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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 17:3, carried away in the Spirit
The angel carries John away in the Spirit, in the words that describe Ezekiel being lifted and carried by the Spirit to see visions.
Revelation 17:3, in every translation this tool compares.
A new reporter who uses the paper's old byline is claiming the same beat. Ezekiel says the Spirit lifted him and carried him off to see visions of God, often visions of judgment. John says the angel took him, in the Spirit, to a desert place. He tells his call in Ezekiel's words, and what he sees next is judgment on Babylon.
A prophet carried off by the Spirit to see a vision. The Greek of Ezekiel 11:24 says the Spirit took him up and led him, in a vision, by God's Spirit (en pneumati theou). Revelation 17:3 says he carried me away in the Spirit (en pneumati). Ezekiel 3:12 has the Spirit taking him up.
In Ezekiel the Spirit itself lifts the prophet; in Revelation the angel carries John, and the Spirit is the sphere. Ezekiel is taken to the exiles or to Jerusalem's temple; John is taken to a wilderness. The same formula returns in 21:10, where John is carried to a high mountain to see the bride, the opposite of this scene.
Beale reads the words as a claim to speak for God, like the times Ezekiel was sent to warn of judgment. As with Ezekiel, John's message here is judgment. The ESV Study Bible and the NIV Biblical Theology Study Bible note that it opens a new vision.
Not a physical trip. John is taken in a vision, as Ezekiel was.
Beale says the angel carried John in and by the Spirit to another dimension to view the vision, a formula of prophetic commission based on Ezekiel's repeated commissions (Ezekiel 2:2; 3:12, 14, 24; 11:1; 43:5). In each, except 43:5, Ezekiel is sent with authority to announce judgment on Israel, and John's message here is likewise judgment. He links 1:10, 4:2 and especially 21:10, which uses Ezekiel in the same way. Keener cites Ezekiel 8:3 and 11:1, 24 for being carried away in visions by the Spirit. The NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible cites Ezekiel 8:3; 11:1, 24, the ESV Study Bible Ezekiel 3:12 and 11:24, and the CSB Study Bible's cross-references list Ezekiel 8:3 and 11:24. The grade is drawn here: the formula is Ezekiel's, the wording close.
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- G. K. Beale, The Book of Revelation (New International Greek Testament Commentary), comment on 17:3a
- Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, on Revelation 17:3
- NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, note on Revelation 17:3
- ESV Study Bible, note on Revelation 17:3
- CSB Study Bible, cross-references at Revelation 17:3
- NIV Biblical Theology Study Bible, note on Revelation 17:3
- Septuagint, Ezekiel 3:12 and 11:24, Interlinear Greek-English Septuagint
- SBL Greek New Testament (MorphGNT), Revelation 17:3
