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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 14:3, a new song
The new song of the redeemed echoes the psalms' new song for God's victories.
Revelation 14:3, in every translation this tool compares.
A new anthem gets written after a great victory, and only those who lived through it know why it matters. The Psalms and Isaiah call for a new song to the Lord when he wins a victory or makes things new. John hears the redeemed sing a new song in front of God's throne. No one can learn it except the 144,000. It is a song only the rescued can sing.
A new song sung to God for his victory. John's oden kainen and the psalms' asma kainon both mean a new song.
The psalms call all the earth to sing the new song. In John only the 144,000 can learn it. John's word for song, ode, differs from the psalms' asma and Isaiah's hymnos in the Greek. The sources give no reason for the restriction beyond that only the redeemed know what they sing about.
Beale says the new song in the Old Testament always praised God's victory over the enemy. Here it praises his final victory over sin and the beast. The ESV Study Bible says only those redeemed by the Lamb can sing it.
Not a quotation of one psalm. The new song appears in several psalms and in Isaiah, so John echoes a familiar phrase.
Beale lists the new song in Psalms 33:3, 40:3, 96:1, 98:1, 144:9 and 149:1 and Isaiah 42:10, and notes Jewish texts applied it to the Messiah's coming and the world to come. He ties 14:2-3 to 5:9 and 15:3. The ESV Study Bible cites Psalms 96:1, 98:1 and 144:9. The NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible and the NIV Biblical Theology Study Bible refer back to their notes on 5:9. In the vault's Septuagint Psalm 96:1 has asma kainon and Isaiah 42:10 hymnon kainon. The grade is drawn here as possible: the phrase is common.
The CSB Study Bible says this song differs from the song of 5:9-10, since only the 144,000 can learn it. Beale links the two. MacArthur hears all the redeemed singing it together in one great choir.
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- G. K. Beale, The Book of Revelation (New International Greek Testament Commentary), comment on 14:2-3
- ESV Study Bible, note on Revelation 14:3
- CSB Study Bible, note on Revelation 14:1-5
- NIV Biblical Theology Study Bible, note on Revelation 14:3
- Septuagint, Psalm 96:1 and Isaiah 42:10, Interlinear Greek-English Septuagint
- SBL Greek New Testament (MorphGNT), Revelation 14:3
- John MacArthur, The MacArthur Study Bible (ESV), note on Revelation 14:3
