Authorship. Many scholars attribute the Fourth Gospel and Revelation to a common circle (for circles of literary production around an author, see the introduction to 1 John). Nevertheless, scholars also comonly argue that different authors wrote them; many do not even entertain the possibility that both were written by the same person. The style of Revelation is quite different from that of the Fourth Gospel, so some scholars as early as several centuries after their writing denied that they could have been written by the same author. Nevertheless, their connection should not be dismissed. Most of early *church tradition attributes both documents to John the *apostle; the argument that Revelation was written by him is certainly strong (see comment on 1:1; for the Fourth Gospel’s authorship, see the introduction to John).
A close examination of the works indicates that much of the vocabulary is the same, though used in different ways; theological communities and schools (see the introduction to 1 John) usually share perspectives more than vocabulary, whereas authors may adapt their style to the *genre in which and the situation for which they write. If one accepts common authorship, one can account for most of the stylistic variations on the basis of the different genres of the two works: Gospel and *apocalypse (Revelation’s style borrows heavily from Ezekiel, Daniel, Zechariah, etc.). That a single community could produce and embrace both a Gospel (even one emphasizing the present experience of future glory) and an apocalypse is not difficult to believe; the *Dead Sea Scrolls contain similarly diverse documents. That a single writer could embrace multiple genres is no less possible (compare, e.g., *Plutarch’s Lives and his Moralia or *Tacitus’s Histories and Dialogues, though their differences in genre and style are less pronounced than those between the Fourth Gospel and Revelation).
Date. Some scholars have dated Revelation in the late 60s, shortly after Nero’s death, as several emperors in a row quickly met violent deaths (cf. 17:10). In the book of Revelation, however, the emperor’s power seems to be stable, and this situation does not fit the 60s. Similarly, the imperial cult in the Roman province of Asia (western Turkey) directly threatens some of John’s circle of churches; this situation fits the period of the 90s better. The church also seems to be entrenched (and sometimes prosperous) in the major cities of Asia; thus a date in Domitian’s reign in the 90s of the first century, reported in early church tradition and still preferred by most scholars, seems more likely.
Genre. Revelation mixes elements of *Old Testament *prophecy with a heavy dose of the apocalyptic genre, a style of writing that grew out of elements of Old Testament prophecy. Although nearly all its images have parallels in the biblical prophets, the images most relevant to late-first-century readers, which were prominent in popular Jewish revelations about the end time, are stressed most heavily. Chapters 2–3 are “oracular letters,” a kind of letter occurring especially in the Old Testament (e.g., Jer 29:1-23, 29-32) but also attested on some Greek pottery fragments.
Although the literary structure of such documents may have been added later, many scholars argue that many Jewish mystics and other ancient mantics believed that they were having visionary or trance experiences. Like the Old Testament prophets he most resembles, John may have experienced real visions and need not use them only as a literary device. (The apocalypses are usually pseudonymous, thus it is difficult to be certain to what extent they reflect religious experience. But other accounts of Jewish mystics seeking to invade heaven in visionary ascents—see comment on 2 Cor 12:1-4—and anthropologists’ reports on the commonness of ecstatic trance states in a variety of cultures around the world today allow that many such experiences were genuine. Early Christians generally accepted the reality of pagan inspiration as a phenomenon but attributed it to the demonic realm, while viewing their own inspiration as continuous with that of the Old Testament prophets. They held that there are many spirits in the world, but not all of them are good—1 Jn 4:1-6.)
Structure. After the introduction (chaps. 1–3), the book is dominated by three series of judgments (seals, trumpets, bowls), probably concurrent (they all culminate in the end of the age), and snapshots of worship in heaven (chaps. 4–16), then oracles against Rome (chaps. 17–18) and prophecies of the end (chaps. 19–22). The judgments may cover the (probably symbolic, but possibly deferred) period of 1,260 days to which the book repeatedly alludes (see especially comment on 12:6—if symbolic, this period might span history between Christ’s first and second comings). The book is in logical rather than chronological sequence; John may report the visions in the sequence in which he has them, but every time he notes “And I saw/heard,” he is receiving a new image. The new image, while connected with what preceded, need not always report an event that follows it chronologically.
Interpretations. There are several major categories of interpretation of this book: (1) Revelation predicts in detail the course of human history till the Second Coming, (2) Revelation reflects the general principles of history, (3) Revelation addresses only what was happening in John’s day, (4) Revelation addresses only the end time and (5) combinations of the above approaches (e.g., John addresses the principles of history in view of the ever-impending end time until it arrives, and originally articulated these principles to speak to the situation of his late-first-century readers).
Many interpreters of John’s day (especially interpreters in the Dead Sea Scrolls) reread Old Testament prophecies as symbols describing the interpreters’ own generation, and the book of Revelation has similarly been reinterpreted by modern prophecy teachers in every decade of the past century. (For a sober rehearsal of the continual modification of prophecy teachers’ predictions with each new series of events in the past century, see Dwight Wilson, Armageddon Now! [Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 1977]; for a longer historical perspective, see Richard Kyle, The Last Days Are Here Again [Grand Rapids: Baker, 1998]; Stanley J. Grenz, The Millennial Maze [Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1992], pp. 37-63.)
Some prophecy teachers have interpreted and reinterpreted Revelation according to the whims of changing news headlines; thus “kings of the East” (16:12) went from being the Ottoman Empire to imperial Japan to Communist China to Iraq, depending on the political needs of the Western interpreters. But John’s images would have meant something in particular to their first readers, and this commentary therefore investigates that sense, following the same procedure for interpretation that it follows elsewhere in the *New Testament. Thus it directly addresses the third category of interpretation mentioned above, although this data can be combined with the second category (as it often is for preaching) and, in a sense that becomes clear in the course of the commentary, the fourth (and thus fifth) category.
Method of Interpretation. John wrote in Greek and used Old Testament, Jewish and sometimes Greco-Roman figures of speech and images; he explicitly claims that he writes to first-century churches in Asia Minor (1:4, 11), as explicitly as Paul writes to first-century churches. Whatever else his words may indicate, therefore, they must have been intelligible to his first-century audience (see comment on 1:3; 22:10). Ancient hearers had no access to modern newspapers, the basis for some popular methods of interpretation; but subsequent generations have been able to examine the Old Testament and first-century history while studying the book. Historical perspective therefore makes the book available to all generations.
This perspective does not deny Revelation’s relevance for readers today; to the contrary, it affirms that its message is relevant to every generation, although it uses the symbolism familiar to the generation of its first readers. (Thus, for example, future opponents of the church might be envisioned through the image of a new Nero, a figure more relevant to the original readers than to modern ones. But Christians oppressed in all times can take both warning—that such figures exist—and encouragement—that their end is prophesied—from this image, once they understand it.) By examing the original point of the symbols, this commentary provides readers better access to Revelation’s message for applying it today.
Symbolism. As in the Old Testament prophets, much of John’s symbolic language is meant as evocative imagery, to elicit particular responses, rather than as a detailed literal picture of events. Readers steeped in the Old Testament and Jewish apocalyptic literature would have understood this method of interpretation; sometimes older symbols could be reapplied to new situations but were meant to evoke the same sort of response. Sometimes John simply explains what the symbols mean (e.g., 1:20); in other cases the first readers would have understood from other clues in his book or because of cultural information or knowledge of how these symbols were used in antiquity, which he and his readers both understood. John plainly expected his readers to understand his points (1:3; 22:10).
Situation Part 1: The Imperial Cult. Only some cities faced persecution, but the threat was wider. The line between human and divine had always been thin in Greek religion, and consequently peoples of the Greek East had built temples to Roman emperors from the first emperor on; the first shrines were in Ephesus and Smyrna. In Rome itself the imperial cult was viewed as a symbol of loyalty to the Roman state, and emperors were deified only after they died. But several emperors—for the most part cursed instead of deified after death—claimed to be gods while still alive (Gaius Caligula, Nero and Domitian). The emperor at the time Revelation was written was most likely the widely hated Domitian, who demanded worship while he was alive. If some considered Christians subversive, cities in the eastern part of the empire could use worshiping the image of the emperor in his temple as a test of loyalty to the state (cf. Rev 13:14; earlier, cf. Dan 3:5).
Domitian repressed the aristocracy, expelled astrologers from Rome (lest they predict his demise) and persecuted philosophers and religions that he perceived as hostile to himself. The sources also show that he repressed Judaism and Christianity, although they were not singled out. Evidence on the imperial cult in Asia and outright persecution of Christians in Asia on the provincial level in the early second century (pre-Trajanic repression continuing in Trajan’s time) suggest that Domitian’s own claims and behavior stimulated the environment in which provincial persecution of Christians in Asia Minor occurred.
Situation Part 2: Inevitable Conflict. Jewish people were unofficially exempted from emperor worship, but well-off Asian Jews, disliked by Domitian and embarrassed by the relatively recent revolt of Palestinian Jewry (A.D. 66–70), wanted to dissociate themselves from potentially subversive groups. Some Asian *synagogues thus expelled Jewish Christians (2:9; 3:7-9), who could face Roman persecution if their Jewishness were in question. In other cities, possibly the majority, no one targeted Christians for persecution; the temptation there was simply to blend into the larger cultural environment. John’s message would comfort some hearers and confront others.
The Romans repressed any groups whose prophets denounced Rome, but John stands well in the Old Testament tradition of uttering oracles against oppressive nations and empires, especially those that oppressed God’s people. Some other Jewish writers did pronounce judgment against Rome (often with cryptic names like Babylon, the Kittim or even Edom), and many still wanted to revolt (this revolutionary fervor materialized in Egypt and Cyrene shortly thereafter); but Revelation is among the most explicit oracles of judgment against Rome’s rebellion against God. Although Rome may have been the Babylon of John’s day, other oppressive empires have followed it. Ancient authors often contrasted characters; Revelation contrasts Babylon, portrayed as a prostitute, with the New Jerusalem, portrayed as a bride. John invites hearers to live not for the empires of this age but for the promised city to come.
Message. Revelation provides an eternal perspective, by emphasizing such themes as the antagonism of the world in rebellion against God toward a church obedient to God’s will; the unity of the church’s worship with heaven’s worship; that victory depends on Christ’s finished work, not on human circumstances; that Christians must be ready to face death for Christ’s honor; that representatives of every people will ultimately stand before his throne; that the imminent hope of his return is worth more than all this world’s goods; and so forth. From the beginning, the Old Testament covenant and promise had implied a hope for the future of God’s people. When Israel was confronted with the question of individuals’ future, the Old Testament doctrines of justice and hope led them to views like the *resurrection (Is 26:19; Dan 12:2). The future hope is further developed and embroidered with the imagery of Revelation.
Commentaries. For background at an advanced level, see especially David E. Aune, Revelation, 3 vols.,WBC 52 (Dallas: Word, 1997); Gregory K. Beale, The Book of Revelation: A Commentary on the Greek Text (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1999); Grant R. Osborne, Revelation, BECNT (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2002); Mitchell G. Reddish, Revelation, SHBC (Macon, GA: Smyth & Helwys, 2001). For useful commentaries on a more mediating level, see G. R. Beasley-Murray, The Book of Revelation, 2nd ed., NCB (1978; reprint, Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1981); G. B. Caird, A Commentary on the Revelation of Saint John the Divine, HNTC (San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1966); Craig S. Keener, Revelation, NIVAC (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1999); on a more popular level, see, e.g., Bruce M. Metzger, Breaking the Code: Understanding the Book of Revelation (Nashville: Abingdon, 1993) and especially Charles H. Talbert, The Apocalypse: A Reading of the Revelation of John (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox, 1994). Exceptionally useful specialized studies include Richard Bauckham, The Climax of Prophecy: Studies on the Book of Revelation (New York: T & T Clark, 1993); J. Nelson Kraybill, Imperial Cult and Commerce in John’s Apocalypse, JSNTSup 132 (Sheffield, UK: Sheffield Academic Press, 1996); David A. Thomas, Revelation 19 in Historical and Mythological Context, Studies in Biblical Literature 118 (New York: Peter Lang, 2008).
Titles of documents often consisted of a statement like “the book of the words of so-and-so” (Tobit 1:1); John’s title resembles that of some *Old Testament prophetic books (e.g., Is 1:1; Jer 1:1; Hos 1:1). Titles were normally affixed to the outside of a scroll, although by the mid-second century some people were using the codex, or modern form of book, and titles were put on the inside.
1:1. Most *apocalypses were attributed to meritorious Old Testament characters of the distant past; like Old Testament prophetic books, Revelation is written by a contemporary *apostle who does not need such a pen name; he writes to real congregations that know him (1:4, 11). (Other apocalypses did not name specific recipients or use the epistolary form.)
Some revelations in the Old Testament (Dan 7:16; 10:5-21; cf. Ex 3:2; Judg 6:11-23) and many revelations in apocalyptic literature (e.g., *1 Enoch and *4 Ezra) were mediated through angels. Old Testament prophets were called God’s “servants,” a title John aptly claims for himself at the opening of his book.
1:2. “Witness” was especially a legal term, although its sense had been widely extended beyond that. Christians were being betrayed to Roman law courts, but in the context of Revelation, “witness” is the Christian proclamation of knowledge about Jesus, in a sense providing evidence in the light of the court of God’s final judgment (cf. Is 43:8-12; 44:8-9).
1:3. Most people in antiquity could not read, and there would not at any rate be enough copies of the book (which would have to be copied by hand) for everyone to have his or her own. Thus the blessing is for the one who reads aloud to the congregation (just as someone would read in a *synagogue) and those who hear (just as the rest of the congregation listened to Scripture readings). The “blessing” form was common in the Old Testament and Jewish literature (see comment on Mt 5:1-12), and here implies that the hearers were expected to understand and obey what they heard. (Revelation contains seven such “blessings” and seven curses or “woes,” probably all oracular, i.e., prophetic.) Apocalypses commonly predicted the imminent end of the age, or imminent events heralding that end (especially in the roughly contemporary work 4 Ezra).
Works that were not strictly letters but were being sent to readers could include letter introductions, for example, the historical work 2 Maccabees (1:1–2:32, especially 1:1). One could frame a paragraph or larger work with literary brackets; in this case, “the one who is, who was and who is to come, the Almighty” frames 1:1-4.
1:4. “*Grace and peace” adapts a standard ancient greeting and blessing from a deity (here, from Father, Son and possibly *Spirit); see comment on Romans 1:7. On the encyclical nature of the letter (which could not be quickly recopied by hand many times over, and thus was read by the messenger to each *church in sequence), see comment on Revelation 1:11.
The “one who is, was and is to come” is related to an occasional Greek title for an eternal deity, but especially reflects a Greek exposition of the *Old Testament name “I AM” (Ex 3:14; the *LXX has “he who is”), in the same form in which it was also expanded by a *targum. Some argue that the “seven spirits” here might refer to the seven holy archangels recognized by Judaism around the throne (Rev 8:2; see comment on 5:6). More often commentators argue that they evoke the sevenfold messianic Spirit of Isaiah 11:2. (That the sevenfold Spirit imagery of Is 11:2 was current is suggested by *1 Enoch 61:11; cf. *Psalms of Solomon 17:37.) Given Revelation’s predilection for the number “seven,” this number alone should not be decisive for resolving the seven spirits’ identity.
1:5. A “faithful” witness (2:13; 3:14) was a reliable one (Prov 14:5, 25; Is 8:2; Jer 42:5). “Firstborn” and “ruler over the earth’s kings” allude to Psalm 89:27. Under Old Testament ritual law, the blood of the sacrifice of the Day of Atonement freed Israel from its sins; the Jewish people had also been freed from Egypt by the blood of the Passover lamb.
1:6. After God redeemed Israel from Egypt he called them “a kingdom of priests” (Ex 19:6), thus indicating that all of them were holy to him. A targum of this verse renders it “a kingdom and priests,” as here (cf. *Jubilees 16:18).
1:7. Like Matthew 24:30, this verse blends Daniel 7:13 (coming with clouds on the day of the Lord; cf. also, e.g., Ezek 30:3) with Zechariah 12:10 (those who pierced him, i.e., God, will mourn for him). “Tribes of earth” extends the image beyond the tribes of Israel (cf. Zech 12:12) to all peoples; citizens of cities in the Greek East (and even ancient Rome) were divided into tribes.
1:8. Some Greco-Roman writers called the supreme deity the “first,” but the Old Testament (Is 41:4) and Judaism (e.g., *Josephus, *Philo, adapting *Stoic language) had already called Israel’s God the “first and the last.” This is the point of calling him by the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet, Alpha and Omega. (Some later Jewish teachers similarly came to call him the ’Alef and the Tav, the first and last letters of the Hebrew alphabet. They further called God “truth,” Hebrew ’emeth, spelled ’alef-mem-tav, which they said were the first, middle and last letters of the alphabet, showing that God was eternal and ruled over all time.) Greek-speaking Jews often called God “the omnipotent,” or “all-powerful,” as here.
1:9. Governors of various provinces could exercise their own discretion as to whether those charged and found guilty should be banished to an island, executed or enslaved. Those of higher social status automatically received lighter sentences than others, but John was banished as opposed to executed (cf. 2:13) either on account of his age (as sometimes happened) or the clemency of the local governor. In general, banishments were of two kinds: deportatio (including confiscation of property and removal of civil rights) and relegatio (without such penalties); technically only the emperor could declare the former, but a provincial governor could declare the latter, as here.
The most common places of Roman banishment were some rocky Aegean islands called the Cyclades (around Delos) and the Sporades, off the coast of Asia, which included Patmos (forty to fifty miles southwest of Ephesus). Patmos was not deserted; it included a gymnasium and temple of Artemis (the island’s patron deity). Because Babylon was the major place of exile in Old Testament tradition (Ezek 1:1), John’s own banishment puts him in a position to denounce Rome as the new Babylon (chaps. 17–18; see comment on 14:8).
1:10. Because the Old Testament and ancient Judaism especially associated the Spirit of God with *prophecy, “in the Spirit” here may mean that John was in charismatic worship (1 Chron 25:1-6) or (using closer language) a visionary state (Ezek 2:2; 3:12, 14, 24; 8:3; 11:1, 24). Nevertheless, the revelation here, as in the Old Testament but in contrast to much Jewish *apocalyptic literature, is otherwise unsolicited (see comment on Rev 4:2). Some texts compared powerful voices to trumpets, but the “sound like a trumpet” may allude to God’s revelation in Exodus 19:16, when the Lord was preparing to give forth his word.
One day a month was dedicated to the honor of the emperor in Asia Minor, but the Christians dedicated one day—probably each week—to Christ’s honor, perhaps in view of the coming “day of the Lord.” (According to some Jewish schemes for reckoning history, the seventh and final age of history would be an age of sabbath rest [cf. Rev 20]; some second-century Christian interpreters transferred the image to an eighth age, speaking of the Lord’s day as the eighth day of the week. But it may be debated how early and how relevant these ideas are to John in Revelation.) Scholars often argue that “the Lord’s day” refers to Sunday, as the weekday of Jesus’ *resurrection; the early Jewish Christians may have preferred that day to avoid conflicting with sabbath observance.
1:11. The seven cities mentioned here are seven of the eight most prominent cities of western Asia Minor (what is now western Turkey). The Asiarchs met annually in one of seven cities, almost identical with this list; John simply replaces Cyzicus, far to the north of the other cities, with Thyatira, which was more centrally located (and perhaps had a larger church). Word often spread from major cities (cf. Acts 19:10), so messages to the churches in these seven cities would affect the churches of the entire province. A messenger delivering John’s book would arrive first in Ephesus; the other cities are arranged in the sequence a messenger would follow on foot to reach them. The distance between them generally varies from about thirty to forty-five miles. (Those who suggest that John meant the churches symbolically for different stages of church history have to assume that churches before the final stage could not hope for Christ’s imminent return; but John’s letters to the churches display too much local color to represent merely church ages, and their precise geographical arrangement suggests that he means them literally.)
1:12. On the lampstands, see comment on 1:20.
1:13-15. This scene evokes earlier biblical revelations. Its imagery resembles the picture of God in Daniel 7:9 (the white hair symbolizing the dignity accruing to age), features of the mighty angel in Daniel 10:5-6 and the title “one like a son of man” from Daniel 7:13 (where he would come to rule the nations). The sound of the angel’s voice “like a tumult” in Daniel 10:6 is adapted by means of the divine imagery of Ezekiel 1:24; 43:2; extrabiblical Jewish traditions also spoke of waters in the heavens. The “robe” and “girdle” might allude to Jesus’ role as *high priest (Ex 28:4). Others could also wear robes and girdles, however; some note that workmen wore their girdles around their waist while working, so a position around the breast would signify that his work is complete. Given the other biblical allusions here, however, an allusion to the Old Testament high priest seems probable. “Feet of bronze” could allude to the bearers of God’s throne (Ezek 1:7) as well as to the angel of Daniel 10:6.
The cumulative impact of these images is to present the risen Jesus as the greatest conceivable figure, using biblical imagery. Apocalypses employed some of this imagery (angels that looked like lightning, etc.), although John at this point avoids postbiblical elaborations that became common in such works (angels thousands of miles tall, etc.).
1:16. The mouth of God’s spokesperson could be presented as a weapon (Is 49:2) and the *Messiah’s just decrees of judgment would be the weapon of his mouth (Is 11:4). Some Jewish texts described angels shining as the sun (cf. also the angel’s face like lightning in Dan 10:6).
1:17. Terror was common during visions (Gen 15:12); those who received revelations of God (Ezek 1:28; 11:13) or of angels (Dan 8:18; 10:9, 15) in the Old Testament often fell on their faces, unless the revealer touched and strengthened them (Dan 8:18; 10:10). (The image was continued in many later Jewish texts—e.g., Tobit, *1 Enoch and *4 Ezra—as well.) God often had to assure his servants not to be afraid (e.g., Deut 3:2; Josh 8:1; Jer 1:8), sometimes when he spoke to them (e.g., Gen 26:24). For “first and last,” see comment on 1:8.
1:18. In the Old Testament (Ps 9:13; 107:18) and Jewish literature, “the gates of Hades” referred to the realm of the dead and thus to the power of death; one who held the keys to these realms thus ruled over them. (Whoever held the keys in a royal house held a position of great authority in that house, as in Is 22:21-22; keys symbolized authority to control whatever they opened, and Jewish texts spoke of God dispensing keys to rain, etc.) *Gentiles spoke of netherworld deities, such as Hades or Anubis, holding the keys of death. Jewish literature said that God had authority over death and the gates of Hades (Wisdom of Solomon 16:13), a role here held by Jesus. Christ’s power over death, as the one who had risen, would encourage his followers now facing possible death.
1:19. Prophecy in the Old Testament involved speaking God’s message and was not strictly limited to prediction of the future. But the Greek writer *Plutarch defined prophecy as predicting the future that is caused by the present and past; the Jewish Sibyl was said to prophesy the things that were before, were present and would come about (*Sibylline Oracles 1:3-4). Jewish apocalyptic writers often divided history into ages as a prelude to their prophecies about the future (though often writing under a pseudonym, ostensibly before the history occurred).
1:20. Jewish texts often portrayed angels as stars (see comment on 12:4). Cosmic imagery was frequent; e.g., *Josephus and *Philo identified the “seven planets” with certain symbols in the temple, and Palestinian synagogues later sported zodiacs around Helios, the sun god, on their floors (despite Old Testament prohibitions). Pagans believed that Fate controlled the nations through the stars (which were often deified)—an Eastern view introduced into Greco-Roman paganism under the guise of the science of the day. By this period many Jewish people concurred that the nations were ruled by the stars, which they took as angels under God’s dominion. But if John uses this symbolism—and this is unclear—his point would be that *Christ is Lord over the universe, including Lord over the angels who guide the churches as well as the nations.
A (usually) seven-branched lampstand, or menorah, was one of the most common symbols for Judaism and synagogues in antiquity; by identifying the churches as lampstands, John claims that the Jesus movement is the true form of Judaism, no matter what some hostile synagogue officials were claiming (2:9; 3:9). Because Revelation portrays heaven as a sanctuary (cf., e.g., comment on 4:6-8; 5:8-10; 7:9-12; 8:3), the lampstands may also allude to the spiritual representation of the churches in heaven (Ex 25:31-40).
There are three major views on the “angels” of the churches, of which only the third makes strong sense in the context of Revelation. One is that they are “messengers” bearing the scroll to the churches; although this meaning is not impossible (1 Maccabees 1:44), it is unlikely that John would have seven separate copies of the book or would send seven different messengers (see comment on Rev 1:11). A second view is that they are public readers in each congregation, like a corresponding kind of “messenger” in the synagogues. According to second-century teaching, if such a reader slipped in his reading of the biblical text, the whole congregation was held accountable before God because he acted as their agent. The first and second views falter in that Revelation nowhere else employs “angel” in this manner; as elsewhere in apocalyptic literature, Revelation uses the term for what we call “angels.” Thus, third, they may be the guardian angels of each congregation, analogous to the Jewish view (rooted in Daniel) that not only each person but each nation was assigned a guardian angel, and the angels of the evil nations would be judged together with the nations they led astray. Some who hold this view also suggest that they may represent heavenly counterparts to earthly realities (the churches), symbolizing the heavenly significance of the churches as the lampstands did; this view would also fit apocalyptic imagery.
