Journal: Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society
Volume: JETS 39:2 (Jun 1996)
Article: Har Magedon: The End Of The Millennium
Author: Meredith G. Kline

JETS 39:2 (June 1996) p. 207

Har Magedon: The End Of The Millennium

Meredith G. Kline**

Some sixty years ago C. C. Torrey published a study of Har Magedon that has not received the attention it deserves. 1 His explanation of the Hebrew terms transliterated into Greek as har magedōn (Rev 16:16) is accepted in the present article and additional evidence for it adduced. Further, it will be shown how this interpretation leads to the recognition that Har Magedon is Mount Zaphon/Zion and that the Har Magedon battle is the Gog-Magog crisis of Ezekiel 38–39. This in turn proves to be of critical significance in the millennium debate. For it adds a final, decisive point to the traditional amillennial argument for the identification of the conflict marking the end of the millennium (Rev 20:7–10) with the climactic battle of the great day of the Lord to which the Apocalypse repeatedly returns, as in the Rev 16:12–16 account of the Har Magedon encounter itself and the Rev 19:11–21 prophecy of the war waged by the messianic judge. 2

I. Har Magedon, The Mount Of Assembly

1. Derivation from har môʿēd. Har is the Hebrew word for mountain. The meaning of magedōn is disputed. The most common view, following the variant reading mageddōn in Rev 16:16, identifies it as Megiddo, site of notable battles in Israel’s history (Judges 5; 2 Chr 35:22–25) and thus an apt designation for the place where “the battle of the great day” occurs. In addition to the frequent objection that there is no mountain of Megiddo, the area being rather a vast plain, Torrey stressed the fact that the vicinity of Jerusalem is where Biblical prophecies uniformly locate the eschatological crisis in which the armies of the nations assemble against God and his people. 3 He cited passages like Zechariah 12 and 14, Joel 3(4), Isa 29:1–7 and, of particular relevance, Rev 14:14 ff. (esp. v. 20) and You must have a subscription and be logged in to read the entire article.
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