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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 11:19, lightning, rumblings, thunder, an earthquake and great hail
The opened temple with the ark in view, and the lightning, voices, thunder, earthquake and hail, bring back God's appearing at Sinai, where the covenant was made.
Revelation 11:19, in every translation this tool compares.
Opening night in a new hall can replay the sound of the old hall's first concert. At Sinai God came down amid thunder, lightning, a dark cloud and a trumpet, and the people shook. There he made his covenant, whose tablets went into the ark. Now God's temple in heaven opens. The ark of his covenant is seen, and lightning, rumblings, thunder, a quake and hail break out.
Voices (phonai) and lightnings (astrapai) at God's appearing. Exodus 19:16 in Greek has phonai kai astrapai with a dark cloud and a trumpet; John has astrapai kai phonai kai brontai. Exodus 19:18 adds the smoke over the mountain.
Sinai had a trumpet and a thick cloud on a mountain. John has an open temple in heaven with the ark in view, which no one but the high priest saw in Israel. He adds great hail, which recalls the plague of hail on Egypt and the first trumpet. The five signs are John's fixed formula for the end (4:5; 8:5; 16:18).
Heiser says the scene is Sinai all over again: God making a covenant people anew. Beale says the formula marks the last judgment, and the ark marks both judgment and God's presence with his people. Keener adds that such Exodus language puts John's revelation on the level of Moses'.
Not a report that the lost ark was found. Beale says the Old Testament looked for God's presence, not the box (Jeremiah 3:16-17); the ark here is a sign.
Beale says the closing formula has marked the last judgment throughout (4:5; 8:5; 16:18), that in the Old Testament such cosmic signs mark theophanies, and that the formula is coined from Exodus 19:16-19, which also lies behind the seven thunders of 10:3-4. He suggests Jericho too: the ark appears between earthquakes after seven trumpets, as the ark followed the trumpets when Jericho's wall fell. Keener says this exodus language (Exodus 19:16; Ezekiel 1:4) puts John's revelation on the level of Moses'. The NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible says the lightning and thunder may evoke Sinai, and the NIV Biblical Theology Study Bible ties the hail to Exodus 9:22-25 and the first trumpet. The vault's Septuagint of Exodus 19:16 reads egenonto phonai kai astrapai kai nephelai gnophodeis, with the sound of the trumpet. The grade is drawn here: the signs fit Sinai uniquely, but John has made them a formula.
Heiser says the scene is Sinai once more: God forming a covenant people, which ties the end back to the time he made his people new by bringing them out of Egypt. With the kingdom's arrival in 11:15, he says, this is plainly day of the Lord material, not AD 70.
Beale reads the opened temple as final judgment and God's full presence. The ESV Study Bible reads it as the opening of the next vision, which shows the deepest conflict. Keener connects the ark with the covenant's curses on the disobedient. MacArthur reads the opened Most Holy Place in heaven as a sign of God's saving covenant in the midst of judgment, and the storm as part of the seventh bowl (16:17-21).
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- G. K. Beale, The Book of Revelation (New International Greek Testament Commentary), comment on 11:19
- Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, on Revelation 11:19
- NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, note on Revelation 11:19
- NIV Biblical Theology Study Bible, note on Revelation 11:19
- ESV Study Bible, notes on Revelation 11:19 and 11:19-14:20
- Septuagint, Exodus 19:16 and 19:18, Interlinear Greek-English Septuagint
- SBL Greek New Testament (MorphGNT), Revelation 11:19
- 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 11:19