Some “prophetic letters” also appeared in the *Old Testament (2 Chron 21:12-15; Jer 29) and other Jewish literature. Each of the oracle letters in Revelation follows the same form, which some have compared to imperial letter edicts posted as inscriptions in the cities of Asia Minor. Other scholars have compared the elements of the form to Old Testament and ancient Near Eastern covenant formulas; if they are correct, the prophecies here may act like the covenant lawsuits common in the Old Testament prophets (e.g., in Amos 2–4). They may also function analogously to series of oracles against the nations common in the Old Testament prophets (e.g., Is 13–23; Jer 46–51; Ezek 25–32; especially the eight brief oracles of Amos 1–2). Compare especially throughout the *Sibylline Oracles for later examples of oracles against nations, including oracles against some of the cities Revelation lists, such as Smyrna, Pergamum, Sardis, Laodicea and Ephesus. (Some other ancient Near Eastern prophets also included judgment prophecies against other nations, but these were military oracles in the service of nationalism; unlike the Old Testament prophets, they did not condemn their own peoples. The exceptions are Egyptian moralist oracles after the fact, and Mari prophets’ rebukes of kings for not supporting the temple better. There is no parallel outside Israel to an intergenerational succession of prophets calling their own people to *repentance for moral sins.)
William Ramsay long ago pointed to some local color in each of these oracles. Although some of his connections may be strained, others appear appropriate. Ancient cities were fiercely proud of their own history and culture and would be more sensitive to local allusions than most readers today would be. Although the *churches in some cities seem to have faced persecution, in other cities the churches faced greater temptations to compromise with a relativistic paganism.
Ephesus had been one of the first Asian centers of the imperial cult, and it was also the most prominent; Domitian had allowed Ephesus the title of guardian of his temple. On the city’s notoriety in *magic and the worship of Artemis, see comment on Acts 19. Inscriptions attest that Ephesus also had a sizable Jewish population, of which Christians had originally been a comfortable part (Acts 18:19-20, 26; 19:8-9). In practice, Ephesus was the leading center of Asia Minor in this period. It was also the first of the seven cities that a messenger voyaging from Patmos (forty to fifty miles to the southwest) would reach.
2:1. “Says this” (NASB) echoes the Old Testament formula that prophets of God borrowed from royal edicts and typical messenger formulas: “Thus says the lord/king.” For the description of Jesus here, see comment on Revelation 1:13-16.
2:2-3. *Rhetorical experts (teachers of professional public speaking) recommended that speakers mix praise and blame for their hearers, to avoid closing them to the message while also avoiding populist flattery. Rhetoricians normally began with praise, as do most of the letters in Revelation 2–3. Edicts sometimes included “I know,” although the allusion here is to the omniscience of the one who inspires *prophecy, a standard ancient idea.
2:4. Sound doctrine and perseverance are inadequate without love. Interpreters debate whether the text means love for other Christians (as in 1 Jn; cf. “works”—Rev 2:5, 19; “hate”—2:6) or for God (Jer 2:2) or for both.
2:5. Royal emissaries could threaten judgment on cities, but this threat is closer to God’s warnings to the unrepentant in the Old Testament. Ramsay noted that eventually only a village remained of what was once mighty Ephesus, several miles from the original site of the city; due to silt deposits, it was already beginning to lose its geographical position as a coastal city in John’s day. Still, these oracles address the churches rather than the cities they represented before God.
2:6. This teaching may be related to that of “Balaam” (2:14-15); this sect may have advocated compromise with the imperial cult to avoid persecution. Later church fathers identified them as an immoral *Gnostic sect, but they may have been speculating. As in the *Dead Sea Scrolls, the “hatred” here is hatred of sin, not private revenge (the Scrolls taught that vengeance should be left to God).
2:7. “The *Spirit” in Judaism was especially associated with prophetic enablement; thus the Spirit inspires John’s vision and prophecy (1:10; 14:13). On having an “ear,” see comment on Mark 4:9; the wording here might echo Jesus’ earlier teaching. Some moralists also exhorted hearers to “hear” sages of old they were citing, but the formula here resembles the common Old Testament formula “Hear the word of the Lord” (e.g., Amos 3:1; 4:1; 5:1). “Overcoming” (especially a military or athletic image of conquest or victory) here involves persevering in the face of conflict and hardship. Although the “tree of life” was used to symbolize the *law in later Jewish teaching, this vision alludes to Genesis 2:9 and a restoration of paradise (on which cf. 2 Cor 12:2-4). Each of the promises in these oracles to the churches is fulfilled in Revelation 21–22.
Only Smyrna and Philadelphia (the two most persecuted churches) are fully praised; Ramsay notes that of the seven these two cities held out longest before the Turkish conquest. Ephesus and prosperous Smyrna were the two oldest centers of the imperial cult in Asia. One of the oldest and most prominent cities in Asia, Smyrna sought but failed to achieve honor equal to that of Ephesus in this period. It was also known for its beauty. On the situation in Smyrna and Philadelphia, which apparently includes expulsion from the *synagogues, see the introduction to John. John’s Gospel probably addresses this or a related sort of situation.
2:8. On the description of Jesus here, see comment on 1:17-18. Some commentators have argued that Smyrna was likewise dead and living, because it enjoyed only a shadow of its former reputation. This interpretation is unlikely in view of its prosperity, even if it had been overshadowed by Ephesus. According to Strabo, Smyrna had been razed by the Lydians and rebuilt with great beauty many centuries before, but this revival of a city was not commonly understood as death and *resurrection, and the occasion was now so remote in the past that the Smyrneans themselves would probably not have caught such a purported allusion. Furthermore, Sardis was once burned as well, but 3:1 says the opposite about it. What is most relevant is that Jesus also promised them life for death (2:10) modeled after his own (1:18).
2:9. The strength of the Jewish community in Smyrna is well attested. In denying that his opponents are spiritually Jewish, he seems to return the charge they had made against the Christians; in calling them a “synagogue of *Satan,” his rhetoric resembles that of the *Dead Sea Scrolls, where a persecuted Jewish sect that considered the rest of Judaism apostate called its opponents “the lot of Belial” (Satan; cf. 1QHa 10.24). We should remember that this language reflects an intra-Jewish polemic, as in the Dead Sea Scrolls, and was applied only to a particularly hostile local situation in Smyrna and Philadelphia; it does not offer a model for normal dialogue.
People were betrayed to provincial officials by delatores, “informers,” and by the early second century it is attested that Christians in Asia Minor were usually charged only when accused by such informers. By the early second century, some Jews in Smyrna were reportedly fulfilling this function against Christians (such as Polycarp). But some believe that simply claiming publicly that Christians were no longer welcome as part of the synagogue community could constitute a form of betrayal; Christians who were not seen as Jewish had no protection against expectations for participation in the emperor cult. On a local level, some could use Christians’ nonparticipation to question their civic loyalty.
2:10. Prison was merely a place of detention until trial or execution and could therefore be a prelude to execution. “Testing” for “ten days” could be a symbolic allusion to the minor test of Daniel 1:12, which preceded the major trials faced by Daniel and his three companions. “Behold” is common in prophetic literature and occurs repeatedly in Ezekiel (e.g., 1:4, 15).
Many Christians were martyred in Smyrna over the next several centuries. Jewish martyr stories praised those who were faithful to death and thus would be resurrected at the end; “crowns” were victors’ (2:11) rewards for athletes or military heroes. (A number of ancient writers and inscriptions also mentioned the “crown of Smyrna,” possibly referring to the city’s beauty.)
2:11. Other Jewish literature also refers to the “second death,” although often meaning annihilation (Revelation uses it of eternal torment—20:10, 14). The text of *4 Maccabees portrays Jewish martyrs as fighting and triumphing by death and thus crowned as victorious athletes by godliness.
There is some evidence for a Jewish community at Pergamum, but it was a strongly pagan city (see comment on 2:13). It was also a famous and prosperous city, and its rulers had been the first to invite the Romans into the affairs of Asia Minor. It was the center of the imperial cult for its province.
2:12. The “sword” in the *Old Testament and *apocalyptic literature often symbolized judgment or war; cf. 1:16, 2:16 and 19:13. Romans thought of the “sword” as the power to execute capital punishment (as in Rom 13:4).
2:13. Pergamum was traditionally known for its worship of Asclepius (whose symbol on Pergamum’s coins was the serpent; cf. 12:9) and worshiped other traditional Greek deities, such as Demeter, Athena and Dionysus. Its famous giant altar of Zeus (120 by 112 feet) overlooked the city on its citadel, and some have suggested that this is the background for “Satan’s throne” in this verse. Perhaps a more likely allusion for “Satan’s throne” is the local worship of the emperor, celebrated on Pergamum’s coinage in this period. Local rulers had been worshiped before the Roman period, and Pergamum was one of the first cities of Asia to build a temple to a Roman emperor (a temple to Augustus, also conspicuous on the citadel). A further imperial temple was dedicated there within a decade or two after John wrote Revelation.
All citizens were expected to participate in civic religion; most citizens wanted to participate in imperial festivals and eat the meat of sacrificed animals doled out at many pagan festivals. Once one Christian was legally martyred, the legal precedent was set for the execution of Christians in other provinces.
2:14-15. The false teachers advocate compromise with pagan cults, perhaps including the imperial cult, for humanly appealing reasons (2:13). “Balaam” was the most famous pagan prophet of the Old Testament and Jewish tradition (see comment on Jude 11) and is thus provided as the pseudonym for the heretical leader of the compromisers, like “Jezebel” in Thyatira (2:20).
Balaam, a prominent ancient figure also attested outside the Bible, led Israel to eat meat offered to idols and to have sexual intercourse with pagans to whom they were not married (Num 25:1-3; 31:16). Other nations could not destroy Israel, but Balaam knew that if he could subvert their morals, God would withdraw his blessing and judge them (see *Josephus and *Pseudo-Philo; cf. Num 25:8). God judged Israel, but Balaam, who acted from mercenary motives, also lost his life (Num 31:8, 16; Josh 13:22). “Sexual immorality” may be meant literally here (it was common in paganism) or may refer, as often in the Old Testament prophets, to spiritual infidelity against God (perhaps including emperor worship; cf. 17:5).
2:16. Although there would be one ultimate end of the world, the Old Testament prophets and Jewish literature occasionally described judgments in history in the language of the final day of the Lord.
2:17. The original ark of the covenant was permanently lost in 586 B.C. (cf. Jer 3:16), and the manna inside it had vanished before then. But a wide spectrum of Jewish tradition declared that Jeremiah (e.g., 2 Maccabees, 4 Baruch) or an angel (*2 Baruch) had hidden them and that they would be restored at the end time (a similar view took root among the *Samaritans, who dated the departure earlier). On the symbol of spiritual manna, see comment on John 6:35-40. Scholars propose various possible backgrounds of the white stone. Among the guesses: pebbles of various colors were used for admission to public celebrations; a black stone was the sacred symbol of the infamous Asian goddess Cybele; white stones used for medical purposes were associated with Judea; and perhaps somewhat more significantly, jurors used black stones to vote for a person’s guilt but white ones to vote for innocence. Though Pergamum usually used dark brown granite for building materials, they preferred white marble for inscriptions. For a new name, see Isaiah 6:2; for name change and promise, cf. Genesis 17:5, 15.
Thyatira’s economy seems to have emphasized trades and crafts. The trade guilds each had common meals (normally about once a month) dedicated to their patron deities. Although Thyatira had a Jewish community, it does not appear to have been influential; Christians who refused to participate in the life of the guilds might thus find themselves isolated socially and economically (cf. 13:17). Thyatira was only beginning to achieve prosperity in this period, hence its citizens probably valued wealth highly.
2:18. Thyatira hosted a major cult of Apollo, son of Zeus and the deity associated with *prophecy and the sun. Some scholars note that the emperor was linked with Apollo and suggest that he may have been worshiped in Thyatira as his earthly manifestation. Although bronze-working was not unique to Thyatira, some scholars have also pointed to the bronze-workers’ guild in that city.
2:19-20. The biblical “Jezebel” was not a prophetess, but the name is used here for its related connotations. Jezebel had nine hundred prophets (1 Kings 18:19) and led God’s people into idolatry (see comment on Rev 2:14). She was accused of prostitution, a damaging charge against a king’s wife (the term was probably meant spiritually, as one who led Israel from their commitment to God), and of witchcraft, no doubt for her occult involvement in pagan cults (2 Kings 9:22). As a prostitute she becomes the prototype of the evil empire of chapters 17–18. Immorality and food offered to idols were common temptations of paganism (see Num 25:1-2; 1 Cor 10:7-8).
Some scholars have suggested that Thyatira was one of the Asian cities with an oracle of the Sibyl; this cult purported to involve female prophetesses in the Greek style, and its literary forms had come to be used by *Diaspora Judaism and eventually later Christians. Because false prophets were not limited to such settings we cannot really be certain whether this proposal provides background for “Jezebel.”
2:21-23. Some Jewish writers thought of judgment against children produced by illicit unions, but the children are meant figuratively here (cf. Is 57:3-4, 7-8); *disciples were sometimes called “children.” Jewish texts regularly portray God’s omniscience and sometimes call him “searcher of hearts and minds” (based on *Old Testament descriptions of him; e.g., 1 Chron 28:9); here this characteristic of God applies to Jesus. God gave false prophets opportunity to turn from their falsehood and hear the true word of the Lord (Jer 23:22-23). Judgment according to one’s works fits biblical expectations (see, e.g., Ps 62:12; Jer 17:10; Prov 24:12; Sirach 16:12, 14).
2:24. *Mystery cults stressed deep secrets shared only among the initiates; Jewish people also spoke of “deep things” about God (e.g., Job 11:7; passages in *1 Enoch; *2 Baruch). For “no other burden” (NASB), cf. perhaps comment on Acts 15:28-29.
2:25-27. Revelation cites here an enthronement psalm that celebrated the promise to David and pointed to his seed who would reign over the nations that sought to rebel against him (Ps 2:8-9). The *Messiah, to whom the psalm applied par excellence (and to whom it was often understood to apply), here makes his people partakers of his rule over the nations. Most people in the Roman empire considered the emperor the supreme ruler; Revelation declares that Jesus is greater than the most powerful emperor the world had ever known.
2:28-29. The morning star, Venus, heralded the dawn, and great people could be compared to it as well as to the sun shining in glory (Sirach 50:6); cf. Revelation 22:16. Because most of the Greco-Roman world believed that life was ruled by the stars, to be given authority over one of the most powerful of stars (a symbol of sovereignty among the Romans) was to share Christ’s rule over creation (2:26-27).
For what it is worth, William Ramsay pointed out that the two *churches condemned most harshly belong to the only two cities of the seven that are completely uninhabited in modern times, Sardis and Laodicea. Sardis hosted many pagan cults; typical Greek deities such as Artemis, Cybele, Demeter and Kore (Persephone) were all worshiped there. Some scholars note that the Greek goddess Demeter, absorbing the character of the old Asiatic goddess Cybele, had also been locally identified with the deified mother of an emperor. But mixing of deities was common in antiquity, and paganism permeated all the non-Jewish cities of the Roman Empire. Despite the city’s paganism, the Christian community there seems to have experienced no persecution—and no spiritual life. Sardis had a large, powerful and wealthy Jewish community that had long been a respected part of civic life; their *synagogue was roughly the length of a football field, with some of the city’s best real estate. Like the Jewish community, the church was probably tolerated.
3:1-2. On the “spirits” and “stars,” cf. 1:4, 16, 20. The past glories of Sardis as chief city of Lydia under Croesus were proverbial; its present prosperity could never regain for it the position it had once held; most importantly, however, the “alive . . . dead” here reverses the imagery of 1:18 and 2:8.
3:3. Sardis’s acropolis had never been taken by battle, but twice in its history invaders had captured it by stealth unexpectedly in the night. More importantly, this verse refers to Jesus’ saying preserved in Matthew 24:43 (as do 1 Thess 5:2; 2 Pet 3:10).
3:4. Inscriptions in Asia Minor indicate that many temples barred worshipers with soiled garments, whose entry would insult the deity. White robes were worn by priests (and many other worshipers) in the Jerusalem temple, worshipers of most deities (e.g., Isis, Apollo, Artemis), celebrants in cult festivals for the emperor and so on.
3:5-6. All Greek and Roman cities had official rolls of citizens, to which new citizens could be added; in at least some cities, expelled citizens would be removed. (Sardis, with its ancient history of record-keeping, would be familiar with this practice.) The biblically literate, however, would catch an allusion to Exodus 32:32-33. The “book of life” appears in the *Old Testament and figures prominently in Jewish *apocalyptic; see comment on Philippians 4:3. Confessing the believer’s name before God’s judgment tribunal probably evokes an earlier saying of Jesus; see Matthew 10:32 and Luke 12:8.
Philadelphia worshiped typical Greek deities; it is known, for example, to have housed temples of Artemis, Helios, Zeus, Dionysus and Aphrodite. A third-century inscription from the Jewish synagogue there has been recovered. Believers in Philadelphia, like the church in Smyrna, had apparently been expelled from the Jewish community; the background resembles that for the Fourth Gospel (see introduction to John).
3:7-8. These verses clearly allude to Isaiah 22:22, which speaks of one who had David’s key to open and shut, indicating full authorization to rule the house. To Jewish Christians excluded from the synagogue, this was Jesus’ encouragement that he who rightly ruled the house of David now acknowledged them as his own people.
3:9. See comment on 2:9-10. Exclusion from the synagogue could lead to more direct persecution by the Roman authorities, as in Smyrna. Jesus’ claim that their opponents would know that he had loved them might echo Malachi 1:2, where God tells Israel that he loved them—but despised Esau/Edom; cf. Proverbs 14:19. Jewish people expected the kings of the nations to bow before them in the end time (Is 49:23; 60:11, 14; *1 Enoch; *Dead Sea Scrolls; cf. Ps 72:10-11).
3:10. *Apocalypses sometimes prophesied special deliverance (i.e., protection) for the righteous in the coming times of hardship; the *Old Testament also promised God’s faithfulness to his people in such times (see comment on 7:3). Some texts (e.g., the Dead Sea Scrolls) spoke of the righteous being tested by the future time of suffering, although the motif of the righteous being tested in sufferings in general was a common one (see comment on 1 Pet 1:7). (“Keep from” could mean “protect from” [cf. Rev 7:3; cf. Jn 17:15, the only other *New Testament use of the construction] or “preserve from.”) Revelation probably contrasts the wicked “earth dwellers” with the righteous “heaven dwellers”; apocalypses (like *4 Ezra, *Similitudes of Enoch and *2 Baruch) also announce judgments on the “inhabitants of the earth.”
3:11. “Crown” here alludes to the wreath that victors received at the end of a race or sometimes for military exploits.
3:12-13. God’s remnant people appear as a new temple in the Dead Sea Scrolls and in various other New Testament texts. Pillars could be used to symbolize the people of God (Ex 24:4; see also comment on Gal 2:9) but were a natural feature of temples and often bore dedicatory inscriptions (also on the pillars of the Capernaum synagogue, just as military standards and other items bore inscriptions). Israel’s own temple had pillars (Ex 27:10-17; 38:10-28; 1 Kings 7:2-6, 15-22) and this would be the case also in the end time (Ezek 40:9–41:3; 1 Enoch 90:29). The primary allusion is probably to Isaiah 56:5, where those whom the Jewish community rejected (cf. Rev 3:8-9) received a place within God’s house and a new name. On the new Jerusalem, see 21:2; “coming down” was natural in the vertical dualism common in apocalyptic literature and the Fourth Gospel, which typically contrasts heaven (where God rules unchallenged) and earth (where many disobey him until the day of judgment). Revelation portrays God’s throne room in heaven as a temple (see, e.g., comment on 4:6-8).
Laodicea became important only in Roman times. It was capital of the Cibryatic convention, which included at least twenty-five towns. It was also the wealthiest Phrygian city, and especially prosperous in this period. It was ten miles west of Colosse and six miles south of Hierapolis. Zeus was the city’s patron deity, but Laodiceans also had temples for Apollo, Asclepius (the healing deity), Hades, Hera, Athena, Serapis, Dionysus and other deities; that is, it was a fairly typical Greek city religiously. Many Jewish people lived in Phrygia.
3:14. “Beginning” is a divine title; see comment on 1:8 and 22:13. (It may also be relevant that the Roman emperor’s primary title was princeps, “the first,” i.e., among Roman citizens.) Jesus is also the “Amen,” the affirmation of God’s truth; cf. 2 Corinthians 1:20.
3:15-16. Cold water (and sometimes spiced hot water) was preferred for drinking, and hot water for bathing, but Laodicea lacked a natural water supply. Water piped in from hot springs six miles to the south, like any cold water that could have been procured from the mountains, would be lukewarm by the time it reached Laodicea. Although water could be heated, the natural lukewarmness of local water (in contrast with the hot water available at nearby Hierapolis) was undoubtedly a standard complaint of local residents, most of whom had an otherwise comfortable lifestyle. (Their imported water was also full of sediment, though better, said the geographer Strabo, than the water of Hierapolis.) Jesus says: “Were you hot [i.e., for bathing] or cold [i.e., for drinking], you would be useful; but as it is, I feel toward you the way you feel toward your water supply—you make me sick.”
3:17-18. Laodicea was a prosperous banking center; proud of its wealth, it refused Roman disaster relief after the earthquake of A.D. 60, rebuilding from its own resources. It was also known for its textiles (especially wool) and for its medical school and production of ear medicine and probably the highly reputed Phrygian eye salve. Everything in which Laodicea could have confidence outwardly, its church, which reflected its culture, lacked spiritually.
Although Greeks did not share Palestinian Jews’ moral abhorrence of nudity, everyone except *Cynic sages agreed that the lack of clothing described here, that of poverty (here spiritual), was undesirable. Phrygian “eye salve” (KJV, NASB) was apparently not an ointment per se but was probably powdered and smeared on to the eyelids (contrast Tobit 6:8). On white garments, cf. Revelation 3:4; here it may be a stark contrast with Laodicea’s famous “black wool.”
3:19. Compare the many prophetic rebukes of Israel in the *Old Testament.
3:20. Compare John 10:1-4; Matthew 24:33. Table fellowship was a sign of intimacy and committed the guest and host to friendly relations. Jesus here invites the Laodicean Christians to dine (cf. Rev 2:7; contrast 2:14, 20) in the present at the messianic banquet (see comment on 19:9); it is an invitation to a genuinely lavish banquet, implying again their spiritual poverty (cf. 3:17-18). But the door to fellowship is presently closed—from their side (contrast 3:7-8).
3:21-22. The image here is one of sharing God’s rule; Jesus shares as coregent or viceroy, whereas his people share because they are exalted to rule over the earth (as in Old Testament and Jewish expectations for Israel’s exaltation). As the locus of God’s glorious presence, his preexistent and glorious throne was the subject of much speculation among Jewish *apocalyptic writers and mystics; see comment on 4:2.
Many scholars believe that Jewish mystics (many of whom penned *apocalypses, like *1 Enoch) strove for visions of the invisible God, and modeled their views of what they would find on visions of God’s enthroned glory in Isaiah 6 and Ezekiel 1 (cf. also Ex 24:9-11; 1 Kings 22:19; Dan 7:9-10). In time these visions were embroidered with every fantastic magnification of the divine glory the mystics could imagine. In contrast to such elaborate reports of the preexistent throne of God, John’s description is simple, like the *Old Testament accounts: just enough description to convey the point of God’s majesty. Some also argue that his picture of the throne room, including the activity of those surrounding the throne, may be a parody of the imperial court and the worship in the imperial temples—a daring revelation for a banished Jewish prophet like John.
4:1. “After these things” functions as a transition device to the next vision that John would see (7:9; 15:5; 18:1; cf. 7:1; 19:1; 20:3; Jn 5:1; 6:1; 7:1); it was commonly used as such a transition. “I looked, and behold,” is typical visionary language (e.g., Ezek 10:1; 44:4; Dan 10:5; also 1 Enoch, *4 Ezra and other writings based on this *genre). On the trumpet, cf. Revelation 1:10. Although elsewhere in Revelation John is told, “Come here” (17:1; 21:9; cf. Jn 1:39), in this instance “Come up here” may also allude to God’s call to Moses to come up the mountain (in later Jewish tradition, to heaven) to receive revelation (Ex 19:24; 24:12; 34:2); the same language appears frequently in apocalypses. The opened heavens are a figure for revelation as well (Rev 11:19; 19:11; Jn 1:51), again following an important Old Testament pattern for such visions (Ezek 1:1), and also developed in other Jewish apocalypses (including the door, e.g., 1 Enoch).
4:2. “In the Spirit” means that John is prophetically inspired in his vision (see comment on 1:10); Ezekiel had similarly been carried elsewhere in visions (Ezek 11:1, 24). Some Jewish mystics stressed the mortal dangers of the ascent to see God’s throne; in some sources they had to know special passwords, and many did not know enough to survive their purported ascent through the spirit realms (see especially *3 Enoch and the *rabbis). But some apocalypses allow that angels could immediately lift one into the heavens (*2 Baruch,*Similitudes of Enoch, 2 Enoch, Testament of Abraham). Like Ezekiel, John is simply caught up immediately by God’s *Spirit.
