Torah Imagery in Revelation

Revelation is a limitless source of fascination and frustration for modern readers – religious leaders, scholars, and lay people alike. Despite our best efforts, it will retain many mysteries, but by viewing its imagery through the lens of Old Testament writers, we can begin to understand.

John, the author of Revelation, writes from the island of Patmos off the coast of modern Turkey and addresses letters within the book to seven cities in what today is western Turkey. The lands of the Torah, the first five books of the Bible, are to the south and east.

Rivers

In Genesis 2:10-14, we learn of a river flowing out of Eden that splits into four: the Pishon that flows through Havilah where there is gold and precious stones, the Gihon that flows through Cush, the Tigris, and the Euphrates.

Pishon and Gihon are not names of large rivers today, but there are clues they may refer to ones we do recognize. Cush was Egypt’s southern neighbor, modern Ethiopia and Sudan. Its mountains are sources of the Nile.

The Old Testament scholar John Sailhamer, in his book Genesis Unbound[1], suggests for the river that flows through Havilah that the only remaining river mentioned in the Torah is the Jordan.

These four rivers touch many of the nations described in the Torah: the Nile – Egypt and Cush; the Jordan – Israel, Moab, and Ammon; the Euphrates – Babylon; the Tigris – Assyria. If we accept these as Genesis 2’s rivers, since their headwaters are on different continents separated by over two thousand miles, the author likely intends us to interpret the source as supernatural, a river that flows from Eden to the nations.

In Revelation 22, we’ll find another river, flowing from God’s throne, watering a new tree of life for the healing of the nations.

Uninhabitable Places

The land God promises his chosen people is surrounded by hostile territory. The Sea of the Philistines (as the Torah calls it) borders Israel on the west. To the east, past the Jordan and Israel’s neighbor Moab, a vast desert begins, stretching for hundreds of miles. Southwest of ancient Israel, the Sinai wilderness is the location of the Israelites’ wandering following their exodus from Egypt. The prominence of desert and sea imagery in the Torah and Revelation likely results from these geographical realities.

Genesis 1 takes us from uninhabitable sea to a fruitful land. We first find the land without form and empty. God begins with three days of separating – light from darkness, waters above from waters below, and land from waters. He then populates each domain – sun, moon, and stars in the heavens; birds and fish in the waters above and below; and animals, then people in the land. The structure of the text suggests a vertical relationship – between rulers in the heavens for signs and seasons and rulers in the land in the image of God according to his likeness – and a horizontal relationship – between trees that bear fruit and humans who God blesses to be fruitful.

If the reader has some knowledge of Hebrew, the form of the text yields interesting insights. The organization of the days, the number of words in introductory and concluding phrases, the number of times God says key phrases, and the number of times God speaks subtly prioritize the numbers three, seven, and ten.[2] In Revelation, we will find many examples of similar organization, with the number seven taking an especially prominent role.

God gives people a high calling – to represent him with authority in the land he has made – and on the seventh day, for which there is no “evening and morning,” he enduringly rests.

Genesis 2 continues the pattern of movement from the uninhabitable (this time a barren wilderness) to a fruitful land. People receive further instruction – tend and guard the garden and eat freely of every tree except that of the knowledge of good and evil, which will bring death.

Revelation tells us of beasts emerging from the sea and dwelling in the wilderness. In the new heaven and the new earth, Revelation 21 says, there will be no sea. Genesis’ view of the wilderness and the sea informs Revelation’s. They are hostile to life. In Revelation, God completes the pattern begun in Genesis – he shows his creative power and care for people by changing hostile geography into places of life and blessing, by moving his people into a fruitful land, where he can dwell with them.

Trees

We first find trees that bear fruit on day three of the Genesis 1 creation account. In Genesis 3, Eve sees and takes the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and Adam shares it, which leads to God exiling Adam and Eve from the garden to prevent access to the tree of life.

Noah builds his life-saving ark from trees.

Abraham traverses the land of Canaan from north to south, stopping at mountaintops and a well by trees to build altars to commune with God.

