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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 11:8, the great city called Sodom and Egypt
Calling the great city Sodom and Egypt follows the prophets who named a rebellious Jerusalem Sodom and remembered Egypt as the oppressor of God's people.
Revelation 11:8, in every translation this tool compares.
Calling a town Gotham tells readers it is crooked before anything happens. Isaiah addressed Jerusalem's leaders as rulers of Sodom. Jeremiah said its prophets were like Sodom to God. Egypt was the land that enslaved Israel. John's witnesses lie dead in the main street of the great city. Spiritually it is Sodom and Egypt, the place where their Lord was crucified.
Sodom (Sodoma) as a name for a city of God's people turned wicked. Isaiah 1:10 in Greek calls Jerusalem's leaders rulers of Sodom (archontes Sodomon); Jeremiah 23:14 says its people are like Sodom; Ezekiel 16:46 calls Sodom Jerusalem's sister.
The prophets call Jerusalem Sodom to shame it. John calls the great city Sodom and Egypt together, spiritually (pneumatikos), and adds the place where their Lord was crucified. Elsewhere in Revelation the great city is Babylon, so John may be merging cities, the sources say. Egypt has no single text; it stands for oppression of God's people.
Sodom means corruption ripe for judgment; Egypt means enslaving and persecuting God's people. Beale says the great city is the whole ungodly world, like Jerusalem in killing Christ. Keener and the CSB Study Bible read Jerusalem itself, and the ESV Study Bible thinks John merges Rome and Jerusalem.
Not a new name for a city. John calls the city Sodom and Egypt spiritually, as the prophets called Jerusalem Sodom. The names describe its character.
Beale says the city is like Sodom in wickedness and coming judgment (Deuteronomy 29:22-26; 32:28-33; Isaiah 1:9-15; 3:9; Jeremiah 23:14-15) and like Egypt in persecution. Joel 3:19 recalls violence done to Judah by Egypt, and Ezekiel 16:26, 44-57 joins Sodom and Egypt. He reads pneumatikos as seeing with spiritual eyes and the great city as Babylon, the world. Keener says the prophets often compared Jerusalem with Sodom (Isaiah 1:9-10; Jeremiah 23:14). The CSB Study Bible lists Isaiah 1:9-10; 3:9; Jeremiah 23:14; Ezekiel 16:46, 49, and Ezekiel 23 for Egypt. The NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible ties Sodom to fire (Genesis 19:24) and Egypt to the plagues. The vault's Septuagint of Isaiah 1:10 reads akousate logon kyriou, archontes Sodomon. The grade is drawn here: Sodom as a name for God's own city is uniquely the prophets', but John uses no one text.
Which city? Keener, the CSB Study Bible and many commentators, Beale reports, read literal Jerusalem. Beale reads the ungodly world, with Rome first in John's day. The ESV Study Bible merges Rome and Jerusalem. The NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible says the city may stand for the world system. MacArthur reads Jerusalem, named for its wickedness, its Jewish people the focus of the witnesses' preaching.
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- G. K. Beale, The Book of Revelation (New International Greek Testament Commentary), comment on 11:8
- Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, on Revelation 11:8
- CSB Study Bible, note and cross-references on Revelation 11:8-10
- ESV Study Bible, note on Revelation 11:7-10
- NIV Biblical Theology Study Bible, note on Revelation 11:8
- NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, note on Revelation 11:8
- Septuagint, Isaiah 1:10, Interlinear Greek-English Septuagint
- SBL Greek New Testament (MorphGNT), Revelation 11:8
- John MacArthur, The MacArthur Study Bible (ESV), note on Revelation 11:8
