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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 10:11, peoples, nations, languages and kings
John's commission to prophesy about peoples, nations, languages and many kings takes Daniel's formula for the whole world and adds kings.
Revelation 10:11, in every translation this tool compares.
A roll call that starts with the usual names and then adds the bosses tells you who is in trouble. Daniel uses a stock list for the whole world: peoples, nations and languages. In Daniel 7 all of them serve the son of man. John is told to prophesy again about peoples, nations, languages and many kings. Daniel's list now carries a warning for rulers.
The world named by its peoples (laoi), nations (ethne) and languages (glossai). The Greek of Daniel 3:4 calls on nations, peoples, tribes and languages, and Daniel 7:14 has all peoples, tribes and languages serve the son of man. John has laois kai ethnesin kai glossais.
John drops Daniel's tribes here and adds many kings. In 5:9 and 7:9 the same formula names the redeemed; here it names those John must prophesy about, or against. Beale says kings is added because kings are judged in the later visions (16:12-14; chapters 17-19).
John's new message is for the whole world. It is the world Daniel saw ruled by beasts and then handed to the son of man. Beale reads the preposition epi as against: the stress is on judgment. The ESV Study Bible says that from here on the formula marks peoples who resist Christ, and kings who side with evil.
Not a list that changes meaning by accident. The same formula praises the redeemed in 5:9; Beale says John turns it toward judgment on purpose from 10:11 on.
Beale says the fourfold formula throughout Revelation is coined on the phrase repeated in Daniel, where it is universal (see his note on 5:9). In Daniel 3:4, 7 in Greek the formula comes just before and after the sound of a trumpet, and here it follows the seventh angel's trumpet of 10:7. Prophesy epi in the Septuagint usually means against, mostly in Ezekiel, so Beale prefers prophesy against. The CSB Study Bible lists Daniel 3:4, 7; 4:1; 5:19 and 7:14. The vault's Greek Daniel 3:4 reads ethne, laoi, phylai, glossai, and Daniel 7:14 hoi laoi, phylai kai glossai. Revelation 10:11 reads epi laois kai ethnesin kai glossais kai basileusin pollois. The grade is drawn here: the formula is uniquely Daniel's, but John varies it each time.
About or against? Most translations say about, Beale notes; he argues for against, and the CSB Study Bible gives against in its margin. Feuillet, as Beale reports, sees a new mission to the nations replacing one to Israel; Beale disagrees. MacArthur reads a call to warn the world of the judgments still to come at the seventh trumpet and in the bowls.
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- G. K. Beale, The Book of Revelation (New International Greek Testament Commentary), comment on 10:11
- CSB Study Bible, cross-references on Revelation 10:11
- ESV Study Bible, note on Revelation 10:8-11
- Septuagint, Daniel 3:4 and 7:14, Interlinear Greek-English Septuagint
- SBL Greek New Testament (MorphGNT), Revelation 10:11
- John MacArthur, The MacArthur Study Bible (ESV), note on Revelation 10:11
