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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 5:12, power and wealth and wisdom
The angels' sevenfold praise of the Lamb may echo David's prayer in 1 Chronicles 29 and the gifts Daniel says God gave to kings.
Revelation 5:12, in every translation this tool compares.
A toast that strings together every good word you can think of borrows from every toast you have ever heard. The angels say the slain Lamb is worthy to receive power, wealth, wisdom, strength, honor, glory and praise. David's prayer in 1 Chronicles 29 heaps up power, glory and riches for God. Daniel praises God for wisdom and power, and says God gave a king power, strength and glory. John's list may draw on both.
A string of royal honors. 1 Chronicles 29:11-12 joins greatness, power, glory and riches as God's. Daniel 2:20 gives God wisdom and might, and Daniel 2:37 says God gave the king kingdom, power, strength and glory. Revelation's list has power, wealth, wisdom, strength, honor, glory and blessing.
David gives the honors to God; Daniel 2:37 says God gave them to a pagan king. John gives them to the slain Lamb. His list has seven items, which neither source has. And the order is his own. Beale says the link to Daniel is probably indirect, through worship language that drew on it.
Beale says John uses the words Daniel used for kingship that God gives to another. Here they name the world rule given to the Lamb. The Lamb receives what Scripture gives to God alone, and the praise of 5:13 joins him with the one on the throne. Wright reads this as John's way of showing that the Lamb shares the creator's worship.
Not a quotation of a known hymn. Beale and the NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible say only that such lists heap up praise and may echo these texts. The link is a matter of shared words, not a copied verse.
Beale reports a study by Milling of the New Testament's closing words of praise. It finds 1 Chronicles 29:11-12 behind the set of dynamis (power), ploutos (wealth), ischys (might) and doxa (glory), and Daniel 2:20 behind sophia (wisdom), which is paired with power in Theodotion's 2:23. He adds that ischys, doxa and time occur together in the old Greek of Daniel 2:37 and 4:30, a combination found only twice more in the Greek Old Testament, and that in Daniel and Revelation the words come in the same order and describe kingship given by God to another. He thinks the influence is indirect, through a liturgy or John's long acquaintance with Daniel, combined with 1 Chronicles. The NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible cites 1 Chronicles 29:11-12 and Daniel 2:37 for heaped-up praise, and notes lists of seven in the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Mishnah. The grade is possible: the words are generally similar and spread over several texts.
Delling, as Beale reports, sees a general Old Testament background rather than specific texts. Keener notes that the Passover service later listed seven praises, but thinks John's love of sevens makes the parallel likely coincidental.
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- G. K. Beale, The Book of Revelation (New International Greek Testament Commentary), comment on 5:12
- NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, notes on Revelation 4:11 and 5:12
- Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, on Revelation 5:12
- N. T. Wright, Revelation for Everyone, comment on Revelation 5:8-14
- SBL Greek New Testament (MorphGNT), Revelation 5:12