4:3. For this description of the throne, see Ezekiel 1:26, 28 and 10:1. (Thrones indicated the ruler’s dignity and were generally approached by several steps; their bases could portray peoples subdued by the ruler.) This simple description may contrast with the Roman emperor’s pomp. It also contrasts with other elaborations of heavenly palaces (1 Enoch 14), the magnitude of majesty (e.g., the later rabbis’ crowning angel is a five-hundred-year journey tall), or a tour of earth, heaven and hell (especially in later works); John does not even elaborate by weaving together other available Old Testament throne imagery (cf., e.g., Dan 7 in 1 Enoch 14).
4:4. “Elders” were those with authority in Old Testament cities and later Jewish communities who could function as representatives for their communities (e.g., Deut 21:6); see Isaiah 24:23. In the art of Asia Minor, a few priests could be used to represent thousands of worshipers. The number “twenty-four” has been related to the twenty-four books Jewish writers assigned to the Hebrew *canon, but more relevantly to the twelve tribes plus the twelve *apostles (cf. Rev 21:12-14), or the twenty-four orders of priests. The orders of priests were fixed in the Old Testament (1 Chron 24–25), continued in the *New Testament period and were still commented on by later *rabbis and in later inscriptions. The faithful dead are thus portrayed as priests offering worship to God (Rev 1:6). (Jewish apocalyptic literature often overlapped images of the future age with the present heaven for the righteous dead.)
Greek accounts sometimes portrayed deities as appearing in white (e.g., Demeter and Kore); at least some ancient thinkers, like Pythagoras and some rabbis, associated white with good and black with evil. This contrast no doubt arose in ancient thought through the contrast between day and night, the latter being more associated with witchcraft and (in Jewish thought) *demons. (Contrary to some modern criticisms, it does not relate to complexion; the same contrast between white and black even appears in some traditional African religions.)
Romans and often Jews buried the dead in white. In Jewish tradition, angels were nearly always garbed in gleaming white. More significant here may be the widespread tradition of worshipers dressing in white (3:4). Jewish teachers portrayed Israel as crowned at the revelation at Sinai; the righteous were sometimes viewed as crowned in heaven. (The Ascension of Isaiah has the righteous crowned, robed and enthroned in heaven, but it may well be a Christian work; the Odes of Solomon, which has a catching up to heaven by the Spirit—cf. 4:2—is a Christian work. But it is not always easy to distinguish early Christian works from Jewish works revised with Christian interpolations.) But the crowns here are probably victors’ crowns for those who persevered to death (see comment on 2:10; 3:11). (Many Jewish traditions speak of a heavenly assembly—in the rabbis, a legislative or judicial body—composed of angels or deceased scholars; the antecedents of the image probably go back to the angelic court of God in the Old Testament and the Canaanite images of El’s pantheon of seventy gods, replaced by the angels of the seventy nations in Jewish tradition.)
The arrangement is undoubtedly significant. Greek choruses would often sing or dance in circles; amphitheaters surrounded stages; and the Jewish Sanhedrin sat in a semicircle with the *high priest in the middle.
4:5. The special effects rehearse the glory of God’s self-revelation at Sinai (Ex 19:16; cf. Ezek 1:4, 13). Some apocalyptic texts report the sources of lightnings and thunderings in particular levels of heaven.
4:6-7. The “sea of glass” (15:2) alludes to the sea in Solomon’s temple (1 Kings 7:23; 2 Chron 4:2, 6). It had always been natural to speak figuratively of God’s heavenly temple (e.g., Ps 11:4), given the ancient Near Eastern tradition of the earthly temple reflecting the heavenly one. John’s emphasis on worship leads to a portrayal of God’s throne room in especially temple terms:
(Even the future New Jerusalem appears as a temple; see comment on Rev 21:16.) Heaven is a place of worship, perhaps implying in part that genuine worship on earth offers a foretaste of heaven. The crystal firmament derives from Ezekiel 1:22. The cherubim were covered with eyes in Ezekiel 10:12; the four creatures had four faces in Ezekiel 1:10 (where, however, each creature had all the features). Ezekiel’s imagery may be intentionally figurative (cf. 1 Chron 12:8) but may draw on Babylonian throne and temple imagery and indicate a God greater than any pagans could have conceived; cf. also 1 Kings 7:29.
4:8. Ezekiel also spoke of the six wings (Ezek 1:11). The trisagion (“Holy, holy, holy”) is from Isaiah 6:3, where seraphim—fiery, holy angels modeled after the cherubim of the tabernacle—surround God’s throne in the Jerusalem temple, symbolizing his universal glory (Is 6:3) and demonstrating the impurity of sinful mortals like the prophet (Is 6:5). Later Jewish texts also employ the biblical imagery of these creatures and this song, which came into use in *synagogue and later *church liturgy as well. One may contrast for example the permanently appointed imperial cult choir at Pergamum, where thirty-six members were to sing hymns in honor of the deified Augustus. Such a choir was impressive by standards of the Roman Empire, but paled before the worship of the true God.
4:9-10. Prostration on one’s face was a form of homage offered to gods and rulers in antiquity.
4:11. The emperor Domitian demanded worship as “our Lord and God” but never claimed the role of Creator. Jesus receives the same words of honor in John 20:28.
5:1. Legal documents were sealed, often with roughly six seals imprinted with the attestations of the same number of witnesses. (The wax seals would have to be broken to loose the strings beneath them, which wrapped the scroll and guaranteed that it had not been opened and thus altered.) This form was used for contract deeds and wills; it became increasingly common in Roman documents of the period, and some Palestinian Jewish documents of this sort have been recovered. Scrolls were normally written on only one side of a papyrus sheet, reserving the outside for the title or address; but this scroll is unusually full and thus written on both sides (cf. Ezek 2:9-10). The writing side was called the recto, where the fibers were horizontal and easier for writing; the verso was used only when the recto had inadequate space. Documents written on both sides are rare enough to have a technical name, an opisthograph.
5:2-3. Cf. perhaps Isaiah 6:8 for a similar call in the context of a throne vision, except that here the only one fit for the task is the lamb.
5:4. Loud wailing was normally reserved for intense mourning, such as for a person’s death.
5:5. Lions were used on Torah shrines (containers which housed Law scrolls) in early Jewish art and were regarded as figures of strength and authority, but a more direct background lies at hand. The “lion of Judah” alludes to Genesis 49:9-10, which predicted the Davidic dynasty and was understood messianically in later Jewish literature (*4 Ezra, the *rabbis). “Root of David” alludes to Isaiah 11:1 and 10 (Jesse was David’s father), which suggests that the *Messiah would come after the Davidic line had seemed cut off. The image is also used messianically in later texts (e.g., Sirach), and both these images are combined in the *Dead Sea Scrolls. *Apocalypses and other texts often included dialogue with heavenly particpants in the scenes revealed (cf., e.g., Dan 7:16; Zech 4:11; 5:2).
5:6. Whereas a lion was the ultimate symbol of power in ancient views of the animal kingdom (cf. also, e.g., Is 35:9; 65:25), a lamb was considered powerless (cf. Is 40:11); a slaughtered lamb was a dramatic contrast with a reigning lion (cf. Is 53:7). Lambs were associated with a variety of sacrifices, but in Revelation this figure may evoke especially the Passover lamb, who delivers God’s people from the plagues of the following chapters (cf. Ex 12:12-13).
Many texts mention lamb’s horns, but the imagery of horns as symbols for authority is rooted in Daniel 8. The seven eyes ranging throughout the earth are from Zechariah 3:9 and 4:10. John might understand them as referring to angels (the image in Zechariah is modeled after Persian royal emissaries) in Zechariah 1:10 and 6:5-7, or to God’s *Spirit in Zechariah 4:6. At any rate, the eyes in Zechariah are God’s eyes; here they belong to the Lord Jesus.
5:7. Various ancient documents, including wills, were sealed with roughly six seals, and sometimes seven; seals on legal documents guaranteed that no one had opened or tampered with them. A will could not be opened until the death of the person whose will it was could be attested; if a will is in view here (as some, but not all, suggest), it is significant that it is the lamb who has been slain who is worthy to open it. (The book may well be the lamb’s book of life; cf. 3:5; 20:12. Seals were not a book’s contents, but attesting marks outside it.) At any rate, under Roman law a document was valid only when the addressee had received it; it is thus ready to take effect.
5:8. Prostration was particularly a sign of worship before gods and kings in antiquity; Jewish texts usually reserved it for God himself. The image of prayers as incense was not uncommon (e.g., Ps 141:2); here it alludes to the altar of incense and its censer in the heavenly temple (Rev 8:3). In this context, the harps probably indicate worship as in the charismatic, Levitical temple choir of old (1 Chron 25:1, 3, 6; 2 Chron 5:12; 29:25; Neh 12:27; cf. 1 Sam 10:5).
5:9-10. Offered to congregations presumably gathered in worship (chaps. 2–3), visions of heavenly worship would encourage the *church on earth that they stood in continuity with a much greater chorus than their persecutors in the imperial cult could muster. The Dead Sea Scrolls show that earthly worshipers could envision themselves participating in heavenly worship with the angels. Inspired, spontaneous psalms composed by the temple worship leaders, perhaps in response to new acts by God, had been called “new songs” in the *Old Testament (Ps 33:3; 40:3; 96:1; 98:1; 144:9; 149:1; Is 42:10).
The particular praise reflects the redemption of Israel from Egypt by the blood of the Passover lamb (see Ex 19:6 for kingdom and priests; also comment on Rev 1:6), except that the people of God now explicitly include representatives from every people, celebrating redemption in their multiethnic, diverse styles of worship. Further, they would finally reign over the rest of the earth; Jewish traditions portrayed Israel as receiving the *kingdom and reigning over the nations in the end time. Rome claimed to rule the earth, but knew of many peoples beyond its boundaries, from Iceland and Scythia (much of it in Russia) to the north, Parthia, India and China to the east, and Africa at least as far south as Tanzania. Only by faith in God’s revelation could John have conceived of a church from all peoples, such as is forming today.
5:11. Dramatic numbers could highlight dramatic subjects. Some Jewish texts were given to citing fantastically large numbers of people (e.g., they listed more slain in one battle than all the people who have lived in history); more reasonably, such texts estimated even larger numbers of angels. “Ten thousand” was the largest single number used in Greek, so “ten thousands of ten thousands” (myriads of myriads) is the author’s way of calling them innumerable.
5:12. An early-second-century Roman governor confirms that Christians worshiped *Christ as a god. Multiple elements in a list of praises emphasized the subject’s greatness (cf., e.g., 1 Chron 29:11-12; Dan 7:14; for a king, Dan 2:37). Sets of seven praises (or other numbers) appear elsewhere also (e.g., in what became the later official text of the Passover celebration, praising God for redemption from Egypt; a *Qumran text), though John’s predilection for sevens is broader than and independent of such texts.
5:13-14. Although the Old Testament and Judaism believed that the world would submit to God’s rule wholly in the end time, they recognized that all the elements of the universe answered to his authority in the present.
The imagery is adapted from the angelic horsemen sent by God to patrol the earth in Zechariah 1:8-11 and 6:1-8, though used in a different way. Although divine judgments in history are a major *Old Testament theme, pagans also recognized and would have understood John’s point; most cultures in history have recognized the existence of divine judgments. (Romans in fact kept official records of reports of omens portending disaster.) Jewish *apocalyptic traditions associated some of these judgments, such as war and famine, with the time just preceding the end of the age, though many believe that many early Christians applied that designation to the entire period between the *Messiah’s comings; cf. Matthew 24:6-8.
6:1. A document could not be opened until all the seals were broken (i.e., in Revelation, after 8:1); the seals (in this case judgments) witness the validity of the document’s contents. (In divine documents, witnesses need not be only human; in the Old Testament covenant, heaven and earth are called to witness; cf. Deut 30:19; Ps 50:4.)
6:2. The Old Testament uses the “bow” as a symbol of judgment by battle. The image of an archer on a white horse might terrify hearers in the Roman Empire. The only mounted archers with which most were familiar were the Parthians, whose tactics and skills had made them Rome’s most feared enemies; old Persian armies, whose heirs the Parthians were, included sacred white horses. Parthians had defeated Roman armies in some recent wars; Parthians’ skill as archers was common knowledge, and other contemporary apocalyptic writers (*Similitudes of Enoch) also suggested a dreaded Parthian invasion. But even if based only on the bow, ancient hearers would have readily understood that this horseman meant conquest and war.
6:3-4. The “sword” was often a symbol of judgment by war in the Old Testament and later literature, and red was the color most associated with war and bloodshed (hence the “red planet” is named Mars for the Roman god of war). The bloody unrest of A.D. 68–69, when three emperors were successively killed in Roman civil wars, would have offered one illustration of the principle here.
6:5-6. Famine and pestilence often followed in the wake of war. Basic staples of the ancient Mediterranean diet were barley and wheat, sometimes cheese and olives, and (for those living near water) fish. The “scales” indicate rationing, or at least the caution of merchants to get every cent the food is worth. Barley and wheat were basic staples. Because a quart of wheat was a day’s sustenance, and a denarius was a day’s wage, a man with a family would have to buy the cheaper barley instead. Even then, three quarts of barley was hardly enough daily food for a whole family to subsist on; in the many peasant families with large numbers of children, several children would die (as often happened anyway in impoverished areas such as Roman-period Egypt). The famine also created a high inflation rate: this wheat costs between five and fifteen times the average price of wheat.
Some mercy may be implied here; conquerors tended to ravage standing crops while sparing fruit trees and vines, since these took long to grow back and conquerors hoped to control the land. (Olive trees took roughly seventeen years to grow.) Nevertheless, the image would hold the attention of John’s audience; much of western Asia Minor imported much of its grain, locally focusing on more lucrative products such as wine. Oil and wine were widely used, but were not essential for life like wheat or barley. Olive oil was especially used for anointing the head, washing the body and lighting lamps; wine was mixed with water (one part wine for two to three parts water) for meals. The selective continuance of such items of relatively secondary importance while staples were barely obtainable would reinforce the reality of divine judgment. Because inflation was high at the end of the first century and some readers were no doubt aware of Domitian’s unpopular restriction of land for vineyards, many hearers could have readily identified with the terror such prophecies implied. Asia Minor, though one of the wealthiest areas in the Roman Empire, experienced economic troubles during Domitian’s reign.
6:7-8. This final specter may resemble the angel of death of Jewish tradition. Lists of judgments such as this horseman brought are common in the Old Testament prophets (e.g., Jer 14:12; 24:10; 27:8; Ezek 6:11; 7:15; 12:16) and, less related in form, some judgment lists in the *Sibylline Oracles; this list is closest to Ezekiel 14:21.
Some of the seven *churches (such as Smyrna) were suffering, but others (such as Laodicea) were comfortable. Like many *Old Testament prophecies (e.g., Amos 6:1), this message could disturb comfortable people. By contrast, oppressed and suffering people who trust God could resonate with the promise of vindication.
6:9. The blood of sacrifices was poured out at the base of the altar (Lev 4:7, 18, 25, 34; 5:9; 8:15; 9:9); the martyrs are thus viewed as sacrifices, presumably associated with the Passover lamb of Revelation 5:6. (Paschal lambs had come to be viewed as sacrificial in some sense. Martyrs were also viewed as sacrifices in, e.g., *4 Maccabees; cf. Phil 2:7.) On heavenly temple imagery (such as the altar here), see comment on 4:6. Souls could be “visible” to recipients of *apocalypses, due to the seers’ visionary state.
6:10. The very fact of their shed blood (6:9) cries out for the vindication of retribution (Gen 4:10; see comment on Mt 23:35); as in the Old Testament, a prayer for vengeance for corporate sin was ultimately a prayer for the vindication of the righteous and of God’s name. Justice could ultimately be done, and the oppressed delivered, only when God arose to judge the earth. “How long?” was common in Old Testament prayers of entreaty (e.g., Ps 6:3; 13:1; 80:4), including prayers for vindication (e.g., Ps 79:5, 10; Zech 1:12); it also could address the duration of a judgment (Is 6:11; Jer 47:6).
6:11. Other Jewish texts also include prayers for vengeance and protests over delays (6:10); the souls of the righteous in *4 Ezra (probably from the same period as Revelation) ask how long until the end and are told that they must wait until the full number of righteous dead is completed. Jesus and Paul had also earlier stressed that the good news must be preached to all nations—with the attendant suffering for witnesses involved in such proclamation—before the end. On white robes, see comment on 4:4.
Although cosmic, cataclysmic language is sometimes used for God’s judgments in history (e.g., an already fulfilled judgment in *Sibylline Oracles; cosmic exaggerations of Sinai phenomena in *Pseudo-Philo; cf. Ps 18; Jer 4:20-28), the language of this passage lends itself most naturally to the view that it, like the sixth and seventh trumpets and vials, represents the end of the age (as cosmic destruction generally does in the *Old Testament prophets and Jewish literature).
6:12-13. An Old Testament *prophecy associated the end of the age with a powerful earthquake (Zech 14:4-5; cf. Ezek 38:20; Amos 8:8); because severe earthquakes had wrought devastation in first-century Asia Minor (including cities such as Laodicea), this announcement would have special impact on the readers. Darkness was also an Old Testament judgment (Ex 10:21-23; Is 50:3), especially the judgment of the end (Joel 2:31; Is 13:9-10; 24:23; Ezek 32:7-8; Amos 5:18; 8:9; cf. *4 Ezra). The stars may symbolize angelic hosts (12:4; Is 24:21; Dan 8:10; 10:13), but in this context they probably depict simply the cosmic scope of the judgment (Is 34:4). The graphic language is not meant as literal astronomy: disappearing or shaken stars were used as poetic language for great devastations such as wars (Sibylline Oracles; *Petronius; cf. Is 13:10, 17).
6:14. A reader would unroll a scroll with the right hand to read, rolling up again the part just read with the left; the language here reflects Isaiah 34:4, which is also echoed in other Jewish judgment oracles (Sibylline Oracles). This sort of language was normally reserved for the end of the age.
6:15-16. The Old Testament and *apocalypses also speak of judgment across social classes; the readers could be encouraged that God would ultimately vindicate them against the emperor and his governors who now judged them. Hiding in the rocks and crying for the mountains to conceal them from God’s wrath reflects Hosea 10:8; cf. Isaiah 2:10 and 19-20. (Christians in Sardis may have thought of the cave-tombs in the necropolis facing their city, though the image is not relevant to them alone.) Lambs were particularly docile creatures; “wrath of the lamb” is thus a jarring image.
6:17. This verse reflects especially Joel 2:11; cf. Malachi 3:2, referring to the day of judgment.
Some take the 144,000 consistently literally (literally twelve thousand male Jewish virgins from each tribe—14:4); others take them consistently symbolically (the spiritual people of God, not literally 144,000). Against taking it literally could be Revelation’s usage elsewhere of “servants” (1:1; 6:11), suggesting that they constitute the whole of the saved community (7:3-4). But whether they represent the innumerable multitude of 7:9 or the restored remnant of ethnic Israel remains debated.
“After this I saw” (7:1) means that this vision follows the preceding one, not necessarily that the events it describes do (see comment on 4:1); if 6:12-17 represents the end of the age, 7:1-8 must precede that event chronologically (7:3), perhaps concurrent with the whole of 6:1-11 or simply 6:12-17.
7:1. *Gentiles often personified the elements of nature themselves or recognized gods attached to them; Jewish people believed that God had delegated his authority over various features of nature (including winds) to angels under his command (e.g., in *Jubilees; cf. Ps 148:1-12). “Four corners” of the earth was meant figuratively, even in ancient times. A few people thought that the world was spherical, but most people viewed it as circular; “four corners” was nevertheless conventional speech, as was the idea of four winds from the four directions of heaven (probably viewed as angels even in Zech 6:5). The winds had both positive and negative effects in ancient sources. According to some views, the wind carried along the sun and moon chariots (*1 Enoch 72:5; 73:2), or God founded the heavens on the winds (1 Enoch, *Joseph and Asenath), and the stoppage of winds could signal the advent of a new age (Sibylline Oracles, on the postdiluvian era). Like writers today, the biblical writers used the language conventional to the *genre in which they were writing; this could include, as here, symbolic imagery.
7:2. In the most popular ancient conception, Helios drove his sun-chariot in a regular course above the earth, rising from the gates of the east and descending into the west to return by its path under the earth; the earth-circle was surrounded on all sides by the river Oceanus. Jewish people naturally modified the sun god into an angel; but any angel that would rise in the orbit of the sun would have been recognized as superior to the greatest of the kings of the earth. The expression here could also simply emphasize that the angel comes from the east (cf. Is 41:25), hence the universal extent of God’s rule (cf. Ps 50:1; 113:3; Is 59:19; Mal 1:11).
“Seal” refers to the impress of a signet ring; an official who wished to delegate his authority for a task to a representative would allow that subordinate to use his signet ring.
7:3. Like documents or merchandise sealed and stamped to guarantee their contents and prevent tampering, God’s servants were to be marked off as his (cf. Is 44:5). God had previously protected his people in Goshen during the plagues (Ex 8:28; 9:4; 11:7; see comment on Rev 5:6); the idea of a protecting sign is also an *Old Testament image (Gen 4:15; Is 66:19). Here it is taken directly from Ezekiel 9:4-6, where judgment could not begin until the foreheads of the righteous (those who mourned over the sin of their land) were marked. The forehead and the hand (Ex 13:9, 16; 28:38; Deut 6:8; 11:18) were the most natural and obvious parts of the body for this marking because they were most directly exposed to view.
With the possible exception of Genesis 4:15, all these Old Testament passages probably meant the sign symbolically (despite more literal postexilic Jewish practice of tefillin, phylacteries); Ezekiel 9:6 certainly did not mean a humanly visible mark, and Revelation presumably means it in the same sense as Ezekiel (cf. other writings in Rev 3:12; 17:5; 19:16; 22:4). In Hebrew, Ezekiel’s mark was the Hebrew letter tav; in ancient script it looked like, and *rabbis compared it with, the Greek letter chi—similar to English x—which some Christian commentators have compared (perhaps wishfully) with the cross sign. Comparisons have also been made with branding animals; with the occasional but well-documented tattooing of slaves and, later, soldiers; with religious tattooing (e.g., in Mithraism); with spiritual circumcision (circumcision was called a seal); and with the divine imprint on humans (Philo), here applied specifically to those who live according to that image. See comment on Revelation 13:16-18 (for the mark opposed to this one) and on Galatians 6:17; cf. *4 Ezra 6:5; 10:23; *Psalms of Solomon 15:6-9 (for invisible marks for both the righteous and the wicked); and *Testament of Job 5:2.
7:4. Because this is the full number of God’s servants (7:3), the righteous (1:1; 2:20; 22:6), the number and ethnic designation may be meant figuratively for true followers of Israel’s God (followers of Jesus; cf. 2:9; 3:9; 21:2, 14). Whether this number is meant figuratively or literally, however, the allusion is clearly to the Old Testament and universal Jewish conception of Israel’s restoration (cf. comment on Rom 11:26-27), which is pictured, as generally, in terms of the restoration of the remnant (survivors) of the twelve tribes. Some suggest that the numbering by tribe evokes the Old Testament custom of a military census, indicating that these represent the end-time army expected in some Jewish circles (e.g., the *Qumran War Scroll), except here as a spiritual army (cf. comment in Rev 14:1-5).
7:5-8. The normal Jewish understanding was that the twelve tribes would inherit the land together (Ezek 48). Yet by counting Joseph and Manasseh (the tribe of Joseph was usually broken down into two tribes, represented by his sons Manasseh and Ephraim) without omitting Levi, Revelation has to omit another of the tribes, and omits Dan, the first in Ezekiel’s list (48:1), in order to maintain the number twelve. (Jewish commentators as early as the second century associated Dan with idolatry, but no emphasis on that special association has been documented this early. Dan’s sins [Judg 18:30; 1 Kings 12:29; Amos 8:14; cf. Jubilees 44:28-29] are not the only ones mentioned in the Old Testament, and the association with the serpent [Gen 49:16-17] is too remote here.) Some scholars believe that this omission underlines the symbolic nature of John’s point in the whole passage; one tribe might be omitted to indicate the danger of apostasy even among the people of God (cf. Jn 6:70; 1 Jn 2:19). The sequence of tribes itself is probably not significant—it varied considerably in the Old Testament.
The twelve tribes no longer existed as separate entities in the first century; with few exceptions, only Judah, Benjamin and Levi were recognized as ancestors, and today even most of those distinctions are no longer certain. The exact number, twelve thousand from each tribe, is another indication of the symbolic nature of the passage—twelve was the number of the people of God in Jewish texts (e.g., *Dead Sea Scrolls), and 144,000 is 12 x 12 x 10 x 10 x 10. Symbolic numbers were standard fare in Jewish views of the future (see especially comment on the times of Revelation 12).
This section may represent a different group than the one pictured in 7:1-8, or another picture of the same group now in heaven (double versions of visions sometimes occur in the *Old Testament too; cf. Gen 41:25-27; interpretations of visions also appear, e.g., in Daniel, *4 Ezra and *2 Baruch).
7:9-12. White robes were appropriate for worship in the temple and were also used for the worship of gods in Asia Minor. Jewish people regularly used palm branches in the celebration of the Feast of Tabernacles (Lev 23:40; Neh 8:15). In the future, the remnant of all nations would go up to Jerusalem to worship at the Feast of Tabernacles (Zech 14:16); as in *apocalyptic texts, the earthly future realm is in some sense presently fulfilled in heaven (cf. Rev 7:15). Palm branches celebrated the victory of Israel’s exodus from Egypt, and the feast commemorated God’s faithfulness to them during their wanderings in the wilderness, when they were totally dependent on him. More generally, palm branches celebrated victory, hailing the victors (cf. 1 Maccabees 13:51; 2 Maccabees 10:7). Ironically, if these are martyrs, they triumphed by being faithful to death (see comment on 2:10), and they hail the slain lamb.
