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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 4:3, a rainbow around the throne
The rainbow around the throne comes from Ezekiel's vision of God's glory and recalls the bow God set in the clouds after the flood.
Revelation 4:3, in every translation this tool compares.
A peace sign painted on a courthouse wall would tell everyone that mercy is part of the verdict. Around God's throne John sees a rainbow that glows like an emerald. Ezekiel saw the brightness around God's throne shine like a rainbow after rain. After the flood God set his bow in the clouds as a promise never to destroy the earth with water again. Both pictures stand behind John's.
A bow of light around the enthroned God. Ezekiel 1:28 compares the brightness around God to the bow seen in a cloud, and calls the sight the likeness of the Lord's glory. Genesis 9:13 has God's bow in the cloud as the sign of his covenant with the earth.
The Greek of Ezekiel 1:28 and Genesis 9:13 calls the bow toxon, the word for an archer's bow. John uses iris, a different word for a rainbow. Ezekiel's bow is a comparison for brightness; John sees an actual rainbow ringing the throne. And he adds a color: it looks like emerald.
Beale reads the rainbow as a sign that the coming judgments will be tempered with mercy, as the covenant with Noah promised. God stays merciful to his own people even while he judges. Wright calls it a mix of mercy, awe and beauty. Before any seal is broken, the throne already carries a promise.
Not proof that the flood story is the only source. Most sources start from Ezekiel 1:28. The Genesis covenant is the added note that Beale, Wright, the CSB Study Bible and Heiser hear in it.
Beale says the rainbow, as probably in Ezekiel 1:28, implies judgment tempered by mercy in view of the Noahic covenant; above all it evokes God's glory, since Ezekiel equates it with the appearance of the glory of the Lord, and Jewish writings cite Ezekiel 1:28 for it (Midrash on Psalms 89.18; Numbers Rabbah 14.3; Hagigah 16a). He also reads it as the first sign of new creation after the flood. In the vault's Septuagint, Ezekiel 1:28 has toxou and Genesis 9:13 to toxon; Revelation 4:3 has iris. Some manuscripts read hiereis (priests) for iris, an error of hearing. Keener and the NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible cite Ezekiel 1:26, 28; the NIV Biblical Theology Study Bible and the CSB Study Bible add Genesis 9. The grade is drawn here: the setting is plainly Ezekiel's, but the word differs.
Heiser, after Aune, says the rainbow alludes to the brightness around the throne in Ezekiel 1:27-28, and notes that the Greek word for the bow there, toxon, is not John's word. He adds that readers will also think of the bow after the flood in Genesis 9:13. With Beale and Bauckham he reads it as a covenant sign: in a court that decides the fate of empires, it promises that God will not destroy all flesh and that a remnant will survive.
The sources weigh the two backgrounds differently. Keener and the NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible cite only Ezekiel. The CSB Study Bible reads the rainbow chiefly as the flood covenant, with judgment now coming by other means. Beale holds both, with glory first and mercy second.
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- G. K. Beale, The Book of Revelation (New International Greek Testament Commentary), comment on 4:3
- Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, on Revelation 4:3
- NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, note on Revelation 4:3
- NIV Biblical Theology Study Bible, note on Revelation 4:3
- CSB Study Bible, note on Revelation 4:3-4
- N. T. Wright, Revelation for Everyone, comment on Revelation 4:1-6a
- Septuagint, Ezekiel 1:28 and Genesis 9:13, Interlinear Greek-English Septuagint
- SBL Greek New Testament (MorphGNT), Revelation 4:3
- Michael S. Heiser, Revelation 4: The Throne Room of Heaven, video lecture (Naked Bible Revelation series)
