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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 5:10, a kingdom and priests, reigning on the earth
The Lamb makes his people a kingdom and priests, Israel's calling from Exodus 19:6, woven with Daniel 7's promise that the saints will receive the kingdom.
Revelation 5:10, in every translation this tool compares.
A charter first written for one town, now signed for a whole country, keeps its words and widens its reach. The song says the Lamb made his people a kingdom and priests to God, and that they will rule on the earth. At Sinai God called Israel a kingdom of priests. In Daniel 7 the saints receive the kingdom. John weaves both into one line about the Lamb's people.
Kingdom and priests, as in 1:6: Revelation has basileian kai hiereis, kingdom and priests, from Exodus 19:6. Daniel 7:22 has the holy ones take the kingdom (basileian), and 7:27 gives the kingdom under all heaven to the Most High's holy people. Revelation adds that they reign, or will reign, on the earth: manuscripts have basileuousin or basileusousin.
Exodus speaks to one nation chosen from all nations; John speaks of people from every nation. Daniel gives the kingdom to the saints of Israel; John gives it to the Lamb's redeemed. Exodus does not mention reigning, and Daniel does not mention priests; John joins the two. Manuscripts also differ between they reign and they will reign.
Beale reads 5:10 as the inaugurated fulfillment of Daniel 7: the saints already reign, because the Lamb's death made them a kingdom. Their reign looks ahead to the new earth too. Heiser stresses that the rule is on earth, the new Eden, and that the Lamb shares the authority he receives.
Not a reign only in heaven. The song says on the earth. Beale, Heiser, MacArthur and the ESV Study Bible all read the rule as earthly. They differ on when it begins.
Beale says Danielic influence on the peoples of 5:9 is clearer because, as in Daniel 7:14, the formula is followed by Christ giving the saints a kingdom and their reign (Daniel 7:18, 22b, 27a). The old Greek of 7:27 uses the infinitive basileusai (to reign), and both contexts share four elements. Exodus 19:6 is also present in kingdom and priests: Israel was chosen from all the nations (Exodus 19:5), and in 5:9 that election is widened through Daniel's formula to every tribe and nation. Exodus 19 is drawn in for its link to Passover and to Daniel's kingdom. On the text, the standard printed Greek editions prefer they will reign; Beale prefers the present they reign as the harder reading. The vault's Greek of Daniel 7:22 has ten basileian kateschon hoi hagioi. The ESV Study Bible and the CSB Study Bible cite Exodus 19:6 and 1:6. The grade is drawn here: the Exodus wording is as clear as in 1:6.
Reading Aune, Heiser says John overlays the kingship language of Daniel 7:14-18 with the kingdom and priests of Exodus 19:6, grounding the investiture in Christ's sacrifice. He then breaks with most commentators: Daniel 7's holy ones and the people of those holy ones are two groups, the loyal heavenly council and human believers, given the same authority. Believers, he says, become the reconstituted council, ruling on the earth in a new Eden.
Beale holds that the saints reign now, in an inaugurated kingdom. Commentators who prefer the future, he notes, place the reign in 20:4-6 or on the new earth; the CSB Study Bible says the promise is fulfilled in 20:6. Heiser reads Daniel's holy ones as heavenly beings joined by believers, against most commentators, who take both phrases as God's people. MacArthur points to his note on 20:2: the reign on the earth is Christ's rule for a literal thousand years after his return, with the saints reigning beside him.
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- G. K. Beale, The Book of Revelation (New International Greek Testament Commentary), comment on 5:10
- ESV Study Bible, note on Revelation 5:10
- CSB Study Bible, note on Revelation 5:9-10
- NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, note on Revelation 5:10
- N. T. Wright, Revelation for Everyone, comment on Revelation 5:8-14
- Septuagint, Daniel 7:22 and 7:27, Interlinear Greek-English Septuagint
- SBL Greek New Testament (MorphGNT), Revelation 5:10
- Michael S. Heiser, Revelation 5: The Scroll and the Lamb Who Is Worthy, video lecture (Naked Bible Revelation series)
- John MacArthur, The MacArthur Study Bible (ESV), notes on Revelation 5:10 and 20:2