Moses encounters a burning bush on Mount Sinai, perhaps recalling Abraham’s altar for burnt offerings next to a tree, or as Rabbi David Fohrman suggests, the flaming sword guarding the way to the tree of life, the bush a desiccated remnant of the Eden garden without anyone to tend it.[3]

In the Torah, trees play a pivotal role in God’s relationship with man.[4] Their shape suggests a connection between heaven and earth. Their fruitfulness sustains human and animal life and is a sign of God’s blessing.

In Revelation 22, one of the most prominent symbols of God’s life-giving blessing and provision is the new tree of life, which extends along both sides of the river that flows from God’s throne, “the tree of life producing 12 kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit every month of the year. Its leaves are for the healing of the nations.” (Revelation 22:2, NET) 

Precious Materials

The gold and precious stones of Havilah in Genesis 2:11-12 recur as symbols in God’s relationship with people, often evoking the divine.

They are prominent in the Israelites’ encounters with God in Exodus. When God appears on Mount Sinai to the elders of Israel, he is enthroned above a pavement of precious stones (24:10).

The instructions for the Tabernacle, where God dwells among his people, call for huge quantities of bronze, silver, and gold, with elements in the holy and most holy place made of ornately fashioned gold. The lampstand (or menorah) in the holy place has seven branches and almond blossom decorations (25:31-37). Made of pure gold, it is the burning image of a tree that is not extinguished. Its construction directs its light across the room to the gold table holding twelve loaves of bread, likely representing the twelve tribes of Israel, God’s light shining on his people.

The high priest’s garments also contain gold and precious stones. Notably, he wears a gold plate with the words “Holy to YHWH” on his forehead. On his chest, he wears the names of the tribes of Israel on a grid of precious stones. He bears God’s name before the people and the people’s names before God inscribed in these luminous materials.[5]

In later books, including the prophetic visions of Daniel, Ezekiel, and Isaiah, spiritual beings appear as made of similar stuff.

As we read through Revelation, we’ll find visions of luminous beings, the city of God constructed of gold and precious stones, and ultimately even the sun will be replaced by God’s light shining on the inhabitants of the new creation.

The Conflict

In Genesis 3, after Eve chooses to eat the forbidden fruit, God declares an enduring conflict between the seed of the serpent and the seed of the woman.

I will put enmity

Between you and the woman,

And between your seed and her seed;

He shall bruise you on the head

And you shall bruise him on the heel. (Genesis 3:15, NASB)

In following chapters, patterns emerge for each seed. The woman’s follows the paradigm God established in Genesis 1 and 2, and the serpent’s pursues twisted approximations of it. Genesis 1-11 gives us a foundational look at concepts that will resonate and develop through the stories of the Torah and beyond.

In Revelation, the seed of the serpent vs seed of the woman conflict continues to develop and finally reaches its conclusion.

Cities

After Cain murdered his brother, God exiled him further to the east, where Cain expresses concern someone will kill him as a murderer. He then builds the first city we encounter in the Bible and names it after his son. The storyline of this city across generations leads to the land being ruined, so God must send the Flood. (Genesis 4-6)

Following the Flood, Nimrod makes his name as a warrior, hunter, and city founder including the cities of Babel/Babylon and Assyria. The peoples of Babel desire to build to the heavens and, apparently, restore the pre-Flood seed of the serpent paradigm. This storyline terminates in God scattering the peoples, so they cannot achieve their goals. (Genesis 10:8-12)

Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebekah have some dicey interactions in cities when Abraham and Isaac, fearing the violence and sexual abuse of the king, give their own wives as wife to those kings.

At Sodom, the people attempt violence and sexual abuse even of the angels God sends to investigate the cries he’s heard from the oppressed there. (Genesis 19)  

Shechem, the prince of the city called Shechem, sees and takes Dinah, Jacob’s daughter in an apparent act of violence and sexual abuse. Jacob’s sons respond with deceit, violence, and the enslavement of the city’s survivors. (Genesis 34)

The list of cities associated with seed of the serpent activities will grow throughout the Old Testament and sometimes include Jerusalem itself when it rebels against God.[6]

In Revelation, Babylon appears to be a stand-in for Rome and all the corrupt cities that have come before, powerful physical manifestations of the seed of the serpent at work in the world.

