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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 4:6-8, four living creatures full of eyes
The four creatures take the faces and eyes of Ezekiel's cherubim and the six wings of Isaiah's seraphim, blended into one new picture.
Revelation 4:6-8, in every translation this tool compares.
A portrait painter can give one face the eyes of one parent and the smile of the other. Around the throne John sees four living creatures, like a lion, an ox, a man and an eagle, covered with eyes and each with six wings. Ezekiel saw four creatures with those four faces and wheels covered with eyes. Isaiah saw beings with six wings above the Lord's throne. John blends the two.
The name and the faces come from Ezekiel. Ezekiel 1:5 has four living creatures (zoa, the word John uses), and 1:10 gives them the faces of a man, a lion, an ox and an eagle. In the Greek, Ezekiel 1:18 and 10:12 have things full of eyes all around (kyklothen); John's creatures are full of eyes all around. The six wings (pteryges hex) are Isaiah 6:2's.
In Ezekiel each creature has four faces; in Revelation each has one. Ezekiel's creatures have four wings, Isaiah's seraphim six. In Ezekiel 1 it is the wheels, not the creatures, that are covered with eyes. John drops the wheels and gives the eyes to the creatures. And like Isaiah's seraphim, his creatures sing God's praise, which Ezekiel's never do.
The creatures stand for all of animate creation, many sources say, and they do what creation was made for: they praise God without rest. Their many eyes show that nothing escapes God's notice. In chapter 6 they will call out the riders, so the judgments start from the throne.
Not a list of the four Gospel writers. Some early Christian writers read them that way, as Wright and Beale note, but Beale says the reading has no support in the text.
Beale says John draws from Ezekiel 1:5-21, merged with the living creatures of Ezekiel 10:12-15, 20-22, and supplements the picture with the six wings of Isaiah 6. The living beings stand in the midst of and around the throne (kyklo), as the seraphim in the Greek of Isaiah 6:2 stood around (kyklo) the Lord. He reads the beings as symbolic, since they differ from both models: wings, position, faces and voice all vary. The eyes allude directly to Ezekiel 1:18 and 10:12, and perhaps to the Targum on Ezekiel 1:14, where the creatures are sent to do their Master's will. Keener says Ezekiel 10:12 covers the cherubim with eyes and that each of Ezekiel's creatures had all four faces. The NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, the ESV Study Bible, the NIV Biblical Theology Study Bible and the CSB Study Bible all name Ezekiel 1 and Isaiah 6. Walton notes Near Eastern winged guardians with lion, bull and eagle features. The grade is drawn here: the faces, eyes and wings could hardly come from anywhere else.
Heiser says the creatures are on the surface Ezekiel's cherubim, but the six wings come from Isaiah's seraphim, so John blends his sources. He calls the eyes a deliberate change. In Ezekiel 1 and 10 the wheels are full of eyes, not the cherubim; John moves the eyes onto the creatures. After Daniel Block he notes that the Hebrew word for eye in Ezekiel 1:18 also means sparkle earlier in the chapter. He reads the wheels as star imagery: the God who rules the cycles of time is Israel's God, not Marduk.
Keener and Beale read Ezekiel 10:12 as covering the cherubim themselves with eyes. Heiser says only the wheels are full of eyes and that 10:12 depends on how it is translated. Beale doubts the zodiac reading of the four faces, since an eagle is never part of the zodiac scheme; Heiser, after Block, ties the faces to the four cardinal points of the Babylonian zodiac.
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- G. K. Beale, The Book of Revelation (New International Greek Testament Commentary), comment on 4:6b-8a
- Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, on Revelation 4:6-7 and 4:8
- NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, notes on Revelation 4:6 and 4:7
- ESV Study Bible, note on Revelation 4:6-8
- NIV Biblical Theology Study Bible, notes on Revelation 4:6 and 4:8
- CSB Study Bible, note on Revelation 4:6-7
- N. T. Wright, Revelation for Everyone, comment on Revelation 4:6b-11
- John H. Walton, Victor H. Matthews and Mark W. Chavalas, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: Old Testament, on Ezekiel 1:5 and 1:6, 10
- Septuagint, Ezekiel 1:5, 1:10, 1:18, 10:12 and Isaiah 6:2, Interlinear Greek-English Septuagint
- SBL Greek New Testament (MorphGNT), Revelation 4:6-8
- Michael S. Heiser, Revelation 4: The Throne Room of Heaven, video lecture (Naked Bible Revelation series)
