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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 18:23, all nations were deceived by your sorcery
Babylon's sorcery that deceived the nations recalls Isaiah 47:9, Babylon's spells, and Nahum 3:4, Nineveh the harlot who sold nations by her sorceries.
Revelation 18:23, in every translation this tool compares.
A con artist's charm works only until the trick is exposed. Isaiah told Babylon that her many spells and great enchantments would not save her. Nahum called Nineveh a harlot and mistress of sorceries who sold nations by her harlotry and peoples by her spells. John gives a second reason for Babylon's fall. By her sorcery every nation was led astray.
Sorcery (pharmakeia) that leads nations astray. The Greek of Nahum 3:4 has a harlot leading in potions (pharmakon), who sells nations by her harlotry and tribes by her potions. Isaiah 47:9 in Greek has in your sorcery (en te pharmakeia sou). Revelation 18:23 has by your sorcery (en te pharmakeia sou) all the nations were deceived.
Isaiah speaks of Babylon's magic that cannot save her; Nahum speaks of Nineveh selling nations. John joins them: Babylon's sorcery deceived nations. Nahum's sells becomes John's deceived. The NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible says Isaiah supplies the concept and Nahum the language.
Beale says the stress is on fooling people into idol worship, not on magic as such. Sorcery sits next to idols in 9:20-21 and next to harlotry in Nahum. Babylon is punished because she charmed the world into false worship and false security.
Not mainly about spells and potions. The sources read sorcery as the deceptive power that drew nations into idolatry. Keener allows love potions or pagan rites as part of the picture.
Beale says the wording of 18:23 comes from Isaiah 47:9, where ruin comes on Babylon in her sorcery, and Nahum 3:4, Nineveh skilled in sorcery, selling nations by her fornication and peoples by her sorceries. Nahum equates sorcery with fornication, and the Aramaic paraphrase renders she sells nations by her fornication as betraying nations with her idols. Qumran applied Nahum's Nineveh to Jerusalem's false teachers. Isaiah 47:9-10 ties sorcery to Babylon's trust in herself (I am, and there is no other), already used in 18:7-8, and Jezebel's harlotries and sorceries (2 Kings 9:22) link the harlot to 2:20-21. Keener cites Isaiah 47:8-9 and Nahum 3:4. The NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible says Isaiah supplies the concept and Nahum the language, and the NIV Biblical Theology Study Bible cites Nahum 3:4. The vault's Greek of Isaiah 47:9 reads en te pharmakeia sou, the same three words as John. The grade is drawn here: the phrase matches Isaiah's Greek, the picture Nahum's.
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- G. K. Beale, The Book of Revelation (New International Greek Testament Commentary), comment on 18:23c-d
- Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, on Revelation 18:23
- NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, note on Revelation 18:23
- NIV Biblical Theology Study Bible, note on Revelation 18:22-23
- Septuagint, Nahum 3:4 and Isaiah 47:9, Interlinear Greek-English Septuagint
- SBL Greek New Testament (MorphGNT), Revelation 18:23
