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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 2:1, these are the words of
Each of the seven letters opens with the stock line the prophets used before a word from the Lord, now spoken by Jesus.
Revelation 2:1, in every translation this tool compares.
A press release that opens with the old royal formula tells you who is speaking before you read a word. Each letter in Revelation 2 and 3 opens with one stock line. The Greek is tade legei, the line Amos, Zechariah and Ezekiel used to say the Lord was speaking. John puts Jesus in that place. The letters are prophecy, and the speaker takes the Lord's own part.
The opening words, tade legei, these things says. The Greek of Amos 1:6 and Zechariah 1:3 opens a word from God the same way. In the prophets the Lord is the speaker; in Revelation the speaker is the risen Jesus.
In the prophets the formula is followed by the Lord, or the Lord of hosts. In the letters it is followed by a picture of Jesus taken from chapter 1. No single verse stands behind it, since the line opens dozens of oracles. The ESV Study Bible adds that kings used the same line for their decrees.
John sets Jesus in the seat of the God who spoke through the prophets. Beale draws two points. Christ takes up the role of the Lord. And the seven letters are prophetic messages, not ordinary mail.
Not a quotation of one prophet. The line was a common way to open an oracle, so the echo is to a habit of speech.
Beale counts the formula tade legei kyrios pantokrator, these things says the Lord Almighty, 21 times in the Minor Prophets, about 12 of them in Zechariah, where it opens a new unit as here. The shorter tade legei kyrios opens sayings at least 65 times in Ezekiel, about 30 in Jeremiah and 8 in Amos. The vault's Septuagint confirms the wording in Amos 1:6 and Zechariah 1:3, which are cited here as two examples; the choice of those two verses is drawn here. Keener notes that prophets borrowed the formula from royal edicts and messenger speech, and the ESV Study Bible gives 2 Chronicles 36:23 for the royal use. The grade is possible because the language is only generally like many texts.
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- G. K. Beale, The Book of Revelation (New International Greek Testament Commentary), comment on 2:1-3
- Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, on Revelation 2:1
- ESV Study Bible, note on Revelation 2:1
- Septuagint, Amos 1:6 and Zechariah 1:3, Interlinear Greek-English Septuagint
- SBL Greek New Testament (MorphGNT), Revelation 2:1
