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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 22:5, they will reign forever and ever
Daniel's holy ones receive the kingdom forever; John ends his vision with God's servants reigning forever and ever.
Revelation 22:5, in every translation this tool compares.
A promise kept long after it was made makes the old words sound new. Daniel saw the holy ones of the Most High receive the kingdom and hold it forever. John's last word about the city is that God's servants will reign forever and ever. Daniel's promise has come true.
God's people ruling for all ages. Daniel 7:18 in Greek has heos aionos ton aionon, to the age of the ages; John has eis tous aionas ton aionon, forever and ever.
Daniel says the holy ones will receive and possess the kingdom. John uses the verb reign (basileuo), and he names no kingdom and no subjects. Daniel's kingdom comes after four beasts are judged. John's reign comes after the whole old order has passed.
The servants in 22:3 are also kings. Beale says the reign is eternal and so cannot be the thousand years of 20:4-6; it is the climax of Daniel's promise and of Jesus' word in 3:21. The ESV Study Bible says believers reign over the new earth with Jesus.
Not the thousand-year reign. Beale separates this reign from 20:4-6, which has an end and a final revolt. This one never ends.
Beale calls the reign a climactic fulfillment of Daniel 7:18 and 27, already begun for the saints in the church age (1:6; 5:10) and in heaven (20:4-6). He suggests the reign is best read with a corporate sense of Zechariah 14:9, the Lord king over all the earth, and compares Adam's charge to rule the earth (Genesis 1:28). The NIV Biblical Theology Study Bible cites Daniel 7:27 and Revelation 20:4. The Greek of Daniel 7:27 (the version called Theodotion) has basileia aionios, an everlasting kingdom, given to the holy ones of the Most High. The grade is drawn here as probable: the idea of the holy ones ruling forever is traceable to Daniel 7, while the wording is general.
Heiser reads the rule in the Revelation 20 lecture. He says Christ will rule on earth forever, not for a thousand years, and believers will rule with him forever in a new Eden spread over the whole globe. He ties the thrones to Daniel 7, where the holy ones sit and rule together as God's council. Believers who die join that council now; what they wait for is shared rule on a new earth.
Beale reads the thousand years of 20:4-6 as the church age and this reign as the eternal state after it. Heiser reads the binding of 20:1-6 as the present age but says the reign of 20:6 cannot be, since it follows the first resurrection, and he holds the rule after the last battle to be forever. The ESV Study Bible links this verse to 5:10. MacArthur reads the thousand years as a future reign on earth after Christ returns, and this reign as the eternal state that follows it.
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- G. K. Beale, The Book of Revelation (New International Greek Testament Commentary), comment on 22:5
- NIV Biblical Theology Study Bible, note on Revelation 22:5
- ESV Study Bible, note on Revelation 22:5
- Septuagint, Daniel 7:18 and 7:27, Interlinear Greek-English Septuagint
- SBL Greek New Testament (MorphGNT), Revelation 22:5
- Michael S. Heiser, Revelation 20: Satan's Final Defeat and the Great White Throne Judgment, video lecture (Naked Bible Revelation series)
- John MacArthur, The MacArthur Study Bible (ESV), notes on Revelation 20:2 and 22:5
