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Echoes of Revelation
Revelation never quotes the Old Testament outright, yet no New Testament book refers to it more. See both texts side by side, why they don’t match, and what John does with them.
Revelation 1:11, write what you see in a book
The command to write the vision in a book repeats a charge God gave Moses and the prophets.
Revelation 1:11, in every translation this tool compares.
A reporter told to get it in writing knows the story will be read and checked later. God told Moses to write his words in a book. He told Isaiah and Habakkuk to write their visions down too. John receives the same order. His vision is to be written and sent to the seven churches.
The order to write. In the Greek of Exodus 17:14 and Isaiah 30:8, the order is to write in a book. John has the same phrase (grapson eis biblion).
The prophets wrote for Israel, often as a record against the people. John writes to seven named churches in Asia, and the book is to be sent like a letter. The wording is common in the Old Testament, so no one passage stands behind it.
The order puts John's book among the written words of God's messengers. Beale adds that such commands in the prophets often came with judgment, and Revelation's letters to the churches carry both warning and comfort.
Not a single source text. The command is spread across the Old Testament, which is why this is only a possible echo.
Beale hears in the order to write in a book the same charge God gave his prophets, citing the Greek of Exodus 17:14, Isaiah 30:8, Jeremiah 37:2 and 39:44 in Greek numbering, and Tobit 12:20. He adds that readers steeped in the Old Testament might notice that these commissions were often commands to record a witness against Israel. The NIV Biblical Theology Study Bible notes the parallel with Isaiah 30:8, Jeremiah 36:2 and Habakkuk 2:2, and the CSB Study Bible's cross-references list the same kind of texts. The grade is possible because the language is only generally similar to many texts.
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- G. K. Beale, The Book of Revelation (New International Greek Testament Commentary), comment on 1:10b-11
- NIV Biblical Theology Study Bible, note on Revelation 1:11
- CSB Study Bible, cross-references at Revelation 1:11
