Revelation 5:13, every creature in heaven, on earth and in the sea - Echoes of Revelation

Revelation 5:13

Revelation 5:13, in every translation this tool compares.

First, in plain English

When every section of the orchestra plays the last chord together, the whole hall knows the piece is done. John hears every creature in every part of the world praise God and the Lamb. They are above, on and below the earth, and in the sea. The Ten Commandments and Psalm 146 praise God for making sky, land, sea and all that fills them. John's chorus is that creation answering back.

What matches

The parts of creation and all that fills them. The Greek of Exodus 20:11 and Psalm 146:6 lists heaven, earth and sea, then kai panta ta en autois, and all things in them. Revelation 5:13 lists heaven, earth, under the earth and sea. Then it has kai ta en autois panta, the same phrase in a new order.

Why it doesn't match exactly

Exodus and the psalm speak of God making all things. John has all things praising. He adds a fourth realm, under the earth, which the Old Testament texts do not list here. And the praise goes to two: the one on the throne and the Lamb. The ESV Study Bible and Beale point back to the creation hymn of 4:11.

What John does with it

Beale says the scene looks ahead to the end, when all creation will acclaim God and the Lamb, willingly or by force. Chapter 4 praised God as Creator; now creation itself praises its Creator and its Redeemer together. The ESV Study Bible compares the day when every knee bows (Philippians 2:10-11).

What this echo is not

Not a claim that every creature is saved. Beale reads the praise as including God's enemies, forced into submission, and notes that the evil are judged for refusing it in their lifetime.

Go deeper

Beale says the fivefold praise of 5:13a may be a collective reflection of Exodus 20:11, Psalm 146:6 and Nehemiah 9:6, which praise God as maker of all his varied works and as the king who freed his people from slavery, which fits the kingdom and Passover themes. Daniel 2:38 and 4:37 in the old Greek may be part of the influence. The closing praise (blessing, honor, glory, dominion) traces to the old Greek of Daniel 4:30-31, he says, a combination found nowhere else in the Greek Old Testament. In the vault's Septuagint, Exodus 20:11 and Psalm 146:6 both have kai panta ta en autois. The NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible cites Exodus 20:11 and Psalm 146:6, with Psalm 96:11, Amos 9:6 and Haggai 2:6; the ESV Study Bible cites Psalm 146:6. The grade is possible: the wording is a common Old Testament phrase.

Where the sources disagree

Beale reads the praise as universal in the fullest sense, including forced submission. The NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible reads the fourfold division against Greek ideas of the gods ruling heaven, earth, sea and the underworld. Keener notes that Judaism expected the whole world to submit to God at the end but held it answered to him already.

The ancient world behind this passage

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Sources

G. K. Beale, The Book of Revelation (New International Greek Testament Commentary), comment on 5:13 and 5:14
NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, note on Revelation 5:13
ESV Study Bible, note on Revelation 5:13-14
Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, on Revelation 5:13-14
Septuagint, Exodus 20:11 and Psalm 146:6, Interlinear Greek-English Septuagint
SBL Greek New Testament (MorphGNT), Revelation 5:13