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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 1:17, the first and the last
Jesus calls himself the first and the last, the title God uses for himself in Isaiah when he mocks the idols, and John's wording follows the Hebrew.
Revelation 1:17, in every translation this tool compares.
A title can be so tied to one person that using it says who you are. In Isaiah God calls himself first and last, and says no other god exists. In Revelation 1:17 Jesus claims the same title for himself. He takes God's own name from Isaiah. John's words also match the Hebrew of Isaiah, since the Greek translation never says last.
The words first and last (protos and eschatos). The Hebrew of Isaiah 44:6 and 48:12 reads rishon and acharon, first and last.
The Greek translation of Isaiah does not use last. It says first and after these things (44:6), first and forever (48:12), first and into what is coming (41:4). John's eschatos fits the Hebrew, a link noted here from the texts, not from the sources. The larger change is the speaker: in Isaiah it is God; here it is the risen Jesus.
What Isaiah says of God alone, Jesus says of himself. Beale calls it a clear reference that shows Christ as a divine figure, sovereign over history. In Isaiah the title comforts Israel in exile, and the same chapters say do not fear. John's readers hear it as a reason not to fear death.
Not a lesser title. In Isaiah the phrase is followed by there is no God but me. The NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible says it is precisely the title that marks out deity.
Beale calls this a clear reference to Yahweh's self-predications in Isaiah 41:4, 44:6 and 48:12, with the same meaning as the formulas of 1:8: God's rule over history from start to end. He shows how the Isaiah texts were linked to Daniel 10 by shared phrases: do not fear in Isaiah 41:10 and 44:2, and God's right hand in 48:13. In the vault's Septuagint, Isaiah 44:6 reads ego protos kai ego meta tauta, 48:12 ego eimi protos kai ego eimi eis ton aiona, and 41:4 protos kai eis ta eperchomena. The Hebrew of 44:6 is ani rishon va'ani acharon, and of 48:12 ani rishon af ani acharon. John's ego eimi ho protos kai ho eschatos agrees with the Hebrew; Beale does not discuss the point, so the textual link is drawn here. Fekkes, cited by Beale, treats these titles at length. The ESV Study Bible says Jesus echoes the Lord's boast over the idols.
Heiser notes that the first and the last, used of God in Isaiah 41:4, 44:6 and 48:12 and in Revelation 1:8, is said by Jesus in 1:17, who adds I died, and look, I am alive. He reads this as John applying God's language to Jesus within the opening chapter, long before the creeds.
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- G. K. Beale, The Book of Revelation (New International Greek Testament Commentary), comment on 1:8 and 1:17b
- NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, note on Revelation 1:17
- ESV Study Bible, note on Revelation 1:17
- NIV Biblical Theology Study Bible, note on Revelation 1:17
- Septuagint, Isaiah 41:4, 44:6 and 48:12, Interlinear Greek-English Septuagint
- Hebrew text of Isaiah 44:6 and 48:12, Miqra according to the Masorah (Sefaria)
- SBL Greek New Testament (MorphGNT), Revelation 1:17
- Michael S. Heiser, Revelation 1: The Revelation of Jesus Christ and the Glorified Son of Man, video lecture (Naked Bible Revelation series)
