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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 21:19-20, the twelve stones of the foundations
The twelve foundation stones follow the twelve stones on the high priest's breastpiece in Exodus 28:17-20, with a likely glance at the stones of Eden in Ezekiel 28:13.
Revelation 21:19-20, in every translation this tool compares.
A team that wears the founders' colors on a new kit is saying it carries the same story. The high priest wore a breastpiece with twelve stones in four rows. Each stone bore the name of a tribe of Israel. John lists twelve stones for the city's foundations, and most of them match that breastpiece. The foundations carry the apostles' names. So the stones that once stood for Israel's tribes now hold up the whole people of God.
Twelve precious stones, set out in an ordered list, standing for God's people. Eight of the Exodus 28:17-20 stones reappear in John's list, Beale says, and the others are equivalents. Jasper, sapphire and emerald appear in both.
John lists the stones in a different order from Exodus. He puts them on the city's foundations, not on a priest's chest. In Exodus the stones bear the tribes' names; in John the foundations bear the apostles' names. The gem list of Ezekiel 28:13, describing Eden's splendor, also overlaps with John's.
The high priest carried Israel's names into God's presence. Now the whole people stands there, built into the city. Beale reads it as the priesthood of all believers made final, as 22:3-4 will say. If Ezekiel 28 is in view too, the city is also Eden restored, the first garden on God's mountain.
Not the high priest's list copied out. Eight of John's twelve stones appear on the breastpiece of Exodus 28, Beale and MacArthur note. The rest differ in name.
Beale says the jewel list is based on Exodus 28:17-20 and 39:8-14, the breastpiece of judgment. Josephus gives the breastpiece stones in two other orders, so a new order does not rule out the allusion. Each stone bore a tribe's name (Exodus 28:21). In Revelation 21:19 the first foundation is iaspis, the second sappheiros, the third chalkedon, the fourth smaragdos. Beale also finds Ezekiel 28:13 partly in mind: its Greek lists eleven of the Exodus stones in nearly the same order, and it pictures a perfect figure in Eden, the garden on God's mountain. He links 1 Kings 7:9-10, where Solomon laid the temple's foundation with costly stones. The ESV Study Bible and the NIV Biblical Theology Study Bible name both Exodus 28 and Ezekiel 28:13. The NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible counts nine stones shared by both lists. The grade is drawn here: twelve named stones standing for God's people point to the breastpiece.
Heiser reads the stones against Ezekiel 28, not the breastpiece. In Unseen Realm, he says, he compared the lists: the stones of Ezekiel 28:13 match John's, while the high priest's list does not fit as well. So the gems describe a place, God's cosmic home in Eden, not a person. John describes the new Jerusalem in Eden terms on purpose. He cites Beale that Ezekiel 28:14 and 16 set Eden on a mountain of precious stones.
Which list? Beale, Keener and the CSB Study Bible make Exodus 28 the main source, and MacArthur finds eight of the twelve on the breastpiece; Keener thinks Ezekiel 28:13 informs 17:4 rather than this list. Heiser argues the opposite: the match is with Ezekiel 28 and its Eden, not the high priest. The ESV Study Bible, the NIV Biblical Theology Study Bible and the NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible hold both together. Some ancient writers tied the breastpiece stones to the twelve signs of the zodiac; Keener says John avoids those links, and Beale doubts the pagan lists ever existed.
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- G. K. Beale, The Book of Revelation (New International Greek Testament Commentary), comment on 21:18-20, and The Old Testament Background of Ezekiel 28
- Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, on Revelation 21:19-20
- NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, notes on Revelation 21:14 and 21:19-21
- ESV Study Bible, note on Revelation 21:19-21
- NIV Biblical Theology Study Bible, note on Revelation 21:19-21
- CSB Study Bible, cross-references on Revelation 21:19
- Septuagint, Exodus 28:17, Interlinear Greek-English Septuagint
- SBL Greek New Testament (MorphGNT), Revelation 21:19-20
- Michael S. Heiser, Revelation 21-22: The New Heaven and the New Earth, video lecture (Naked Bible Revelation series)
- John MacArthur, The MacArthur Study Bible (ESV), note on Revelation 21:19-20
