10/22/2023
We’re reading through Revelation along with NT Wright’s Revelation for Everyone. These notes include discussions of topics of additional interest and attempt connections with more Old Testament material. Quotations on this page are from the NET Bible.
6:9-7:10
As the fifth seal is opened, John sees “under the altar the souls of those who had been violently killed because of the word of God and because of the testimony they had given.” We’ve previously discussed elements of the Tabernacle/Temple that correlate with elements of God’s throne room. Here again, there is a reference to the altar. In the Tabernacle, there are two altars, one in the outer court for sacrifices, and one in the Holy Place for incense. Because this altar has slain bodies beneath it, it seems most likely the outer court altar is the best analog. In Revelation 5, John saw the slain lamb, he now sees the souls of the lamb’s followers. As in Revelation 3, they receive white garments.
They wait until their full number is reached. This waiting for coming judgment occurs in the Old Testament too. In Genesis 15, when God promises Abraham his descendants will inherit the land of Canaan, he tells Abraham it will not happen yet “for the sin of the Amorites has not yet reached its limit.” In the context of other judgment narratives, it appears that God is patient with judgment, allowing people to rebel and the land to become ruined to the point where intervention is necessary to protect God’s ongoing project to preserve a remnant for relationship with him in a fruitful land. Here in Revelation, God similarly is allowing corruption, even to the point of the murder of his followers, to continue for some time.
As the sixth seal is opened, we find de-creation imagery echoing some of Genesis 1’s elements – the earth shakes, the sun and moon darken, the stars fall in analogy to a fruit tree losing its fruit. The sky splits and the land shifts. Recalling Andrew Teeter’s view of Genesis 1 creation as a symmetrical heavens and earth, in Revelation 6, it appears each is shaken and displaced.
Both the powerful and powerless flee and hide from the face of the one on the throne and the Lamb. There must be dark humor in this idea of the terrible wrath of the slain lamb. His death did not end his influence, rather he has been exalted above all and will exert overwhelming force in the heavens and on the land in a day of wrath.
The spectacle of stars falling and sun and moon darkened appears to be the undoing of day 4 of Genesis 1 creation. It is also likely the symbolic deconstruction of the spiritual order in the heavens. Psalm 82 warned of such a judgment because of the injustice of heavenly beings toward the vulnerable:
God stands in the assembly of El;
in the midst of the gods he renders judgment.
He says, “How long will you make unjust legal decisions
and show favoritism to the wicked? (Selah)
Defend the cause of the poor and the fatherless.
Vindicate the oppressed and suffering.
Rescue the poor and needy.
Deliver them from the power of the wicked.
They neither know nor understand.
They stumble around in the dark,
while all the foundations of the earth crumble.
I thought, ‘You are gods;
all of you are sons of the Most High.’
Yet you will die like mortals;
you will fall like all the other rulers.”
Rise up, O God, and execute judgment on the earth!
For you own all the nations.
At the beginning of chapter 7, four angels at the four corners of the earth hold back four winds, so no wind could blow on the land, sea, or any tree. In Genesis 1 prior to God speaking things into existence, the Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters. In Biblical Hebrew, the word for spirit is the same as the word for wind. Genesis 1’s wind/spirit over the waters and Genesis 3’s God appearing in the windy part of the day may be in view here.
The four angels with permission to damage the earth and sea may be the horsemen of the first four seals, restrained from their destruction until the servants of God are sealed. This passage may recall Exodus’ Israel as a kingdom of priests led by a high priest who wore a gold plate on his forehead inscribed “Holy to the Lord.” Soon other people will receive the mark of the beast instead. But here, twelve tribes of Israel are sealed.
It's not clear whether the breaking of the seals of the scroll and the sealing of the Israelites are related concepts. Breaking the seals of the document releases judgment, while sealing the tribes appears to protect them from it.
This list of tribes is different than any other list of the Israelite tribes in Scripture. It includes Joseph and his son Manasseh but not his son Ephraim or the tribe of Dan. The rebellious northern Israelite tribes after the time of Solomon were known collectively as Ephraim, presumably because it was the most powerful and prominent among them. There is some evidence from archaeology and ancient extrabiblical texts that Dan built a temple to Baal, became a seafaring people, and may have abandoned the land of Israel. The northern tribes were exiled, and the vast majority did not return. There is not a consensus explanation among scholars for the tribes included and excluded from this list. If there is a conclusion we can draw, it may be that, even among God’s chosen people, not all are present in the end.
Emily Deng insightfully identified a parallel between 7:4-9 and 5:5-6. In chapter 5, John first hears of the lion, then sees the slain lamb. In chapter 7, John first hears of the Israelite tribes being sealed, then sees “an enormous crowd that no one could count, made up of persons from every nation, tribe, people, and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb dressed in long white robes, and with palm branches in their hands.”