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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 1:5, the faithful witness, the firstborn, the ruler of kings
The three titles John gives Jesus all come from Psalm 89, a psalm about God's promise to David's line.
Revelation 1:5, in every translation this tool compares.
When a new leader is introduced with three phrases from an old oath of office, people know which office is meant. John gives Jesus three titles: faithful witness, firstborn from the dead, and ruler over earth's kings. All three come from Psalm 89. That psalm is about God's oath to King David: his line will last forever, and his heir will be the highest of the kings.
Three phrases. Psalm 89:27 makes David's heir the firstborn and highest of the kings of the earth. Psalm 89:37 speaks of a faithful witness in the sky. In the Greek the words match closely: ho martys … pistos (faithful witness), prototokos (firstborn), and the kings of the earth.
In the psalm the faithful witness is the moon, a sign in the sky that David's throne will last. John makes the witness Jesus himself. The firstborn in the psalm is a royal heir. John adds from the dead, so the first rank comes through resurrection. The psalm says highest of the kings; John says ruler of the kings. He also gathers phrases from two verses into one line.
John reads Jesus as the heir the psalm was waiting for. His death and rising made him king for good, over the very rulers who threatened the churches. Beale notes that the kings of the earth are usually God's enemies in Revelation. The titles also hold out a model: the faithful witness who died and rose is the pattern for believers under pressure.
Not a claim that Jesus was the first being created. Beale reads firstborn as rank, the heir's place, gained by rising from the dead, as Colossians 1:18 also has it.
Beale says commentators are surely right to see Psalm 88(89):27, 37 here, since all three phrases occur there. The Greek of Psalm 89:27 (88:28 in the Greek numbering) has prototokon … hypselon para tois basileusi tes ges; 89:37 (88:38) has ho martys en ourano pistos. John's ho martys ho pistos, ho prototokos stands in the nominative after apo, where Greek grammar wants the genitive. Beale reads this as the same kind of flag as in 1:4: the phrase keeps the case it had in the psalm. Jewish writings read Psalm 89:27 of the Messiah (Midrash Rabbah on Exodus 19:7). Keener and the NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible also point to Psalm 89:27, and the study Bible sets it against the Roman emperor's claim to rule subject kings. The grade is drawn here: three phrases from one psalm, close in wording. Beale's category is analogical use, raised to a higher level.
Some see other sources for faithful witness. Fiorenza, as Beale reports, adds Isaiah 55:4, where David is made a witness to the peoples, and the NIV Biblical Theology Study Bible also cites Isaiah 55:4. Beale adds Isaiah 43:10-13, where Israel is God's witness. These are offered beside Psalm 89, not in place of it.
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- G. K. Beale, The Book of Revelation (New International Greek Testament Commentary), comment on 1:5
- Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, on Revelation 1:5
- NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, note on Revelation 1:5
- NIV Biblical Theology Study Bible, note on Revelation 1:5
- ESV Study Bible, note on Revelation 1:4-6
- Septuagint, Psalm 89:27 and 89:37, Interlinear Greek-English Septuagint
- SBL Greek New Testament (MorphGNT), Revelation 1:5
