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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 4:5, seven torches of fire, the seven spirits
The seven torches burning before the throne are Zechariah's seven lamps, which the prophet ties to God's Spirit, merged with the torches among Ezekiel's creatures.
Revelation 4:5, in every translation this tool compares.
A logo printed on every page of a report soon tells readers whose report it is. In front of the throne John sees seven torches of fire, and he calls them God's seven spirits. Zechariah saw a gold lampstand with seven lamps, and the angel explained them with a word about God's Spirit. Ezekiel saw something like torches moving among the creatures. John joins the two pictures.
Seven lights and God's Spirit. Zechariah 4:2 has seven lamps (hepta lychnoi) on the lampstand, and 4:6 explains them by a word about God's Spirit. Ezekiel 1:13 in Greek has torches (lampadon) of fire among the creatures; John has seven torches (lampades) of fire.
Zechariah's word for lamp is lychnos; John uses lampas, a torch, the word of Ezekiel 1:13. Zechariah has one lampstand; here there is none, only seven torches burning before the throne. Zechariah's angel speaks of the Spirit; John names the torches the seven spirits outright, as in 1:4.
The torches before the throne show God's Spirit ready to act. In 5:6 the same seven spirits become the Lamb's eyes, sent out across the whole world. Beale reads the picture through Zechariah: the Spirit by whom God's work gets done against every obstacle.
Not a lampstand standing for a church. In 1:20 the lampstands are the churches. Here there are torches, not lampstands, and John names them the spirits of God.
Beale says the second half of 4:5 is clearly patterned after Zechariah 4:2-3, 10, where seven lamps are seen and then explained, which ties the lamps to the Spirit of Yahweh (4:6). Part of the wording of Ezekiel 1:13 has merged with it: the reference to Ezekiel's lamps drew in Zechariah's. The meaning is developed in 5:6. He also sees the lamps of the temple lampstand, part of the temple setting of the two chapters. The vault's Septuagint has lychnoi in Zechariah 4:2 and lampadon in Ezekiel 1:13; Revelation 4:5 has lampades pyros kaiomenai, and the verb kaio (burn) also describes Ezekiel's burning coals. The NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible calls the lamps an allusion to Zechariah 4:2; the NIV Biblical Theology Study Bible says they allude to Ezekiel 1:13. The grade is drawn here from Beale's clearly patterned.
Reading Aune, Heiser notes that early Judaism often held angels to be made of fire, so the seven torches may be seven angelic beings. Some read them as the temple lampstand, he says, but that leads back to Zechariah 4 anyway, where the Lord's seven eyes prove to be heavenly beings.
The study Bibles differ on the source. The NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible names Zechariah 4:2 and the NIV Biblical Theology Study Bible names Ezekiel 1:13; Beale holds that both are merged. On the meaning, Beale reads the seven spirits as the Holy Spirit, while Aune, as Heiser reads him, allows seven angels.
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- G. K. Beale, The Book of Revelation (New International Greek Testament Commentary), comment on 4:5
- NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, note on Revelation 4:5
- NIV Biblical Theology Study Bible, note on Revelation 4:5
- Septuagint, Zechariah 4:2 and Ezekiel 1:13, Interlinear Greek-English Septuagint
- SBL Greek New Testament (MorphGNT), Revelation 4:5
- Michael S. Heiser, Revelation 4: The Throne Room of Heaven, video lecture (Naked Bible Revelation series)
