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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 1:13, one like a son of man, robed and girded with gold
The figure among the lampstands is Daniel's one like a son of man, dressed like the shining man of Daniel 10 and the scribe in linen of Ezekiel 9.
Revelation 1:13, in every translation this tool compares.
A painter can put a king's crown, a judge's robe and a priest's sash on one sitter. John sees a figure like a son of man, the one who comes before God's throne in Daniel 7. He wears a long robe and a gold sash, like the shining man by the river in Daniel 10 and the man in linen in Ezekiel 9. John builds one figure out of several.
One like a son of man (homoion huion anthropou) from Daniel 7:13. A man clothed and girded with gold from Daniel 10:5. A robe reaching to the feet (podere) and a belt from the Greek of Ezekiel 9:2.
Daniel 10 has the gold around the waist; John puts the gold sash across the chest. John's word for the robe, podere, is not in Daniel 10. It is in the Greek of Ezekiel 9:2 and in the Greek of Exodus for the high priest's robe. John also breaks a grammar rule again: like a son of man has the wrong case, as in 14:14, which Beale reads as pointing back to Daniel.
The son of man in Daniel receives an everlasting kingdom. The robe and sash were priestly clothing. Beale and the NIV Biblical Theology Study Bible read Jesus here as both king and priest, standing among the churches and tending them like lamps. He is also the one who came on the clouds in 1:7, now present with his people.
Not a lesser angel. Borrowing an angel's features does not make Jesus an angel, the NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible says; John gathers the grandest pictures he has.
Beale finds most features of the figure in verses 13-15 in Daniel 7 and, above all, Daniel 10, with other texts adding detail. Son of man is from Daniel 7:13 (in Greek hos huios anthropou). The robe and gold come from Daniel 10:5, which the vault's Greek Daniel renders clothed in baddin, linen, and girded with gold of Uphaz. The word podere comes from the Greek of Ezekiel 9:2, 11, the man in a foot-length robe among the six destroyers, and from Exodus 28:4 and 29:5 for the high priest. Beale also notes that podere never describes a king's clothing in the Septuagint. The accusative huion after homoion is a solecism; scribes changed it to the dative. Keener reads the robe and girdle as a likely allusion to the high priest. Beale counts this cluster among his combined allusions and his literary prototypes: Revelation 1 follows the shape of Daniel 7. The grade is drawn here: son of man is Daniel's phrase word for word.
Heiser traces the robe and gold sash to Daniel 10:5, paired with 10:16. He argues the man in linen there is neither Gabriel, who takes orders from him, nor Michael, who helps him and has equals. Linking the prince of the host in Daniel 8:11 with the commander of Yahweh's army in Joshua 5:14, he concludes, in his words I would argue, that the man is the angel of the Lord, God appearing as a man. So John is not comparing Jesus to a lesser angel. He piles up Daniel 7, Daniel 10 and Zechariah 1 and 4 to make the same point four times.
Who is the man in Daniel 10? Walton notes he is usually identified as Gabriel, and Keener calls him the mighty angel. Others read him as more than an angel. The sources also weigh priest against king: Beale and Keener lean priestly, the ESV Study Bible gives both, and some commentators Beale names deny any priestly sense.
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- G. K. Beale, The Book of Revelation (New International Greek Testament Commentary), comment on 1:13-15 and Summary of 1:12-20
- Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, on Revelation 1:13-15
- NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, note on Revelation 1:13-16
- NIV Biblical Theology Study Bible, note on Revelation 1:13
- ESV Study Bible, note on Revelation 1:13
- John H. Walton, Victor H. Matthews and Mark W. Chavalas, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: Old Testament, on Daniel 10:5-6
- Septuagint, Daniel 7:13, Daniel 10:5 and Ezekiel 9:2, Interlinear Greek-English Septuagint
- SBL Greek New Testament (MorphGNT), Revelation 1:13
- Michael S. Heiser, Revelation 1: The Revelation of Jesus Christ and the Glorified Son of Man, video lecture (Naked Bible Revelation series)
