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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 5:5, the Root of David
The Root of David takes Isaiah's root of Jesse, the shoot from David's line who rules the nations, and puts David's name in place of his father's.
Revelation 5:5, in every translation this tool compares.
Calling someone the founder of a family business, when he is also its newest heir, says more than either title alone. The elder also calls Jesus the Root of David. Isaiah promised a shoot from the stump of Jesse, David's father, and called him the root of Jesse, a banner the nations will seek. John uses Isaiah's title and puts David in Jesse's place.
The root. The Hebrew of Isaiah 11:10 has shoresh yishai, the root of Jesse, and the Greek he rhiza tou Iessai. Revelation 5:5 has he rhiza Dauid, the root of David. In Isaiah 11:10 the root rises to rule the nations; in Revelation he is able to open the scroll for the whole world.
Isaiah names Jesse, David's father; John names David. In Isaiah the shoot grows from the root, and the root then stands for the coming king. John takes the title straight to Jesus. The ESV Study Bible draws out the effect: Jesus is David's heir, and also the source of David's rule.
John joins a title of royal descent to the Lion from Judah. Both promise a ruler from David's line. He judges the wicked and brings the nations under God. The NIV Biblical Theology Study Bible notes that Isaiah's king slays the wicked. In Revelation he wins by his own death.
Not a new title made up by John. It reworks Isaiah's root of Jesse. Paul uses the same verse of Jesus in Romans 15:12, as the ESV Study Bible and the CSB Study Bible note.
Beale traces the root of David to Isaiah 11:1, 10 (compare Jeremiah 23:5; 33:15; Zechariah 3:8), and says the title shares the conquering sense brought out by overcome. He notes that the Greek of Isaiah 53:2 also uses root (rhiza) of the servant, which may have drawn the slain lamb of 5:6 into the scene, and that the seven gifts of the Spirit in the Greek of Isaiah 11:2 may have drawn in the seven eyes of Zechariah. In the vault's Septuagint, Isaiah 11:1 has ek tes rhizes Iessai and 11:10 he rhiza tou Iessai, ho anistamenos archein ethnon, the one rising to rule nations. Keener says the image is used of the Messiah in later texts and that the Dead Sea Scrolls combine the lion and the root. The NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, the ESV Study Bible, the CSB Study Bible and the NIV Biblical Theology Study Bible cite Isaiah 11:1, 10, and Wright calls it Isaiah's great messianic prophecy. The grade is drawn here: the title can only come from Isaiah 11.
The ESV Study Bible reads root as the source of David's line, so that Jesus stands before David as well as after him. Keener reads it as the shoot from the cut-off line of David, the heir who comes after the line seemed ended. Beale treats it as a messianic title of conquest without settling the sense of root.
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- G. K. Beale, The Book of Revelation (New International Greek Testament Commentary), comment on 5:5 and 5:6
- Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, on Revelation 5:5
- NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, note on Revelation 5:5
- ESV Study Bible, note on Revelation 5:5
- CSB Study Bible, cross-references at Revelation 5:5
- NIV Biblical Theology Study Bible, note on Revelation 5:5
- N. T. Wright, Revelation for Everyone, comment on Revelation 5:1-7
- Septuagint, Isaiah 11:1 and 11:10, Interlinear Greek-English Septuagint
- Hebrew text of Isaiah 11:10, Miqra according to the Masorah (Sefaria)
- SBL Greek New Testament (MorphGNT), Revelation 5:5
