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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 11:1, a measuring reed to measure the temple of God
John's measuring reed comes from Ezekiel 40, where a man with a measuring reed marks out the temple to come, and from Zechariah 2, where a man goes out to measure Jerusalem.
Revelation 11:1, in every translation this tool compares.
A surveyor who stakes out a plot is claiming it for someone. In Ezekiel 40 a man of bronze carries a measuring reed and maps a new temple. In Zechariah 2 a man sets out to measure Jerusalem, and God promises to be its wall of fire. John is handed a reed and told to measure God's temple, the altar and the worshipers. In Zechariah measuring marks what God claims and guards.
A measuring reed (kalamos) for measuring God's temple. Ezekiel 40:3 in Greek has a man with a builder's line and a measuring reed (kalamos metrou); John is given a kalamos like a rod and told to measure (metreson). Zechariah 2:1-2 has a man with a measuring line going to measure Jerusalem.
In Ezekiel a heavenly man measures; here John is told to measure. Ezekiel measures buildings; John must also measure the people worshiping, which cannot literally be done. The measuring is ordered but never carried out, as Aune notes in Heiser's reading. John leaves the outer court unmeasured, which Ezekiel does not.
John hands the prophet the reed carried by Ezekiel's heavenly man and Zechariah's surveyor. In Zechariah measuring marks what God claims and will guard. Beale reads the measured temple as God's people, kept in faith while their bodies suffer, like the sealing of 7:3. MacArthur reads God's ownership of a temple rebuilt for the tribulation. Wright hears God's intent to dwell with his people, and Heiser and Aune read measuring as preservation.
Not Ezekiel's vision retold. Ezekiel watches a heavenly man measure a whole temple complex. John is told to measure the temple, the altar and the worshipers, and to leave the outer court out.
Beale says the measuring is best understood against Ezekiel 40-48, where an angel's measuring secures the end-time temple (the measuring words occur about thirty times each in that section's Septuagint), as Revelation 21:15-17 also draws on it. Measuring can mean protection (2 Samuel 8:2; Isaiah 28:16-17; Jeremiah 31:38-40; Zechariah 1:16) or judgment (2 Kings 21:13; Lamentations 2:8; Amos 7:7-9), and 1 Enoch 61:1-5 measures the righteous to preserve them. Keener cites Ezekiel 40:3-42:20 and Zechariah 2:1-5, where measuring praises God's house. The NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, the ESV Study Bible and the CSB Study Bible cite Ezekiel 40:3, and Wright names Ezekiel 40 and Zechariah 2. Walton says Ezekiel's linen cord was for long distances and the reed for short ones. The vault's Septuagint of Ezekiel 40:3 has kalamos metrou in the man's hand. The grade is drawn here: the reed and the temple point to Ezekiel 40, while Zechariah 2 shares the act.
Heiser says the image is drawn from Ezekiel 40:3. He follows Aune: measuring can mean planned destruction or protection, and here it means protection, since Zechariah 2:1-5 is even closer and 1 Enoch 61 measures the righteous to keep them. He notes the speaker is never named and the measuring never done. On whether this is the earthly temple, he sets out both cases and points to an irony: each system turns literal or symbolic here as its date for the book requires.
Which temple? Aune, with most scholars as Heiser reports, takes the earthly temple of John's day, which implies a date before AD 70; others read the temple in heaven of 11:19 as defining 11:1. Beale reads Ezekiel's temple fulfilled in the church. Many dispensationalists, the ESV Study Bible reports, expect a rebuilt temple. Strand, as Beale reports, doubts the Ezekiel source at all. MacArthur reads the holy place of a temple rebuilt for the tribulation (Daniel 9:27; Matthew 24:15; 2 Thessalonians 2:4), with the bronze altar in its court.
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- G. K. Beale, The Book of Revelation (New International Greek Testament Commentary), The Metaphors in 11:1-2
- Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, on Revelation 11:1
- NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, note on Revelation 11:1
- ESV Study Bible, note on Revelation 11:1-2
- CSB Study Bible, note on Revelation 11:1-2
- N. T. Wright, Revelation for Everyone, comment on Revelation 11:1-6
- John H. Walton, Victor H. Matthews and Mark W. Chavalas, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: Old Testament, on Ezekiel 40:3
- Septuagint, Ezekiel 40:3 and Zechariah 2:1-2, Interlinear Greek-English Septuagint
- SBL Greek New Testament (MorphGNT), Revelation 11:1
- Michael S. Heiser, Revelation 11: The Two Witnesses and the Seventh Trumpet, video lecture (Naked Bible Revelation series)
- John MacArthur, The MacArthur Study Bible (ESV), note on Revelation 11:1
