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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, lightning, rumbling and thunder
The storm that pours from the throne repeats the lightning and thunder of Sinai and the lightning that flashed from the fire among Ezekiel's creatures.
Revelation 4:5, in every translation this tool compares.
A thunderclap in a film can tell you the hero has arrived before you see him. Lightning, rumbling and thunder burst out of the throne. At Sinai the same storm broke over the mountain when God came down to give the law. In Ezekiel's vision lightning flashed out of the fire among the living creatures. John uses the storm to say that the God of Sinai is here.
The storm signs of God's presence. Exodus 19:16 in Greek has voices (phonai) and lightnings (astrapai) on Sinai. Ezekiel 1:13 has lamps of fire, with lightning going out (exeporeueto) from the fire. Revelation 4:5 has lightnings, voices and thunders going out (ekporeuontai) from the throne.
At Sinai the storm covers a mountain; here it comes from the throne itself. Beale says the wording leans on the Greek of Ezekiel 1:13, with Sinai in second place, while most study Bibles name Sinai first. John also gives the list a future. It returns at 8:5, 11:19 and 16:18, growing each time, at the close of each series of judgments.
Since the same storm closes each round of judgments, Beale says 4:5 names God as their source. The churches learn that the coming troubles are not chaos. They come from the throne they have just seen, and God has not forgotten those who persecute them.
Not a weather report from heaven. In Revelation the storm marks God's presence and his coming judgment, as the CSB Study Bible notes, not the climate of heaven.
Beale says the order of Daniel 7:9 and Ezekiel 1:26ff. lies behind 4:5, since both put fire after the throne, and that the wording of 4:5a is shaped by the fiery theophany of Ezekiel 1:13 in Greek, with Exodus 19:16 in second place. In the vault's Septuagint, Ezekiel 1:13 reads ek tou pyros exeporeueto hos astrape, lightning going out from the fire, and Exodus 19:16 has phonai kai astrapai. The phrase recurs almost word for word at 8:5, 11:19 and 16:18, at the end of each series of seven, with additions; Beale credits the observation to Bauckham. Keener says the effects rehearse Sinai (Exodus 19:16; compare Ezekiel 1:4, 13). The NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, the ESV Study Bible, the NIV Biblical Theology Study Bible and the CSB Study Bible cite Exodus 19:16 or 20:18. The grade is drawn here: the scene is plain, but the wording is shared by several texts.
Heiser says the lightning and thunder take readers back to the Sinai theophany, as the trumpet did. Reading Aune, he notes that storm lists occur four times in Revelation (4:5; 8:5; 11:19; 16:18-21) and that they grew out of Exodus 19:16-18, which names thunder, lightning, a thick cloud, a trumpet and an earthquake. Fire, he adds, is a stock sign of God's presence.
Beale gives the wording to Ezekiel 1:13 and gives Sinai a secondary place. Keener, the study Bibles and Heiser put Sinai first. Both scenes have lightning; the sources differ on which John had uppermost.
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- G. K. Beale, The Book of Revelation (New International Greek Testament Commentary), comment on 4:5
- Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, on Revelation 4:5
- NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, note on Revelation 4:5
- ESV Study Bible, note on Revelation 4:5
- NIV Biblical Theology Study Bible, note on Revelation 4:5
- CSB Study Bible, note on Revelation 4:5
- Septuagint, Exodus 19:16 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)