Some scholars have suggested that these multitudes are the martyrs or martyr *church of 6:11, viewed from another perspective. “Innumerable” meant that the crowd was huge, too many to count—not infinite (*3 Maccabees 4:17; it could also represent a number so great that it could be pictured as the sands of the sea in number, as in Judith 2:20).
7:13-14. Jewish teachers sometimes asked questions they knew their *disciples could not answer; the disciples then responded by asking for the answer. The same teaching technique is employed here. Jewish apocalypses and their occasional Roman analogues often included angelic guides (e.g., *1 Enoch and 3 Baruch) who asked the mortal observer *rhetorical questions to guide him to a truer understanding (e.g., 4 Ezra and Testament of Abraham; cf. Dan 8:13-14; 12:6-7); in other texts confused visionaries simply had to ask to begin with (Dan 7:16; 12:8; 4 Ezra) or wait for an interpretation (Dan 8:16).
“The great tribulation” refers to Daniel 12:1, the period of great suffering that God’s people were to experience before the end of the age. Making robes white with blood is a ritual rather than visual image: sacrificial blood purified utensils for worship in the Old Testament (see comment on Heb 9:21-22), and white was the color of robes required for worship in the *New Testament period.
7:15-16. God’s tabernacle as a refuge over them directly echoes Isaiah 4:5-6, which in turn alludes to a new exodus of salvation in the future time. When God redeemed his people from Egypt and they wandered in the wilderness (the time commemorated in the Feast of Tabernacles; see comment on Rev 7:9-12), he made such a cloud over them as Isaiah describes. Revelation also borrows the language of Isaiah 49:10 (again the salvation of the future age); cf. Psalm 121:5-6. What differs from Isaiah 49:10 here is that God’s people now include representatives of many nations (Rev 7:9) and that the lamb fills the divine role. On God’s throne room in heaven being portrayed as a temple, see comment on Revelation 4:6-7.
7:17. This verse alludes to Isaiah 25:8 (in the context of the messianic banquet at the *resurrection at the end of the age) and 49:10 (in the *age to come). For the imagery of the shepherd (here graphically juxtaposed with the lamb), see the introduction to John 10:1-18.
8:1. There are a number of possible ways to interpret “silence” here. In some texts, silence could characterize the end of the present world to form a new world (*4 Ezra and *2 Baruch; cf. *Pseudo-Philo). In this context of worship (7:9-12) and intercession (6:9-11; 8:4) in heaven, some suggest that “silence” could mean a brief delay in God’s reception of his people’s prayers for vindication (Ps 50:3, 21; 83:1) or silencing heaven’s praises to receive his people’s prayers (Rev 8:4), as in some later Jewish texts.
Perhaps more likely, it could be a form of awed worship (Ps 65:1) or perhaps of fear, grief or shame, as with the muzzled mouths of the guilty with nothing to say in their defense at the judgment (Hab 2:20; Zeph 1:7; Zech 2:13; cf. Ps 31:17-18; 76:8-10; Is 23:2; 41:1; 47:5).
8:2. Trumpets were used for celebrations, to call sacred or military assemblies, and as summons to battle, military signals or alerts, often warning of impending invasions. It is in this last sense that the prophets usually employed the image, and this is probably also why Revelation uses it. Given heavenly temple imagery elsewhere in Revelation, the use of trumpets in the temple might also be relevant (2 Chron 7:6; 29:26; Ezra 3:10). Although John undoubtedly would have used “seven” anyway (given his three sets of seven judgments each), commentators note that series of seven trumpeters appear in the *Old Testament (Josh 6:6, 13), probably regularly in the temple cult (1 Chron 15:24; Neh 12:41). Again, though seven angels would be needed for seven trumpets in any case, it is noteworthy that between the time of the Old Testament and the time of the New Testament Judaism had settled on seven archangels (adding five to the two important angels named in Daniel), who “stood before God.”
8:3. The angel fulfills a task assigned to a priest in the earthly temple. For the heavenly temple in Revelation, see comment on 4:6-7; as in some other Jewish texts (including in the Old Testament, in Ps 141:2), prayers are presented as incense (some texts portrayed them also as sacrifices). For the heavenly temple in Jewish texts in general, see comment on Hebrews 8:1-5.
8:4-5. In this context, the continual prayers of the *saints for vengeance (6:9-11) are the direct cause of their eventual vindication through judgments on the earth (8:6–9:21). On the image of atmospheric phenomena caused by angelic activity, see comment on 4:5; cf. 11:19 and 16:18.
The sorts of judgments characterizing the judgments of the trumpets and bowls evoke especially the ten plagues of the exodus (although they are numerically adjusted to seven; see comment on Jn 2:11, the first of probably seven signs in John). As in other Jewish texts (e.g., *Pseudo-Philo, Artapanus), the sequence and even number of the plagues is not important for the point of the image. Some of the plagues are echoed in other judgment texts (especially *Sibylline Oracles) but never as systematically as here.
8:6. See comment on 8:2.
8:7. This plague echoes the seventh plague in Exodus 9:24-25. The mixture of hail and fire evokes the image in Ex 9:23-24 and Ps 105:32, where the fire probably alludes to lightning. The mixture with blood here probably evokes the plague of blood (see comment on Rev 8:8-9).
8:8-9. Waters running with blood would normally indicate war (e.g., Is 15:9), but these verses also echo the first plague in Exodus 7:20-21. The mountain hurled into the sea characterizes the sort of imagery standard in this type of literature (e.g., the burning star hurled into the sea in what may be a roughly contemporary oracle in Sibylline Oracles). The suggested parallel to Babylon as a burning mountain in Jeremiah 51:25, 42 is not as obvious, but it may have informed both Revelation (which elsewhere cites this section of Jeremiah, e.g., in Rev 18:4) and the Sibylline Oracles.
This plague addresses contamination of the water supply, effecting not only many swift deaths by dehydration but also long-term devastation by destruction of Egypt’s irrigation and fishing (Ex 7:18) resources.
8:10-11. Like the preceding plague, this judgment alludes to the poisoned water of Exodus 7:20-21, but through a sort of poisoning or embittering agent called “wormwood” (Jer 9:15; 23:15; cf. Jer 8:14), often used figuratively (for idolatry—Deut 29:18; fruits of adultery—Prov 5:4; suffering—Lam 3:19). This plague strikes local freshwater supplies and would naturally worry John’s readers in Asia, especially in Laodicea (see comment on Rev 3:15-16).
8:12. This plague echoes the ninth plague in Exodus 10:22-23; many ancient texts speak of darkness as a dreaded judgment, and the *Old Testament (see comment on Rev 6:12-13) and some other Jewish texts also associate it with the end time.
8:13. The announcement of three impending woes indicates that as negative as the first four trumpet plagues were, the worst is yet to come. “Woe” often begins a new oracle in *1 Enoch and probably serves a similar function here.
The eagle was a symbol of imperial Rome carried by the legions and used on Herod’s temple, but that symbolism may be irrelevant here. Perhaps more to the point, eagles were used as messengers in some texts (4 Baruch); Romans could view them as omens; they could symbolize God’s protection (Rev 12:14); or the term here could mean (as it often does, including in the *LXX) “vulture,” indicating a bird of prey (see 19:17), and thus imminent doom. Finally, it might simply reflect God’s sovereignty over all his creatures (cf. 4:7). “Midheaven” (NASB, NRSV) is the level of heaven between God’s throne and the lowest atmosphere (in the minimal three-heaven scheme of some ancients—on which see comment on 2 Cor 12:2-4—but also in some other schemes, e.g., in 2 Enoch).
9:1-2. Many Jewish traditions spoke of evil angels imprisoned in dungeons or rivers, awaiting their time to come out and wreak havoc. Some ancient writers assumed that the “abyss” (NIV, GNT; “bottomless pit”—NASB, KJV, NRSV) was a real geographical place that could be found on earth (1 Enoch); angels were assigned over such sites and given keys. Most pagans held stars to be divinities, and many Jews held them to be angels; stars could naturally symbolize angels in Jewish texts, as in this case. John exploits the standard imagery to make his point.
9:3. In view of the larger context evoking Exodus’s plagues, this plague recalls the eighth plague in Exodus 10:12, the locusts. Maintaining the imagery characteristic of much *apocalyptic and prophetic revelation, however, John’s vision transmutes these locusts into something far more terrifying. Joel apparently describes an imminent locust plague in terms of armies (e.g., 1:4; 2:11, 20, 25) and also describes a final war (3:9-17). John borrows Joel’s imagery here (e.g., Joel 1:6; 2:4-5) to amplify the imagery of a locust plague into a terrible invasion.
9:4. See comment on 7:3. Ordinary locusts would have feasted on the vegetation and left the people alone.
9:5. Scorpion stings were among the most intense pains (1 Kings 12:11; 2 Chron 10:14); but a pain lasting five months (9:10, unless this is simply the duration of the plague; one commentator says that five months fits the approximate lifespan of a normal kind of locust) was unheard of. Jewish texts often included scorpions as one of God’s means of judgment.
9:6. Only the severest sufferings prompted a preference for death over life (Jer 8:3); but even death will be withheld during this plague.
9:7. An invasion of locusts could be described as warhorses (Joel 2:4), and horses could be described as being as numerous as locusts (Jer 51:27; cf. 51:14). The crowns might reflect prior military exploits or that they command still other locusts. Peoples such as Greeks and Babylonians envisioned various kinds of composite monsters evoking parts of different creatures (from centaurs and griffins, more positively, to snake-haired Gorgons). The image of human-faced scorpions derived from nightmarish traditions from the East, and Mediterranean zodiacs eventually applied it to Sagittarius, who was often portrayed with long hair (see comment on 9:8). Although the image is not meant literally, it draws on the most terrible, repressed images of that culture’s unconscious fears to evoke horror at the impending judgments.
9:8. Joel 1:6 described locusts with “teeth like lions” to emphasize their destructiveness to the crops and everything else. In Joel, the image would terrify an agrarian society; in Revelation, it would remind readers of the lion’s proverbial ferocity. The “hair like women” might evoke a particular military threat known to John’s audience: everyone in the Roman Empire knew that “barbarians” outside the empire, unlike most people in Greco-Roman society, had long hair. In the context of a military invasion, the readers might immediately think of the Parthians (or, in apocalyptic terms, perhaps the spiritual realities behind them). By way of illustration, the reigning emperor Domitian’s father was reported—perhaps fictitiously—to have joked about the Parthians’ long hair in view of a long-tailed comet portending his death. Thus Revelation, employing dramatic imagery of its day, communicates a terrible invasion.
9:9. The “noise of chariots” is borrowed from the military imagery for locusts in Joel 2:5; the swarms would be so intense that they would sound like an invading army, a sound great enough to make a land quake (Jer 8:16). The scales of a kind of locust’s thorax are compared with scaled armor in a later Jewish text; here John uses a more updated armor image.
9:10. Their tails may be mentioned simply because that was the weapon of scorpions (9:5), but the reverse could also be true; scorpions could be mentioned because of the tails. It may be of interest that the Parthians (9:8) had become famous for their rearward archery: they had retreated up hills mounted on horseback, and when unwary Roman legions had followed them, the Parthians had released a backward hail of arrows, wiping out several legions before the Romans learned not to follow them up hills. Although the lifespan of different kinds of locusts varies significantly, many live roughly three to five months.
9:11. “Abaddon” is a Hebrew name for the lowest depths of the earth, the realm of the dead (cf. Job 31:12; Ps 88:11; Prov 27:20); the *Dead Sea Scrolls also linked the “spirit of Abaddon” with the “angel of the pit.” “Apollyon” means “destruction” in Greek. (Some scholars have secondarily connected the name to Apollo, a Greek deity, one of whose totems was the locust patron, but the allusion is disputed.) The final, terrifying touch to this description of an army with elements from Joel’s locusts, from Parthians and from scorpions is that these are the armies of hell, sent by death itself to fill its bowels.
Parthians were Rome’s most feared enemies in this period. They were portrayed as untrustworthy, and the authority of their monarchs was absolute. Older Greek prophecies about an eastern invasion of the Roman Empire still made some Romans nervous, and the Jewish Sibylline Oracles prophesied that Nero would return, leading Parthian hordes in vengeance on Rome. (Many Jewish people lived in Parthian territory, and many Jews in the Roman Empire felt no more allegiance to Rome than they would have to Parthia; in the Jewish-Roman War of 66–70 many Jews expected Parthia to intervene on their behalf, but their hopes were disappointed.)
9:12. See comment on 8:13.
9:13. On the temple imagery, see comment on 4:6-7. Ancient Middle Eastern altars typically had four horns.
9:14. Pervasive references in ancient literature reveal that it was common knowledge that the river Euphrates (16:12) was, above all else, the traditional boundary between the Roman and Parthian empires. Some other Jewish texts speak of fallen angels being bound in the depths of various seas, able to be released only at the command of God or one of his angels.
9:15. For all their recognition of demonic forces in this age, apocalyptic writers recognized also the standard Jewish doctrine that God ultimately rules all of history. Casualty statistics like this one are also familiar in Jewish judgment oracles (see the Sibylline Oracles). Some scholars suggest mercy in the statistic (contrasting two-thirds of God’s people destroyed in Zech 13:8, and of the world in the Sibylline Oracles).
9:16. Parthians were noted horsemen; in contrast to Rome, whose only cavalry contingents were drawn from its auxiliary (non-Roman) units, the Parthians were renowned for their cavalry. “Two hundred million” would be a huge standing army even today (only about one-sixth the population of India, but close to the entire population of Brazil, roughly two-thirds the population of the United States, nearly forty percent more than that of Mexico, a quarter more than that of Nigeria, and nearly six times that of Canada); in the first century it probably represented more than the population of the entire Mediterranean world.
9:17-18. The “dark blue” (NIV; “hyacinth”—NASB; or “sapphire”—NRSV) might allude to the color of the smoke of sulfur’s flame. Cf. 9:7-8 for the source of the image of horses and lions; lions were considered the most ferocious and regal of beasts, which no one cared to meet. In a widely read Jewish wisdom book, a writer had declared that God could have punished idolatry by sending lions or newly created, fire-breathing and smoke-belching monsters (Wisdom of Solomon 11:17-20). But again this imagery may be mixed with the threat of a Parthian invasion: Parthian archers often used flaming arrows.
9:19. The power “in their tails” may allude to scorpions or to the Parthian cavalry’s rearward archery (see comment on 9:10).
9:20-21. Jewish people commonly regarded the unrepentance of the world in the face of obvious judgments (e.g., Ex 7:22-23) as a sign of stupidity. (Even some pagan philosophers pointed out that divine judgments were acts of mercy, to bring the wicked to *repentance, as well as acts of justice; in this view they agreed with the *Old Testament—e.g., Ex 8:10; 9:14, 29; 10:2; 14:4; Amos 4:6-11.) Old Testament prophets and later Jewish writers frequently ridiculed the worship of idols (cf. Rev 2:14, 20) that were less powerful than those who made them (e.g., Ps 135:15-18; Is 46:6-7). That pagans worshiped *demons was also widely accepted in Jewish circles (e.g., 1 Enoch; 1 Cor 10:20). Idolatry and immorality were standard parts of Greco-Roman culture; thieves and sorcerers were, however, considered dangerous by common consent.
10:1. Jewish literature pictures a number of angels as being as high as the highest heavens, often shining like the sun (2 Enoch; *3 Enoch; *rabbis; cf. Dan 10:6; cf. the Greek figure Atlas). Both evil angels (*1 Enoch) and good angels could be very tall. Sometimes they were crowned (e.g., 2 Enoch; 3 Enoch), in this case with a rainbow; in 3 Enoch, even the crown is more than a five-hundred-year journey high. (Sometimes such language was also used figuratively, e.g., for a particular *high priest.) John borrows the imagery of his day for a powerful angel over creation (see comment on Rev 7:1). *Apocalypses typically portrayed such glorious angels to imply the infinitely greater majesty of their creator.
10:2. The seals having been opened (6:1–8:1), the contents of the book may now be examined (“open”). The angel’s enormity and his feet on both land and sea may indicate how great his dominion is.
10:3-4. Something remains sealed (cf. 22:10), indicating that some mysteries must remain mysteries until the end (Deut 29:29). On unspeakable revelations, see comment on 2 Corinthians 12:2-4. The text implies that John is taking notes (as rabbinic or especially Greek students sometimes did) or writing down what he hears and sees; one could write down visions or utterances as others were having them (e.g., *Testament of Job 51, a section admittedly of uncertain date).
10:5-6. Raising one’s hand toward a god was used in solemn oath formulas in Greek culture as well as in the *Old Testament and later Jewish literature. Here John alludes to Daniel 12:7, where an angel lifted his hands toward heaven and swore by the one who lives forever that there would be only three and a half more years until the end; here this angel swears that the time has come, and there is no further delay. (Some apocalyptic texts spoke of countable time itself ending, but the point here seems to be “time before the end,” given Dan 12:7; cf. Rev 2:21; 6:11; 20:3; Hab 2:3.)
10:7. All the Old Testament promises, both of judgment and of restoration, came to a head in the day of the Lord.
This account is based on Ezekiel 2:8–3:3, where a hand is extended to Ezekiel containing a scroll, written on both sides (cf. Rev 5:1) with a message of three kinds of judgment. Ezekiel ate the scroll, which tasted sweet to his mouth but was a message of judgment for Israel.
10:8-10. These verses are based on Ezekiel 2:8–3:3; another contemporary *apocalyptic writer (*4 Ezra) drew more loosely on the same imagery. Sin tasted sweet like honey but was poison because it led to judgment (Prov 5:3-4; cf. Num 5:23-31); but the sweetness here is the word of the Lord (cf. Prov 24:13-14; rabbis), and the bitterness is the bitterness of judgment that John must proclaim. On an angel talking with the visionary, see comment on Revelation 7:13-14.
10:11. Ezekiel’s message from the book (see comment on 10:8-10) was for Israel, but John prophesies to many nations (like Jeremiah; Jer 1:10). The Jewish Sibyl in the *Sibylline Oracles conceived her task as prophesying concerning all nations (cf. Rev 11:2), but this was standard with many *Old Testament prophets, who uttered oracles against the nations, to which John’s are much closer (Is 13–23; Jer 46–51; Ezek 25–32; Amos 1–2).
John uses Old Testament language for prophets (Elijah, Moses) and a *high priest and king (from Zechariah) to describe these witnesses. On a literal futuristic reading, they could refer to the new Moses and Elijah expected in Judaism; conversely, Revelation could have recycled these expectations as symbols for the prophetic calling and joint aspects of the *church, as rulers and priests (Rev 1:6; 5:10), especially since this is the meaning of lampstands elsewhere in the book (1:20).
11:1. Measuring the courts of God’s house (21:15) was one way of praising the magnificence of the building whose construction was meant as praise to God (Ps 48:12-13; Ezek 40:3–42:20; Zech 2:1-5; cf. *Similitudes of Enoch, where paradise is measured). A “reed” (NIV, KJV) could be used as a surveyor’s rule (hence “measuring rod”—NASB, NRSV, GNT).
11:2. The sanctuary had been trodden down before (Is 63:18; 1 Maccabees 3:45; 4:60), and its desolation was portrayed as the typical goal of pagans (Judith 9:8), but here only the outer court is trodden down. Yet the whole temple was destroyed in A.D. 70, and (with most scholars) Revelation was probably written in the 90s. Even the literal treading down of the outer sanctuary had taken place more than forty-two months before John’s time, perhaps implying that the number was symbolic for the whole period from its devastation in some sense until its restoration (see comment on Rev 12:6).
If the heavenly temple is meant (11:19; see comment on 4:6), the outer court would be meant symbolically. Perhaps as at *Qumran, the temple stands for God’s chosen remnant (cf. 21:3). The outer court was the only court *Gentiles were allowed to enter. Although the literal outer court was in ruins like the rest of the temple, the image might refer to some danger such as pagan spiritual domination over the church as Israel’s spiritual remnant (cf. 2:9; 3:9) or over the holy land or Jewish people, or to the lack of a temple; even while the temple stood, many felt that it was spiritually impure (e.g., *Dead Sea Scrolls).
11:3. On the 1,260 days, see comment on 12:6; based on a 360-day year, this was the same as forty-two months or three and a half years (Daniel used all three figures). Sackcloth was proper Old Testament apparel for mourning or *repentance; the two witnesses are apparently lamenting the sins of God’s people (e.g., Joel 1:13; Jon 3:6; *Joseph and Asenath; clothing for prophets in Ascension of Isaiah, etc.). Two witnesses was the minimum number acceptable under Old Testament *law (Deut 17:6; 19:15).
11:4. The source of the image is clear: Zechariah 4:2-3 presented two seven-branched lampstands and two olive trees, which represented the two anointed ones (Zech 4:14): the king and the priest (Zech 6:13). In Zechariah’s day they represented Zerubbabel and Joshua. (Thus *Qumran in some periods in its history stressed two future anointed figures, a messianic king and an anointed priest.) John might connect the image with a kingdom and priests (Rev 1:6; 5:10).
That they “stand” (currently) could indicate, as some (e.g., the second-century North African Christian Tertullian) have suggested, an allusion to Old Testament figures who did not die (cf. also *4 Ezra)—Elijah, Enoch (according to the most common reading of the Old Testament) and Moses (according to some Jewish storytellers, against the plain sense of Deut 34). They could also simply represent the church, whose heavenly representatives are already before God (Rev 4:4; cf. Mt 18:10). The two anointed ones in Zechariah 4:14 “stand” by the Lord of all the earth.
11:5. Elijah seemed to have a spiritual gift for calling down fire from heaven (1 Kings 18:38; 2 Kings 1:10, 12; cf. Lev 9:24–10:2). But what appears to be an allusion to Elijah is slightly modified: the fire comes from their mouths (perhaps symbolic for efficacious proclamations of judgment—Jer 5:10, 14). (Later Jewish texts expand this gift to Joseph, Abraham and others; later *rabbis told stories of earlier pious rabbis, especially Simeon ben Yohai in the second century A.D. and Johanan in the third, who disintegrated disrespectful men by gazing at them spitefully.)
11:6. Elijah had “shut” the sky, bringing drought in obedience to God’s word (1 Kings 17:1; 18:41); according to a probable Jewish tradition, this was for three and a half years (cf. also Jas 5:17; Lk 4:25). Authorization to turn water to blood clearly recalls Moses (Ex 7:14-25). Jewish people were expecting both a new prophet like Moses (Deut 18:15-18) and the return of Elijah (Mal 4:5); in the language of their power, Revelation describes the mission of the two witnesses, possibly the church (see introduction to 11:1-13).
11:7. Developing Old Testament pictures of the end (Zech 14:1-3), Jewish texts commonly expected this age to end with a long, climactic battle, which often included suffering for God’s people but culminated in their ultimate triumph (cf. both sufferings of the final generation and spiritual battle plans in the War Scroll in the Dead Sea Scrolls).
11:8. Throughout the ancient world, refusing to bury the dead (sometimes a punishment for the worst crimes) was the greatest cruelty one could offer (e.g., Is 5:25) and was usually a mark of grave impiety as well. As Paul contrasts the earthly and heavenly Jerusalem (Gal 4:25-26), so Revelation may do here (the place of Jesus’ crucifixion); the Old Testament prophets often compared Jerusalem or Israel with Sodom (e.g., Is 1:9-10; Jer 23:14). As Egypt had oppressed Israel, so Jerusalem’s authorities had oppressed the true followers of God. The association of Jewish authorities with the persecution of the church held true at least in some cities in Asia Minor (Rev 2:9; 3:9); compare this city with Babylon in chapters 17–18. In contrast, some scholars have pointed to the use of the “city” for Rome elsewhere in Revelation, arguing that the city here is Rome, who martyred *Christ in Jerusalem, or the world system as a whole. All of those hostile to the church might be blended together as the world city. (When used figuratively, “the prostitute” [Rev 17] in the Old Testament was almost always used for Israel or Judah betraying their covenant with God; Revelation reapplies the title to Rome.)
11:9. “Three and a half days” may be mentioned to signify that the dead bodies of the two witnesses were decomposing; it might also correspond to the three and a half years of their prophesying.
11:10. For “earth-dwellers” see comment on 3:10. The giving of gifts characterized some pagan celebrations and (probably not in view here) the Jewish Feast of Purim, which celebrated Israel’s deliverance from Persian enemies (Esther 9:19, 22).
11:11. The breath of life entering the two corpses alludes to Genesis 2:7 and perhaps Ezekiel 37 (cf. Jn 20:22; Testament of Abraham, recension A).
11:12. Elijah ascended to heaven in a chariot of fire (2 Kings 2:11), and as time went on, Jewish tradition multiplied the number of holy servants of God taken directly to heaven without death. Greek traditions pictured a very small number of heroes taken to heaven in death. But ascension after *resurrection refers in other Christian texts to Jesus (Acts 1:9-11) and the church (1 Thess 4:15-16).
