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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 6:9, souls under the altar
The slain saints lie under the altar where the blood of sacrifices was poured out, so their deaths are pictured as offerings.
Revelation 6:9, in every translation this tool compares.
A memorial set beside a chapel's altar says these lives were given up, and not wasted. Under the law of Moses, the priest poured the rest of a sacrifice's blood out where the altar met the ground. John sees the souls of those killed for their witness under the altar in heaven. The picture turns their deaths into gifts laid before God. Beale adds that being so near God's throne also means they are kept safe.
An altar, blood that has been shed, and the place at its base. In the Greek of Leviticus 4:7 the blood is poured out by the altar's foot (basis); John sees the slain under it (hypokato tou thysiasteriou).
Leviticus speaks of animal blood at the earthly altar. John speaks of souls of people, at a heavenly altar. The sources disagree on which altar is meant. Leviticus 4 names both: the incense altar gets blood on its horns, and the rest is poured out at the foot of the bronze altar for burnt offerings.
The slain saints share the pattern of the slain Lamb of chapter 5. Their deaths, offered in faithfulness, are not wasted. Beale reads the scene as comfort: they are close to God's throne, protected even though they lost their lives.
Not the rite of Leviticus moved to heaven. Leviticus pours out the blood of animals at an earthly altar. No Old Testament text places the souls of the dead under an altar; that part of the picture is John's.
Beale says the altar evokes the sacrificial nature of the saints' suffering, and that blood was poured at the base of the bronze altar (Leviticus 4:18, 30, 34), but he identifies the heavenly altar with the golden altar of incense near the holy of holies (Exodus 30:1-10; Leviticus 4:7), which is clearly meant in 8:3-5 and 9:13. He reads under the altar as near God's throne, a link Jewish writings also made. Keener lists Leviticus 4:7, 18, 25, 34 and others for blood at the base of the altar and calls the martyrs sacrifices. The ESV Study Bible and the CSB Study Bible cite Exodus 29:12; the NIV Biblical Theology Study Bible cites Leviticus 4:7 and leaves both altars open. In the Greek, Leviticus 4:7 has the blood poured para ten basin tou thysiasteriou, by the base of the altar. The grade is possible: the image is clear, but no source points to one verse, and the sources disagree on the altar.
Heiser reads Aune, who notes the two altars but does not choose, and Beale, who argues for the altar of incense. He is persuaded by Beale because later altars in the book are clearly the incense altar, next to the throne behind the veil. He reads the picture as protection: judgment goes out from the throne, while the souls of the faithful stay in God's presence. He also reports an astral reading, a constellation called the Altar above the Milky Way, which Aune rejects; Heiser says it at least belongs on the table.
The sources differ over the altar. Beale argues for the incense altar, and MacArthur also takes it as probably the incense altar. The ESV Study Bible says the heavenly altar fills both roles, and Beale says the same of 8:3. Keener, the ESV Study Bible and the CSB Study Bible stress blood poured out at the foot of the bronze altar. They also differ on who the slain are. Beale takes them as a picture of all believers who suffer for their witness, comparing 20:4. MacArthur reads Christians martyred during a seven-year tribulation still to come.
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- G. K. Beale, The Book of Revelation (New International Greek Testament Commentary), comment on 6:9 and 8:3
- Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, on Revelation 6:9
- ESV Study Bible, notes on Revelation 6:9-11 and 8:3-5
- CSB Study Bible, note on Revelation 6:9-11
- NIV Biblical Theology Study Bible, note on Revelation 6:9
- Septuagint, Leviticus 4:7 and 4:18, Interlinear Greek-English Septuagint
- Michael S. Heiser, Revelation 6: The Opening of the First Six Seals, video lecture (Naked Bible Revelation series)
- John MacArthur, The MacArthur Study Bible (ESV), note on Revelation 6:9
