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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 8:7, a third burned up
Judgment by thirds may come from Ezekiel 5, where Jerusalem is divided into thirds for fire, sword and scattering, and from Zechariah 13, where a third is brought through fire.
Revelation 8:7, in every translation this tool compares.
Splitting something into thirds can make a point no pie chart needs to spell out. Ezekiel shaves his hair and divides it into three parts: one burned, one cut with a sword, one scattered to the wind. Each third stands for a part of Jerusalem's people. Zechariah says two thirds will perish and a third will be refined in fire. John's trumpets strike one third of land, of trees and of sea.
Judgment measured out in thirds, with fire as one of the means. Ezekiel 5:2 burns a third in the fire; Zechariah 13:8-9 brings a third through fire. John burns a third of the earth.
Ezekiel's thirds are thirds of a city's people, each with a different fate. John's are thirds of the earth, the trees, the sea and the sky. The Greek translation of Ezekiel 5 divides the people into fourths, not thirds. The Hebrew has thirds, so John's third matches the Hebrew of Ezekiel, a point drawn here.
Beale says Ezekiel's thirds sit inside a larger warning of famine, and the first trumpet also means famine. Zechariah adds that the same fire refines the faithful and destroys the rest. The limit to a third keeps these judgments partial, short of the end.
Not a copy of Ezekiel's thirds. Ezekiel divides a city's people into three parts with three fates. John strikes a third of the land, the trees, the sea and the sky.
Beale says the limit to a third is due above all to Ezekiel 5:2, 12, where Israel is divided into thirds and judged by fire, sword and scattering, inside a frame of famine (Ezekiel 4:9-17; 5:16-17). He adds that 8:7 might also evoke Zechariah 13:8-9, where the third that is left is brought through the fire and refined. In the vault's Septuagint, Ezekiel 5:2 and 5:12 speak of to tetarton, a fourth part, four times; the Hebrew of 5:12 has shelishit, a third, as the Hebrew of 5:2 also does. So John's thirds follow the Hebrew of Ezekiel, while the fourth of 6:8 matches the Greek. That textual point is drawn here. Zechariah 13:8 in Greek has to triton, the third. Aune, as Heiser reports, ties the thirds loosely to Ezekiel 5:2. The CSB Study Bible's cross-references at 8:7 list Ezekiel 5:12 and Zechariah 13:8-9. The grade is possible: Beale is confident, but the number is common and the other sources only list texts.
Heiser says the source of the third is not clear. He reports Tonstad, who reads every third through the third of the stars in 12:4, which Heiser finds arbitrary. Aune ties the thirds loosely to Ezekiel 5:2, which Heiser thinks makes more sense but not much. He prefers Beale's other option, Zechariah 13:8-9, where the same fire refines the righteous and punishes the ungodly. He adds Moyise's observation that the trumpets follow the order of Joel 2-3 and Amos 1-3.
The sources weigh the possible models differently. Beale puts Ezekiel 5 first and Zechariah 13 second. Heiser prefers Zechariah 13. Tonstad, as Heiser reports, reads the thirds from 12:4. Keener and the study Bibles note the escalation from a fourth (6:8) to a third to the whole (the bowls) without naming a source. On what the third means, Beale reads it as a sign that these woes are partial, short of the final judgment. MacArthur reads the fractions as real shares: a third of the earth's forests here, and a quarter of the world's people at 6:8.
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- G. K. Beale, The Book of Revelation (New International Greek Testament Commentary), comment on 8:7 and Conclusion to the First Four Trumpets
- CSB Study Bible, cross-references at Revelation 8:7
- Septuagint, Ezekiel 5:2, Ezekiel 5:12 and Zechariah 13:8-9, Interlinear Greek-English Septuagint
- Hebrew text of Ezekiel 5:12, Miqra according to the Masorah (Sefaria)
- Michael S. Heiser, Revelation 8: The Seventh Seal and the First Four Trumpet Judgments, video lecture (Naked Bible Revelation series)
- John MacArthur, The MacArthur Study Bible (ESV), note on Revelation 6:8 and 8:7
