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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 19:9, the marriage supper of the Lamb
The blessing on those invited to the Lamb's wedding supper takes up Isaiah 25:6-8, the feast God makes for all peoples on his mountain, where death is swallowed up.
Revelation 19:9, in every translation this tool compares.
An invitation that names the old family table, not the restaurant, tells guests what kind of dinner it will be. Isaiah 25 promises a great feast that God will host on his mountain for all peoples. At that meal he swallows up death and wipes away tears. Revelation 19 pronounces a blessing on the guests called to the Lamb's wedding meal. The study Bibles hear Isaiah's banquet here.
A feast hosted by God at the end of the age, for guests from every people. Isaiah 25:6 speaks of a banquet for all the nations; John speaks of the guests at the Lamb's supper (deipnon).
Isaiah's feast is rich food and aged wine. John names no food at all. Isaiah has no wedding; John makes it the Lamb's marriage. Isaiah has God as host. John has the Lamb as groom. The wedding picture comes from other texts the sources name, such as Isaiah 54 and 62 and Hosea 2, and from Jesus' parables.
The long promise of a meal with God at the end now has a date and a host. Wright joins two old hopes here: Israel as God's bride and God's feast for all. The guests are believers from every nation, the NIV Biblical Theology Study Bible says. The supper of verse 17 is its grim opposite.
Not the same meal as the great supper of God in verse 17. That one is a feast of birds on the defeated. Heiser and Beale both set the two side by side as opposites.
Beale says the end-time banquet of Isaiah 25:6-7 and 65:13-17 is perhaps echoed, together with the wedding parable of Matthew 22:1-14. Keener is firmer: the banquet here is from Isaiah 25:6. He adds that in Isaiah 25:9 God's people say let us rejoice and be glad, close to 19:7. The ESV Study Bible and the NIV Biblical Theology Study Bible cite Isaiah 25:6-9, and Wright cites Isaiah 25:6-10. The NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible says the wedding banquet was a common Jewish picture of the messianic age, and that later teachers even served Leviathan at it. In the vault's Septuagint, Isaiah 25:6 says the Lord shall make a feast for all the nations on this mountain. The grade is drawn here by Beale's definitions: no shared words, but a God-hosted feast for all peoples at the end traces to Isaiah 25.
Heiser places the marriage supper at the end of the Bible's long story of meals with God, from Eden's tree of life to Abraham's meal in Genesis 18 and the elders on Sinai in Exodus 24. After Brant Pitre, he calls Isaiah 24 to 27 the fullest Old Testament end-time banquet. It is on Zion, for all peoples, and death is swallowed up (25:8). The elders of 24:23 he reads as the divine council. He sets this meal against the supper of 19:17, where birds eat the defeated. He places the actual wedding supper in the new Eden.
Beale grades the Isaiah link with perhaps; Keener says the banquet is from Isaiah 25:6. On the wedding theme, Heiser after Smith names Isaiah 54:5 to 55:5, Wright names Isaiah 54 and 55, and Beale names Isaiah 62 and Hosea 2. MacArthur separates the guests from the bride. The bride is the church; the guests are believers from before Pentecost, with saints of the tribulation, and he calls it a difference of picture, not of standing.
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- G. K. Beale, The Book of Revelation (New International Greek Testament Commentary), comment on 19:9
- Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, on Revelation 19:7 and 19:9
- NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, note on Revelation 19:7
- ESV Study Bible, note on Revelation 19:9-10
- NIV Biblical Theology Study Bible, note on Revelation 19:9
- N. T. Wright, Revelation for Everyone, comment on Revelation 19:1-10
- Septuagint, Isaiah 25:6-8, Interlinear Greek-English Septuagint
- SBL Greek New Testament (MorphGNT), Revelation 19:9
- Michael S. Heiser, Revelation 19: The Rider on the White Horse, video lecture (Naked Bible Revelation series)
- John MacArthur, The MacArthur Study Bible (ESV), note on Revelation 19:9
