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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 21:11, having the glory of God
The city shines with God's glory, from Isaiah 60's promise that the Lord's glory would rise on Jerusalem and Ezekiel 43's glory returning to the temple.
Revelation 21:11, in every translation this tool compares.
A lamp in a window can make a plain house look like the brightest one on the street. Isaiah 60 tells Jerusalem to shine, since the Lord's glory has dawned over her. In Ezekiel 43 God's glory comes back to the temple and the earth shines with it. John sees the holy city shining with the glory of God, like a rare jewel. The light is not the city's own. It is God's presence.
The glory of God (he doxa tou theou) resting on the end-time city and making it shine. The Greek of Isaiah 60:1 has he doxa kyriou risen on Jerusalem; Ezekiel 43:2 has the earth shining with God's glory.
Isaiah has the glory of the Lord; John has the glory of God. Isaiah speaks of light rising on the city; John compares the city's brilliance to jasper as bright as crystal, a picture neither prophet uses here. Ezekiel's glory fills a temple; John's fills a city with no temple.
Beale reads the glory as God's own presence, once kept inside the temple, now resting on his people, who are both the city and the temple. The glory is the bride's adornment from verse 2. The jasper also ties the city back to the throne room of 4:3, where God shines like jasper.
Not glory the city earns. Beale stresses that the bride's brightness is God's glory reflected in his people.
Beale says that, given the clear allusions to Isaiah 40-66 in this vision, the glory of God must come from Isaiah 58:8 and 60:1-2, 19, where the Lord's glory dwells in the latter-day Jerusalem. The Greek of Isaiah 60:1 reads photizou, photizou, Ierousalem, hekei gar sou to phos, kai he doxa kyriou epi se anatetalken. Beale adds that the shining also continues the allusion to Ezekiel 43:2, 4-5, where the glory enters the new temple and the earth shines. Revelation reads echousan ten doxan tou theou, ho phoster autes homoios litho timiotato. Beale compares phoster, luminary, with Daniel 12:3 in Greek, where the wise shine as lights. Keener cites Isaiah 60:1-3; the NIV Biblical Theology Study Bible cites Isaiah 60:1 and Ezekiel 43:5. The grade is drawn here: the idea is distinctive to these texts, but the wording is short and general.
Heiser reads with Beale here: the city having the glory of God and shining like jasper continues the allusion to Ezekiel 43, where the glory enters the new temple and the earth shines. Isaiah, Ezekiel and Revelation, he says, all use the same bright gem language for the place where God is.
Beale gives Isaiah 60 the lead and Ezekiel 43 a supporting part. Heiser, after Beale and McDonough, foregrounds Ezekiel 43. The ESV Study Bible links the jasper only to Revelation 4:3 and names no Old Testament text.
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- G. K. Beale, The Book of Revelation (New International Greek Testament Commentary), comment on 21:11
- Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, on Revelation 21:11
- NIV Biblical Theology Study Bible, note on Revelation 21:11
- CSB Study Bible, cross-references on Revelation 21:11
- Septuagint, Isaiah 60:1 and Ezekiel 43:2, Interlinear Greek-English Septuagint
- SBL Greek New Testament (MorphGNT), Revelation 21:11
- Michael S. Heiser, Revelation 21-22: The New Heaven and the New Earth, video lecture (Naked Bible Revelation series)
