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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 22:14, the right to the tree of life
Adam was driven out so he could not reach the tree of life; those who wash their robes are given the right to it.
Revelation 22:14, in every translation this tool compares.
A gate that once had a guard posted to keep people out can end up with a welcome mat. After Adam sinned, God sent him out of the garden. Cherubim with a flaming sword kept him from the tree. John blesses those who wash their robes. They get the right to the tree and walk in through the city's gates.
The tree of life (xylon tes zoes) and the way into it. The Greek of Genesis 3:24 uses the same words for the tree.
Genesis bars the way; John grants the right (exousia) to it. Genesis has cherubim and a flaming sword; John has open gates. Beale adds that the words about going through the gates come from the Greek of Isaiah 62:10, go through my gates. Genesis 3 has no city.
The expulsion from Eden is undone for those made clean by the Lamb. Washing robes points back to 7:14, where they are made white in his blood. Those outside in 22:15 stay outside, so the banishment of Genesis 3 lasts for the wicked, Beale says.
Not entry earned by good behavior. The robes are washed in the Lamb's blood (7:14), the sources say; the right is a gift.
Beale says the tree of life and the open gates pick up the Isaiah 60 and Genesis 3 imagery of 21:24-22:3, and that the gates are taken specifically from Isaiah 62:10 in Greek (poreuesthe dia ton pylon mou), perhaps with Isaiah 26:2 and Psalm 118:20. On 22:15 he says the casting out of the garden in Genesis 3:23-24 continues for the wicked. The NIV Biblical Theology Study Bible says access to the tree reverses the banishment of Genesis 3:24, and the CSB Study Bible says it is what Adam and Eve were cut off from. The ESV Study Bible calls the tree once banned to humanity. Beale notes Testament of Levi 18:10-11, where a messianic figure opens paradise and feeds the saints from the tree of life. The grade is drawn here as probable: the tree and the access are uniquely Genesis 3, though no sentence is repeated.
Beale leans on Isaiah 62:10 for the gates and on 7:14 for the robes. The other sources name Genesis 3 alone. Some manuscripts read those who keep his commandments instead of those who wash their robes; Beale thinks the change began by accident.
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- G. K. Beale, The Book of Revelation (New International Greek Testament Commentary), comment on 22:14 and 22:15
- NIV Biblical Theology Study Bible, note on Revelation 22:14
- CSB Study Bible, note on Revelation 22:14-15, 17
- ESV Study Bible, note on Revelation 22:1-2
- Septuagint, Genesis 3:22-24 and Isaiah 62:10, Interlinear Greek-English Septuagint
- SBL Greek New Testament (MorphGNT), Revelation 22:14
