The Mysterious Identity of the Seven Spirits of God in the Book of Revelation:An Exploration of Interpretations

The Seven Spirits of God in the Book of Revelation has for a long time been interpreted in two different ways: either pneumatologically, as an expression of the fullness or the spirit of God (connected to the "sevenfold" spirit of LXX Isa 11:2-3a), or angelologically, as seven principal angels standing before the throne of God, with roots in early Jewish angelological speculations. There is, however, also a third option, so called angelomorphic pneumatology, proposed by Bogdan G. Bucur, in which the seven spirits are understood as angelic manifestations of the one spirit of God. This article explores and evaluates these three interpretations. The conclusion is that at least some form of "angelomorphism" is involved in the way the seven spirits are presented.