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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 14:10, the cup of God's wrath
Whoever worships the beast will drink God's wine, mixed undiluted in the cup of his anger, the cup of the Psalms and Jeremiah.
Revelation 14:10, in every translation this tool compares.
People who pour drinks for others may one day be handed a stronger one. Psalm 75 says the Lord holds a cup of strong wine. The wicked of the earth must drink it to the dregs. In Jeremiah 25 God tells the prophet to pass his cup of anger to the nations. John's third angel says the beast's worshipers will drink God's own wine, full strength, from that cup.
God's cup of wine given to the wicked as judgment. The Greek of Psalm 75:8 and Jeremiah 25:15 both call it unmixed wine, akratos, the word John uses. Isaiah 51:17 has the cup of his wrath, tou thymou autou.
John writes mixed unmixed, kekerasmenou akratou, a phrase that sounds like a contradiction; Beale says it means prepared at full strength. In Isaiah the cup is taken from Jerusalem's hand and given to her tormentors; here it goes to the beast's worshipers. John adds fire, sulfur and the presence of the Lamb.
The punishment fits the crime. Those who drank Babylon's wine (verse 8) now drink God's. Beale says Babylon's wine numbed them for a while; God's wine makes them submit to his judgment for good.
Not a picture of God getting people drunk for fun. In the Old Testament texts the cup is a standard image of judgment that crushes the proud.
Beale says the image is inspired by the wording of Psalm 75:8, Jeremiah 25:15 and Jeremiah 51:7, which Jewish interpreters grouped and applied to the wicked in the age to come (Midrash Rabbah on Genesis 88.5). He lists Psalm 60:3, Isaiah 51:17, 21-23 and 63:6 too. He reads mixed unmixed as an allusion to the unmixed cup of Jeremiah 25:15 and Psalm 75:8 in the Greek. In the vault's Septuagint, Psalm 75:8 reads a cup of undiluted wine, full of mixture. Keener, the NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, the CSB Study Bible and the NIV Biblical Theology Study Bible cite Psalm 75:8 and Jeremiah 25:15. The grade is drawn here: akratos and the cup together point to these texts.
Heiser reads Beale and McDonough on the cup: Psalm 75:8 and Jeremiah 25:15 and 51:7 in particular, grouped by Jewish tradition. He then says the verse does not settle the debate between eternal torment and annihilation. It is apocalyptic language from the same texts, and both views, he says, remain on the table.
Beale holds that verses 10-11 teach eternal conscious punishment. Heiser says the apocalyptic language can support either view. The ESV Study Bible says the wicked are not annihilated. Keener notes that the text does not stop people repenting before death.
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- G. K. Beale, The Book of Revelation (New International Greek Testament Commentary), comment on 14:10
- Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, on Revelation 14:9-10
- NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, note on Revelation 14:10
- CSB Study Bible, cross-references at Revelation 14:10
- NIV Biblical Theology Study Bible, note on Revelation 14:10
- ESV Study Bible, note on Revelation 14:9-11
- Septuagint, Psalm 75:8, Jeremiah 25:15 and Isaiah 51:17, Interlinear Greek-English Septuagint
- SBL Greek New Testament (MorphGNT), Revelation 14:10
- Michael S. Heiser, Revelation 14: The Lamb, the 144,000, and the Harvest of the Earth, video lecture (Naked Bible Revelation series)
