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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 22:4, his name on their foreheads
The gold plate on the high priest's forehead, marked holy to the Lord, becomes God's name on the forehead of every servant.
Revelation 22:4, in every translation this tool compares.
A badge once pinned only on the head of a department can end up on every staff member's jacket. In Exodus the high priest wore a gold plate on his forehead, engraved holy to the Lord, so Israel could be accepted before God. John sees God's name on the foreheads of all his servants. Each one now has the access the high priest had.
A divine name worn on the forehead. The Greek of Exodus 28:38 places the plate on the metopon, the forehead, the same word John uses.
Exodus engraves holy to the Lord on one man's plate. John has only God's name, on everyone. Beale answers that Philo and Josephus both say the high priest's plate carried the name Yahweh alone. The plate in Exodus let the priest bear Israel's guilt; John says nothing of guilt, since the people are already clean.
What only Aaron wore, all God's people wear. Beale reads it as access to God's presence. Once it was kept for the high priest. Now the whole people have it. The name also marks them as his and keeps them safe, as the seal of 7:3 and the name of 14:1 did.
Not a tattoo or a visible mark. Beale reads the name as a picture of belonging to God and of his presence with his people, not ink on skin.
Beale says it is beyond coincidence that God's name was on the high priest's forehead in Exodus 28:36-38, and that 22:4 grants every saint what was reserved for the high priest, as 21:18-20 did with the breastpiece stones. The Greek of Exodus 28:38 has epi tou metopou Aaron, on Aaron's forehead, and dekton, accepted. Beale also links the new names given to end-time Zion in Isaiah 62 and 65, and the name written on the overcomer in 3:12. Keener points back to 7:3 and says the point is that God's people belong to him alone. The CSB Study Bible's word study notes that forehead marks in the ancient world showed ownership or loyalty to a god. Only Beale names Exodus 28; the grade is drawn here as probable from his wording, beyond coincidence, and the shared rare detail of the forehead.
The sources differ on what the name chiefly means. Beale stresses priestly access. Keener and the CSB Study Bible stress ownership, God claiming his servants, against the mark of the beast (13:16).
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- G. K. Beale, The Book of Revelation (New International Greek Testament Commentary), comment on 22:4
- Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, on Revelation 22:4
- CSB Study Bible, word study metopon, on Revelation 22:4
- Septuagint, Exodus 28:36-38, Interlinear Greek-English Septuagint
- SBL Greek New Testament (MorphGNT), Revelation 22:4
