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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 10:3-4, the seven thunders spoke
The seven thunders may recall Psalm 29, where the voice of the Lord thunders seven times, and Sinai, where God's voice came with thunder.
Revelation 10:3-4, in every translation this tool compares.
A choir that sings one line seven times leaves no doubt whose song it is. Psalm 29 says the voice of the Lord seven times, and it thunders over the waters. At Sinai God spoke amid thunder. When the angel cries out, seven thunders speak. John was about to write it down, but he is told to seal it. Two sources hear Psalm 29 in the seven.
Thunder as God's voice (phone). Psalm 29:3 has the voice of the Lord over the waters while the God of glory thunders, and the phrase voice of the Lord runs seven times through the psalm. Exodus 19:16 has voices and lightning at Sinai.
Psalm 29 never says seven thunders; the seven is a count of its refrain. John's thunders speak words he could have written down. The psalm's thunder praises God's power, while John's message is held back. Both sources hedge: may be based on, says Beale, and may be an allusion, says the CSB Study Bible.
If the psalm stands behind them, the seven thunders are God's own voice of judgment. Their silence is God's choice. Beale reads them as one more set of seven judgments, like the seals, trumpets and bowls. This set John is not to reveal.
Not a hidden message to be decoded. John was told to seal it and not write it. The CSB Study Bible cites Deuteronomy 29:29: hidden things belong to God.
Beale says the thunders may rest on Psalm 29, whose punishing thunders are named the voice of the Lord seven times, and the psalm shows God sitting as king forever. The article, the seven thunders, may itself introduce the allusion. Jewish tradition called God's thunder at Sinai seven voices (Midrash Rabbah on Exodus 15.28) and used Psalm 29 to explain Exodus 19:16-19. The CSB Study Bible says the thunders may be an allusion to Psalm 29 and cites Deuteronomy 29:29 for the sealing. The vault's Septuagint of Psalm 29:3 (28:3 in its order) reads phone kyriou epi ton hydaton, ho theos tes doxes ebrontese. Revelation 10:3 reads elalesan hai hepta brontai tas heauton phonas. The grade is possible: both sources hedge, and the shared idea is thunder as God's voice.
What were the thunders? Beale lists views: judgments God chose to cancel (Caird), plagues never released (Mounce), or a sevenfold series kept hidden, which he prefers. Keener connects them to the contents of the scroll. The ESV Study Bible says reporting them would only have delayed the end. MacArthur reads thunder in Revelation as the storm of God's fury about to fall on a sinful world, and the seal as keeping the message hidden until God's time.
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- G. K. Beale, The Book of Revelation (New International Greek Testament Commentary), comment on 10:3-4
- CSB Study Bible, note on Revelation 10:3-4
- Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, on Revelation 10:3-4
- ESV Study Bible, note on Revelation 10:3-4
- Septuagint, Psalm 29:3 and Exodus 19:16, Interlinear Greek-English Septuagint
- SBL Greek New Testament (MorphGNT), Revelation 10:3-4
- John MacArthur, The MacArthur Study Bible (ESV), notes on Revelation 4:5 and 10:4
