Posted by Paul Phelps on July 31, 2001 at 18:44:44:
Greetings,
I am a Bible teacher and writer, and I think you'd be interested in what I've discovered about the Hebrew word Armageddon. If you reply, my name is Paul Phelps, and my Email address is AN EXPLANATION OF THE WORD ARMAGEDDON The Greek word Armageddon has a different basis in Hebrew grammar than is usually explained, and the prophetic meaning is affected. As a place name, Megiddo always refers to the Jezre’el valley fortress, but this name is without a final ‘n’ letter. Megiddon with a final ‘n’ is only found in one text: Zech. 12:11. This spelling distinction is erased in many Bible versions but King James has it: In that day shall there be a great mourning in Jerusalem, The root word is Gad (‘troop’); Gen. 30:11; 49:19. Megiddo is ‘gathering of troops,’ and the final ‘n’ means ‘the place of...’ Hence Megiddon is not a name but a generic term for a battlefield, ‘the place of the gathering of troops.’ The view that Arm- is transliterated from ‘har’ (mountain) is not likely; in the Megiddo texts there is no mention of a mountain (har). The Megiddo fort is not on a mountain. The true explanation has been overlooked although the clue is in the Zechariah text. Hadad and Rimmon are two gods of ancient Syria, which were never known in Israel at any time. Thus the mourning of Hadad-Rimmon could only be in Syria. In Hebrew, Syria is Aram. It becomes Arm- if joined in compound to another word. The Greek word Armageddon is a transliteration of Aram + megiddon, and means ‘the place in Syria of the gathering of troops.’ Zechariah 12:11 mentions a ‘valley’ or ‘plain’: this is the north-eastern Syrian plain alongside the Euphrates River. This could be where troops from the East will be crossing the river; Rev. 16:12. This interpretation removes the scene of Armageddon from Israel and puts it in Syria. The mourning of Hadad-Rimmon may be prophetic of the mourning for the dead after Armageddon. This battle must be near the Euphrates because that is where the antichrist will try to stop the Eastern army from reaching Jerusalem and any occupied regional nations. Roman claims of ruling the whole world (Luke 2:1) were never true and will never be true despite claims; the empires in Nebuchadnezzar’s dream did not rule the whole world (but their significance was in bearing rule over the Jews). (Other empires always existed besides those four in Nebuchadnezzar’s dream.) Armageddon does not involve Israel at all, for Israel is nowhere mentioned. It rather has to do with the conflict between the Western antichrist empire, and the kingdoms of the East. This is confirmed (about antichrist) in Daniel 11:44, But news from the east and the north shall trouble him; therefore But the war will result in the annihilation of antichrist forces in Syria, battling the eastern armies northeast of Jerusalem (v 45). The forces then called by the ‘three frogs’ (evil spirits) are a last attempt by antichrist to confront the eastern forces at the Euphrates River. Hence the eastern forces are not coming against Israel but are coming against antichrist forces based in west Asia; that may be the reason God opens the river before them, for they are serving His purpose. God's act of opening the Euphrates River giving entry to the kings of the East might relate to Isaiah 11:11,15b-16; 41:2-3,8-9,25; 46:11; 51:10-11 and Joel 2:11. _________________________________ I should like to hear from someone in the ministry at this website who is interested to respond to this item of researched opinion. May God's blessings attend. Paul Phelps
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as the mourning of Hadadrimmon in the valley of Megiddon.
he shall go out with great fury to destroy and annihilate many.