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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 22:6, what must soon take place
The closing words repeat the opening of the book, Daniel's what must take place, with Daniel's true and faithful added.
Revelation 22:6, in every translation this tool compares.
A speech that ends with the line it began with tells the audience the whole thing hangs together. Revelation opened with Daniel's words about God showing what must happen. It closes with them too. The angel adds that these words are faithful and true, much as Daniel told the king his dream was true and its meaning sure.
The Greek phrase ha dei genesthai, what must take place, as in Daniel 2:28-29 and 45. Daniel 2:45 also pairs alethinos, true, with pistos, faithful.
Daniel says after these things, or in the last days. John says en tachei, soon, exactly as in 1:1. Daniel speaks of a dream and its meaning; John speaks of the words of this book. Daniel's God makes it known to a king; John's God sends an angel to his servants.
The book is framed by Daniel 2 at both ends. Like Daniel's dream, Beale says, Revelation is about God's kingdom filling the earth and the judgment of the world's kingdoms. Beale reads the change to soon as a hint that the fulfillment has already started.
Not a new prophecy tacked on. The verse repeats 1:1 almost word for word. It closes the book; it does not add to it.
Beale says 22:6b is clearly drawn from Daniel 2:28-29, 45, and reproduces the exact wording of 1:1, so it should be read as the formal conclusion of the whole book. He hears Daniel 2:45 Theodotion in 22:6a: the dream is true (alethinon) and its interpretation faithful (piste). He also ties faithful and true to Isaiah 65:16 through 21:5. He finds the same Daniel formula at 1:1, 1:19 and 4:1, and in his introduction he lists these as possible indirect fulfillment: Daniel's prophecy referred to as beginning to come true. Keener reads faithful and true as a formula for sworn testimony. The ESV Study Bible and the NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible note the echo of 1:1 as a closing bracket. The grade is drawn here: the phrase matches Daniel word for word, as in 1:1, which is graded clear.
The sources agree on Daniel 2. Beale hears Daniel 2:45 in faithful and true; Keener reads the pair as an oath formula (Jeremiah 42:5). MacArthur reads soon as the imminence of Christ's return, and the things to take place as the whole of the book.
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- G. K. Beale, The Book of Revelation (New International Greek Testament Commentary), comment on 22:6, and introduction, Possible Indirect Fulfillment Uses
- Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, on Revelation 22:6-7
- NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, note on Revelation 22:6-8
- ESV Study Bible, note on Revelation 22:6-9
- NIV Biblical Theology Study Bible, cross-references on Revelation 22:6
- Septuagint, Daniel 2:28-29 and 2:45, Interlinear Greek-English Septuagint
- SBL Greek New Testament (MorphGNT), Revelation 22:6
- John MacArthur, The MacArthur Study Bible (ESV), notes on Revelation 1:1 and 22:6
