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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 1:18, the keys of death and Hades
The keys may recall Isaiah 22:22, where the steward of David's house is given the key that opens and shuts.
Revelation 1:18, in every translation this tool compares.
Whoever holds the keys of a building runs it. In Isaiah 22 a new steward is put over King David's house and given its key. What he opens no one shuts. Jesus says he holds the keys to death and to Hades, the place of the dead. Beale and others hear Isaiah 22 here, a link Revelation makes plainer in 3:7.
A key that gives authority over a house or realm. Isaiah 22:21-22 also gives the steward a robe and sash, like the figure in 1:13.
Isaiah's steward holds the key of David's house. Jesus holds the keys to death and the grave. Isaiah 22 says nothing about death or Hades. The clear use of Isaiah 22:22 comes later, in 3:7, with the key of David.
The risen Jesus controls who is kept in death and who is released. Beale reads it as the result of the resurrection: the one once held by death now rules it. For churches facing martyrdom, Wright says, this is the news that he has the keys.
Not keys borrowed from the pagan gods. Sources note Hekate and Anubis held keys to the underworld; Keener and the NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible say Jewish texts gave those keys to God alone.
Beale says the image could come from keys in the Targums or rabbinic writings, but Isaiah 22:22 is the more probable background, as 3:7 makes plain. He suggests Eliakim was read as a pattern for a royal and priestly servant to come, which would fit the priest-king picture of 1:13. Keener notes that whoever held the keys in a royal house had great authority, citing Isaiah 22:21-22, and that the Wisdom of Solomon 16:13 gives God authority over death and the gates of Hades. The NIV Biblical Theology Study Bible cites Isaiah 22:22 with Matthew 16:19. Targum on Deuteronomy 28:12, as Beale reports, says God alone holds the key of the tombs. The grade is possible: the echo rests on the picture, and the clear use waits for 3:7.
Heiser holds the keys over in the Revelation 1 lecture and takes them up with Revelation 3:7. There, reading Beale and Carson and Justin Bass, he says the key of David amplifies the keys of death and Hades: Jesus is Lord over life and death.
Aune, as Beale reports, reads the keys as a polemic against the goddess Hekate, said to hold the keys of the world; Beale widens it to all the gods of the underworld. The NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible names Anubis and Hades. The CSB Study Bible links the keys to Matthew 16:18 rather than Isaiah.
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- G. K. Beale, The Book of Revelation (New International Greek Testament Commentary), comment on 1:18
- Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, on Revelation 1:18
- NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, note on Revelation 1:18
- NIV Biblical Theology Study Bible, note on Revelation 1:18
- CSB Study Bible, note on Revelation 1:18
- N. T. Wright, Revelation for Everyone, comment on Revelation 1:9-20
- Michael S. Heiser, Revelation 1: The Revelation of Jesus Christ and the Glorified Son of Man, video lecture (Naked Bible Revelation series)
- Michael S. Heiser, Revelation 3: Letters to the Churches: Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea, video lecture (Naked Bible Revelation series)
