Tool Beta
The Ancient World Behind the Text
Pick a passage anywhere in the New Testament. See the customs and ideas a first reader knew without being told.
Revelation 6:9-17, souls under the altar and the great day of wrath
At the fifth seal the souls of those killed for God's word cry out from under the altar, how long, and are given white robes and told to wait. At the sixth a great earthquake shakes the world, the sky rolls up like a scroll, and kings and slaves alike hide in the caves from the wrath of the Lamb.
Revelation 6:9-17, in every translation this tool compares.
At the fifth seal John sees the martyrs beneath heaven's altar, crying out to God to ask how long before he puts things right; they are given white robes and told to rest a little longer. At the sixth seal the whole universe seems to come apart, with earthquake, a darkened sun and falling stars. Everyone from kings to slaves runs for the caves, begging to be hidden from God and the Lamb on the day of their anger. Whether this pictures the literal end of the world or a great upheaval in history is debated.
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/sacrifice-and-blood\/","n":"Sacrifice and the daily offering","s":"Animals were offered at the temple for sin, for thanks and for cleansing, and blood sealed covenants. Every day a lamb was offered at dawn and again in the afternoon, and Jews everywhere prayed at those hours.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/martyrs\/","n":"Martyrs","s":"Jews remembered those who died rather than break God's law, above all the Maccabean martyrs tortured under Antiochus, and the prophets said to have been stoned or sawn in two. Their hope was the resurrection.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/apocalypses\/","n":"Apocalypses, visions and numbers that mean something","s":"Jewish books of visions, usually written in the name of a hero from long ago, in which a heavenly guide shows a seer what heaven sees in the present trouble and how God will end it. They spoke in pictures and in numbers that carried meaning, and Revelation is the one that calls itself an apocalypse.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/day-of-the-lord\/","n":"The day of the Lord","s":"The prophets spoke of a coming day when God would judge the world and rescue his people. Paul calls it the day of Christ, giving Jesus the place the prophets gave to God.","r":""}
Sacrificial blood was poured at the altar's base (Leviticus 4:7), so the martyrs are sacrifices, as in 4 Maccabees (Keener); Heiser hears the Lord avenging his own, the vengeance of Deuteronomy 32:43 (after Bandy). In 4 Ezra, of about the same decade, the righteous dead ask how long and must wait until their number is complete (Keener; the cultural backgrounds notes). Keener reads comfort against the emperor and governors who judged them, though Carson, Moo and Morris, who note that most scholars see unusual persecution behind 6:9, think the evidence for one under Domitian exaggerated. Earthquakes had wrecked Asian cities in living memory (Keener; the cultural backgrounds notes). Heaven rolled up is Isaiah 34:4 in the terms of a reader rolling up a scroll (Keener; the cultural backgrounds notes). Whether this is the end of the age is read differently: Keener says the cosmic language fits the end most naturally; Wright reads vivid symbol for political upheaval; Carson, Moo and Morris hold that "Revelation is about eschatology, not history" but set against John's own day; and Heiser, after Beale, reads stock imagery, chiefly Isaiah 34:4, for judgment on heavenly powers as well as earthly ones.
- Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, introduction to Revelation 6:9-11 and 6:12-17, and on 6:9, 6:10, 6:12-13, 6:14 and 6:15-16
- NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, notes on Revelation 6:10-11, 6:12, 6:14 and 6:15
- N. T. Wright, Revelation for Everyone, comment on Revelation 6:9-17
- D. A. Carson, Douglas J. Moo and Leon Morris, An Introduction to the New Testament, chapter on Revelation, Date (The persecution of Christians) and Methods of Interpretation
- Michael S. Heiser, Revelation 6: The Opening of the First Six Seals, video lecture (Naked Bible Revelation series)
- Michael S. Heiser, Revelation 4: The Throne Room of Heaven, video lecture (Naked Bible Revelation series)
