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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, no night, for the Lord God gives them light
Isaiah's promise that the Lord, not the sun, will be his people's light, and Zechariah's day without night, close John's vision of the city.
Revelation 22:5, in every translation this tool compares.
People who live near the far north know summer weeks when the sun never sets. Isaiah promised Jerusalem that the sun and moon would no longer be its light, because the Lord would be its everlasting light. Zechariah saw a day with no night. John repeats both. The servants need no lamp and no sun, because God himself shines on them.
No need of sun, because the Lord gives light, from Isaiah 60:19-20. No night, from Zechariah 14:7. In Greek both John and Zechariah use nyx, night.
Isaiah speaks of the sun and moon; John speaks of a lamp and the sun. Isaiah promises the Lord as everlasting light; John says God will shine on them. Zechariah's single day, neither day nor night, becomes simply no night. John has used Isaiah 60 already in 21:23-25 and repeats it here.
Nothing from the old world can dim God's presence any more. Beale reads it as the full answer to the prayer that God's face would shine on his people. The light leads straight into the reign that follows in the same verse.
Not a claim about astronomy. Beale says the point is not whether the sun exists in the new world but that nothing will hide God's glory.
Beale calls this a repeated allusion to Isaiah 60:19-20, already used in 21:23, and says the language is figurative. The Greek of Isaiah 60:19 reads ouk estai soi eti ho helios eis phos hemeras, the sun will no longer be your light by day, and estai soi kyrios phos aionion, the Lord will be your everlasting light. John has ou chreia photos lychnou kai photos heliou, no need of lamplight or sunlight, hoti kyrios ho theos photisei, for the Lord God will shine. The NIV Biblical Theology Study Bible cites both Isaiah 60:19-20 and Zechariah 14:7 here. Beale adds the priestly blessing of Numbers 6:25-27, God making his face shine, as uppermost in mind. Keener notes Jewish visions of the righteous shining in the future. The grade is drawn here as probable: the idea is Isaiah's, the wording John's own.
Beale holds open whether there will be no sun at all or a sun outshone by God's light, and says the text does not settle it. Keener and the NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible point instead to Jewish hopes of the righteous shining (Daniel 12:3), a different focus.
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- G. K. Beale, The Book of Revelation (New International Greek Testament Commentary), comment on 22:4-5
- NIV Biblical Theology Study Bible, note on Revelation 22:5
- Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, on Revelation 22:5
- NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, note on Revelation 22:5
- ESV Study Bible, note on Revelation 22:5
- Septuagint, Isaiah 60:19-20 and Zechariah 14:7, Interlinear Greek-English Septuagint
- SBL Greek New Testament (MorphGNT), Revelation 22:5
