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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 16:1, a loud voice from the temple
The voice from the temple that starts and ends the bowls recalls Isaiah 66:6, the voice of the Lord from the temple repaying his enemies.
Revelation 16:1; Revelation 16:17, in every translation this tool compares.
A whistle from the referee's booth tells everyone the call comes from the top. Isaiah hears a voice from the temple, and it belongs to the Lord, who is repaying his enemies. John hears a great voice ring out of the temple, telling the seven angels to go and pour out their bowls. When the seventh bowl falls, a voice from the temple and the throne says, It is done. The bowls start and end with God's own word.
A voice that comes out of the temple and announces judgment. The Greek of Isaiah 66:6 has a voice from the temple (phone ek naou), the voice of the Lord repaying his adversaries. Revelation 16:1 has a great voice from the temple (megales phones ek tou naou). In 16:17 the great voice comes from the temple and the throne.
Isaiah hears three sounds: from the city, from the temple, from the Lord. John hears one loud voice and does not name the speaker. Beale thinks it is God's, since it comes from the temple God has just filled (15:8). In Isaiah the voice repays enemies directly; in John it sends angels with bowls. Many copies change from the temple to from heaven, Beale notes.
The judgments are God's decision, not the angels' and not Satan's. Beale says the Isaiah background points to God as the speaker. The same voice that starts the bowls ends them at 16:17, so the whole series is framed by God's command.
Not Isaiah's three sounds. Isaiah hears three: the city, the temple and the Lord himself. John hears one great voice and does not name who speaks.
Beale says God as speaker is suggested by the allusion to Isaiah 66:6, where the Lord's voice sounds from the temple as he repays his enemies, which the Midrash on Psalms (18.11) applies to the judgment of Rome. The command to pour out God's wrath uses a stock Greek Old Testament phrase for judgment (Ezekiel 14:19; Jeremiah 10:25; Zephaniah 3:8), and Beale sets Jeremiah 10:25, pour out your rage on the nations, beside 16:1. He thinks Psalm 79:6, 12 may also have shaped the verse, since 16:6 alludes to the same psalm. Keener says the Old Testament commonly speaks of pouring out wrath, especially in Jeremiah and Ezekiel. Beale also hears the priest pouring out blood at the altar in Leviticus 4: as that cleansed the tent, the bowls cleanse the earth. On the text, he notes that scribes changed from the temple to from heaven because the temple seemed odd. The CSB Study Bible's cross-references cite Isaiah 66:6 at 16:17. The grade is drawn here: the wording is close and the setting the same, but the phrase is short.
Keener treats pour out wrath as common prophetic language with no single source. Beale names Jeremiah 10:25 and Psalm 79:6 for that phrase and Isaiah 66:6 for the voice. Some interpreters, Beale reports, take the speaker as an angel or a cherub; he prefers God or Christ. MacArthur, at 16:17, takes the voice from the temple as God's own.
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- G. K. Beale, The Book of Revelation (New International Greek Testament Commentary), comment on 16:1 and 16:17
- Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, on Revelation 16:1
- CSB Study Bible, note on Revelation 16:1 and cross-references at 16:17
- Septuagint, Isaiah 66:6 and Jeremiah 10:25, Interlinear Greek-English Septuagint
- SBL Greek New Testament (MorphGNT), Revelation 16:1 and 16:17
- John MacArthur, The MacArthur Study Bible (ESV), note on Revelation 16:17
