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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 11:15, the kingdom of the world has become the Lord's
The cry that the world's kingdom now belongs to the Lord, who will reign forever, announces the outcome Daniel 7 and Daniel 2 foresaw: earthly kingdoms handed over to God's everlasting rule.
Revelation 11:15, in every translation this tool compares.
A sign on a shop that says under new management means the old owners are gone. Daniel saw world empires as beasts. Then the kingdom was given to a figure like a son of man and to God's holy ones, and it would never end. Daniel 2 has God set up a kingdom no one can destroy. At the seventh trumpet loud voices say it has happened: the world's kingdom is now the Lord's.
The kingdom (basileia) passing to God and lasting forever. Daniel 7:14 gives the son of man a kingdom that will not pass away, and 7:27 gives the kingdom to the holy ones forever. Daniel 2:44 in Greek has God raise a kingdom that stands into the ages (eis tous aionas); John has basileusei eis tous aionas ton aionon.
Daniel foresees the handover; John's voices say it has happened, in the past tense. Daniel speaks of kingdoms; John of the kingdom of the world (kosmos) as one. Daniel's kingdom goes to the son of man and the saints; John names our Lord and his Christ, the words of Psalm 2.
Beale says the change of rule from Daniel 7 is in view. 11:7 already used Daniel 7 for the beast that attacks the saints, and now its rule is replaced. Keener adds that the world system, Rome in John's day, is handed over to God's people. Heiser says this did not happen in AD 70.
Not a quotation of Daniel. The voices take Daniel's handover of the kingdom but phrase it with the Lord and his Christ of Psalm 2.
Beale says that if there is an Old Testament precedent it must be Daniel 7: the evil kingdoms are defeated and handed to the son of man, who reigns forever (7:13-14, 18, 22, 27). Daniel 2:44 in Theodotion, God raising a kingdom that lasts forever, may also be evoked, and so may Exodus 15:18. He reads the past tenses as prophetic perfects for the consummated kingdom. Keener cites Daniel 7:13-14, 17-18 and Isaiah 9:7, and notes that trumpets sounded at a king's accession (1 Kings 1:34). The NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible cites Daniel 2:44 and 7:13-14, 17-18, and the CSB Study Bible lists Daniel 7:14, 18 with 2 Samuel 7:16 and Isaiah 37:16. Wright says Revelation, like Daniel, is all about the kingdom of God. The vault's Greek Daniel 2:44 reads basileian hetis eis tous aionas ou diaphtharesetai. The grade is drawn here: Beale hedges with if, but four sources name Daniel and the pattern is unique.
Heiser reads the seventh trumpet as plain day of the Lord language. The world's kingdom becoming the Lord's, he says, certainly did not happen in AD 70 or 80; it sounds like the end of the world. That is his control on the whole chapter: since 11:15-19 is final judgment, the witnesses and the trampling before it should be read as end-time and symbolic, not as a datable event before 70.
When does the reign begin? Beale reads the consummated kingdom at history's end. Some, he reports, see it fulfilled at Christ's death and resurrection, others at Jerusalem's fall in AD 70. The CSB Study Bible lists four readings, including Christ's earthly reign of 20:4-6. MacArthur reads the end of the world's long rebellion under Satan, when Christ returns to defeat his enemies and set up his kingdom; the seventh trumpet holds the bowls and all that leads to the thousand years.
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- G. K. Beale, The Book of Revelation (New International Greek Testament Commentary), comment on 11:15
- Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, on Revelation 11:15
- NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, note on Revelation 11:15
- CSB Study Bible, note and cross-references on Revelation 11:15
- N. T. Wright, Revelation for Everyone, comment on Revelation 11:15-19
- Septuagint, Daniel 2:44, 7:14 and 7:27, Interlinear Greek-English Septuagint
- SBL Greek New Testament (MorphGNT), Revelation 11:15
- 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 11:15