The Image and the Name

As discussed above, God makes people in/as his image. In her book Being God’s Image, Old Testament professor Carmen Joy Imes concludes that, like the inert images of pagan gods, we are made as living images representing God to others and his creation.[7]

In Exodus 20, the Ten Commandments tell us we should not bear God’s name in vain. This is an escalation of being his image: we bear God’s name as his followers and therefore have responsibility to do so in a manner that is productive and honors him.[8]

In contrast, seed of the serpent figures in early Genesis seek to make a great name for themselves through violence, oppression, and political power. The pharaoh of Exodus is an ultimate seed of the serpent type figure, who enslaved peoples and murdered infants to maintain his power, so for the rescued Israelites, the contrast between God’s paradigm and the enemy’s should be stark.

In her book, Moses Among the Idols, Humanities lecturer Amy Balogh discusses Moses’ role as the image, a “mediator of the divine,” including Hebrew wordplay that appears to set him on analogy with the golden calf.[9]

In Exodus 32, the people attempt to replace Moses with the golden calf when he is gone too long on Mount Sinai. In Exodus 34:29-35, when he returns from the mountaintop, he is “horned.” Because the Hebrew meaning is ambiguous, English translations often present his face as “shining,” which may be a more accurate interpretation, but a literal reading of the Hebrew gives us a Moses with horns. As a result, Renaissance-era artists often portrayed him this way.

Horns often represent power and authority. Here they may indicate Moses’ unique role as image of God to the people of Israel.

Predatory Animals

Beginning in Genesis 3, the biblical authors often portray sin as a predatory animal. There, the serpent incites Eve to rebel against God. In Genesis 4, God talks of sin as crouching as if to pounce, desiring Cain as if to consume him.

Isaiah, Jeremiah, Psalms, and Proverbs all compare seed of the serpent-oriented figures or nations to lions, bears, wild oxen, and other powerful, threatening animals. The animals of the prophetic visions of Daniel 7-8 are likely the direct inspiration for Revelation’s beasts.  

Through the lens of Torah and prophetic imagery, a predatory animal with horns is a powerful, seed of the serpent figure.

De-creation as Judgment

In Genesis 2, God places the man in the garden. After their rebellion in Genesis 3, God exiles Adam and Eve from the garden.

In Genesis 6, in response to human violence that ruins the land, the sky and land open, so that Genesis 1’s separated waters collapse inward to form the Flood.

The plague accounts of Exodus 7-11 use Genesis 1 language to portray the selective collapse of the creation order. Frogs leave the bounds of their watery home to invade the land. The dust of the ground becomes gnats in the air. Flies, boils, hail, and locusts from the air ruin the land, the creatures, and the plants and trees in it. Darkness overshadows the light. Moses tells the pharaoh, “This is what the Lord has said: ‘About midnight I will go throughout Egypt, and all the firstborn in the land of Egypt will die, from the firstborn son of Pharaoh who sits on his throne, to the firstborn son of the slave girl who is at her hand mill, and all the firstborn of the cattle. There will be a great cry throughout the whole land of Egypt, such as there has never been, nor ever will be again…”  (Exodus 11:4-6, NASB) The God who gave life in Genesis 1-2 leaves his ongoing Sabbath rest to bring death to the oppressors of his people.

When seed of the serpent activity threatens God’s purpose, God undoes creation to judge, to rescue people and land from the enemy.  

The bowls of Revelation 15-16 appear to recall this Exodus judgment and contain imagery and symbolic numbers from other judgment narratives including the Flood.

The Heavenly Tabernacle

As we progress through Revelation, we encounter elements corresponding to the furniture of the Tabernacle/Temple – lampstands, a sea before God’s throne, the slain Lamb, an incense altar and censer. Familiarity with Exodus’ Tabernacle instructions informs our understanding of Revelation. Here we discover how God patterned his earthly dwelling with the Israelites after his heavenly one.

Imagery in Revelation

Revelation embraces a narrative strategy of combining and magnifying existing images to intensify their impact.

