Revelation 5:8, bowls of incense, the prayers of the saints

Revelation 5:8

Revelation 5:8, in every translation this tool compares.

First, in plain English

A thank-you card that smells of the giver's perfume makes the message feel present in the room. The elders hold harps and gold bowls full of incense, and John says the incense is the prayers of God's people. In Psalm 141 David asks God to accept his prayer like incense before him. John makes the picture real in the heavenly temple: the prayers rise before the throne.

What matches

Prayer as incense. Psalm 141:2 in Greek has he proseuche mou hos thymiama, my prayer as incense, before God. Revelation 5:8 has bowls full of incense (thymiamaton), which are the prayers (proseuchai) of the saints. The two key nouns are the same.

Why it doesn't match exactly

The psalm compares one man's prayer to incense; John says the incense is the prayers of all the saints. The psalmist offers it himself; in Revelation the elders bring it, in gold bowls, to the Lamb. Beale reads the psalm as a plea for God to vindicate the righteous, and finds that plea in the saints' prayers too.

What John does with it

The prayers are more than praise. Beale ties them to the cry of the martyrs in 6:9-11 and the incense of 8:3-5, which come before judgment falls on the earth. The ESV Study Bible draws the same line: the saints' pleas are heard and answered in God's judgments.

What this echo is not

Not a picture of saints praying to the elders. The elders carry the prayers to the throne. The NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible compares the Jewish tradition of a chief angel presenting God's people's prayers.

Go deeper

Beale says Psalm 141:2 stands behind the picture of prayers as incense, a plea for God to defend the righteous by judging those who persecute them (compare Luke 1:9-10). The prayers are those of 6:9-11 and 8:3-4, requests that God defend his justice. The relative hai refers to the incense, not the harps. The harps fit the elders as the twenty-four orders of Levites who prophesied with lyres and harps (1 Chronicles 25:6-31). In the vault's Septuagint, Psalm 141:2 has proseuche and thymiama. Keener calls prayers as incense not uncommon (Psalm 141:2) and ties it to the heavenly altar of incense (8:3); the NIV Cultural Backgrounds and NIV Biblical Theology Study Bibles also cite Psalm 141:2. The grade is drawn here: both key words match, but the image was not rare.

Where the sources disagree

Beale reads the prayers mainly as pleas for vindication against persecutors. Keener reads the scene as worship in the heavenly temple, with the harps of the Levitical choir. The NIV Biblical Theology Study Bible holds both: the prayers are answered in the judgments of 6:9-11, 8:3-5 and 15:7-8.

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 5:8
Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, on Revelation 5:8
NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, note on Revelation 5:8
NIV Biblical Theology Study Bible, note on Revelation 5:8
ESV Study Bible, note on Revelation 5:8-10
Septuagint, Psalm 141:2, Interlinear Greek-English Septuagint
SBL Greek New Testament (MorphGNT), Revelation 5:8