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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 22:18, do not add or take away
Moses' warning not to add to or take from God's commands, with the curses written in his book, becomes the warning that guards John's book.
Revelation 22:18; Revelation 22:19, in every translation this tool compares.
A contract that ends with the same clause as an old charter claims the same force. Moses told Israel not to add to God's commands or take anything away. Anyone who turned to other gods would bring on himself every curse written in the book. John closes his book the same way. Add to it, and the plagues in it come on you; take from it, and you lose your place at the tree of life.
Adding and taking away. The Greek of Deuteronomy 4:2 has ou prosthesete and ouk aphelete, do not add, do not remove; John uses epitithemi, add, and aphaireo, take away. Deuteronomy 29:20 has the curses written in this book.
Moses guards his commandments; John guards the words of this prophecy. Deuteronomy threatens the curses of the covenant; John threatens the plagues described in his book. Deuteronomy says the Lord will blot out the man's name; John says God will remove that person's part in the tree and the city. John also makes the penalty match the crime: add, and plagues are added.
John presents his book with the authority of Moses' law. Beale reads it as law for a renewed Israel, modeled on the old. The warning aims at false teaching that makes room for idols, as in Deuteronomy. Disobeying it brings every plague the book describes.
Not a new kind of warning. Moses guarded his law the same way (Deuteronomy 4:2; 12:32), and John applies that warning to his own book.
Beale says John alludes to a series of warnings across Deuteronomy, beyond chapter 4: Deuteronomy 4:1-2, 12:32 and 29:19-20, and possibly 28:58-61. He sets them beside 22:18-19 and notes three links: both warn against idolatry, both promise life in a new land, and both speak of plagues (Deuteronomy 29:21). Deuteronomy 12:32 introduces chapter 13 on false prophets in the Hebrew numbering. He also cites Proverbs 30:6 and Josephus, Against Apion 1.42-43. Keener names Deuteronomy 4:2, 12:32 and 29:20 and notes such warnings in other books (1 Enoch; the Letter of Aristeas). The NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, the ESV Study Bible and the NIV Biblical Theology Study Bible name Deuteronomy 4:2 and 12:32. The grade is drawn here: the pairing of add and take away with a written book of curses could hardly come from anywhere else.
What counts as adding or taking away? Beale says it means following false teaching about the written word, as in Deuteronomy 13, and that it covers John's book, not all later prophecy. The CSB Study Bible doubts it refers to the canon. MacArthur reads the warnings as marking the close of the New Testament canon, aimed at anyone who changes or twists the truth. The ESV Study Bible links it to speaking without God's authority (Deuteronomy 18:20-22). The CSB Study Bible hears Genesis 3, where Eve added to God's word and the serpent took away from it.
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- G. K. Beale, The Book of Revelation (New International Greek Testament Commentary), comment on 22:18-19
- Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, on Revelation 22:18-19
- NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, note on Revelation 22:18-19
- ESV Study Bible, note on Revelation 22:18-21
- CSB Study Bible, note on Revelation 22:18-19
- NIV Biblical Theology Study Bible, note on Revelation 22:18-19
- Septuagint, Deuteronomy 4:2, 12:32 and 29:20, Interlinear Greek-English Septuagint
- SBL Greek New Testament (MorphGNT), Revelation 22:18-19
- John MacArthur, The MacArthur Study Bible (ESV), notes on Revelation 22:18-19
