\u00a0 It is these prayers that preserve the world, transforming and illuminating it.\u00a0 It is these prayers that bring human persons to salvation.\u00a0 It is these prayers that restrain, protect, and preserve the world from the threat of Pestilence, Violence, Famine, and Death.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Apocalypse of St. John contains countless evocative images and creatures demonic and bestial.\u00a0 One group of figures who have become well-known even outside of religious circles, entering into popular culture in a variety of ways, are the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse as described in the sixth chapter of Revelation.\u00a0 This chapter is structured around one of several cyclical depictions within the text of Christ, here the Lamb, executing judgment to retake the creation and reestablish justice.\u00a0 In St. John’s vision of the divine throne, Christ has taken the scroll which is the title of ownership for the whole creation, being the only one found worthy to do so.\u00a0 This scroll is sealed with seven seals (Rev 5:1, 5-7).\u00a0\u2026 <\/i> <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1343","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"War, Famine, Disease, Death, and Hades - The Whole Counsel Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.ancientfaith.com\/wholecounsel\/2020\/06\/29\/war-famine-disease-death-and-hades\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"War, Famine, Disease, Death, and Hades - The Whole Counsel Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Apocalypse of St. John contains countless evocative images and creatures demonic and bestial.\u00a0 One group of figures who have become well-known even outside of religious circles, entering into popular culture in a variety of ways, are the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse as described in the sixth chapter of Revelation.\u00a0 This chapter is structured around one of several cyclical depictions within the text of Christ, here the Lamb, executing judgment to retake the creation and reestablish justice.\u00a0 In St. John’s vision of the divine throne, Christ has taken the scroll which is the title of ownership for the whole creation, being the only one found worthy to do so.\u00a0 This scroll is sealed with seven seals (Rev 5:1, 5-7).\u00a0\u2026\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/blogs.ancientfaith.com\/wholecounsel\/2020\/06\/29\/war-famine-disease-death-and-hades\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Whole Counsel Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-06-29T20:35:40+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/blogs.ancientfaith.com\/wholecounsel\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2020\/05\/1c2ab99ed230d56462a5f5fea8e691f1.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Fr. Stephen De Young\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Fr. Stephen De Young\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"12 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogs.ancientfaith.com\/wholecounsel\/2020\/06\/29\/war-famine-disease-death-and-hades\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/blogs.ancientfaith.com\/wholecounsel\/2020\/06\/29\/war-famine-disease-death-and-hades\/\",\"name\":\"War, Famine, Disease, Death, and Hades - The Whole Counsel Blog\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogs.ancientfaith.com\/wholecounsel\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogs.ancientfaith.com\/wholecounsel\/2020\/06\/29\/war-famine-disease-death-and-hades\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogs.ancientfaith.com\/wholecounsel\/2020\/06\/29\/war-famine-disease-death-and-hades\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/blogs.ancientfaith.com\/wholecounsel\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2020\/05\/1c2ab99ed230d56462a5f5fea8e691f1.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2020-06-29T20:35:40+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-06-29T20:35:40+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogs.ancientfaith.com\/wholecounsel\/#\/schema\/person\/247da0ea47cc50719afc0ec2a8ee5e90\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogs.ancientfaith.com\/wholecounsel\/2020\/06\/29\/war-famine-disease-death-and-hades\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/blogs.ancientfaith.com\/wholecounsel\/2020\/06\/29\/war-famine-disease-death-and-hades\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogs.ancientfaith.com\/wholecounsel\/2020\/06\/29\/war-famine-disease-death-and-hades\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/blogs.ancientfaith.com\/wholecounsel\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2020\/05\/1c2ab99ed230d56462a5f5fea8e691f1.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/blogs.ancientfaith.com\/wholecounsel\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2020\/05\/1c2ab99ed230d56462a5f5fea8e691f1.jpg\",\"width\":459,\"height\":308},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogs.ancientfaith.com\/wholecounsel\/2020\/06\/29\/war-famine-disease-death-and-hades\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/blogs.ancientfaith.com\/wholecounsel\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"War, Famine, Disease, Death, and Hades\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogs.ancientfaith.com\/wholecounsel\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/blogs.ancientfaith.com\/wholecounsel\/\",\"name\":\"The Whole Counsel Blog\",\"description\":\"The Scriptures in the Orthodox Church\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/blogs.ancientfaith.com\/wholecounsel\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogs.ancientfaith.com\/wholecounsel\/#\/schema\/person\/247da0ea47cc50719afc0ec2a8ee5e90\",\"name\":\"Fr. Stephen De Young\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogs.ancientfaith.com\/wholecounsel\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/54dc899af5499978d3770526996cf817d0a8e3c9e776a06507dd686f6923d420?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/54dc899af5499978d3770526996cf817d0a8e3c9e776a06507dd686f6923d420?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Fr. Stephen De Young\"},\"description\":\"The V. Rev. Dr. Stephen De Young is Pastor of Archangel Gabriel Orthodox Church in Lafayette, Louisiana. He holds Master's degrees in theology, philosophy, humanities, and social sciences, and a Ph.D. in Biblical Studies from Amridge University. Fr. Stephen is also the host of the Whole Counsel of God podcast from Ancient Faith and author of four books, the Religion of the Apostles, God is a Man of War, the Whole Counsel of God, Apocrypha, and Saint Paul the Pharisee. He co-hosts the live call-in show and podcast Lord of Spirits with Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick.