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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 7:1, four angels holding back the four winds
The four winds held back at the corners of the earth recall the four winds of heaven in Zechariah 6, the horse teams John has just used, and other prophets' winds of judgment.
Revelation 7:1, in every translation this tool compares.
A dam holds back a flood only until the gates are opened. In Zechariah 6 the four chariot teams are called the four winds of heaven, sent out over the earth. Jeremiah and Daniel also speak of four winds that bring judgment or turmoil. John sees four angels standing at the world's four corners. They hold the four winds in check. Nothing may harm land, sea or trees until God's servants are marked.
Four winds (tessares anemoi) that sweep over the earth. Zechariah 6:5, Jeremiah 49:36 and Daniel 7:2 all use the phrase in Greek. In Zechariah and Jeremiah God sends the winds.
Zechariah's winds belong to heaven. John's winds belong to the earth. In Zechariah the winds go out at once; in John angels hold them back for a time. Jeremiah's winds scatter one nation, Elam. John's would harm the whole earth, sea and trees.
Beale reads the winds as the four horsemen of chapter 6 seen another way. The pause shows that God's people are marked before the woes begin. The same powers that harm the world cannot touch what God has sealed for himself.
Not Zechariah's chariots. John keeps the four winds and drops the horses. In Zechariah the winds go out over the earth; here angels hold them back until God's servants are sealed.
Beale identifies the four winds with the four horsemen of 6:1-8, because Zechariah 6:5 calls the horse teams the four winds of heaven, and John has just drawn on that chapter. He defends this reading of Zechariah 6:5 against translations that make the horses go toward the winds. He adds that Jeremiah 49:36, where four winds are God's agents against Elam, stands in the same tradition and may also be behind 7:2-3. In the vault's Septuagint, Zechariah 6:5 reads hoi tessares anemoi tou ouranou, Jeremiah 49:36 tessaras anemous, and Daniel 7:2 hoi tessares anemoi tou ouranou. The four corners of the earth recall Isaiah 11:12 and Ezekiel 7:2. Keener notes the winds were probably seen as angels even in Zechariah 6:5. The CSB Study Bible's cross-references list Isaiah 11:12, Jeremiah 49:36, Ezekiel 7:2, Daniel 7:2 and Zechariah 6:5. Walton notes that Zechariah's teams are called spirits, the same word as winds. The grade is drawn here: the phrase is shared, and the link to Zechariah rests on the context John has just used.
Beale ties the winds to the horsemen of chapter 6. Mounce and Thomas, as Beale reports, deny the link, reading Zechariah 6:5 as horses going out toward the four winds. Keener reads the winds more generally as forces of nature under angels' care. Beale and Keener read the four corners and four winds as ordinary speech for the whole world. MacArthur reads the winds as all the earth's winds from every side, and the corners as the points of the compass; the angels stop the world's winds for a short pause.
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- G. K. Beale, The Book of Revelation (New International Greek Testament Commentary), comment on 7:1
- Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, on Revelation 7:1
- CSB Study Bible, cross-references at Revelation 7:1
- John H. Walton, Victor H. Matthews and Mark W. Chavalas, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: Old Testament, on Zechariah 6:1-5
- Septuagint, Zechariah 6:5, Jeremiah 49:36 and Daniel 7:2, Interlinear Greek-English Septuagint
- SBL Greek New Testament (MorphGNT), Revelation 7:1
- John MacArthur, The MacArthur Study Bible (ESV), note on Revelation 7:1