11:13. If “seven thousand” is understood as one-tenth of the population, the description fits Jerusalem better than Rome (the latter is estimated to have had a population as high as one million, though some think this inflated). (Some commentators see it as a specific reference to the remnant of Israel—1 Kings 19:18. Mercifully, here the surviving remnant is nine-tenths rather than one-tenth as in Is 6:13.) On a final earthquake, see Revelation 6:12.
11:14. See comment on 8:13; cf. 9:12.
11:15. The world system (in John’s day, Rome) constituted a *kingdom, but it would be handed over to God’s people (Dan 7:17-18). On the eternal reign of Israel’s final king, cf. Isaiah 9:7, Daniel 7:13-14 and 1 Maccabees 2:57. Trumpets were always blown on the accession of an Israelite king (1 Kings 1:34).
11:16. See comment on 4:4 and 10.
11:17. Although Judaism acknowledged God’s present rule over the earth, it also awaited and celebrated his future rule unchallenged over all humanity, and it usually acknowledged Israel’s rule over the nations on his behalf. In Jewish sources, this rule would be inaugurated at the very end of the age.
11:18. The raging of the nations, God’s wrath and the rule of Christ over the nations echoes Psalm 2. Judaism held that the righteous were rewarded at the end of the age (or at death). Destroyers of earth could evoke humanity’s abuse of its stewardship over the earth (Gen 1:26). This idea was not unknown in John’s day (e.g., *2 Baruch 13:11, although the unrighteous use of creation there may refer specifically to idolatry); many Jewish writers also believed that humanity’s sin had corrupted the whole creation (e.g., *4 Ezra). Most relevantly, however, “destroying the earth” alludes to Babylon’s conquests devastating the world (Jer 51:25).
11:19. The ark of the covenant (see comment on 23:17) was the piece of furniture in the tabernacle and temple that corresponded to a throne in ancient Near Eastern symbolism; the inclusion of the ark thus fits the dual image of heaven as a throne room and as God’s temple. Jewish hearers of the book would also be aware that the covenant had been deposited in the ark and that the covenant was associated with stipulations and curses (plagues) against the disobedient. The Dead Sea Scrolls and many *apocalyptic writers felt that the old temple had been defiled, but that God would supply a renewed, pure temple at the end of the age; on the heavenly temple here, see 4:6. The ark was kept behind a curtain in the holy of holies in the *Old Testament, seen only by the *high priest one day a year; here it is exposed to open view. (One scholar has suggested that this verse evokes the image of the ark going forth to war, portrayed in terms Roman readers would readily catch: the numen of the state going forth from the temple of Janus for war, thus the opening of heaven here.) On the lightnings and related phenomena, see comment on 4:5; this exodus language (Ex 19:16; cf. Ezek 1:4) suggests that John’s revelation is understood as a revelation on the same level as Moses’.
This vision reapplies imagery that was widely known in ancient mythology. A common Greek story, spread in several forms, presented Leto begetting the god Apollo while opposed by the dragon Python; Apollo then pursued the dragon Python and slew him. In an Egyptian story, the goddess Isis gave birth to the sun god Horus as the red dragon Typhon was pursuing her; Horus eventually killed Typhon. Some argue that people also applied such popular stories to the Roman emperor, whose rule is here linked with the evil dragon (in contrast with Roman tradition, which portrayed him in terms of the hero Apollo). Although these stories omit many details John includes from other sources (his whole account could be reproduced from the *Old Testament and Jewish sources), they indicate that all his readers could identify with a story line that modern readers often find impenetrable. But ancient readers familiar with the Bible would especially recognize here the story of Israel giving birth and *Satan’s opposition to God’s people.
12:1. Symbolic women occasionally appeared in *apocalyptic visions (e.g., *4 Ezra). Ancient writers sometimes meant “signs” in heaven astrologically (consider Virgo, the virgin, and Draco, the dragon or serpent), but these signs were also fairly common as props in apocalyptic visions. The sun, moon and twelve stars help identify the woman as the twelve tribes of Israel (Gen 37:9). Judaism in this period (e.g., *Josephus, *Philo; later evident in *synagogue mosaics and the *rabbis) often associated the twelve signs of the zodiac with the twelve tribes, despite biblical prohibitions against astrological speculation; indeed, the romance novel *Joseph and Asenath borrows twelve rays from typical Greek imagery for the sun god. But the Genesis reference itself is clear enough to show that the allusion is to Israel (cf. also Abraham and Sarah as sun and moon to Isaac in the Testament of Abraham).
The Old Testament portrayed faithful Israel (or Judah or Jerusalem) as a virgin or God’s bride but their unfaithful equivalent as a prostitute; thus the tale of two cities that contrasts the heavenly Jerusalem (Rev 21:2) and Babylon the prostitute (17:5). (*2 Baruch and 4 Ezra also follow Old Testament models and contrast righteous Zion with its oppressor wicked Babylon.)
12:2. Righteous Israel was portrayed as the mother of the restored future remnant of Israel (Is 54:1; 66:7-10; Mic 5:3; cf. Is 7:14; 9:6; 26:18-19), an image freely mixed with the image of Israel as a bride (Is 62:5). The *Dead Sea Scrolls also spoke of the righteous remnant of Israel travailing to give birth (either to a saved Israel—cf. Rev 12:17—or to the *Messiah; the precise referent is disputed). Cf. John 16:21.
12:3. Ancient Mesopotamian myths portrayed seven-headed monsters; later Jewish tradition linked the worship of dragons to Babylon (Bel and the Dragon 23-27). The image of a seven-headed serpent or dragon was also part of Canaanite mythology that the Israelites symbolically turned to better purposes: God’s parting the Red Sea was now symbolized as a defeat of the primeval serpent Leviathan or Lotan (Ps 74:13-15; cf. also Ps 89:9-10; Is 27:1; 30:7; 51:9; Job 9:13; 26:12-13; Ezek 29:3; for the principle, see Ex 12:12; Rahab in some of these texts had become a symbol for Egypt—Ps 87:4); this may be the most relevant background here. The Greek hero Heracles also confronted a seven-headed dragon, the Lernean hydra, in Greek mythology, although in that case the number of heads changed quickly! Serpents were also associated with Asclepius (relevant esp. in Pergamum); their association with Athena is less relevant in Asia Minor. Serpent veneration is common in many cultures and prevailed in a *Gnostic sect called the Ophites in the second century.
Jewish people had many stories about the great evil reptile Leviathan, that he would even be killed and served up as part of the course at the messianic banquet (cf. 2 Baruch and later rabbis). Here the dragon is identified with the serpent of Genesis 3 and the devil (Rev 12:9).
12:4. The image of stars battling in heaven was used in the Old Testament (Judg 5:20, figurative language for the heavens pouring out rain against the enemy), the *Sibylline Oracles (catching the world on fire) and some Greek sources. Old Testament texts and later Jewish texts portrayed both Israel or the godly (Dan 12:3; cf. 8:10) and angels (*1 Enoch; probably also Is 24:21 and 2 Baruch) as stars. Jewish traditions usually assigned the fall of angels to the period of Adam (refusal to worship God’s image in Adam) or, more often, to Noah’s time (sexual sins), but Revelation links their fall especially with rebellion against Christ.
12:5. Virgil and other Roman writers also extolled the birth of a divine boy who would bring deliverance to the world, glorifying the first emperor Augustus. If the emperor appears in Revelation, however, he is a puppet of the dragon, whereas Jesus is the divine leader of a group that may be marginalized or persecuted for rejecting the imperial cult.
In the various forms of the Greco-Roman and Near Eastern myth, the divine child was sheltered until he returned to slay the dragon. Here he is kept at God’s throne until he comes to destroy the dragon. In the light of Psalm 2:6-9, Isaiah 9:6-7 and Micah 5:3, the “birth” probably indicates Jesus’ death, *resurrection and messianic enthronement, not his literal birth (cf. Jn 16:21).
12:6. When God led his people from captivity, they wandered in the “wilderness” until their redemption was complete (i.e., until they possessed their inheritance in the Promised Land). As elsewhere in the *New Testament (see comment on Jn 1:23), the interim between Jesus’ first coming and second coming is compared with Israel between Egypt and the Promised Land. The Jewish people were also expecting a new exodus of final deliverance in the wilderness (cf. Is 40:3; Hos 2:14-15).
More than 1,260 days had obviously already passed since Jesus’ exaltation (see also comment on 11:2), but symbolic numbers were standard fare for apocalyptic texts. Although “1,260 days” surely alludes to the great tribulation of Daniel (cf. Dan 12:11; also 7:25; 9:27; 12:7), it is possible that Revelation reapplies it as a general symbol for final tribulation to the whole course of the present age. Daniel’s own numbers were a reapplication of Jeremiah (Dan 9:2, 24), and some other apocalyptic writers also described other periods of tribulation figuratively. Such designations would characterize the kind, rather than the length, of time they described. This would fit the New Testament understanding that the “last days” involved the time between the Messiah’s comings (see, in context, Acts 2:17; 1 Tim 4:1; 2 Tim 3:1; Heb 1:2; 2 Pet 3:3); Jesus coming twice required adjusting traditional Jewish expectations about the end.
(The language of older prophecies was commonly reused in Old Testament, later Jewish and Greek *prophecy; sometimes prophecies and other texts sought to evoke the same meaning as the earlier texts, and at other times they simply borrowed earlier language as standard prophetic imagery, without implying that they referred to the same meaning. As to what happened to the literal 1,260 days, Josephus and possibly the Gospels applied them to A.D. 66–70, the Maccabean literature applied them especially to the time of Antiochus Epiphanes, and many early Christians probably expected a literal period of that length to precede Christ’s return, as became explicit in writings of some of the church fathers of subsequent centuries.)
One may read the structure of the context as suggesting that the 1,260 days of 12:6 symbolically covers the whole period between the first and second comings. The period begins with Jesus’ exaltation (12:1-6), the coming of salvation (12:10) and believers’ justification (no longer prosecuted before God, 12:11). It spans the period of persecution of Christians (12:11-17), and, given the story line Revelation uses (familiar to the first readers), undoubtedly ends with Christ’s return to slay the dragon (see comment on 12:1-6).
12:7-8. One of two angels mentioned by name in the *Old Testament, Michael was one of the chief heavenly princes, the guardian angel of Israel (Dan 10:13, 21; 12:1; in much ancient Jewish thought, each nation had its own angelic prince). In early Jewish literature and invocations, Michael was the chief prince of the heavenly host, God’s main messenger (cf. Jude 9); in the Dead Sea Scrolls, everyone was either in the camp of the Prince of Light or that of the Angel of Darkness. Common mythical language from Jewish stories about a primeval, heavenly battle leading to the fall of the evil prince and his angels is here transformed: the ultimate battle surrounded Jesus’ death and exaltation (Jn 12:31; 16:11). Because Michael was sometimes presented as Israel’s advocate before God, and Satan was generally presented as Israel’s accuser (see 12:10), the image of war here may be one of judicial as well as of violent conflict.
12:9. The dragon is identified with the serpent of Genesis 3, who would be crushed by “the woman’s seed” (Gen 3:15).
12:10. From his portrayal in the book of Job on, Satan is presented as an accuser of the righteous, a prosecuting attorney before God’s court. In later texts, his role of tempter (gaining incriminating evidence) became more prominent, but he always retained his role as accuser; later rabbinic texts declared that he accused Israel day and night before God, except on the Day of Atonement. (They derived this idea fancifully: the number of Satan’s name was 364, so he accused Israel 364 days per year.) This verse declares that Christ’s finished work has ended Satan’s power to accuse the righteous (cf. Rom 8:33-34).
12:11. The believers’ legal “testimony” (offered in this world) counts more before the throne than Satan’s accusations, and the object of their testimony is the finished work of *Christ on their behalf (1:2, 5, 9; 2:13). “Loving not one’s life to the death” was the language of valor in battle (Judg 5:18), as was “overcoming”; they fought and won by faith to the point of martyrdom.
12:12. In many Jewish views of the end time, Satan/Belial would be unleashed against God’s people in the final years (Dead Sea Scrolls). His authority was always delegated by God, permitted for only a particular length of time, to give him and his followers full opportunity to prove themselves wrong.
12:13-14. When God led his people forth from Egypt and into the wilderness, he “bore them on eagles’ wings” (Ex 19:4; Deut 32:11), and other Old Testament texts speak of God sheltering his people beneath his wings (Ps 17:8; 36:7; 57:1; 61:4; 63:7; 91:4; cf. Jer 49:22); later Jewish texts speak of God’s protecting his people, including converts to Judaism, under “the wings of his presence.” “Time, times, and half a time” refer to three and a half years, as in Daniel (7:25; 12:7; cf. 4:32). The miraculous provision in the wilderness also recalls God’s provision of manna for Israel of old there. The Old Testament prophets and Judaism looked forward to a new exodus like the first one in which God would ultimately deliver his people from all their oppressors; the early Christians applied this notion to their salvation by Christ’s first coming and entrance into the future era of the *kingdom by his second (see comment on Rom 8:12-17).
12:15. In the most common form of the Greek story about Leto and Apollo (see introduction to 12:1-6), the sea god hid Leto beneath the sea till she could bear the child; in another version of the story, the dragon stirred the waters against her but the earth helped her by raising up the island of Delos. Revelation may reapply such images with new content. “Floods” are a typical image of judgment (e.g., Jer 47:2—war) and tribulation (Ps 32:6; 69:15) in the Old Testament, but God had promised safety for the people of the new exodus, just as he had brought Israel through the Red Sea (Is 43:2).
12:16. In Jewish tradition, creation, loyal to God, sometimes helped the righteous against their wicked human oppressors; thus, for example, a tree hid Isaiah from his pursuers, and the earth swallowed and so hid the vessels of the temple; in the Old Testament, cf. Genesis 4:10 and Numbers 16:31-32.
12:17. The woman’s “seed” alludes to Genesis 3:15; the woman’s seed would ultimately crush the serpent’s head, but only after the serpent had bruised the seed’s heel.
Whereas most of Revelation (including this passage; see Dan 7:3-8) draws on images from the *Old Testament, many scholars believe that this passage also plays on a theme prominent in the thought of John’s contemporaries. Although Nero died, reportedly by his own hand, on June 9, A.D. 68, rumor circulated that he was still alive and ready to take vengeance on the Roman aristocracy for rejecting him. According to writers of the day, the majority of people in the eastern part of the empire expected his return. Several impostors arose claiming to be Nero, hoping to gather followings in the eastern empire, where he was most popular; one of them arose in Asia Minor during the reign of Titus (Domitian’s older brother). During Domitian’s reign, a Nero figure even persuaded the Parthians to follow him to invade the Roman Empire, but Domitian forced them to back down and execute the impostor instead.
Jewish oracles predicted the return of Nero, and many Christians feared it. Although John clearly does not believe in a literal return of Nero, he may use the image of this popular myth, as many scholars think, to say: “You thought Nero was bad; wait till you see this!” (the way we today might use the image of Hitler, Stalin or Pol Pot). This image so shaped the views of early Christians—thousands of whose numbers had been eradicated under Nero in Rome—that “Nero” even reportedly became a term for “antichrist” in the Armenian language. Many later Christian writers, including Tertullian, Augustine and Jerome, connected Nero with the antichrist. The view that John here uses this Nero redivivus myth has continued through history and is widely held by modern scholars, such as F. F. Bruce, William Barclay and most commentators on Revelation. Politically dangerous oracles were known forms of Greek and Jewish protest, and Rome would have taken serious offense at the implications of this exiled prophet John had the authorities cared to take note of the symbolism of his book. See further comment on the number of the beast in 13:18 and the return of a king in 17:9-11. None of this means that Revelation or its early interpreters expected literal Nero to rise from the dead; emperors often claimed to be a second or new “Augustus” or some other emperor before them, and a new Nero need be no more literally the same person as his model than a new Moses or Elijah (Rev 11:5-6) or new Joshua or Zerubbabel (11:4) would need to be the same people as their models.
13:1. Rome came “from the sea” from the vantage point of the eastern empire, although the image itself is borrowed from Daniel 7:3. (*4 Ezra 11:1 likewise has a symbol for Rome—an eagle with twelve wings and three heads—come from the sea, although in 13:1 a messianic figure does the same.)
Emperors bore titles such as “divine” (“god,” on Asian coins) and “son of a god” (i.e., of the preceding ruler), and Domitian demanded the address “Lord and God,” thus “blasphemous names” here (see comment on Rev 13:5-6 for Old Testament background). On seven-headed beasts, see comment on 12:3; on the heads, see comment on 17:9-10.
13:2. Daniel described four beasts, representing four successive empires (7:3-7); the fourth, probably the Greek empire of Alexander, was in John’s day often interpreted to represent Rome instead. This passage uses components from several of Daniel’s beasts (which were a winged lion, a bear, a winged leopard and a beast with iron teeth) to portray a composite of oppressive evil, evoking the worst feelings his hearers would have toward Rome and all oppressive political powers.
13:3. Much of the passage can be explained by the beast’s imitating God as a false god, hence the pseudoresurrection here. But many commentators have also seen reference here to the myth that Nero, who apparently died in A.D. 68, was alive and would return (according to some forms of the story, Nero was dead but would return from the dead; see introduction to 13:1-10).
13:4. The praise here offered to the beast mimics a praise often offered to God (Ex 15:11; cf. Judith 6:2-3; Sirach 33:5, 10).
13:5-6. The proud mouth is the sort of imagery that later fed into the antichrist traditions (originally built around Antiochus Epiphanes and those after him who would be like him—Dan 7:8, 20, 25; 11:36; 1 Maccabees 1:24). On the forty-two months, see comment on Revelation 11:2-3; 12:6. The identifying of the tabernacle with the righteous heaven-dwellers matches the *Essene and early Christian picture of the righteous community as God’s holy temple.
13:7. In Daniel 7:21-22, an antichristlike figure (applied first to Antiochus IV Epiphanes but necessarily reapplied to his successors in the role, with which history is replete) waged war against the *saints (“holy ones,” God’s people—7:18, 25; 8:24) and “overcame” them—until the day of judgment and the *kingdom arrived. Nero burned Christians alive to light his imperial gardens at night, crucified others and fed still others to wild beasts; they were his political scapegoat for a fire in Rome for which he and his boyfriend Tigellinus were being blamed. Domitian does not seem to have instituted an empirewide policy of repressing Christians, but some later emperors did so. Daniel spoke of all peoples, nations and languages (also mentioned in Dan 4:1; 6:25), including under oppressive rulers and worshiping a false image (Dan 3:4, 7; 5:19); as in Revelation, the oppressive human multicultural empire contrasts with God’s own multicultural kingdom (7:14). (Although Daniel’s formula usually includes three elements, the *LXX includes four elements, as in Revelation, the first time the formula appears in Daniel at 3:4.)
13:8. Antiochus Epiphanes, one of the earliest candidates for an antichrist sort of figure (second century B.C.), had brought all the nations (in his part of the world) under his authority as one people (1 Maccabees 1:41-43) and demanded the worship normally considered due rulers in the East. The Romans had likewise united much of the ancient world, and most of the ruler-worshiping eastern empire now worshiped the emperor. “All the earth” was used in other texts of John’s time to mean all the “civilized” earth, all that was under a mighty empire (e.g., Judith 2:7; 6:4; 11:1; although everyone was aware, from legend, mythology and trade connections, of peoples outside the sphere of Rome, Parthia and the northern barbarians). This verse indicates the Jewish doctrine of predestination, which many Jewish people held alongside the doctrine of free will (many of the early writers never saw enough tension between God’s sovereignty and human responsibility to contrast them, although the idea of God’s foreknowledge may have helped; see comment on Rom 9:19-21). On the “book of life” (cf. Dan 12:1), see comment on Philippians 4:3.
13:9. See comment on 2:7.
13:10. The language is from Jeremiah 15:2 and 43:11, where God promises to exterminate most of the Israelites by various means and to enslave the others in captivity; but the judgment here is against all nations who have rebelled against God. This judgment would encourage the martyred *saints concerning their vindication (Rev 14:11-12).
Although most of the details of 13:1-10 could apply to the emperor of John’s day, and via him to totalitarian regimes throughout history, some of the details of 13:11-18 could suggest that John consciously anticipates its ultimate fulfillment in an emperor yet to come (17:11).
13:11-12. Although the evidence is limited, some think that the beast “from the earth,” as opposed to “from the sea” (13:1), represents the local provincial council who supervised the imperial cult in Asia, as opposed to the Roman administration. It was called the commune Asiae, headed by the Asiarchs from local towns (see comment on Acts 19:31). John may not imply any great difference between earth and sea (cf. Dan 7:3, 17). The “horned lamb” probably parodies *Christ (Rev 5:6); the two horns might reflect the power of ancient Persia in Daniel 8:6. Fire from heaven parodies and so apparently relativizes the miraculous power of God’s witnesses (Rev 11:5), as Pharaoh’s magicians tried to do with Moses’ miracles as long as they could (Ex 7:11, 22; 8:7, 18; cf. 2 Kings 18:33-35).
13:13. Although the ancient Mediterranean world was full of self-proclaimed wonderworkers (some of whom were friends of emperors), and a few wonders had been attributed to Domitian’s father (the emperor Vespasian), such wonders were not regularly associated with the imperial cult. Although some people did pray to Caesar for help (e.g., Lucius in Apuleilus’s story of the ass and his transformation), most of the miracle reports are associated with temples like those of the healing deity Asclepius. (It is reported that some emperors in Roman history staged fake thunder or fire, but this was neither common nor central to the emperor’s activity.) John apparently envisions a future blending of anti-Christian state religion and occult power, both of which existed mostly separately in his own day. His source for this view is undoubtedly Jesus (Mt 24:24; 2 Thess 2:9), and he has *Old Testament precedent for the occult powers in the service of an anti-God ruler repressing God’s people (Ex 7:11, 22).
(As crosscultural studies of shamanism and spirit possession become more available, the once-popular tendency of commentators to rationalize away ancient reports of miracles, whether Christian or otherwise, will probably continue to diminish, although not all the reports, ancient or modern, are of equal value. Christianity has traditionally recognized the reality of other superhuman forces in the universe besides God—e.g., 1 Cor 10:20.)
13:14-15. Some magicians simulated the moving and speaking of idols (the skeptical *rhetorician *Lucian describes in detail the purported methods of a false prophet named Alexander). Hearing the extent to which the world can be deceived by false religion and state propaganda would evoke familiar discomfort in John’s first Christian readers (cf. Deut 13:1-2). The demand to worship the image, which to the authorities symbolized appropriate loyalty to the state but to the Christians would symbolize apostasy, resembled the situation the Maccabean martyrs had faced (cf. 1 Maccabees 1:50-51) and especially the conflicts faced by Daniel’s three friends (Dan 3:12-18; cf. 6:7).
13:16-17. A Greco-Egyptian king had similarly required Jews to be branded with the ivy leaf, the emblem of Dionysus (*3 Maccabees 2:28-29); this is likewise a mark of ownership, a brand or tattoo indicating to which god or empire one belongs. The term for “mark” is, among other things, the regular term for the imperial stamp on documents and of the image of his head on coins.
Like the other markings in Revelation, this one might be symbolic (see comment on 3:12; 7:3; cf. 14:1; 17:5; 19:12; 22:4); some Jewish texts speak of a symbolic mark of destruction on the forehead of the wicked (*Psalms of Solomon 15:9) in contrast to the mark of the righteous (15:6). Some interpreters have nevertheless seen a tangible expression of allegiance to the world system; in at least the last two major imperial persecutions of Christians, both in the third century, certificates were issued to those who had fulfilled the mandated rite of emperor worship. But the text may simply imply a figurative slave brand identifying to whom a person belongs—God or the world. Participation in idolatry on at least some level appeared to be almost an economic necessity in many cities in Asia Minor (see comment on 2:18-29), and John warns that commercial discrimination would grow more severe, alongside the graver danger of martyrdom.
13:18. This verse is a typically cryptic *apocalyptic riddle (cf. Mt 24:15). Six hundred sixty-six is a doubly triangular number, which is very rare; though most ancient readers would not know that, some may have taken note of it, given *Pythagorean and other interest in special numbers. It has also been thought a parody on the divine number, seven, given Revelation’s use of seven and given other demonic parodies of the divine in Revelation. Scholars more often turn to another explanation. “Counting a name” or word was an easy practice in Greek and Hebrew, which used letters as specific numbers (later Jewish teachers often played with the numerical values of words; this form of calculation was known as gematria). Many ingenious proposals have been made for the meaning of “666”; Irenaeus, a second-century Christian scholar, listed among the possibilities “Lateinos” (Rome as the final kingdom). Although the term may be transliterated into Hebrew letters more than one way, therion, “beast,” can be spelled in Hebrew so as to come out to “666.” This may be more than coincidence (though one might wonder why Revelation would treat the literal number of “beast” as a riddle). One might also transliterate theriou, “of the beast,” as “616,” a textual variant in Revelation 13:18. (The variant, however, loses the potential connection with the number seven or triangular numbers.)
