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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 21:4, no more mourning, crying or pain
The list of what will be gone draws on Isaiah 35:10, 51:11 and 65:19, where grief and the sound of weeping flee from the redeemed.
Revelation 21:4, in every translation this tool compares.
When a hospital ward finally closes because no one is sick, the empty beds say more than the doctors can. Isaiah promised that those God rescues will come home singing, and that grief and groaning will run away. In Isaiah 65 no sound of weeping or crying is heard in the new Jerusalem. John gathers these into one line. No mourning, no crying, no pain, because the first things have gone.
A list of sorrows that will no longer exist when God restores his people. Isaiah 65:19 in Greek has no longer a voice of krauge, crying, and John has krauge too. The phrase the first things echoes the former things of Isaiah 65:17.
The Hebrew of Isaiah 35:10 and 51:11 names two things that flee, sorrow and sighing. The Greek translation and John both have three. John's three words differ from the Greek's, though Beale calls them synonyms. Isaiah says the sorrows flee away; John says they will not be any longer, a formula Beale traces to Isaiah 65:19-20. John adds death to the list.
In Isaiah these lines describe exiles coming home to Zion. John uses them for the whole redeemed people in the new creation. The line ends with the reason: the first things have passed away. That closes the frame opened in verse 1, where the first heaven and earth passed away.
Not one verse quoted. John blends at least three Isaiah texts into a single sentence of his own, as Beale and Keener both show.
Beale sets out the pieces. Isaiah 35:10 and 51:11 promise everlasting joy when grief and groaning flee; in the Greek, odyne kai lype kai stenagmos, pain and grief and groaning, ran away. Revelation has penthos, krauge and ponos, mourning, crying and pain. Isaiah 65:19 in Greek reads ouketi me akousthe en aute phone klauthmou oude phone krauges, no longer will be heard in her the voice of weeping nor the voice of crying. Isaiah 65:20 continues with no longer will there be, the shape of John's ouk estai eti. Beale also hears Isaiah 60:20, the days of mourning ended. The closing ta prota apelthan, the first things passed away, recalls Isaiah 65:17 and 43:18. Beale lists 21:4 among the clear allusions to Isaiah in this vision. Keener names Isaiah 25:8, 35:10, 51:11 and 65:16-19 together, and the ESV Study Bible cites Isaiah 65:19-20.
Heiser notes that Isaiah 35:10 and 51:11 predict that pain, grief and groaning will flee in the coming new creation. These were promises to Israelites, he says, but in Revelation they belong to all believers.
The sources agree on Isaiah but not on the weight of each text. Keener and the CSB Study Bible list Isaiah 25:8, 35:10, 51:11 and 65:19 together. Beale adds Isaiah 60:20 and 65:20. The NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible reads the first things as the former things of Isaiah 65:16-17, the past troubles that will be forgotten.
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- G. K. Beale, The Book of Revelation (New International Greek Testament Commentary), comment on 21:4 and 21:11
- Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, on Revelation 21:4
- NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, note on Revelation 21:4
- ESV Study Bible, note on Revelation 21:4
- CSB Study Bible, cross-references on Revelation 21:4
- Septuagint, Isaiah 35:10 and 65:19, Interlinear Greek-English Septuagint
- SBL Greek New Testament (MorphGNT), Revelation 21:4
- Michael S. Heiser, Revelation 21-22: The New Heaven and the New Earth, video lecture (Naked Bible Revelation series)
