Har-Magedon
Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament [1]
(Revised Version; Armageddon Authorized Version)
According to Revelation 16:16 this is the name in Heb. of the scene of ‘the war of the great day of God, the Almighty’ ( Revelation 16:14), against whom the three unclean spirits ( Revelation 16:13) have gathered together ‘the kings of the whole world’ ( Revelation 16:14). There are variations in the form of the name in the Gr. texts and very different interpretations of its meaning, but if Ἅρ Μαγεδών is accepted as the correct form, the most satisfactory explanation is that which takes it to mean ‘the mount of Megiddo’ (Ἅρ = Heb. הַר ‘a mountain’). By its geographical conformation and strategical situation the plain of Megiddo was better suited than any other place in the Holy Land to be the arena of a great battle, and the historical memories that gathered round it would fill the name with suggestion for the readers of the Apocalypse. The primary reference, no doubt, would be to Israel’s victory ‘by the waters of Megiddo’ over the kings of Canaan ( Judges 5:19), which might be taken as typical of the triumph of God and His Kingdom over the hostile world-powers; but the defeat and death of Saul and Jonathan at the eastern extremity of the plain ( 1 Samuel 31:1), the disastrous struggle of Josiah on the same field against Pharaohnecoh ( 2 Kings 23:29, 2 Chronicles 35:22), and Zechariah’s reference to ‘the mourning of Hadadrimmon in the valley of Megiddon’ ( Zechariah 12:11), would heighten the suggestion of a great day of overthrow and destruction. The chief objections offered to this interpretation are that a mountain is an unsuitable battlefield, and that the historical battles are described as taking place ‘by the waters of Megiddo’ ( Judges 5:19) or ‘in the valley of Megiddo’ ( 2 Chronicles 35:22). Against this, however, must be set the statements that Barak with his 10,000 men ‘went down from mount Tabor’ to meet Sisera ( Judges 4:14), that Zebulun and Naphtali ‘jeoparded their lives unto the death in the high places of the field’ ( Judges 5:18), and that Saul and Jonathan fell ‘in mount Gilboa’ ( 1 Samuel 31:1; 1 Samuel 31:8; cf. 2 Samuel 1:21). And the place given to ‘the mountains of Israel’ in Ezekiel’s prophecy of the destruction of Gog and Magog ( Ezekiel 38:8; Ezekiel 38:21; Ezekiel 39:2; Ezekiel 39:4; Ezekiel 39:17), to which the Apocalyptist subsequently refers in his description of the final overthrow of Satan and his hosts ( Revelation 20:8), may have served to confirm the idea that a mountain would be the scene of ‘the war of the great day of God, the Almighty.’
Of recent years considerable support has been given to the view, first propounded by Gunkel ( Schöpfung und Chaos , 268), that ‘Har-Magedon’ preserves the name of the place where in the Babylonian creation-myth the dragon Tiämat was overthrown by Marduk, the passage Revelation 16:13-16 being presumably a fragment from some Jewish apocalypse in which the Babylonian mythology had been adapted to an eschatological interest. This theory, however, rests upon grounds that are very speculative, and even its supporters admit that the author of the Apocalypse would be ignorant of the mythological origin of the name, and would probably understand it to mean ‘the mountain of Megiddo.’
Literature.-The articles ‘Har-Magedon’ in Hasting's Dictionary of the Bible (5 vols) and ‘Armageddon’ in Encyclopaedia Biblica ; J. Moffatt, Expositor’s Greek Testament , ‘Ravelation,’ 1910; H. Gunkel, Schöpfung und Chaos , 1895.
J. C. Lambert.
Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible [2]
Har-Magedon . The name of the place in which, according to Revelation 16:16 (AV [Note: Authorized Version.] Armageddon) , the kings of the lower world are to be gathered together by the Dragon, the Beast, and the false prophet, to make war upon God. The most generally accepted location makes this to be the mountains of Megiddo , that is to say, those surrounding the plain of Megiddo, in which so many great battles of the past were fought. The difficulty with this explanation is that one would expect the plain rather than the mountains to be chosen as a battle-field. Another explanation finds in the word a survival of the name of the place in which the gods of Babylonia were believed to have defeated the dragon Tiâmat and the other evil spirits. Such a view, however, compels a series of highly speculative corrections of the text, as well as various critical suppositions regarding the structure of the Book of Revelation. While the reference is apocalyptic, it seems probable on the whole that the word perpetuates Megiddo as the synonym of the battle-field whether above the earth or in the under world on which the final victory over evil was to be won.
Shailer Mathews.
Smith's Bible Dictionary [3]
Har'-magedon. (Hill Of Megiddo). Revelation 16:16. Used in the Revised Version for Armageddon . The change is chiefly Har , Hill , in place of Ar , City . See Armageddon .
Holman Bible Dictionary [4]
Revelation 16:16Armageddon
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia [5]
har - ma - ged´on ( Ἁρμαγεδών , Harmagedō̇n from Hebrew , har meghiddō , "Mount of Megiddo"; the King James Version Armageddon ): This name is found only in Revelation 16:16 . It is described as the rallying-place of the kings of the whole world who, led by the unclean spirits issuing from the mouth of the dragon, the beast and the false prophet, assemble here for "the war of the great day of God, the Almighty." Various explanations have been suggested; but, as Nestle says ( HDB , s.v), "Upon the whole, to find an allusion here to Megiddo is still the most probable explanation." In the history of Israel it had been the scene of never-to-be-forgotten battles. Here took place the fatal struggle between Josiah and Pharaoh-necoh ( 2 Kings 23:29; 2 Chronicles 35:22 ). Long before, the hosts of Israel had won glory here, in the splendid victory over Sisera and his host ( Judges 5:19 ). These low hills around Megiddo, with their outlook over the plain of Esdraelon, have witnessed perhaps a greater number of bloody encounters than have ever stained a like area of the world's surface. There was, therefore, a peculiar appropriateness in the choice of this as the arena of the last mighty struggle between the powers of good and evil. The choice of the hill as the battlefield has been criticized, as it is less suitable for military operations than the plain. But the thought of Gilboa and Tabor and the uplands beyond Jordan might have reminded the critics that Israel was not unaccustomed to mountain warfare. Megiddo itself was a hill-town, and the district was in part mountainous (compare Mt. Tabor, Judges 4:6 , Judges 4:12; "the high places of the field," Judges 5:18 ). It will be remembered that this is apocalypse. Har-Magedon may stand for the battlefield without indicating any particular locality. The attempt of certain scholars to connect the name with "the mount of congregation" in Isaiah 14:13 (Hommel, Genkel, etc.), and with Babylonian mythology, cannot be pronounced successful. Ewald ( Die Johan. Schrift , II, 204) found that the Hebrew forms of "Har-Magedon" and "the great Rome" have the same numerical value - 304. The historical persons alluded to in the passage do not concern us here.