But one of the most popular proposals among scholars is “Nero Caesar.” Although his name comes out to 1,005 in Greek (which would have been obvious, because a familiar wordplay on that number of his name had circulated throughout the empire’s graffiti), his name comes out to “666” if transliterated into Hebrew. If John intends an allusion to Nero here (see comment on 13:1-10), either he expects his readers to know to switch to Hebrew letters (probably with the help of more skilled members of the congregation), or he and they had already used “666” in this manner. Some ancient Christian sources do indeed suggest that this interpretation was already known. The other possible spelling comes out to 616—which is a textual variant for Rev 13:18, as if *scribes knew the answer to the riddle but calculated the spelling differently. (This calculation requires using the Greek pronunciation Neron-Kaisar in Hebrew letters, with appropriate Hebrew numerical values: N = 50, r = 200, n = 6, K = 100, s = 60, r = 200. Hebrew used only consonants. The *Sibylline Oracles, a Jewish document composed in Greek, does its gematria in Greek, not Hebrew; most of its readers would have been able to read only the former, being unable even to transliterate a name into proper Hebrew letters. Jewish scholars who used Hebrew incorporated many Greek loanwords, but John’s readers would need either some help or prior knowledge to discern his point.) If this is the correct explanation, or part of it, it helps explain the image of the deceased ruler returning in 17:9-11.
14:1. “And I looked, and behold” indicates another vision (Ezek 10:1; 44:4; Dan 10:5). Mount Zion was the Temple Mount (sometimes loosely encompassing all Jerusalem), thus applied to the heavenly temple in the present (Rev 11:19) but pointing to the new Jerusalem of the future (21:2), a hope shared by nearly all ancient Jews, who longed for the restoration of their city and its sanctuary. Mount Zion thus figures prominently in *apocalyptic expectations (it appears by that title in *4 Ezra and *2 Baruch). Ancient *rhetoric often contrasted persons, but more relevantly here apocalyptic often contrasted the righteous and the wicked; the name on their foreheads contrasts with Revelation 13:16 (cf. 3:12; 7:3; 22:4). The association of the 144,000 with Zion here may represent their role as New Jerusalemites; on their possible identity, see comment on 7:4-8.
14:2. Ezekiel heard the sound of many waters in heaven (Ezek 1:24; 43:2; cf. Rev 1:15), and thunder was heard at Sinai (Ex 19:16; cf. Ezek 1:4, 13; Rev 4:5; 19:6). Ancient meteorology, as reflected in *1 Enoch, placed waters (for rain) and thunders in the heavens. Harps had been used by priests and Levites in the worship of the earthly temple; it was natural to expect them in heaven’s temple (Rev 5:8; 15:2).
14:3. Only these people could offer the song because it involved only them (5:9-10); on secret revelations in the heavens, see comment on 2 Corinthians 12:2-4. If Revelation portrays them as a spiritual army that has overcome (see comment on Rev 14:4), it may be relevant that warriors celebrated victory (see fuller comment at 15:3-4).
14:4. The Greek term translated “virgin” here is hardly ever applied to men in Greek literature (perhaps partly because men in ancient Greek culture rarely were), but it means never having had sex with someone of the opposite gender, and hence includes not being married. In a literal sense, this virginity was practiced most often among a Jewish group known as the *Essenes. But the image here may here allude symbolically to the purity of priests for the temple service (Lev 15:16-18) or to the purity required by the rules of a spiritual holy war (Deut 23:9-11; 1 Sam 21:5; 2 Sam 11:11; *Qumran War Scroll). The latter suggestion would fit the possible military census that some commentators find in Revelation 7:4-8. Given the link to Zion (14:1), their chastity may also be a male version of that of the image of the New Jerusalem as a bride in contrast to Babylon the prostitute. “Firstfruits” were the beginning of harvest, offered up to God; the term declares their holiness as sacrifices devoted to God (Ex 23:19; 34:26; Lev 2:12; 23:10; Num 28:26; Neh 10:35; Jer 2:3) or perhaps that others like them would come after them.
14:5. The promised end-time remnant would have no lie in their mouths (Zeph 3:13). Truthtelling was important in ancient ethics, although it could be suspended even in the Bible to save life (e.g., Ex 1:19-20; Jer 38:25-27).
14:6-7. On “midheaven” see comment on 8:13. The angel’s “good news” is the vindication of God’s people by judgment on the wicked (14:7; cf. Nahum 1:15). Because the activity of angels in heaven often corresponds to what happens on earth, however (12:7), some commentators have suggested that this picture may refer to the final proclamation of the good news of the *kingdom (including both salvation and vindication/judgment) preceding the end (cf. Mt 24:14).
14:8. In a taunting mockery of a dirge, Isaiah 21:9 announces, “Fallen, fallen is Babylon” (cf. Jer 51:8), referring to the historical Babylon that would later drag Judah off into captivity. But Jewish writers of John’s day saw commonalities among all the empires that subjugated Israel, generally believing that Rome was the final such power (cf. Dan 2:35, 44). “Babylon” and its synonym, “the Chaldeans,” were used as ciphers for Rome in Jewish texts such as the *Dead Sea Scrolls, *4 Ezra and the later *rabbis (although the rabbis use “Edom” more frequently). The *Old Testament normally reserved the symbolic use of “prostitute” for the sins of God’s people (with only two exceptions), but the allusion here is to Babylon in Jeremiah 51:7, who made all the nations drunk with its wine (i.e., Babylon was God’s judgment on them).
14:9-10. In the Old Testament, God passed around a cup of intoxicating wrath to all the nations (cf. Ps 75:8; Is 51:17, 21-22; 63:6; Jer 25:15; 49:12; Ezek 23:31; Hab 2:16; Zech 12:2; also the Dead Sea Scrolls; for infidelity, cf. Num 5:24). Fire and brimstone were appropriate for a spiritual Sodom (Rev 11:8; Gen 19:24), although the image may be broader than that (e.g., Ezek 38:22). (This text need not imply that they cannot repent if they do so before death or the world’s end—Rev 2:21; 11:10-13.) As often in apocalyptic literature, the wicked get to see what they missed (cf. also Ps 112:10); but Revelation omits a common apocalyptic feature, in which the righteous also get to see and gloat over the fate of the damned (e.g., 1 Enoch 108:14-15).
14:11. The eternal smoking of Edom (night and day; contrast 4:8; 12:10) is described in similar terms in Isaiah 34:10, but there the meaning is desolation, whereas here it is eternal burning and torment. On the alternate views of judgment in ancient Judaism, of which the present view appears among the harshest, see comment on Matthew 3:12 or “*Gehenna” in the glossary.
14:12. Many comfortable people today (understandably influenced in part by historical misapplications of biblical ideals of mercy) dislike the idea of judgment. But salvation/deliverance in the Old Testament picture was not complete without vindication—removing the shame of the oppressed by punishing their unrepentant oppressors. The martyrs are here assured that they will be vindicated to the utmost (cf. 13:10).
14:13. Jewish texts spoke longingly of the day when the sufferings of the righteous would end. Greco-Roman letters of consolation stressed either that the dead were happy or that they were at least not sad, but Judaism especially stressed the peace of the righteous dead. The writer of 1 Enoch noted that the wicked would have no rest (99:13-14; cf. Rev 14:11), but the righteous dead would have great rewards (1 Enoch 103:3), and the idea of rest for the righteous dead occurs throughout Jewish texts (Syriac Menander, Wisdom of Solomon). Jewish funerary inscriptions regularly mentioned peace for the dead; over half the Jewish epitaphs recovered in Rome included the words “in peace” (hence “rest in peace” is not only a modern concept). The image of reward for works is from the Old Testament and is common in Judaism and in the *New Testament (see comment on Rev 22:12).
14:14-16. Commentators debate whether “one like a son of man” here refers to Jesus (1:13; Dan 7:13), or simply means that this figure appeared human, in contrast to some of the other angelic figures in the book (Rev 4:7; *Christ would not need to take orders—14:15-16). The harvest is also an image of judgment against Babylon in the *Old Testament (Jer 51:33); it is specifically appropriate for the final battle when blood would flow, as Joel 3:13 noted: “Put in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe. Come, tread, for the wine press is full” (NASB).
14:17-19. Because crushed grapes could look like human blood (Gen 49:11), this image, playing on Joel 3:13 (cf. also Jer 25:30), was powerful for ancients, who were more familiar with viticulture than most modern peoples are (contrast Christ and his people as a vine in Jn 15:1). This harvest image is particularly from Isaiah 63:1-6: God goes on to tread the winepress of his fury and tramples the nations, splattering his garments with their lifeblood. For angels over various elements of nature (including fire), see comment on Revelation 7:1.
14:20. Ancient reports of urban battles sometimes refer to streets flowing with blood due to the massive slaughter that occurred in a short span of time. For example, exaggerating the massacre at Bethar, the rabbis declared that rivers of blood flowed from the city to the distant sea, rolling boulders from their place and submerging horses. Likewise, *1 Enoch reported God judging people by letting them slay one another till blood flowed in streams (100:1-2), so that horses walked up to their chests in it and chariots were submerged (100:3); cf. similarly other oracles of the end time (*Sibylline Oracles, several times).
The literal number here, “1,600 stadia” (NIV), which is about 200 miles (NASB, NRSV, GNT), is a square number (40 x 40), probably used roundly for a large quantity (although some also report that some ancients estimated the length of Palestine to about 1,600 stadia). The wine of God’s wrath (14:10, 19) turns out to be human blood here, which is drunk in 16:6; other texts also speak of being drunk with blood (e.g., Judith 6:4).
15:1. Ancient texts sometimes began and ended on the same point, thus bracketing it off (this design is called an inclusio). The heavenly perspective on the judgments on earth is bracketed by 15:1 and 8.
15:2. The *saints celebrate their vindication in 15:2-4. Jewish texts often spoke of rivers of fire proceeding from God’s throne, based on Daniel 7:9-10; this image is mingled here with the imagery of the heavenly temple (on the “sea,” see comment on Rev 4:6), in contrast to the lake of fire. Their triumph over their oppressor may also suggest another connotation of the “sea”: like Israel delivered from the Egyptians, who were slain in the Red Sea, they offer God praise (15:3-4).
15:3-4. The “great and wonderful” (GNT) works refer to the plagues (15:1; cf. Ex 15:11). The “song of Moses” could refer to Deuteronomy 32 (especially to the part where God avenges the blood of his servants—32:34-43), which was used alongside psalms in Jewish worship. But in this context Moses’ song almost surely refers to his song of triumph and praise after his people came safely across the sea, where their enemies were drowned (Ex 15:1-18). “Song of the lamb” recalls redemption from the final plague (Rev 5:6).
The language here recalls psalms, especially Psalm 86:9-10; the *Old Testament often proclaimed the hope of the remnant of the nations turning to God. “King of the ages” (the variant reading) or “of the world” was a common Jewish title for God. God would be universally and solely worshiped as king in the final day of judgment (cf. Zech 14:9).
15:5. On the heavenly tabernacle/temple, see comment on 4:6 and Hebrews 8:1-5.
15:6. Ancient Jewish literature often viewed angels as wearing white linen, but such texts also described priests in this manner, and John portrays these angels as servants of the heavenly temple.
15:7. The image of the golden bowls is probably derived from the use of such incense bowls in the temple before its destruction several decades before; cf. 5:8 and 8:3. On the cup of wrath, see comment on 14:9-10.
15:8. The temple filling with glory recalls the dedications of the earthly temple in earlier times (Ex 40:34-35; 1 Kings 8:10-11; cf. Ezek 10:3-4 for its withdrawal).
16:1. The *Old Testament commonly used the phrase “pour out wrath” (especially throughout Jeremiah and Ezekiel); the image of the cup may be related to this idea.
Like the trumpet plagues, the imagery for most of these judgments is especially borrowed from the judgments on Egypt in the Old Testament book of Exodus, reminding John’s hearers that they, like Israel of old, were protected from these judgments that would eventuate in the capitulation of their oppressors and their own deliverance.
16:2. Sores were the sixth plague in Exodus 9:10.
16:3. This plague was the first in Exodus 7:20 (the second plague in the listing in Rev 8:8).
16:4. This judgment also extends the first plague (Ex 7:20; cf. comment on the third plague in Rev 8:10).
16:5. The oppressed often cried to God to vindicate them; and when vindicated, they praised God for his justice (often in psalms; the language was also used for his mercy, e.g., Tobit 3:2). In the *Old Testament God often let people destroy themselves (the wicked fell into their own trap), and sometimes punished them in ways obviously related to their crime (see comment on 16:6-7 below). Judaism developed this theme, emphasizing the appropriateness of particular punishments against the wicked. Jewish people believed that angels had charge over different elements of nature, including over the seas (see comment on Rev 7:1).
16:6-7. Early Jewish tradition declared that God turned the water of Egypt to blood to requite them for shedding the blood of Israel’s children (Wisdom of Solomon 11:5-7). (On the wicked being “worthy” of punishment, compare Wisdom of Solomon 16:1, 9; 17:4; 19:4; cf. *Josephus, Jewish War 6.3.5, 216.) This observation develops a genuine theme in Exodus: in response to Pharaoh drowning Israel’s babies in the Nile, God later turned the Nile to blood, struck Egypt’s firstborn and drowned Pharaoh’s army. The image of drinking blood was sometimes used metaphorically for shedding it, so the justice of the judgment would be apparent even to the few hearers unfamiliar with the exodus story (some recent *Gentile converts). The altar speaks up as a witness to the lives of the righteous sacrificed on it by martyrdom (see comment on 6:9).
16:8-9. The Old Testament mentions being stricken by heat as a common suffering of field laborers and wanderers in the desert (e.g., Ps 121:6; cf. Ex 13:21); although it is not one of the plagues on Egypt, it contrasts with the following plague of darkness. On unrepentance, see comment on 9:21; the purpose of judgments, up until final destruction, was to secure *repentance (Amos 4:6-11).
16:10-11. Darkness was the ninth plague (Ex 10:22; the fourth plague in Rev 8:12); the darkness in Egypt could be “felt” (Ex 10:21).
16:12. Every informed reader in the Roman Empire, especially in places like Asia Minor and Syria-Palestine near the Parthian border, would understand the “kings of the East” as the Parthians; the river Euphrates was the boundary between the Roman and Parthian empires (although some border states like Armenia kept changing hands); cf. 9:14. Swollen, large rivers could delay the crossing of armies until bridges or rafts had been constructed, but God sees to it that this army will encounter no delays. (The same image of difficulty in crossing major rivers is implied in the new exodus of the Euphrates’s parting in *4 Ezra 13:43-47, but Revelation uses the image for an invading army [a natural usage], not for captivity and restoration.) Some streams dried up during some seasons in the Near East, but the Euphrates would not do so naturally; God, however, could dry up rivers in judgment (Nah 1:4).
16:13-14. The writer of *2 Baruch mentions the release of *demons to wreak havoc in the final period before the end. Frogs were negative symbols (Ovid, *Apuleius, Artemidorus); one ancient writer (*Plutarch) even suggested tongue in cheek that Nero would be reincarnated as a frog. In this text the frogs may allude loosely to one plague on Egypt that John had not had room to include up to this point (second plague—Ex 8:5-7); here the dragon is compelled to act as God’s agent in bringing judgment. In Jewish texts like the *Qumran War Scroll, the army of Belial (the devil), consisting of the nations and apostate Israel, would gather to be destroyed by God and his faithful remnant (cf. 4 Ezra). Gathering the nations for judgment is the judgment language of the *Old Testament prophets (Joel 3:2, 11; Zeph 3:8; cf. Is 43:9), as is the “day of the Lord” (e.g., Amos 5:18-20).
16:15. Guards were to stay awake at their posts at night. It was common for people to sleep naked at night in the warm season, but most Jewish people would be horrified to be seen naked in public; perhaps the image is of a naked householder chasing a thief. The ultimate roots of the shameful nakedness image are from the Old Testament, perhaps for the shameful stripping of captive Babylon (Is 47:3), one drunk (Hab 2:16), or God’s adulterous people (Hos 2:3; Ezek 16:37; cf. Rev 3:18); on the thief image, see comment on Revelation 3:3.
16:16. The Lord had promised to gather the nations (Joel 3:2, 11; Zeph 3:8; Zech 12:3; 14:2; cf. Is 13:4; Jer 50:29, against Babylon); Jewish tradition about the end time continued this image (*1 Enoch, *Dead Sea Scrolls). The nations and the dragon who led them might intend their gathering for other purposes, but God was gathering them to their own final destruction.
The Old Testament site of the future battle was the valley of Jehoshaphat (Joel 3:2, 12, 14), probably the strategic plain of Megiddo in the valley of Jezreel and Esdraelon. It was the corridor between the easily traveled coastal plain and the road to Damascus in Aram, and thus an essential crossing point for armies avoiding the difficult mountains (Judg 5:19; 6:33; 2 Chron 35:22; Zech 12:11; Pharaoh Thutmose III in 1483 B.C., etc.). Megiddo was a plain, not a mountain (“Har-Magedon,” which the KJV read as “Armageddon,” is literally “mountain of Megiddo”). Nevertheless, so transforming the site (for those who knew some Hebrew) would not be incongruent with John’s *apocalyptic geography (13:1; 17:1, 3, 9). John’s exact referent is debated, but a site related to the valley of Megiddo remains the most common view and some might recognize that this site would allow the armies of the East to engage Rome in Palestine.
16:17-18. This language suggests preparation for a theophany, a manifestation of God’s glory, as at Sinai (cf. Ex 19:16; Rev 4:5); the powerful earthquake may suggest the end of the age (see 6:12; 11:13).
16:19. The oppressed would cry out to God to remember their oppressors’ deeds against them (Ps 137:7). On the cup, see comment on Revelation 14:9-10.
16:20. This sort of language normally concerns the “end of the world” (see comment on 6:14)—vast, cosmic devastation.
16:21. This hail is much more severe than that in Exodus 9:24; it would crush everything in its path, leaving no survivors; this language too must be relegated to the end of the age. People’s unrepentance indicated how much they deserved the judgment to begin with (Ex 7:22); see comment on Revelation 16:9.
Although the *Old Testament usually reserved figurative use of the designation “prostitute” for God’s faithless people (e.g., Lev 17:7; Is 1:21; Jer 3:1-14; Ezek 16; 23; Hos 4:15), it was also appropriately applied to mighty mercantile or military centers. Thus Isaiah 23:16-18 portrayed Tyre as a prostitute who served all the kingdoms of the world; Nineveh as capital of a world empire also was called a harlot and sorceress, who sold nations (into slavery) by both devices (Nah 3:4). Allusions to both passages appear in Revelation 18–19. (Sorcery and prostitution are also linked in Is 57:3; cf. 2 Kings 9:22.) The false prophetess portrayed earlier in the book might appear as an agent of the system (Rev 2:20). See comment on 18:23.
Parallels and contrasts between Babylon the prostitute, in this passage, and the New Jerusalem the bride, in chapter 21, fit the practice in *apocalyptic literature (and other sources, such as wisdom literature) of contrasting the righteous and the wicked. One need not assume that John’s prophecies of Babylon apply only to Rome; other evil empires have also come and gone. Because Rome was the Babylon of John’s day, however, it supplies the images for John’s original audience in the seven *churches.
17:1. Angelic guides were common in apocalypses, especially when the writer was given a tour of heaven or earth. Ancient art pictured cities as their patron goddess, often enthroned on the shore of a river; thus, for example, a coin from the reign of Domitian’s father depicted the goddess Roma seated on seven hills. Rome, whose empire spread throughout the Mediterranean coasts, is naturally portrayed here as sitting on many waters (cf. Ps 65:7; Is 17:12-13).
17:2. Rulers of client states in Asia and Syria subservient to Rome were called “kings,” even though they had to please Rome and cooperate with its agents; they also raised no objections to the imperial cult. Undoubtedly they did not think they were prostituting themselves, but any rare pockets of nationalistic resistance (such as in Judea, which was monotheistic besides) would have differed with their evaluation. For the nations’ becoming drunk on Babylon’s wine, see Jeremiah 51:7.
17:3. For being carried away in visions by the *Spirit, see Ezekiel 8:3; 11:1 and 24 (a “strong spirit” in *2 Baruch; angels in *1 Enoch). The wilderness was the place of another symbolic woman’s new exodus (Rev 12:6, 14), although it was also associated with the demonic in some Jewish tradition; the point here may be that the woman who fancied herself seated on many waters would actually be “desolate” (using a Greek word related to the word for “desert,” i.e., barren like the wilderness—17:16). Some relate the beast (13:1) to the she-wolf of Roman legend associated with the goddess Roma (seated on seven hills) on some contemporary Roman coins (although John had ample Jewish precedent in representing kingdoms as beasts, e.g., Dan 8). The scarlet color of the beast is probably related to the blood of martyrs with which it was stained (Rev 17:6), or to the ostentation of the wealthy or of prostitutes (cf. 17:4; Jer 4:30). On the blasphemous names, see comment on 13:1 and 5-6.
17:4. True purple and scarlet required expensive dyes and were thus worn only by the wealthy, such as queens (18:7), or by well-to-do prostitutes, who used purple attire to attract attention. Many ancient moralists reviled the ostentation of wealthy women, but John also intends a contrast between the earthly splendor of Rome, renowned throughout its provinces, and the true splendor of the heavenly woman (12:1; 21:9-14) and heaven’s court (4:3-11; comparison of characters was a major feature of ancient speech and writing).
17:5. As “mother” (cf. 2:23) of “prostitutes” and “abominations” (perhaps idolatries), “Babylon” is pictured as the most terrible of them all. (In the East, where married women generally covered their hair, a “prostitute’s forehead” [Jer 3:3; cf. Hos 2:2] might seem an obvious image in this period; of course, most persons in Revelation are identified by their forehead or hand anyway [e.g., Rev 7:3; 13:16]. Older Greek literature reports the slander that Babylonian women were all required to play the prostitute once in life, but it is doubtful that this association was popular in the *New Testament period; the imagery comes instead from the Old Testament.)
17:6. Given the ancient horror of cannibalism, the image of “drunk with blood” is a terrifying one. Although the verse refers to Christians martyred under Rome in general, Rome’s thirst for blood may have brought a special image to many minds. Rome’s officials kept the multitudes happy with free grain and public amusements, the latter including especially bloodshed in the arena. Criminals and slaves were special candidates for satiating the public appetite for violent entertainment; once Christians were considered criminals (in the first century, especially clear under Nero), their large numbers would supply an inordinate proportion of victims. See comment on 16:6.
17:7-8. Again using the ancient *rhetorical technique of comparison, Revelation pictures the beast who “was and is not and is to come”—a parody on the eternality of God (1:4). apocalyptic texts often specialized in explaining cryptic revelations, frequently with the aid of an angel. On seven heads and ten horns, see comment on 12:3; 13:1; as it was widely recognized that children often looked like their parents, the beast bears a striking resemblance to the dragon.
17:9. It was common knowledge that the original city of Rome sat on seven hills; this datum appears throughout Roman literature and on Roman coins and was celebrated in the name of the annual Roman festival called Septimontium. Here the hills have become mountains in characteristic apocalyptic *hyperbole. (The seven mountains of paradise in 1 Enoch 24:2 and 32:1 are probably unrelated, unless by way of radical contrast. But the *Sibylline Oracles also prophesied judgment against “seven-hilled Rome”—2:18; 11:109-16.)
Various features identify Rome as the Babylon of John’s day:
Like many Jewish interpreters of his day who construed Old Testament language in multiple ways, John here allows his symbolism to stand for more than one referent (see Rev 17:10-11).
17:10-11. Some commentators count the kings starting from the first emperor (Augustus) but use up the seven before reaching the current emperor, Domitian, although the text itself claims that one of the seven was then reigning (v. 10). An allusion to the legendary kings who preceded the Roman Republic fails because obviously none of them is still living, either.
The real clue is that one king was then reigning, and one of the seven would return. Whether an author writing in the reign of the Flavian king Domitian would count the three brief usurpers between Nero and Vespasian as “kings” is doubtful; hence Nero, probably viewed as less than seven kings before Domitian, would appear as one of the seven. Interestingly, Nero was also expected to return (see comment on 13:1-10).
17:12. Ten horns represented ten kings in Daniel 7:24, possibly successors of Alexander the Great’s Greco-Macedonian kingdom; most Jewish people in the Roman era, however, read Daniel’s fourth kingdom as Rome. They might thus apply the description to Rome’s client states in the East (cf. Rev 17:2).
17:13. The kings’ unified conspiracy against God would come to nothing; this conviction had long been part of Jewish hope (cf. Ps 2:2; 83:5).
17:14. “King of kings” had long been applied to supreme rulers of the East (Ezra 7:12; Ezek 26:7; Dan 2:37; cf. 2:47) and was now used as the title of the Parthian king, Rome’s most feared earthly nemesis. More significantly, Jewish people regularly applied these titles to God (from Deut 10:17; Dan 2:47). This true ruler over the earth’s kings (cf. 1:5) contrasts with Rome’s control of mere client kingdoms (17:2).
17:15-16. The Roman Empire and its allies would eventually turn on Rome itself—a threat concerning the self-destructiveness and lack of faithfulness of those who pursue evil. The image is from the Old Testament (Jer 4:30; Lam 1:2; Ezek 23:9). The burning derives from Daniel 7:11. Although fire was the standard method for destroying captured cities in antiquity (Amos 1:4), some knowledgeable readers might have remembered the rumor that Nero burned down Rome in A.D. 64 and blamed it on the Christians: Rome thus ought to be wiser than to embrace one who might be like a new Nero. (The proposed allusion to burning for sexual immorality in Lev 21:9 is less likely; cf. Deut 22:21.)
17:17. Jewish people recognized that the present world was dominated by evil powers but viewed those powers only as angels with limited authority; they recognized that God rules the ages. They also realized that, as in the Old Testament, God raises up one nation to judge another, but his purposes are far different from the purposes of the finite nations themselves (e.g., Jer 51:11, 29; 52:3; Joel 2:11).
