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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 21:23, no need of sun or moon
The city needs no sun or moon because God's glory lights it, taken from Isaiah 60:19-20, with the Lamb as its lamp.
Revelation 21:23, in every translation this tool compares.
A stage lit from within the set needs no spotlights over the audience. Isaiah 60 told Jerusalem that one day the sun and moon would no longer be her light. The Lord would be her light forever, and her God her glory. John sees exactly this. The city does not need sun or moon. God's glory lights it. Then John adds his own line: the Lamb is its lamp.
No need of the sun or the moon, because God is the city's light. Isaiah 60:19 names the sun and the moon (helios, selene) and the Lord as everlasting light; John names helios and selene and the glory of God.
Isaiah's last line makes God the city's beauty. John replaces it with the Lamb is its lamp. Beale says the swap puts the Lamb beside God as the source of light, a mark of his deity. Isaiah says the sun will not be for light by day; John says the city has no need of it.
Beale and the ESV Study Bible read the light as God's presence, with Christ as the one through whom it shines. The same promise returns in 22:5, where there is no night. It also explains 21:25: the gates never close, because night never comes.
Not a claim that the sun is destroyed. The city has no need of it; Beale reads the point as God's glory being enough to make his people glorious.
Isaiah 60:19 in Hebrew reads lo yihyeh lach od hashemesh le'or yomam … vehayah lach YHWH le'or olam velohayich letif'artech: the sun stops being the daytime light, and the Lord becomes a light that lasts forever. The Greek follows closely. Revelation reads he polis ou chreian echei tou heliou oude tes selenes … he gar doxa tou theou ephotisen auten, kai ho lychnos autes to arnion. Beale says the wording of the whole verse is based directly on Isaiah 60:19, with Isaiah 24:23 perhaps in mind too, and that 4 Ezra 7:39-42 also alludes to Isaiah 60:19. Later Jewish writers, he notes, said the light of Isaiah 60:19 first shone in Eden. Keener says the line is taken directly from Isaiah 60:19-20. The NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, the ESV Study Bible and the NIV Biblical Theology Study Bible agree. Beale lists 21:23-26 among the clear allusions to Isaiah.
The sources agree on Isaiah 60:19-20. The CSB Study Bible adds Isaiah 24:23, 30:26 and Zechariah 14:6-7. The CSB Study Bible also reads the light against Genesis 1:3, where light came before the sun and moon were made.
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- G. K. Beale, The Book of Revelation (New International Greek Testament Commentary), comment on 21:11 and 21:23
- Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, on Revelation 21:23
- NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, note on Revelation 21:23
- ESV Study Bible, note on Revelation 21:23
- NIV Biblical Theology Study Bible, note on Revelation 21:23
- CSB Study Bible, note and cross-references on Revelation 21:22-27
- Septuagint, Isaiah 60:19, Interlinear Greek-English Septuagint
- Hebrew text of Isaiah 60:19, Miqra according to the Masorah (Sefaria)
- SBL Greek New Testament (MorphGNT), Revelation 21:23
