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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 15:6, angels in linen with golden sashes
The seven angels wear linen and gold sashes like the man in linen of Daniel 10 and the Son of Man in Revelation 1.
Revelation 15:6, in every translation this tool compares.
When the waiters in a famous restaurant wear the chef's jacket, diners know whose kitchen they serve. Daniel saw a man by the river dressed in linen, with gold around his waist. Ezekiel saw a man in linen among the angels sent to punish Jerusalem. John's seven angels come out of the temple in clean, shining linen with gold sashes across the chest, dressed like Jesus in 1:13. They are priests of the heavenly temple, sent out to judge.
Linen and gold around the body. Daniel 10:5 has a man clothed in linen (baddin in the Greek) and girded with gold. Revelation 15:6 has angels clothed in linen (linon), girded around the chest with gold sashes (zonas chrysas), almost the words used of the Son of Man in 1:13.
Daniel has one man, girded at the waist; John has seven angels with sashes across the chest. Some early copies read stone (lithon) instead of linen (linon). Beale thinks stone may be original, which would recall the jeweled covering in Ezekiel 28:13. Ezekiel 9:2 supplies a man in linen among six destroyers, but in the Greek his belt is of sapphire, not gold.
Beale says the shared clothing makes the angels Christ's agents: they carry out the judgment of the figure in 1:13. Their priestly dress fits their work in the heavenly temple. Ezekiel 9 adds the setting of angels sent out from God's house to judge.
Not a sign that the angels are Christ. They share his clothing because they act for him. Beale calls them his representatives.
Beale says the description is almost identical to the Son of Man's in 1:13 and that both allude to the Greek of Daniel 10:5, 16, which he sets beside 1:13 and 15:6. He weighs a textual problem: stone (lithon) has strong support (A, C, 2053, 2062), while linen (linon or linoun) has p47 and Sinaiticus. He judges stone the harder reading and possibly original, recalling Ezekiel 28:13, where the guardian cherub is covered with stone, or the high priest's breastplate; Metzger, as Beale reports, thinks stone a copying slip. The word pure is used of the gold on the high priest's ephod in Exodus 28. Keener notes that Jewish texts dressed both angels and priests in white linen. The NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible compares the priestly sash of Exodus 39:8, and the ESV Study Bible and the NIV Biblical Theology Study Bible cite Daniel 10:5, the latter adding Leviticus 16:4. The grade is drawn here: the picture is traceable to Daniel 10 through Revelation 1.
Heiser says the angels' clothing is drawn from Levitical priestly garments, and lists Ezekiel 9:2-3, 9:11, 10:2, Daniel 10:5 and 12:6-7. He recalls his earlier suggestion that the 144,000, described in priestly terms, may be a priestly class set against the Watchers, and says some of that could be in play here too. He offers that second point loosely.
The sources split over the text. The SBL Greek text and most translations read linen, and Metzger, as Beale reports, calls stone a copying error that makes no sense. Beale argues stone is the harder and perhaps original reading, linked to Ezekiel 28:13. Either way the sources agree the angels are dressed as priests.
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- G. K. Beale, The Book of Revelation (New International Greek Testament Commentary), comment on 15:6 and The Attire of the Seven Angels
- Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, on Revelation 15:6
- NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, note on Revelation 15:6
- ESV Study Bible, note on Revelation 15:6
- NIV Biblical Theology Study Bible, note on Revelation 15:6
- Septuagint, Daniel 10:5 and Ezekiel 9:2, Interlinear Greek-English Septuagint
- SBL Greek New Testament (MorphGNT), Revelation 15:6
- Michael S. Heiser, Revelation 15-16: The Seven Angels, Seven Plagues, Seven Bowls of God's Wrath, video lecture (Naked Bible Revelation series)