17:18. In John’s day, no one in the Roman Empire could have doubted that the city that “reigns over kings” meant Rome, any more than anyone would have doubted that the seven hills (17:9) alluded to Rome.
Ancients often contrasted weddings (see 19:7-9) with funerals. In contrast to the praises in 19:1-7, Revelation 18:2-3, 10-19 contains funeral dirges over Babylon, following *Old Testament models; prophets sometimes ironically mourned a city’s destruction, thereby prophesying its ruin. (More generally, laments over fallen cities were an ancient literary form.) It is difficult for us to catch the impact today: a condemned and probably aged prophet, confined to an island for defying the whims of the mightiest empire the Mediterranean or Middle Eastern world had ever known, prophesied that empire’s destruction. Yet the faith he proclaimed has spread throughout the world, and Rome has now been fallen for more than fifteen centuries. Although “Babylon” stood for Rome in John’s day, other embodiments of the oppressive world system have risen and fallen since then.
Ancient *rhetoricians and writers often showed off their epideictic (praise) rhetorical skills by praising important cities, as in Aelius Aristides’s lavish flattery of Rome. In contrast to such praises, John describes the city’s power and wealth to condemn it, as the Old Testament prophets did with arrogant empires, and to produce a funeral eulogy that curses instead of blesses. Oracles of woe against the nations were common in the Old Testament and continued in some Jewish literature of John’s day (particularly *Sibylline Oracles). Dominant biblical allusions in this passage include not only Old Testament references to Babylon but also to Tyre, a prosperous and boastful mercantile center, in Ezekiel 26–28.
18:1. Powerful angels were frequently described as shining like lightning or the sun (Dan 10:6 and often in later Jewish texts).
18:2. Old Testament prophets often pronounced an event as done even though it had yet to be fulfilled in practice. John takes this taunt-lamentation against Babylon directly from the Old Testament (Is 21:9; cf. Jer 51:8), as well as the description of a barren land possessed only by desert creatures (Is 34:9-15; cf. Jer 50:13; 51:29, 37; other cities—Jer 9:11; 49:33; cf. Baruch 4:33-35). (The mention of “*demons” also appears in the *LXX of Is 34:14.) Although Rome’s population was probably close to a million in John’s day, five centuries later it may have been as low as thirty thousand.
18:3. Cf. Jer 51:7. Later Jewish resistance oracles (some Sibylline Oracles) likewise portrayed Rome as lying with many suitors but headed for judgment. On the nations drinking from her cup, see comment on 14:8.
18:4. In pronouncing judgment on Babylon, Jeremiah warned his people—who were supposed to be at home there in the short term (29:4-10)—to flee from the city’s midst, because God would destroy it (51:6, 45; cf. Zech 2:7); even the presence of some of the righteous would not stay the judgment (cf. Gen 19:17). (In the *Dead Sea Scrolls, the righteous were to “separate” themselves from the “children of the pit”; in one *Essene commentary on Nahum, when the iniquity of those who were leading people astray was exposed, the righteous of Ephraim would flee from among them, joining the forces of the true Israel. But *Qumran separatism, unlike early Christian separatism, was geographic.) Getting out of an imminently doomed city was common sense for anyone who believed the *prophecy (cf. Tobit 14:8; Ex 9:20-21); John’s largest concern, however, may be worldliness: how much of the spirit of Babylon was inside the *churches (especially in Sardis, Laodicea and the like).
18:5. Jewish people recognized in the Old Testament (e.g., Gen 15:16; 2 Kings 22:20) that if God’s full judgment was delayed, it meant only that he was storing up retribution for the sins of many generations to pour them out on an even more wicked generation (also Mt 23:34-36). “High as heaven” may be an idiom (1 Sam 5:12) but certainly implies that God would take notice (cf. Gen 18:21).
18:6. Paying retribution to the wicked according to their mistreatment of others was a fairly common theme in the Old Testament (Neh 4:4; Esther 9:25; Ps 7:15-16; 35:8; 57:6; Prov 26:27; 28:10; Dan 6:24; Jer 50:15, 29—Babylon; Obad 15). Paying someone back “double” indicated that the retribution would be more than complete (Is 40:2); it was also the punishment expected for a thief (Ex 22:4, 7, 9). For the cup with the wine of judgment, cf. Jeremiah 51:7, Psalm 75:8, Isaiah 51:22-23 and other references in comment on Revelation 14:9-10.
18:7. For John, the “queen” might evoke Jezebel (Rev 2:20), but a clearer connection with the Old Testament here is the quotation from Isaiah. Here John cites Isaiah 47:8-9 (also used by the Sibylline Oracles), condemning Babylon’s arrogance and smug security that it would never fall (cf. also, e.g., Is 32:9; Jer 48:11; 49:31; Ezek 16:49; Amos 6:1; Obad 3). Rome claimed to be the “eternal city” and certainly glorified itself; it allowed subject peoples to worship the goddess Roma, who personified Rome. Rome’s luxury (including grain subsidies to keep the local masses happy) came at the expense of other nations, such as the heavily taxed peasants of Egypt. The thoughtless extravagance of the Roman elite invited God’s wrath; cf. Amos 4:1-2.
18:8. Beset by problems ignored by its king Nabonidus, ancient Babylon had fallen without battle to its conquerors in a single night, as Jewish people well knew (Dan 5:30). But this new “Babylon,” the new site of the oppression of God’s people, would be judged with fire (see comment on Rev 17:16). The image of Rome’s destruction by fire would be vivid to anyone who knew of the city’s burning a generation before, in A.D. 64. In the context of one of the dominant quotations in this context, the God who would vindicate his people and judge Babylon was “strong” (Jer 50:34; cf. 32:18; Deut 10:17; Neh 9:32).
18:9-10. Although the imagery is not totally consistent here (cf. 17:16; but *apocalyptic imagery did not have to be consistent), genuine mourning might be natural: client kings were normally appointed only with the favor of Rome, and Rome’s fall would grant freedom and prestige to political competitors.
18:11. The fleet of merchant ships bringing grain to Rome, by which the fertile soil around the Nile fed the masses of Italy, represented the largest form of transport until modern times. Revelation especially addresses the luxury trade (18:12-16), focusing on nonessential items secured for those who could afford them. Rome’s port of Ostia, constructed roughly half a century earlier, had a square with many offices for the merchants overseeing its international trade. With Rome destroyed, wealthy shippers would become no better off than the empire’s peasants—whose situation in some regions might improve without heavy Roman taxation. The image of merchants mourning over a great trade center is from descriptions of Tyre in Isaiah 23:1-8 and especially Ezekiel 27, a passage that describes in more detail the city’s greatness.
18:12-13. Most of Rome’s gold and silver came from mines in Spain, many of them confiscated from their owners; slaves who worked these mines had brief life expectancies. Rome imported precious stones (for use by wealthy men but especially their wives) especially from India. Romans procured pearls (perhaps Rome’s heaviest trade with the East) from the Red Sea and Persian Gulf, but particularly from India, where divers risked their lives to secure them. Spain, Asia Minor and especially Egypt supplied most of the fine linen (becoming more prominent than wool by this period). Rome procured the costly purple dye mainly from Phoenicia, and red especially from the kermes oak of Asia Minor. Although some silk was grown on the Aegean island of Cos, Rome imported most silk from China; some Romans thought it grew on trees. This special kind of scented wood (“citron wood”—NIV, NASB) had long been imported from western North Africa as far east as Cyrene, but having depleted most of those forests Rome now imported most of it from Morocco; one table made from this wood was so expensive that one could have bought a large estate with the price. Romans imported marble, especially used for palaces, from North Africa, including Egypt, and Greece. Cinnamon, including both the plant’s wood and, more expensively, the spice made from its shoots and bark, came from Somalia; trading ships with East Africa made a two-year round-trip voyage, traveling as far south as Tanzania. Wealthy Romans used incense to perfume their homes (and in religious rituals), and imported most of the aromatic merchandise specified here. One spice here comes from south India; myrrh, from Yemen and Somalia; frankincense, from southern Arabia.
Although not a luxury item, the amount of wheat imported to support the Roman populace (an estimated four hundred thousand tons of grain each year) also suggests exploitation; two hundred thousand families in Rome ate free imported grain while many children in Egypt, one of the empire’s most fertile regions, starved. The empire’s economy positively generated wealth, but it was inequitably distributed to the advantage of those who held power. In contrast to wheat more generally, “fine flour” was a luxury good imported in largest quantities from Africa. Beef was rarely eaten even by the wealthy, and people rarely ate mutton; Italy used cattle as work animals, and sheep for wool. Italy imported horses primarily for chariot races, used for public entertainment, and to draw the carriages of the very few people who were rich.
The list climaxes with the worst forms of exploitation: slaves ultimately from subjugated peoples but in more recent times mainly from breeding slaves, and sometimes discarded babies raised as slaves. “Human lives” (NASB, NRSV, GNT) comes from Ezekiel 27:13, where it refers to Tyre’s wicked trade in slaves (Scripture treated this trade as a capital offense; this was the usual meaning of “kidnapping,” a capital offense in Deut 24:7). If distinguished at all from “slaves,” it probably refers to people reserved for gladiatorial shows and other forms of death to entertain the public; criminals, prisoners of war, the lowest of slaves and Christians were commonly used in such shows.
John may model his list after Ezekiel 27:2-24, but he condenses and updates it to apply to Rome. One first-century source (Pliny the Elder) offers a list of Roman imports that contains items very similar to the present list. A second-century writer estimated Rome’s imports just from China, India and Arabia at roughly thirty million denarii (a denarius was a day’s wage in Palestine). Rome was a center of international trade, and no merchant marine existed like Rome’s for a thousand years after its demise.
18:14-15. For “fear” at its fall, cf. the reaction predicted for Tyre’s fall in Ezekiel 26:17-18; the merchants’ investments are lost.
18:16. On the adornments, cf. 17:4; these represent Rome’s extravagance and wealth. Those who had never been to Rome often had an exaggerated opinion of its greatness (some later Mesopotamian *rabbis spoke of 365 sections of Rome, each with 365 palaces, each with 365 stories!). But it was the most powerful city that the ancient Mediterranean had ever known and that most of the world would know for many centuries after it. No one in the provinces could describe the judgment on Rome and not think of the destruction of great wealth (e.g., also the Sibylline Oracles).
18:17-19. Throwing dust on one’s head was a familiar way of mourning. The merchants themselves had good reason to mourn—they were now out of business, perhaps with outstanding debts on their expensive cargoes that would lead to the loss of everything they had.
18:20. Writers sometimes bracketed a section with a key phrase; 18:20, 24 address vengeance for the blood of God’s people. Judgment of the wicked is vindication of the righteous; cf. 6:9-11. The Greek phrase (literally “God has judged your judgment from her”) may mean that God convicted Rome by applying to that city the judgment of its own law courts against the Christians. When Rome was later sacked by the barbarians of northern Europe after its acceptance of Christendom, the North African theologian Augustine explained that the judgment was due to Rome’s past sins (cf. 18:5) and a church too weak to avert judgment in its own time (cf. 18:4).
18:21. In Jeremiah 51:63-64, the prophet is commanded to hurl a stone into the Euphrates and declare that Babylon would likewise sink, never to rise again. Rome sometimes used drowning as a punishment, recognizing that it was a horrible fate. Here the stone is the kind of millstone turned by a donkey, so heavy that it could never be retrieved from the sea, and probably alluding to Jesus’ earlier warning (Mk 9:42).
18:22. The ghastly silence of Babylon here means complete devastation, as it meant in Isaiah 13:20-22: the city is without inhabitants.
18:23. The “voice of the bridegroom and bride” was the ultimate sound of joy; the prophets used the image of its stifling for terrible destruction (Jer 16:9; 25:10; Joel 1:8). Babylon, who would be left a widow (Rev 18:7, following Is 47:8), was a sorceress (Is 47:9) like Nineveh of old, a prostitute who enslaved nations (Nah 3:4, which supplies much of the wording here); the “sorceries” (KJV) here may refer to love potions or to the occult rites of their pagan priests. (Jezebel is associated with both sorcery and spiritual prostitution in 2 Kings 9:22.)
18:24. God dealt vengeance against those stained with the blood of the innocent (Jer 2:34). Although it is not technically true that all the righteous were killed in Rome (cf. Mt 23:35), Rome assumed responsibility for their slaughter as the present embodiment of the oppressive empire, a trait of corporate human sin that recurs throughout history.
The scene shifts immediately from mourning on earth to rejoicing in heaven (cf. 18:20); the martyrs have been vindicated at last. Although the reference is particularly to Rome, it may look beyond Rome to the oppressive elements of the world system that carry on Rome’s role until the return of Christ.
19:1. “Hallelujah” (19:1, 3, 4, 6) is frequent in the Hebrew (and often the Greek) form of the Psalms (cf. Ps 146–50), and is a strong command to praise the Lord (a piel—it is the strongest possible command, probably originally uttered by the inspired Levite musicians summoning their hearers to worship). It was appropriate in all worship, especially in praising God for his magnificent acts (e.g., after deliverance—*3 Maccabees 7:13, or in end-time Jerusalem—Tobit 13:18). It functioned as a call to worship in the temple, and so functions in the heavenly courts of worship (Rev 19:1, 3, 6; cf. v. 5).
19:2. Vindication for the righteous included just punishments against their killers; see Deuteronomy 32:43; cf. Psalm 79:10 and Jeremiah 51:48-49 (on Babylon).
19:3. This quotation is from the description of the fall of Edom’s leading city in Isaiah 34:10 but naturally applied to all cities that practiced the same wickedness, including the world system (cf. 66:24). (The application from city to society or world would have been as natural in the first century as application from one city to another; philosophers often viewed the whole state as a macrocity.) This language of smoking ruins was natural war imagery, and as an eternal devastation it is also repeated in the *Sibylline Oracles.
19:4. The *Old Testament pictures God enthroned both in heaven and above the cherubim on the ark in his temple; given the derivation of the four living creatures from Isaiah 6 and Ezekiel 1, the image may again be one of a heavenly temple as well as of a throne room.
19:5-6. For the “sound of waters” see comment on 1:15. Music and celebration were crucial at a wedding. God was often called “Almighty,” and the Old Testament frequently celebrates his reign, especially with regard to his rule over creation (Ps 97:1), great deliverances (Ex 15:18) and the end time (Is 24:23; 52:7; Mic 4:7).
19:7. In Isaiah 25:6-7 God announces a great banquet for all peoples (cf. Rev 19:7), and in Isaiah 25:8 the promise of deliverance from death. In Isaiah 25:9 God’s people celebrate their salvation, declaring, “Let us rejoice and be glad” in the salvation God had enacted on their behalf (slightly different in the *LXX). The Old Testament and later Jewish literature often compared Israel to a bride wedded to God; cf. Revelation 21:2. The messianic age or world to come was also often portrayed as a banquet.
19:8. Pure linen was mandatory apparel for the *high priest entering the holy of holies (Lev 16:4), extended in time to all ministers in the sanctuary; angels were often supposed to be dressed in linen too (probably based on Dan 12:6-7). Its symbolic use for purity and (here) righteous deeds would thus be natural. In Revelation it partcularly contrasts with the prostitute’s fine linen (18:12, 16).
19:9. The banquet here is from Isaiah 25:6, and the image of end-time reward was often developed in Jewish tradition (see comment on Rev 19:7). Revelation contrasts this marriage supper with a terrible feast in 19:17-18.
19:10. Revelation elsewhere might encourage the view that Christians on earth worship with the angels, in communion with the worship of heaven (a common Jewish view); but the book simultaneously rejects the views of those who prayed to and praised angels (amulets and incantations attest that some Jews invoked angels). Most of early Judaism associated the *Spirit of God with the spirit of *prophecy; for John, witnesses of Jesus dependent on the Spirit (thus, ideally, all Christians) were prophets in the broadest sense of the term. It was, in fact, the proper witness to Jesus that distinguished true prophets from false ones (1 Jn 4:1-6), an important issue among some of the book’s hearers (Rev 2:20).
This section is the ultimate climax of the book, for which readers have waited since 1:7. All the previous armies and other judgments were mere preludes to the coming of the final King of kings on a white horse.
19:11. Roman princes customarily rode white horses in military triumphs; the emperor Domitian had himself ridden one behind his father and brother in their Judean triumph after the Jewish war of 66–70. But the image of Jesus returning on a white horse, conjoined with the title “King of kings” (19:16), may mean that Jesus is portrayed like the Parthian king (cf. comment on 6:2; 17:14), his whole army coming on white horses (19:14). That is, Revelation again employs the most feared imagery of the day to communicate its point. The pretentious claims of the emperor and all who were like him would be nothing before the true divine king from heaven.
The image may allude to God going forth as a warrior on behalf of his people (e.g., Is 31:4; 42:13; 59:16-18; Hab 3:11-13; Zech 14:3; cf. Ex 15:3). This is the ultimate “holy war,” anticipated in the *Old Testament, in the *Dead Sea Scrolls, by the *Zealots and by many other Jewish people, although not all these sources expected the deliverance and armies to come directly from heaven.
19:12. On “eyes like a fiery flame,” see comment on 1:14 (Dan 10:6); diadems (in contrast to many *New Testament references to “crowns,” most of which refer to victors’ garlands) were for rulers. That his name is unknown might be meant to imply that no one has power over him (ancient magicians claimed that they could coerce spirits once they knew their names); compare Revelation 2:17.
19:13. The garments of God were stained with the blood of the winepress in Isaiah 63:2-3, when God was avenging his servants by judgment (cf. Rev 14:17-20); a later Jewish tradition naturally connects this text with the idea of Genesis 49:10-11, reading the latter as proclaiming that the warrior *Messiah will be stained with blood. Compare Wisdom of Solomon 18:15-16, where God’s slaying the firstborn of Egypt is figuratively described as his Word leaping out of heaven like a mighty warrior; his commandment goes forth as a sharp sword (cf. Rev 19:15).
19:14. The armies of heaven were sometimes revealed in the Old Testament (2 Kings 2:11; 6:17; Is 66:15; Hab 3:8; cf. Ps 68:17; Jer 4:13), although God’s “hosts” were usually pictured on chariots there, whereas here they ride horses—the customary means of attack for the Parthians. In each case the portrayal matches the most devastating sort of aggressors known in the writer’s time. White horses were often considered superior and associated with royalty, and were connected with the Parthians more than with other peoples. Most Palestinian Jews believed that Israel would participate in the final battle (Dead Sea Scrolls; cf. Ps 149:6-9), but some also envisioned the angelic host as warriors on horseback (e.g., 2 Maccabees, *4 Maccabees). The coming host could involve angels (Zech 14:5) but here include believers (17:14), who have already “overcome” through martyrdom and other tests.
19:15. The words of God’s mouth could be described as a sword (Hos 6:5; cf. *Similitudes of Enoch) and the Messiah’s decrees as a rod (Is 11:4); the mouth of Isaiah’s servant also resembles a sharp sword (Is 49:2). (The writer of *4 Ezra 13 also describes a fire going forth from the Messiah to devour the wicked; the fire is said to represent the *law of God. In *Psalms of Solomon 17:24 and 35-36, the Messiah smites the nations of the earth with the word of his mouth.) God’s sword is also described as his instrument of judgment (Is 34:5; Jer 12:12; 47:6), especially in the end (Is 66:15-16). The sword was a Roman symbol of an authority’s right over life and death (capital punishment) but appears throughout the Old Testament prophets as an image for judgment by war. Ruling with an iron rod alludes to royal authority in Psalm 2:9 (cf. Psalms of Solomon 17:26-27).
19:16. In Roman antiquity, horses and statues were sometimes branded on the thigh, but people were not (cf. Ex 28:36-38). This is a symbolic depiction; everyone in Revelation is identified by a name on his or her person (e.g., 7:3; 13:16). “King of kings” was the title of the king of Parthia but had been applied in Jewish tradition long before that Parthian usage to God himself, the suzerain King who rules over all the kings of the earth (see comment on 17:14; cf. Deut 10:17; Dan 2:47; Zech 14:9).
19:17-18. The *saints have one feast (19:7-9), the birds of the air another (19:17-18). Revelation takes the image and language here from Ezekiel 39:17-20 (esp. 39:17; cf. Is 49:26; Zeph 1:7), which in context occurs after the final battle with Gog (cf. Rev 20:8). Everyone understood that if the corpses of those killed in battle were not buried they would be eaten by vultures, dogs and other animals (1 Sam 17:44-46; Jer 16:4; Ezek 29:5; throughout Greek and Roman literature). The description of such ultimate destruction of their mighty oppressors (cf. also Sibylline Oracles) may have been a powerful encouragement to persecuted ancient Christians hearing the book.
19:19. In this depiction of the end, it is the armies, rather than the entire populations of the nations themselves, who are destroyed at this point (cf. 20:8); different Jewish views on the exact character of the final war tried to reconcile different *Old Testament images of the end.
19:20-21. Some of these details (judgment by fire, the defeat of *Satan and his forces, with special attention to the evil leaders) are standard in accounts of the end time; others are unique to John’s story line (the evil emperor and his sorcerer/propaganda minister being thrown into the furnace alive). Cf. Isaiah 30:33 and Daniel 7:11. Brimstone may allude to Sodom, though the destruction here is perpetual (cf. 20:10). Some Jewish texts spoke of fiery *Gehenna (sometimes drawing on Greek images of torment in Tartarus) and of rivers of fire flowing from God’s throne (cf. Greek pictures of a fiery river in the afterlife, but esp. Dan 7:10); Revelation contrasts a lake of fire for the wicked with a heavenly sea of glass mingled with fire (15:2).
Many Jewish texts pictured an intermediate kingdom between the present and future eternal reign (cf. *4 Ezra 7:28-30; *2 Baruch 29:3; 30:1-5; 40:3). Whether this suggests that the period is literal or figurative in Revelation—and if figurative, figurative for what—has been debated since the first few centuries of *church history. “Amillennialists” like Augustine, Calvin and Luther usually have taken it as symbolic for the present age, whereas “premillennialists” like Irenaeus, *Justin Martyr and Isaac Newton have read the period as future and after Christ’s return; “postmillennialists” like George Whitefield, Jonathan Edwards and Charles Finney have predicted a future millennial period preceding Jesus’ return (this last view is generally rare today). Those who take Revelation’s millennium as in some sense future generally regard it as qualifying the absolute imminence of the final end, which might otherwise be supposed from 1:3. Many read the structure of the *narrative here (19:20; 20:4, 10) as referring to a future period, but some others contend that this reading does not fit other biblical passages and have appealed to the cyclical structure of the rest of Revelation. The commentary follows the narrative as it appears to stand rather than taking sides on whether it should be read literally or figuratively, what the figure means or whether it is merely an *apocalyptic literary device. All three positions could use the presence of intermediate kingdoms in many ancient apocalypses to argue for their own position.
Revelation 20 and what follows especially expound the later chapters of Ezekiel: Israel’s *resurrection (chap. 37), the war with Gog and Magog (chaps. 38–39) and the new Jerusalem’s temple (chaps. 40–48), though Ezekiel lacks an explicit thousand-year period and Revelation lacks a literal, physical temple.
20:1-3. On the dragon/serpent, see comment on Revelation 12:3 and 9. Many early Jewish texts spoke of wicked angels being “bound,” meaning chained and imprisoned, until a particular time, usually the day of judgment (especially *1 Enoch; cf. Tobit, *Jubilees and *Testament of Solomon). Thus, for example, angels could be bound and hurled into the abyss (1 Enoch 88:1), and a leader of fallen angels could be hurled into fire on the day of judgment (1 Enoch 10:4-6).
Many Jewish texts include an intermediate period between the present and future ages; in some, it is an age of messianic peace, but in others it is the final tribulation, which came to be called the “messianic travail.” The length of the final intermediate period varies in those ancient Jewish texts that include it, producing such diverse figures as forty years, three generations, four hundred years and nearly as many other calculations as there are opinions recorded, sometimes counted by “weeks” or jubilees of years. A few Jewish traditions divided history into seven one-thousand-year periods, of which the final period would be an age of peace. (*Plato’s figure of one thousand years between death and reincarnation as the intermediate state of the Greek afterlife might have influenced this Jewish figure [cf. also the phoenix of Greek mythology, discussed by *rabbis], but this is not clear; the apocalyptic penchant for dividing history into ages, plus the natural appeal of a round number like one thousand [cf. one hundred in Is 65:20], and especially the Jewish application of Ps 90:4 to the seven days of Gen 1, are sufficient to explain the length of the period on purely Jewish terms.)
20:4. The resurrection of the righteous was a standard part of Jewish hopes; the subsequent reign of God’s people with him is less frequent but also appears in Jewish literature (in the *Old Testament, cf., e.g., Is 60:5; Dan 7:14, 18). Roman citizens were normally executed by beheading (with axes in previous times, but with swords by the first century); they were first beaten and blindfolded and then forced to kneel.
20:5-6. The punishment of the rest of the dead after an interim period could be inferred from Isaiah 24:21-22, even though Daniel 12:2 (like a number of *New Testament texts) does not distinguish the time between the resurrection of the righteous (after the tribulation Daniel mentions in 12:13) and that of the damned. Jewish texts sometimes spoke of the “second death” of the wicked at the judgment. On the reigning priests, see comment on Revelation 1:6.
