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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 20:11, a great white throne
The great white throne and the one seated on it recall the throne of the Ancient of Days in Daniel 7:9, whose robe is white as snow and before whom the books are opened.
Revelation 20:11, in every translation this tool compares.
When the clerk calls the room to rise, everyone knows the judge is coming in. In Daniel 7 the Ancient of Days takes his seat on a blazing throne, dressed in white. Then the court sits and the books are opened. John sees a great white throne and one seated on it. As in Daniel, the books are opened next, and the dead are judged.
A throne in heaven, one seated on it, white as a mark of the judge's purity, and books opened next. Daniel 7:9 has the Ancient of Days sitting, his clothing white (leukon); John has a white throne (thronon megan leukon).
In Daniel the clothing and the hair are white and the throne is fire. John moves the white to the throne and calls it great. Daniel sets up many thrones; John sees one. John does not name the one seated, though Beale thinks it is God, as the Ancient of Days.
The throne of chapters 4 and 5 returns for the last judgment. Beale reads it as the climax of every earlier judgment in the book. Its whiteness signals that the verdict will punish evil and vindicate God's persecuted people.
Not a new throne. The great white throne takes up the throne of Daniel 7:9 and the throne room of chapters 4 and 5, now set for the last judgment.
Beale ties the vision to 4:2 and 5:7, where God's throne alludes chiefly to Daniel 7:9 and Ezekiel 1:26-28, and that Daniel 7 is again in view here, because the books of Daniel 7:10 are opened next. He reads the white as holiness and vindication, compares God's alabaster throne in 1 Enoch 18 and the white clothing of Daniel 7:9, 1 Enoch 14 and 3 Enoch 28, and notes Jesus could also be the one seated (22:1-3; Matthew 25:31). The ESV Study Bible links the throne to the Ancient of Days and his purity; the NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible says Jewish traditions describing the day of judgment before a throne sometimes follow Daniel 7:9. The grade is drawn here: the throne with books following is traceable to Daniel 7.
The CSB Study Bible says the dead here rise in a second resurrection implied in 20:5. Beale and the ESV Study Bible see all the dead before the throne, great and small, with the book of life sparing the faithful. MacArthur reads it as the judgment of unbelievers of every age only, held between the end of the present universe and the new creation. Heiser reads 20:11-15 as the same general resurrection seen from the side of judgment.
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- G. K. Beale, The Book of Revelation (New International Greek Testament Commentary), comment on 20:11
- ESV Study Bible, notes on Revelation 20:11 and 20:13
- NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, note on Revelation 20:11
- CSB Study Bible, note on Revelation 20:11-15
- Septuagint, Daniel 7:9, Interlinear Greek-English Septuagint
- SBL Greek New Testament (MorphGNT), Revelation 20:11
- Michael S. Heiser, Revelation 20: Satan's Final Defeat and the Great White Throne Judgment, video lecture (Naked Bible Revelation series)
- John MacArthur, The MacArthur Study Bible (ESV), note on Revelation 20:11-15
