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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 4:2-11, the whole scene modeled on Daniel 7
Beale finds fourteen features of Daniel 7's heavenly court in Revelation 4 and 5, in nearly the same order, with Ezekiel 1 and Isaiah 6 woven in.
Revelation 4:2-11; Revelation 5:1-14, in every translation this tool compares.
A film can follow an old classic scene by scene while changing every costume. Beale lines up chapters 4 and 5 with Daniel 7. Both have thrones set in heaven, God seated, fire, crowds of servants, books opened, a figure who comes to receive a kingdom, and saints who reign. The order is nearly the same. Ezekiel 1 and Isaiah 6 supply many of the details along the way.
A sequence. Thrones are set in heaven, God sits, his look is described, and fire comes before him. Servants stand around him, books are opened, and a figure comes near to receive power over all peoples. The seer is troubled, an attendant explains, the saints receive the kingdom, and God's endless rule is praised. Both visions also have a sea.
The order shifts in places. In Daniel the books open before the son of man arrives; in Revelation the Lamb comes first. John's servants around the throne are far more detailed than Daniel's. Many details come from other scenes: the creatures and the jewels from Ezekiel 1, the six wings and the song from Isaiah 6. Beale says these were drawn in because they are so like Daniel 7.
Daniel 7 is a court. It judges the beasts and gives the kingdom to the son of man and to the saints. By building on it, John shows the churches this court in session. Beale reads chapters 4 and 5 as the start of that fulfillment: the kingdom handed over through the Lamb's death and rising.
Not a claim that every line comes from Daniel. Beale himself says that in 4:1 to 5:1 Ezekiel 1 and 2 supply more allusions than Daniel does. His case rests on the order of the whole scene, read as one vision.
Beale argues that chapters 4 and 5 form one structure, closer to Daniel 7:9ff. than to any other Old Testament vision. His fourteen elements run from the opening vision wording (Daniel 7:9, with 7:2, 6-7; Revelation 4:1), thrones set (7:9a; 4:2a, 4a), God's appearance (7:9c; 4:3) and fire (7:9d-10a; 4:5), through books opened (7:10; 5:2-5, 9), the figure who approaches for authority (7:13-14; 5:5-7) and all peoples, nations and tongues (7:14; 5:9), to the seer's distress and counsel (7:15-16; 5:4-5), the saints' reign (7:18, 22, 27; 5:10) and God's eternal reign (7:27; 5:13-14). He counts about 23 allusions to Daniel in the two chapters, half from Daniel 7. Ezekiel 1-2 lacks five of the elements and its outline fades after 5:1, so Beale calls Daniel 7 the magnet that drew in Ezekiel 1, Isaiah 6 and Exodus 19. In his list of uses this is a literary prototype. The grade is his: the Daniel framework is probable. Keener and the NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible stress Isaiah 6 and Ezekiel 1; Wright adds Micaiah's council in 1 Kings 22.
Heiser calls Revelation 4 and 5 a divine council scene that uses the Old Testament covenant lawsuit form, and says scholars largely agree. He reads Beale's fourteen parallels from Beale and Carson's commentary. He says they make it plain that Daniel 7 is a council courtroom and that John is building on it. John then fills the throne room with pieces of Ezekiel 1 and Isaiah 6. All three are council scenes, and each stresses God's rule as judge.
Not everyone accepts Daniel 7 as the model. Ruiz, Beale reports in his introduction, is unconvinced, above all by the claim that Daniel 7, not Ezekiel, is the pattern for chapters 4 and 5; Beale replies that Ruiz does not weigh the verbal allusions to Daniel or the outlines of Daniel 7, Ezekiel 1 and Isaiah 6 closely enough. Goulder finds broad portions of Ezekiel, in Ezekiel's order, behind Revelation 4, 5 and later sections. Moyise concludes that Ezekiel provides more of the model than Daniel. Many commentators, Beale notes, take Ezekiel as the pattern for chapter 4 or for 4:1-5:1, among them Caird and Sweet. Prigent hears the synagogue morning liturgy; Aune, the ceremony of the Roman imperial court. MacArthur reads chapters 4 and 5 as worship in heaven before the judgments that follow the church age.
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- G. K. Beale, The Book of Revelation (New International Greek Testament Commentary), comment on 4:1-5:14, Overview of Structure and The Old Testament Background of Chapters 4 and 5, and introduction, The Use of the Old Testament in the Apocalypse, Old Testament Segments as Literary Prototypes
- Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, on Revelation 4:1-11
- NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, note on Revelation 4:2
- N. T. Wright, Revelation for Everyone, comment on Revelation 4:1-6a
- Septuagint, Daniel 7:9-14, Interlinear Greek-English Septuagint
- Michael S. Heiser, Revelation 4: The Throne Room of Heaven, video lecture (Naked Bible Revelation series)
- John MacArthur, The MacArthur Study Bible (ESV), note on Revelation 4:1