The dragon shares attributes of a lion, raptor, and serpent. The beasts rising from the ocean appear constructed from various fearsome creatures in a manner similar to the spiritual beings of the prophetic books. Their rise from the ocean associates them with the Genesis 1 pre-Creation uninhabitable, unformed state. The prostitute embodies the seed of the serpent attributes of violence and abusive sexuality and inhabits the Genesis 2 pre-Creation wilderness. The bowls recall the plagues of Exodus, God de-creating as judgment before he inaugurates a new order.   

As we read through Revelation, we encounter striking images of oceans and deserts, stars and lampstands, heavenly beings glorifying God’s name, powerful horned creatures, cataclysmic warfare and judgment, and scenes of Eden garden-like paradise. Through modern eyes, some inspire hope, but others are disturbing and confusing. By reaching back to the early books of the Bible, we can find origins of this imagery, which help us to interpret it. 

If we pay close attention, we can see that imagery from the beginning of the Bible is very similar to the imagery we find in the end. Perhaps this communicates that God’s character has not changed. His desire remains to walk with us in the garden, for us to dwell with him in a fruitful land, and that we represent him well to his creation by showing his character to others and tending and keeping the land he has made for us. 

References:

[1] Sailhamer, John. Genesis Unbound. Colorado Springs, CO: Dawson Media, 1996. Chpt. 6.

[2] See Blocher, Henri. In the Beginning: The Opening Chapters of Genesis. Downers Grove, IL: Intervarsity Press, 1984. Tim Mackie’s free Bible Project Classroom course Heaven and Earth. and Andrew Teeter The World Seen Multnomah Bible College Hebrew Bible Conference, 2023.

[3] Listen to Rabbi Fohrman’s podcast A Book Like No Other, episode 4 Beyond the Garden Walls

[4] The BibleProject podcast series Tree of Life elaborates extensively on trees’ significance.

[5] For more on this, see Imes, Carmen Joy. Bearing God’s Name. Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 2019 and Imes, Carmen Joy. Bearing YHWH’s Name at Sinai. University Park, PA: Eisenbraun’s, 2018.

[6] BibleProject podcast series The City thoroughly examines cities’ role in Scripture.

[7] Imes, Carmen Joy. Being God’s Image. Downers Grove, IL: Intervarsity Press, 2023. 

[8] Imes, Carmen Joy. Bearing God’s Name. Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 2019. and Imes, Carmen Joy. Bearing YHWH’s Name at Sinai.University Park, PA: Eisenbraun’s, 2018.

[9] Balogh, Amy. Moses Among the Idols. London: Lexington Books, 2018.

Image References:

Satellite Imagery of the Eastern Med with Labels Added. Original Image: Google Landsat/Copernicus.

Rough blue ocean under dark sky. Adobe Stock

Light flare special effect in dark black. Adobe Stock

Sea, sky, and clouds. Wikimedia Commons

Skeleton Coast, Conception Bay (37053968844). Wikimedia Commons

Day meets night. Adobe Stock

Over under sea surface sharks,tropical fish and bird ,Pacific ocean, French Polynesia. Adobe Stock

Group of animals at waterhole in Etosha National park, Namibia. Adobe Stock

bosahan woodland stream cornwall england uk near Falmouth. Adobe Stock

Amazing desert sunset. Beautiful Arabian desert with warm colors. Colorful contours of sand dunes at Abu Dhabi. Shutterstock

Moss Covered Forest in Killarney Park, Ireland (HDR composite). Shutterstock

Tissot The Ark of the Covenant. Wikimedia Commons

Timna-park-tabernacle-schaubrote-tisch. Wikimedia Commons

Timna Tabernacle Incense altar. Wikimedia Commons

Menorah 0307. Wikimedia Commons

Stiftshuette Modell Timnapark. Wikimedia Commons

Almond Prunus dulcis. Wikimedia Commons

Figurine of Baal, the storm god. Google Arts and Culture

Bull site statuette. Wikimedia Commons

'Moses' by Michelangelo JBU140. Wikimedia Commons

Green Tree Python. Wallpaper Abyss

Lioness move in brown grass to kill. Adobe Stock