20:7-8. Gog, prince in the land of Magog, appears as the final enemy of Israel in Ezekiel 38–39, after Israel’s regathering and perhaps the time of the *resurrection (chap. 37). Although scholars dispute whom Ezekiel has in mind, they agree that the enemies are from the north (like most of Israel’s enemies in that period); *Josephus identified them with the Scythians. Gog and Magog thus recur often in Jewish texts as the final major enemies of Israel (rabbis, *apocalyptic texts, Dead Sea Scrolls).
Many Jewish teachers expected a mass conversion of pagans to Judaism in the messianic time, to be followed by mass apostasy in the time of Gog and Magog. The army of the nations is called Belial’s (*Satan’s) army in the *Dead Sea Scrolls (although this text corresponds more to the battle envisioned in Rev 19). The Old Testament often employs the phrase “like the sand on the seashore” for a vast multitude (e.g., Gen 22:17; 32:12; 41:49).
20:9. Some Jewish texts portrayed a wall of fire around Jerusalem (based on Zech 2:5; cf. Ex 13:21), and some depicted fire falling from heaven to consume the enemies (*Sibylline Oracles; based on such judgments as Gen 19:24-25; Lev 10:2; 2 Kings 1:10); here see especially Ezekiel 38:22; 39:6. In the *Similitudes of Enoch, angels stir up Parthians to invade the Holy Land, but the ground opens to swallow them up. The Dead Sea Scrolls call the remnant community the “camp of the *saints,” a picture that also resembles Israel in the wilderness awaiting its final entrance into the Holy Land. For the gathering of the nations against God’s people, see, for example, Zechariah 12:3 and 14:2; see comment on Revelation 16:13-16.
20:10. Judaism also anticipated the ultimate defeat and judgment of Satan, a position in harmony with the Old Testament view that God would reign unchallenged forever after the final day of judgment.
In various Jewish end-time scenarios, the day of judgment would be too late for *repentance (see e.g., *1 Enoch 97:6; *4 Ezra 7:33).
20:11. Although many writers also stressed a judgment of souls at death (some thoroughly Hellenized writers like *Philo had little interest in a future resurrection and judgment), Judaism had much to say about the day of judgment before God’s throne at the end of the age. The image of a new heaven and earth (cf. Rev 21:2) is from Isaiah 65:17.
20:12. The opening of the books before God alludes to Daniel 7:10. Many early Jewish texts refer to heavenly tablets (*Jubilees, 1 Enoch, 2 Enoch, *3 Enoch, Testament of Abraham) containing records of human history or God’s laws; angels were continually writing down people’s sins, recording deeds in books for the day of judgment. The “opening” of the books meant that everything was about to be made known (see also, e.g., 4 Ezra). The final judgment would be a public judgment—there would be no way of hiding one’s naked shame.
The image of the “book of life” appears in the *Old Testament (Ex 32:32-33; Dan 12:1; Mal 3:16) and was developed more extensively in later Jewish literature (e.g., Dead Sea Scrolls, Jubilees). All would be judged according to their works (Ps 62:12; Prov 24:12; Jer 17:10; 32:19; Ezek 18:30), but former sinful works canceled by true repentance would not count against the righteous (Ezek 18:21-22).
20:13-14. Jewish texts often spoke of the final day on which the wicked would be cast into the abyss of fire (e.g., 1 Enoch). “Hades” (rendered “hell” in the KJV) was the abode of the dead (named for the Greek deity of the underworld, but not associated with him in Jewish texts), the equivalent of the Old Testament realm of the dead, Sheol. In many Jewish texts, as here, the wicked were held there under judgment until their final destruction or place of torture; in Jewish texts, Hades would return what was entrusted to it. Many *Gentiles questioned whether those who died unburied, especially at sea, had a part in the afterlife; others questioned how those lost at sea could be resurrected. This passage is clear that even the sea would give up its dead for judgment.
20:15. Most Jewish people believed that all normal Jews (i.e., those who followed Judaism) would be saved, along with the small percentage of the righteous among the nations (Gentiles); the rest would be damned. Israel’s faith had always been exclusivistic (worshiping one supreme God; John would add here the further exclusivism that God was truly worshiped only through Christ—cf. 1 Jn 2:23), and the Old Testament prophets had proclaimed a day of judgment that would call the nations as well as Israel to account. It would be too late to repent in that time.
Some pagan oracles predicted a future age of bliss, but the hope for a future age of peace, ruled by God alone, is a distinctively *Old Testament, Jewish and Christian hope.
21:1. Isaiah had already predicted the new heavens and new earth (Is 65:17; 66:22); the focus of attention in this new creation would be the new Jerusalem (Is 65:18; cf. 66:22). Many Jewish depictions of the *age to come (e.g., in *1 Enoch, Jubilees and *Pseudo-Philo) emphasized the new heavens and earth. Some Jewish texts spoke of the replacement of the first creation by a new creation; others envisioned the new creation as a renewal of the old. Many texts described the end time in terms of the beginning, as a renewal of paradise (see comment on 22:1-5); so here the new creation recalls the goodness of the first creation before sin marred it (Gen 1:1).
Predictions of the sea’s evaporation (perhaps in *Sibylline Oracles 5:157-59, although in 5:447-49 the drying of the seas for ships does not do away with water) were far less common for *apocalypses. Some commentators point to much earlier Canaanite myths, but these would not have been sufficiently contemporary to be obvious to John’s readers. The sea’s disappearance here may accommodate a literal (and typically ancient Jewish) reading of Isaiah 65:17, which mentions heaven and earth but does not mention the sea; another explanation may be the symbolic depiction of an end to the mercantile power Babylon (13:1; 17:15; 18:17).
21:2. Like any city, “Jerusalem” meant both the place and the people who lived there; the new Jerusalem is thus a bride because its residents are a bride (19:7). Greco-Roman encomia (praises) of cities often turned to describing them as people, and Jewish people were familiar with Old Testament personifications of Jerusalem and the Old Testament depiction of God’s people as his bride. Contemporary Jewish writers (e.g., Tobit, 2 Maccabees, Sirach, *Philo and *Josephus) and Jewish coins also called Jerusalem the “holy city” (in the Old Testament, cf. Neh 11:1, 18; Is 48:2; 52:1; 62:12); Jewish people (e.g., the *Qumran Temple Scroll) viewed it as the holiest of cities.
Pious Jews prayed daily for God to restore Jerusalem. The new Jerusalem, an Old Testament image (Is 65:18), had become a standard Jewish hope for the future, whether as a renewed and purified Jerusalem (Tobit, *Psalms of Solomon) or (as here) a new city from above (probably *4 Ezra); a city “from above” would be perfect, having been built by God himself (a hope found in some texts). In some apocalypses (*2 Baruch), the righteous would dwell on high; in early Jewish literature like Jubilees, God would descend and dwell with his people.
21:3. The tabernacle had always symbolized God’s dwelling among his people (Ex 25:8-9; 29:45; 1 Kings 6:12-13); God had also promised to “dwell” among his people as part of his covenant (Lev 26:11-12), especially in the sinless world to come (Ezek 37:24-28; 43:7-10; Zech 2:11). Ezekiel expected God to dwell with his people in the future temple (Ezek 43:7, 9); here the entire holy city functions as God’s temple (see comment on the shape in 21:16; cf. 21:22), even greater than Ezekiel’s promise.
21:4. These depictions allude especially to Isaiah 25:8; 35:10; 51:11 and 65:16-19.
21:5. On the promise of a future new creation, see comment on 21:1; for divine Wisdom spiritually “making all things new” in the present, cf. Wisdom of Solomon 7:27.
21:6. On Alpha and Omega, see comment on 1:8. The future age was portrayed as having abundant water (e.g., Is 35:1-2; Ezek 47:1-12; see comment on 22:1); for the offer of free water to the obedient, cf. Isaiah 55:1.
21:7. God had called Israel his children in the Old Testament (the language also continues in subsequent Jewish literature); those who had become his children were part of the covenant community and shared its promises for the future. God promised that his people who endured would inherit the world to come (Zech 8:12). The standard Old Testament covenant motif (also in Jubilees) is “I will be their God and they will be my people” (cf., e.g., Ex 6:7; 29:45; Lev 26:12; Jer 7:23; 11:4; 24:7; 30:22; 31:33; Ezek 11:20; 14:11; 36:28; 37:23, 27; Zech 8:8), a promise slightly augmented here.
21:8. Part of the promise in the Old Testament (e.g., Is 66:24) and Jewish literature was that the righteous who persevered would not have to share the world to come with their oppressors. Ancient cities forbade some morally or socially despised groups to live inside the city walls; here the exclusion is moral. Ephesus had a widespread reputation for the popular practice of *magic; sexual immorality was pervasive. Some of the sins may relate to issues addressed elsewhere in Revelation or Johannine literature. On the lake of fire, see comment on 19:20.
*Rhetoricians often showed off their epideictic (praise) skills by describing and praising magnificent cities like Rome (Aelius Aristides) or Athens (Isocrates); John here describes the greatest of cities. His encomium is on a renewed city whose prototype was also loved and praised in the *Old Testament (e.g., Ps 48) and whose future glory was the hope of the prophets (e.g., Ezek 40–48).
Jewish literature after Ezekiel also delighted to describe the glory of the new Jerusalem (e.g., Tobit 13:9-18, which includes streets paved with precious stones; 5Q15, a written blueprint in the *Dead Sea Scrolls modeled on Ezek 40–48; *rabbis), often as part of their praise to God for his coming deliverance. Most writers intended their imagery to praise the greatness of God and his holy city, however, not as literal depictions. Thus Isaiah has not only gates of crystal and walls of precious stones (Is 54:11-12), but walls of salvation and gates of praise (60:18). Zechariah, by contrast, noted that Jerusalem would not need walls because God would be a wall of fire for the city (Zech 2:4-5).
Some Jewish pictures of the end emphasized a return to Israel’s pastoral/agricultural beginnings, without ruling out urban existence (Sibylline Oracles 3:744-51), but the *New Testament and most contemporary Jewish literature are more urban than most Old Testament depictions of the end (Amos 9:13-15). The symbolic imagery for paradise was adapted to speak most relevantly to the cultures addressed.
21:9. Given the commitment involved in ancient Jewish betrothal, a betrothed woman and thus a bride could be referred to as a wife (as in 19:7).
21:10. The description of the revelation in 21:9-10 parallels exactly that in 17:1-3. Ancient rhetoric commonly taught by means of contrasting characters, and the contrast between Babylon the prostitute and new Jerusalem the bride is explicit and intentional. Those who instructed public speakers emphasized clarity and vividness in descriptions, and this description exemplifies those characteristics.
Apocalyptic texts sometimes used a mountain reaching to heaven to provide visibility (*1 Enoch 17:2; cf. 18:6-8; 24:1-3; 77:4; Mt 4:8); Jerusalem was also regarded as atop a mountain (*Letter of Aristeas 83-84, 105-6; often in the Old Testament, e.g., Joel 2:1); the image here is rooted in Ezekiel 40:2.
21:11. The emphasis on the wealth of the new Jerusalem would remind older Jewish readers of the glory of the temple, whose gates had been adorned with gold and silver; John declares that the whole city will share the glory of the temple. God would set his glory among his people in the end time (e.g., Is 60:1-3; Sirach 36:14). Jewish writers spoke of supernatural precious stones that were luminous, or light-giving, by themselves.
21:12-13. The text of 1 Enoch links the twelve gates of heaven to the twelve signs of the zodiac, but Revelation links New Jerusalem’s gates to the twelve tribes, each tribe having its own position, as they did in the Old Testament during the wilderness wanderings and the settlement in the Promised Land. In the Temple Scroll (one of the Dead Sea Scrolls), some Jewish pietists noted that the tribes would be commemorated on the twelve gates surrounding the new temple (three on each of the four sides). The image is from Ezekiel 48:31-35.
21:14. Jesus had made clear the continuity between the twelve tribes in the Old Testament and the first *apostles in the New Testament by his initial numbering of those apostles (see the introduction to Acts 1:15-26); Asian Christians would easily recognize the symbolism (Eph 2:20).
21:15. The “measuring rod” comes from Ezekiel 40:3; the measurements of the city were to produce awe of God’s great promises and thus *repentance (Ezek 40:4; 43:10-11). The Dead Sea Scrolls also emphasize measurements of the future temple to call readers to endure for the future age. John’s measurements differ from Ezekiel’s, but not in a way that anyone would complain: his New Jerusalem is nearly two thousand times larger, without even counting its height. All such images simply depicted in a symbolic way the much greater grandeur to come (cf. 1 Cor 2:9-10).
21:16. That the dimensions are equal on all sides indicates that the city is shaped like a cube—like the holy of holies in the Old Testament temple (1 Kings 6:20), indicating that the presence of God would always be with them in its fullest intensity. Like some Roman cities of John’s era, Ezekiel’s city was also square, although not clearly cubed (48:32-34; cf. 45:2; 48:16, 20); but the cubing illustrates the point of Ezekiel 48:35—God’s presence—all the more graphically. In some Jewish traditions, the future Jerusalem would expand in all directions (based on Is 54:2-3) and would become so tall that it would ascend to God’s throne (based on Ezek 41:7). None of these descriptions is literal; if it is difficult to breathe atop the world’s highest mountain (about five miles high), a city fifteen hundred miles high would not be very practical (at least under current laws of physics!). John elsewhere uses “twelve thousand” and 144 symbolically, and the connection may suggest that New Jerusalem is the city of God for the people of God (7:4-8).
21:17. This wall, literally 144 cubits, is quite disproportionate with a city fifteen hundred miles high, but this point reinforces its symbolic use; important ancient cities always had walls, hence John includes one. Although John could have excluded walls (Is 60:18; Zech 2:4-5) as he does the temple (Rev 21:22), emphasizing that they were unnecessary given the lack of aggressors, he would then not have been able to include his symbolic use of gates (see comment on 21:12-14).
Moreover, great ancient cities always had walls, so they were important for John’s hearers to understand this image with reference to the greatest of cities. Apocalyptic texts (2 Enoch) sometimes called angels “men,” and angels often appeared in human form in the Old Testament and Jewish literature.
21:18. Isaiah envisioned walls made of precious stones (Is 54:12); in contrast to Babylon’s mere decorations of gold and pearls, every part of the new Jerusalem is precious. Jewish descriptions of the costly stones used to build the new Jerusalem included miraculous elaborations, hence absolutely pure gold that looked like clear glass would have fit the *genre. Metal was used in mirrors, so it could mean that the gold gives a perfect reflection.
21:19-20. Twelve stones were normally used in the Old Testament (Ex 28:17-20; Josh 4:2-3) and Judaism (e.g., *Pseudo-Philo) to signify the twelve tribes. The image is from Isaiah 54:11-12, where every part of the city (walls, foundations, gates, etc.) would be constructed with precious stones. Texts in the Dead Sea Scrolls interpret this passage in Isaiah figuratively and apply it to the righteous, who displayed God’s glory (including the twelve leaders of the community). Tobit applies it literally to the future Jerusalem but includes streets that cry out praises to God.
That the *Septuagint of Ezekiel 28:13 lists a variety of precious stones may inform Revelation 17:4, but the use of twelve different precious stones, each signifying a tribe of Israel, is from Exodus 28:17-20; John’s list is roughly equivalent to the Hebrew one in Exodus. Thus the image of Aaron’s breastplate (Ex 28) evokes the priestly city for divine worship; the precious stones on his breastplate evoked the glory of God’s people (Wisdom of Solomon 18:24). The possible allusion to Tyre’s wealth (Ezek 28) contrasts the absolute wealth that is God’s gift with the limited wealth acquired by Tyre and its imitator in Revelation, Babylon. (Both *Josephus and *Philo also link the twelve stones on Aaron’s breastplate with the twelve signs of the zodiac, but John characteristically avoids the astrological associations that some writers linked with the symbols he employs.)
21:21. In Tobit 13, the new Jerusalem’s streets are paved with precious stones, and its walls and towers are of pure gold. Some rabbis expounded that the new Jerusalem’s gates would be made of giant pearls and precious stones; in one later story, a man who ridicules a rabbi’s exposition about the pearls sinks to the bottom of the sea and sees the angels working on the gates of the new temple; he then pays the price for his mockery when the rabbi disintegrates him with his eyes. But the main source for the image of precious stones in the future city is Isaiah 54:11-12. “Street” (11:8) might be functionally plural but probably refers to the main street (cf. “great street”—NIV) running through well-planned towns on the Greek model. First-century Jerusalem had major east-west and north-south streets, some of them as wide as thirteen meters (more than forty feet) at points, but the glory of the old Jerusalem will not compare with the glory of the one that God has promised.
21:22. One of the most basic hopes of ancient Judaism, recited daily in prayer, was the restoration and renewal of the temple (a hope from Ezek 40–48 onward). Even unlearned *Gentiles would be shocked; ancient cities conventionally had temples. But John offers a greater, not a lesser, vision than Ezekiel: the entire city is God’s temple or dwelling place (see comment on Rev 21:11, 16; Zech 14:21), and God is its temple as well.
21:23. The city’s light being the Lord’s glory rather than the sun or moon is taken directly from Isaiah 60:19-20 (cf. the image of 24:23; 30:26). Many Jewish teachers stressed that God’s light would fill the world to come, and that God would shine on his people.
21:24. The nations will gather to Jerusalem to worship and bring tribute in the end time (e.g., Is 60:3-22; Jer 3:17; Zech 14:16-19; cf. Tobit 13:11-12; see comment on Rev 3:9), bringing their glory into it (Is 66:12) and depending on its light (Is 60:1-3). In some biblical and other ancient Jewish depictions of the future, the Gentiles would be destroyed in the end time; in others, they would bring tribute; in still others, they would become part of God’s people (Is 19:23-25; Zeph 3:9). Revelation draws on all these images, but clearly all true followers of the lamb from all peoples become New Jerusalemites (see comment on 7:16-17).
21:25-26. Like the gates of ancient cities, the temple’s gates in the old Jerusalem were closed at night (cf. also the closing of gates in Ezek 46:1); but in the world to come, Jerusalem’s gates will never need to be closed, because tribute rather than aggressors will come to them (Is 60:11). Revelation adds that the gates will also remain open because there will be no night, since the Lord will be the light (21:23; cf. Is 60:19-20). Night was also associated with sorcery, *demons and robbers, and most people considered it a good time to stay inside when possible. Contrast the city of wealth in Revelation 18:11-19.
21:27. Outcast groups (e.g., prostitutes) sometimes lived outside city gates, but an Old Testament allusion is in view here. There will be no more abominations in the house of God (Zech 14:21) or unbelievers in Jerusalem (Joel 3:17). The unclean had always been excluded from God’s house so long as they remained in that state; this text refers to spiritual or moral uncleanness. The whole city is God’s temple, or dwelling place (21:3, 16, 22).
The *Old Testament sometimes figuratively described Jerusalem’s restoration in paradise language (Is 51:3), but it was later Jewish texts that especially developed the picture of the end time as the restoration or amplification of the original paradise. Such texts present paradise as the home of the righteous, *Gehenna that of the wicked.
22:1. Despite Laodicea’s lack, all strong cities should have a water supply. The rivers of paradise in Genesis 2:10 and the waters of Jerusalem (Ps 46:4) may supply some of the background for the image here; the immediate allusion, however, is to the rivers of water flowing from the new Jerusalem’s temple in Ezekiel 47:1-11 (cf. Joel 3:18; Zech 14:8). (*Josephus, Jewish Antiquities 1.1.3, 38, employed the Greek geographical concept of Oceanus and claimed that the garden in Eden was watered by one earth-encircling river that divided into four parts: Ganges, Euphrates, Tigris and Nile. John might allude to the *Spirit; cf. Jn 7:37-39.)
22:2. The description of the “tree of life” is from Ezekiel 47:12, which speaks of many trees bearing fruit each month (as opposed to one season a year) and leaves for healing. John adds “for the nations,” and further modifies Ezekiel’s “trees” to incorporate an allusion to paradise: although treated elsewhere in Jewish literature (e.g., *4 Ezra), the “tree of life” is from Genesis 2:9. Later Jewish traditions further expounded the figure. (Some Jewish texts spoke of twelve trees, one for each month, in a four-river paradise, weaving together features of Ezekiel and Genesis in a manner similar to Revelation. Jewish texts frequently connected the twelve months with the twelve tribes and constellations, but John avoids astrological associations here, as elsewhere.)
22:3. The removal of the curse is from Zechariah 14:11, and in this context it refers to the reversal of the curse in Eden (Gen 3:16-19).
22:4. God’s once-hidden face (Ex 33:20) will now be fully disclosed to his people (cf. comment on Jn 1:14-18); many other Jewish people also expected this in the end time. For writing on the forehead, see comment on Revelation 7:3; the point is that it will be clear that God’s people belong to him alone.
22:5. Jewish visions of the future sometimes included the righteous shining like the sun or stars (*1 Enoch; Sirach; 4 Ezra; *rabbis; cf. Ex 34:29; Dan 12:3); for God shining on his people, see comment on 21:23. The righteous shining and also ruling in the future are combined in Wisdom of Solomon 3:7-8.
Divine revelation and exhortation could go hand in hand. For instance, Tobit’s praise to God (Tobit 13:1-18) includes both a description of the final Jerusalem (13:9-18) and a call to *repentance for Israel (13:6).
22:6-7. “Faithful and true” may represent a testimony oath formula (cf. 3:14; 22:18; Jer 42:5), verifying the veracity of the revelation. “God of the spirits of all flesh” is an Old Testament title for God (Num 16:22; 27:16) attested in subsequent Jewish (e.g., *Jubilees; inscriptions) and *Samaritan texts; “Lord of Spirits” is also a divine title (*Similitudes of Enoch; cf. similar expressions in the *Dead Sea Scrolls). Here John especially identifies God with the prophets.
22:8-9. Commentators on Ephesians and Colossians often suggest that some Jewish Christians in Asia Minor had been assigning too prominent a role to angels; if that error is at all in view here, this passage refutes it (cf. also Rev 19:10).
22:10. Daniel had been instructed to seal up his words until the end time (Dan 12:4, 9); some of his visions had applied only to the future (Dan 8:26; 9:24; 10:14; cf. Jer 23:20; 30:24; 1 Enoch 100:6). By contrast, John’s revelation is meant to be understood in his own generation as well as subsequently (which should affect how subsequent generations understand his book). On opening sealed documents, see comment on 5:1.
22:11. The righteous would stand, but the wicked would continue in their wickedness (Dan 12:10). John’s exhortation here resembles an ironic invitation: let those who reject God’s words do so, but they will pay the consequences (Ezek 3:27; cf. Jer 44:25; Amos 4:4-5; Eccles 11:9; *Sibylline Oracles 3:57-59).
22:12. The Old Testament and Judaism stressed that God was righteous and would reward his people (e.g., Gen 15:1; Ps 18:20; 19:11; Is 49:4; *4 Ezra). That God would give each person according to his or her works was also Old Testament teaching (e.g., Ps 62:12; see comment on Rev 20:12).
22:13. In three different forms, this verse attributes to the speaker (Jesus in 22:12) a divine title (see Is 41:4; 44:6; 48:12). A literary device called inclusio was used to frame a section of text by starting and ending on the same note; most of Revelation is framed by the announcement that the Lord of history is both Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end (1:8; see comment on that verse).
22:14. On washed robes, compare 3:4-5 and 7:14, and see comment on 3:4; on the tree of life, see comment on 22:2.
22:15. “Dogs” probably refers to the sexually immoral, specifically unrepentant prostitutes (Deut 23:17-18). Elsewhere in Revelation state religion (in John’s era, especially the imperial cult), combined with sorcery, martyrs Christians; immorality (both literal and spiritual) characterized the lifestyle of *Gentile men. See also comment on 21:8 and 27; cf. also Genesis 3:24.
22:16. “Root of David” comes from the “stem of Jesse” (David’s father) in Isaiah 11:1—the shoot that would spring up from the stump of David’s lineage, after his descendants had lost the throne. Some commentators suggest that “root” reverses the image, making him David’s source. The morning star is Venus, herald of the dawn (cf. Rev 2:28); in this case the text probably also alludes to Numbers 24:17, the star descended from Jacob (Israel) and destined to reign and crush the enemies of God’s people. (The Dead Sea Scrolls also applied Num 24:17 to a conquering *messiah.)
22:17. Ancient Judaism especially associated the *Spirit with *prophecy. Everyone who hears the invitation is to join in it, and the thirsty may come and drink freely (Is 55:1) of the water of 22:1.
22:18-19. The words of a divinely instituted covenant or book were not to be altered (Deut 4:2; 12:32; cf. Prov 30:5-6). Covenants often included curses against those who broke them; those who followed idols thus invited all the curses of Deuteronomy (29:20, 27). Such claims of completeness or inspiration of books were often made in later times (e.g., 1 Enoch; Josephus and *Letter of Aristeas made this claim for the *LXX) to uphold their authority or to secure them against later editors interpolating their own ideas—a practice common in books that were not treated as sacred Scripture or other inspired writings.
22:20. “Come, Lord” translates the Marana tha prayer common in early Christianity (see comment on 1 Cor 16:22), acknowledging believers’ early recognition of Jesus’ deity. For the testimony of witnesses at the end of a document, see comment on John 21:24.
22:21. This was an appropriate concluding greeting, often attached to Christian letters (see comment on Rom 1:7).