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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, those who fear your name, small and great
Rewarding those who fear God's name, small and great, echoes Psalm 115:13, where the Lord blesses those who fear him, the small with the great.
Revelation 11:18, in every translation this tool compares.
A team photo that puts the rookies beside the stars says everyone counts. Psalm 115 mocks the nations' idols, then promises that the Lord will bless those who fear him, the small with the great. John's elders sing of the reward for God's servants the prophets, his saints and all who fear his name, small and great. The psalm's contrast with idol worship fits the trumpets.
Those who fear (phoboumenous) and the small and the great (tous mikrous … megalous). Psalm 115:13 in the vault's Greek reads he blessed those fearing the Lord, the small with the great; John has tois phoboumenois to onoma sou, tous mikrous kai tous megalous.
The psalm says fear the Lord; John says fear your name. The psalm blesses; John rewards. The Greek translation in the vault joins small with great, while John has small and great, the form Beale gives. John also lists prophets and saints before them.
In Psalm 115 the line sets true Israel against idol worshipers, whose idols cannot see, hear or walk, the very list of 9:20. Beale says that is why it fits: the persecutors are idolaters. All of God's people, of every rank, are rewarded as the destroyers are destroyed.
Not the psalm's blessing repeated. The psalm blesses those who fear the Lord. John rewards those who fear God's name, and he adds prophets and saints.
Beale says Psalm 113:21 in the Septuagint's numbering (115:13 in English), the God-fearers, both small and great, probably stands behind the nearly identical phrase, and that in the psalm it contrasts true Israel with idolatrous nations. Some manuscripts change John's datives to accusatives to agree with the psalm, he notes. The CSB Study Bible lists Psalm 115:13 with 2 Kings 23:2 and Revelation 19:5. The vault's Septuagint of Psalm 115:13 reads tous phoboumenous ton kyrion, tous mikrous meta ton megalon. Revelation 19:5 repeats the pair. Beale reads your servants the prophets as another use of the formula of 10:7 (Amos 3:7), which the NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible counts nearly twenty times in the Old Testament. The grade is drawn here: the phrase is close, and Beale shows a motive in the psalm's attack on idols.
Who receives the reward? Mounce and Lenski, Beale reports, set the prophets apart from other believers; Beale reads one people described several ways. The NIV Biblical Theology Study Bible lists three readings of the prophets: Old Testament prophets, Christian prophets, or all believers. MacArthur reads the reward as given to the Old Testament saints, the church taken up at the rapture, and those saved in the tribulation.
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- G. K. Beale, The Book of Revelation (New International Greek Testament Commentary), comment on 11:18
- CSB Study Bible, cross-references on Revelation 11:18
- NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, note on Revelation 11:18
- NIV Biblical Theology Study Bible, note on Revelation 11:18
- Septuagint, Psalm 115:13, Interlinear Greek-English Septuagint
- SBL Greek New Testament (MorphGNT), Revelation 11:18
- John MacArthur, The MacArthur Study Bible (ESV), note on Revelation 11:18
