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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 6:10, holy and true, who avenges the blood of his sons
The Song of Moses calls God true and holy and promises he will avenge the blood of his sons; the martyrs appeal to that God.
Revelation 6:10, in every translation this tool compares.
Quoting a promise back to the person who made it is a way of asking them to keep it. The Song of Moses in Deuteronomy 32 praises God as true and just and holy. Its last verse promises that God will take vengeance for his children's blood. The martyrs call God holy and true and ask him to avenge their blood. Beale thinks they may be holding God to that song.
God described as true, and God avenging the blood of his people. In the Greek, Deuteronomy 32:43 has to haima ton hyion autou ekdikeitai, he avenges the blood of his sons; John has ekdikeis to haima hemon.
The Song promises; the martyrs ask how long. The Song speaks of sons, the martyrs of our blood. For holy, the Greek of Deuteronomy 32:4 has hosios, while John here has hagios, a different word (a point drawn here).
The Song of Moses moves from judging Israel to judging the nations that oppress it. The martyrs appeal to the same pattern. Their persecutors will be judged, as the Song promised.
Not a direct quotation. Beale offers the Song only as a possible reflection behind the cry, alongside Psalm 79.
Beale says the attributes true and holy are applied to God together in the Old Testament only in Deuteronomy 32:4, where God judges Israel with the same judgments as Ezekiel 14:21 (Deuteronomy 32:24-25) and then punishes the persecutors of his people (32:43). He suggests there may be a reflection of Deuteronomy 32 in 6:10b, since Psalm 79 probably alludes to it. The CSB Study Bible's cross-references at 6:10 list Deuteronomy 32:43 first. In the vault's Septuagint, 32:4 has alethina ta erga autou … dikaios kai hosios ho kyrios, and 32:43 has to haima ton hyion autou ekdikeitai kai ekdikesei. The grade is possible: two sources name the text, and the shared words are few.
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- G. K. Beale, The Book of Revelation (New International Greek Testament Commentary), comment on 6:10
- CSB Study Bible, cross-references at Revelation 6:10
- Septuagint, Deuteronomy 32:4 and 32:43, Interlinear Greek-English Septuagint
- SBL Greek New Testament (MorphGNT), Revelation 6:10
