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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 6:17, the great day, and who can stand
The closing cry joins Joel's great day of the Lord to the prophets' question of who can stand before God's anger.
Revelation 6:17, in every translation this tool compares.
A speaker who ends with a famous question leaves the crowd to answer it. Joel calls the day of the Lord great and asks who can endure it. Nahum asks who can stand before God's anger. Malachi asks who will stand at his coming. John ends the sixth seal with the same question. The great day of their anger has come, and who is able to stand?
The great day (he hemera he megale) and a question about who can stand. Joel 2:11 in Greek calls the day great (megale) and asks who will be able to bear it. Nahum 1:6 and Malachi 3:2 both ask who will stand (hypostesetai).
The prophets speak of the day of the Lord. John speaks of the great day of their anger, God's and the Lamb's together. John's verb for stand is different (stathenai). He joins phrases from several prophets into one line.
Beale reads the change to Joel as one more sign that the Lamb is divine. The day of the Lord becomes the day of God and the Lamb. The question also sets up chapter 7. There John sees people who do stand before the throne.
Not a question with no answer. The NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible and the NIV Biblical Theology Study Bible both note that 7:9 shows a crowd standing before the throne.
Beale says that since Joel 2:10, 31 is partly behind 6:12, the section fittingly ends with what ends Joel 2:10-11, the great day of the Lord and who will be able to resist it, supplemented by Nahum 1:5-6 on Nineveh. He lists Isaiah 13:9, Zephaniah 1:14, 18 and Malachi 4:5 as possible further background. In the vault's Septuagint, Joel 2:11 has megale he hemera kyriou … kai tis estai hikanos aute; Nahum 1:6 has apo prosopou orges autou tis hypostesetai; Malachi 3:2 has tis hypostesetai. Keener says the verse reflects especially Joel 2:11 and compares Malachi 3:2; the NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible says the question adapts Joel 2:11 and cites Malachi 3:2; the ESV Study Bible cites Nahum 1:5-6 and Malachi 3:2; the NIV Biblical Theology Study Bible cites Joel 2:11 and Isaiah 13:9. The grade is drawn here: the phrases are traceable but spread over several texts.
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- G. K. Beale, The Book of Revelation (New International Greek Testament Commentary), comment on 6:17 and The Theological Significance of the Old Testament Allusions in 6:15-17
- Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, on Revelation 6:17
- NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, note on Revelation 6:17
- ESV Study Bible, note on Revelation 6:12-17
- CSB Study Bible, cross-references at Revelation 6:17
- NIV Biblical Theology Study Bible, note on Revelation 6:17
- Septuagint, Joel 2:11, Nahum 1:6 and Malachi 3:2, Interlinear Greek-English Septuagint
- SBL Greek New Testament (MorphGNT), Revelation 6:17