\",\"sameAs\":[\"http:\/\/stgabriellafayette.org\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/blogs.ancientfaith.com\/wholecounsel\/author\/frstevedeyoung\/\"}]}<\/script>","yoast_head_json":{"title":"War, Famine, Disease, Death, and Hades - The Whole Counsel Blog","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/blogs.ancientfaith.com\/wholecounsel\/2020\/06\/29\/war-famine-disease-death-and-hades\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"War, Famine, Disease, Death, and Hades - The Whole Counsel Blog","og_description":"The Apocalypse of St. John contains countless evocative images and creatures demonic and bestial.\u00a0 One group of figures who have become well-known even outside of religious circles, entering into popular culture in a variety of ways, are the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse as described in the sixth chapter of Revelation.\u00a0 This chapter is structured around one of several cyclical depictions within the text of Christ, here the Lamb, executing judgment to retake the creation and reestablish justice.\u00a0 In St. John’s vision of the divine throne, Christ has taken the scroll which is the title of ownership for the whole creation, being the only one found worthy to do so.\u00a0 This scroll is sealed with seven seals (Rev 5:1, 5-7).\u00a0\u2026","og_url":"https:\/\/blogs.ancientfaith.com\/wholecounsel\/2020\/06\/29\/war-famine-disease-death-and-hades\/","og_site_name":"The Whole Counsel Blog","article_published_time":"2020-06-29T20:35:40+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"https:\/\/blogs.ancientfaith.com\/wholecounsel\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2020\/05\/1c2ab99ed230d56462a5f5fea8e691f1.jpg","type":"","width":"","height":""}],"author":"Fr. Stephen De Young","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Fr. Stephen De Young","Est. reading time":"12 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/blogs.ancientfaith.com\/wholecounsel\/2020\/06\/29\/war-famine-disease-death-and-hades\/","url":"https:\/\/blogs.ancientfaith.com\/wholecounsel\/2020\/06\/29\/war-famine-disease-death-and-hades\/","name":"War, Famine, Disease, Death, and Hades - The Whole Counsel Blog","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/blogs.ancientfaith.com\/wholecounsel\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/blogs.ancientfaith.com\/wholecounsel\/2020\/06\/29\/war-famine-disease-death-and-hades\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/blogs.ancientfaith.com\/wholecounsel\/2020\/06\/29\/war-famine-disease-death-and-hades\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/blogs.ancientfaith.com\/wholecounsel\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2020\/05\/1c2ab99ed230d56462a5f5fea8e691f1.jpg","datePublished":"2020-06-29T20:35:40+00:00","dateModified":"2020-06-29T20:35:40+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/blogs.ancientfaith.com\/wholecounsel\/#\/schema\/person\/247da0ea47cc50719afc0ec2a8ee5e90"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/blogs.ancientfaith.com\/wholecounsel\/2020\/06\/29\/war-famine-disease-death-and-hades\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/blogs.ancientfaith.com\/wholecounsel\/2020\/06\/29\/war-famine-disease-death-and-hades\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/blogs.ancientfaith.com\/wholecounsel\/2020\/06\/29\/war-famine-disease-death-and-hades\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/blogs.ancientfaith.com\/wholecounsel\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2020\/05\/1c2ab99ed230d56462a5f5fea8e691f1.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/blogs.ancientfaith.com\/wholecounsel\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2020\/05\/1c2ab99ed230d56462a5f5fea8e691f1.jpg","width":459,"height":308},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/blogs.ancientfaith.com\/wholecounsel\/2020\/06\/29\/war-famine-disease-death-and-hades\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/blogs.ancientfaith.com\/wholecounsel\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"War, Famine, Disease, Death, and Hades"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/blogs.ancientfaith.com\/wholecounsel\/#website","url":"https:\/\/blogs.ancientfaith.com\/wholecounsel\/","name":"The Whole Counsel Blog","description":"The Scriptures in the Orthodox Church","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/blogs.ancientfaith.com\/wholecounsel\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/blogs.ancientfaith.com\/wholecounsel\/#\/schema\/person\/247da0ea47cc50719afc0ec2a8ee5e90","name":"Fr. Stephen De Young","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/blogs.ancientfaith.com\/wholecounsel\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/54dc899af5499978d3770526996cf817d0a8e3c9e776a06507dd686f6923d420?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/54dc899af5499978d3770526996cf817d0a8e3c9e776a06507dd686f6923d420?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Fr. Stephen De Young"},"description":"The V. Rev. Dr. Stephen De Young is Pastor of Archangel Gabriel Orthodox Church in Lafayette, Louisiana. He holds Master's degrees in theology, philosophy, humanities, and social sciences, and a Ph.D. in Biblical Studies from Amridge University. Fr. Stephen is also the host of the Whole Counsel of God podcast from Ancient Faith and author of four books, the Religion of the Apostles, God is a Man of War, the Whole Counsel of God, Apocrypha, and Saint Paul the Pharisee. He co-hosts the live call-in show and podcast Lord of Spirits with Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick.","sameAs":["http:\/\/stgabriellafayette.org"],"url":"https:\/\/blogs.ancientfaith.com\/wholecounsel\/author\/frstevedeyoung\/"}]}},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ancientfaith.com\/wholecounsel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1343","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ancientfaith.com\/wholecounsel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ancientfaith.com\/wholecounsel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ancientfaith.com\/wholecounsel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ancientfaith.com\/wholecounsel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1343"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ancientfaith.com\/wholecounsel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1343\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1389,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ancientfaith.com\/wholecounsel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1343\/revisions\/1389"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ancientfaith.com\/wholecounsel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1343"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ancientfaith.com\/wholecounsel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1343"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ancientfaith.com\/wholecounsel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1343"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}