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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 11:18, to destroy those who destroy the earth
Destroying the destroyers of the earth echoes Jeremiah 51:25 in Greek, where God turns against Babylon, the destroying mountain that destroys the whole earth.
Revelation 11:18, in every translation this tool compares.
A wrecking crew that ends up wrecked has met a fitting end. In Jeremiah 51 God speaks to Babylon as a destroying mountain that ruins the whole earth. He will reach out against it and make it a burnt mountain. John's elders sing that the time has come to ruin the ruiners of the earth. The judgment fits the crime, and Babylon is its pattern.
Destroying the earth, with the verb diaphtheiro. Jeremiah 51:25 in Greek (28:25 in its order) calls Babylon to oros to diephtharmenon, to diaphtheiron pasan ten gen, the destroying mountain that destroys all the earth; John has diaphtheirai tous diaphtheirontas ten gen.
Jeremiah speaks to one city, Babylon, as a mountain. John speaks of all who destroy the earth. He uses the verb twice, once for God's act and once for theirs, so the punishment mirrors the sin. Jeremiah's all the earth becomes the earth.
Beale reads the destroyers as those who destroy God's people. The matching verbs follow the rule of an eye for an eye. Babylon is a type of the world judged at the end, which ties this verse to the great city of 11:8 and 11:13. Keener adds that ruining the earth reverses the charge God gave humans in Genesis 1:26.
Not mainly a word about pollution. Keener notes the misuse of creation, but Beale and the NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible read a Babylon-like empire that ruins the earth.
Beale says this judgment, like those of 8:8 and 19:2, plainly follows Jeremiah's word against historical Babylon, setting Jeremiah 28:25 in the Septuagint beside 11:18. The same verb, he notes, describes the harlot who corrupted the earth in 19:2. The NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible says the phrase echoes the common Greek translation of Jeremiah 51:25, suggesting the evil empire, like Babylon, devastates the earth. The vault's Septuagint reads to oros to diephtharmenon, to diaphtheiron pasan ten gen. The ESV Study Bible links the destroyers to the final judgment of 20:14-15, and the CSB Study Bible identifies them with the earth-dwellers. Keener points to Genesis 1:26 and 2 Baruch 13:11. The grade is drawn here: the doubled verb with the earth matches the Greek of Jeremiah closely, and two sources name it.
Heiser reads the destroyers of the earth as both human and supernatural rebels: "the Fallen Gods getting what they deserve". For him this is day of the Lord language, final judgment, which did not happen in AD 70. The study guide adds Deuteronomy 32 and Psalm 82 here, but in the lecture he cites no texts for the point.
Who are the destroyers? Beale says the persecutors of God's people, Babylon's world. The CSB Study Bible says the earth-dwellers. Keener points to those who ruin creation. Heiser sees human and divine rebels together.
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- G. K. Beale, The Book of Revelation (New International Greek Testament Commentary), comment on 11:18
- NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, note on Revelation 11:18
- ESV Study Bible, note on Revelation 11:15-18
- CSB Study Bible, note on Revelation 11:16-18
- Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, on Revelation 11:18
- Septuagint, Jeremiah 51:25, Interlinear Greek-English Septuagint
- SBL Greek New Testament (MorphGNT), Revelation 11:18
- Michael S. Heiser, Revelation 11: The Two Witnesses and the Seventh Trumpet, video lecture (Naked Bible Revelation series)
