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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 20:9, the camp of the saints and the beloved city
The besieged people are called a camp, like Israel's wilderness camp with God in its midst, and the beloved city, the Zion the Lord loves in Psalm 87.
Revelation 20:9, in every translation this tool compares.
Calling a team the home side tells you whose ground it is, wherever the game is played. The armies surround the camp of the saints and the beloved city. Israel in the wilderness lived in a camp with God among them. Psalm 87 says God loves Zion's gates more than any other dwelling. John gives both names to God's people under attack.
A city the Lord loves. The Greek of Psalm 87:2 (86 in the Greek numbering) has agapa kyrios, the Lord loves. John has ten polin ten egapemenen, the city that is loved. A camp (parembole) is the word for Israel's wilderness encampment.
The psalm speaks of the gates of Zion and the dwellings of Jacob. John says only the beloved city and never names Jerusalem or Zion. Deuteronomy's camp is Israel's tribes around the tabernacle; John's is the saints, a name he uses for believers from every nation.
Beale reads both names as the church throughout the world. It is a people in the wilderness with God among them. It is also the true Zion. If the psalm is in view, the point is stronger. Psalm 87 counts people of other nations as born in Zion.
Not a certain echo. Beale says the phrase may echo Psalm 87, and the NIV Biblical Theology Study Bible gives it only as a comparison.
Beale says the beloved city may echo Psalm 87:2-3, the Lord loving the gates of Zion, the city of God (compare Psalm 122:6; Isaiah 66:10; Zephaniah 3:14-17), and notes beloved city in Sirach 24:11. The Hebrew of 87:2 is ohev YHWH sha'arei tsiyyon. For the camp he points to Israel's wilderness encampment and above all Deuteronomy 23:14, where God walks in the midst of the camp to rescue and to defeat enemies, so the camp must be holy; the Qumran War Scroll projects that camp into the last battle. The NIV Biblical Theology Study Bible gives Psalms 78:68 and 87:2 for the city and Exodus 16:13 and 33:7 for the camp. Keener and the NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible both compare Israel in the wilderness. The grade is possible: the wording is generally similar, and two sources name the psalm.
The CSB Study Bible reads the beloved city as Jerusalem renewed for the thousand-year reign. MacArthur, who also cites Psalm 87:2, reads it as Jerusalem, the seat of that reign. Beale, the NIV Biblical Theology Study Bible and Wright read it as the people of God, the pilgrim church. The NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible notes camp is military language and could recall either the exodus or a unit of war.
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- G. K. Beale, The Book of Revelation (New International Greek Testament Commentary), comment on 20:9
- NIV Biblical Theology Study Bible, note on Revelation 20:9
- NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, note on Revelation 20:9
- Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, on Revelation 20:9
- CSB Study Bible, note on Revelation 20:7-10
- N. T. Wright, Revelation for Everyone, comment on Revelation 20:7-15
- Septuagint, Psalm 87:2, Interlinear Greek-English Septuagint
- Hebrew text of Psalm 87:2, Miqra according to the Masorah (Sefaria)
- SBL Greek New Testament (MorphGNT), Revelation 20:9
- John MacArthur, The MacArthur Study Bible (ESV), note on Revelation 20:9
