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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 13:10, captivity and the sword
The saying about going to captivity and dying by the sword joins two oracles of Jeremiah, once spoken against unfaithful Judah, now spoken to the faithful church.
Revelation 13:10, in every translation this tool compares.
A proverb can change meaning depending on who says it to whom. Jeremiah tells Judah that God has assigned each person a fate: death, sword, famine or captivity. It was a judgment for sin. John uses the same pattern: if anyone is for captivity, to captivity he goes; if for the sword, by the sword. Beale says it now speaks of the faithful, who must endure.
The repeated pattern of captivity to captivity and sword to sword. The Greek of Jeremiah 15:2 has eis aichmalosian, eis aichmalosian, the same words John uses.
Jeremiah lists four fates and gives them as punishment on an unfaithful people. John keeps two, captivity and the sword, and speaks of the saints. He adds a call: here is the endurance and faith of the saints. The manuscripts differ in this verse, and some copies make it a warning that whoever kills will be killed.
Believers will suffer, and that suffering is part of God's plan, not a sign he has left them. Beale notes that even the faithful remnant shared Judah's exile. John calls them to endure without compromise and not to fight back.
Not a call to take up the sword. In Beale's reading the saints suffer the sword; they do not use it.
Beale calls the verse a paraphrase combining Jeremiah 15:2 and 43:11. He notes that most commentators wonder how texts of punishment can speak of believers, and answers from Ezekiel 14:12-23, where the faithful also go into exile. He suggests the beasts of the earth in the Greek of Jeremiah 15:3 drew John to the passage. He discusses the variants and prefers the reading of codex Alexandrinus. Keener, the NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, the CSB Study Bible and the NIV Biblical Theology Study Bible all cite Jeremiah 15:2 and 43:11. The grade is drawn here: the pattern is Jeremiah's, nearly word for word.
Heiser reads Beale and McDonough: the saying combines Jeremiah 15:2 and 43:11, where Israel goes into exile for sin, and John applies it to believers persecuted for their witness. He sees the point: the people of God now suffer not for sin but under the beasts.
Keener reads the judgment here as falling on the nations who rebel against God, to encourage the martyrs. Beale and the NIV Biblical Theology Study Bible read it as the suffering of faithful believers. Vos, as Beale reports, thinks a scribe made the second line match Jeremiah. MacArthur reads it as telling believers under the Antichrist to bear persecution patiently and not resist it.
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- G. K. Beale, The Book of Revelation (New International Greek Testament Commentary), comment on 13:10
- Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, on Revelation 13:10
- NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, note on Revelation 13:10
- CSB Study Bible, cross-references at Revelation 13:10
- NIV Biblical Theology Study Bible, note on Revelation 13:10
- Septuagint, Jeremiah 15:2, Interlinear Greek-English Septuagint
- SBL Greek New Testament (MorphGNT), Revelation 13:10
- Michael S. Heiser, Revelation 13: The Two Beasts: From the Sea and the Earth, video lecture (Naked Bible Revelation series)
- John MacArthur, The MacArthur Study Bible (ESV), note on Revelation 13:10
