Read The Jewish Annotated New Testament Online
Authors: Amy-Jill Levine
These are all quite central features of the book of Revelation, its images of woe, divine vengeance, and heavenly secrets, and no listener would have missed their echoes of Ezekiel. The Ezekelian heaven and prophetic imagery would have endowed John’s Revelation with authority: visions of heaven that cleaved to recognizable traditions. And it may not have been an arbitrary source of material, for Ezekiel in his world, like John in his own, was formulating a notion of prophecy that was not simply spontaneous utterance or oracle but rather suggested the authority of heavenly books and writing. John thus presents himself as a new Ezekiel for these latter days of eschatological imminence.
Around the throne, and on each side of the throne, are four living creatures, full of eyes in front and behind:
7
the first living creature like a lion, the second living creature like an ox, the third living creature with a face like a human face, and the fourth living creature like a flying eagle.
8
And the four living creatures, each of them with six wings, are full of eyes all around and inside. Day and night without ceasing they sing,
“Holy, holy, holy,
the Lord God the Almighty,
who was and is and is to come.”
9
And whenever the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to the one who is seated on the throne, who lives forever and ever,
10
the twenty-four elders fall before the one who is seated on the throne and worship the one who lives forever and ever; they cast their crowns before the throne, singing,
11
“You are worthy, our Lord and God,
to receive glory and honor and power,
for you created all things,
and by your will they existed and were
created.”
5
Then I saw in the right hand of the one seated on the throne a scroll written on the inside and on the back, sealed
*
with seven seals;
2
and I saw a mighty angel proclaiming with a loud voice, “Who is worthy to open the scroll and break its seals?”
3
And no one in heaven or on earth or under the earth was able to open the scroll or to look into it.
4
And I began to weep bitterly because no one was found worthy to open the scroll or to look into it.
5
Then one of the elders said to me, “Do not weep. See, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has conquered, so that he can open the scroll and its seven seals.”
6
Then I saw between the throne and the four living creatures and among the elders a Lamb standing as if it had been slaughtered, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent out into all the earth.
7
He went and took the scroll from the right hand of the one who was seated on the throne.
8
When he had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell before the Lamb, each holding a harp and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints.
9
They sing a new song:
“You are worthy to take the scroll
and to open its seals,
for you were slaughtered and by your
blood you ransomed for God
saints from
*
every tribe and language
and people and nation;
10
you have made them to be a kingdom
and priests serving
*
our God,
and they will reign on earth.”
11
Then I looked, and I heard the voice of many angels surrounding the throne and the living creatures and the elders; they numbered myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands,
12
singing with full voice,
“Worthy is the Lamb that was slaughtered
to receive power and wealth and wisdom
and might
and honor and glory and blessing!”
13
Then I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea, and all that is in them, singing,
“To the one seated on the throne and to
the Lamb
be blessing and honor and glory and might
forever and ever!”
14
And the four living creatures said, “Amen!” And the elders fell down and worshiped.
6
Then I saw the Lamb open one of the seven seals, and I heard one of the four living creatures call out, as with a voice of thunder, “Come!”
*
2
I looked, and there was a white horse! Its rider had a bow; a crown was given to him, and he came out conquering and to conquer.
THE NUMEROLOGY OF REVELATION
In antiquity certain numbers implied perfection in the cosmos or experience, and different cultures entertained different assortments of such perfect numbers. The Torah itself offers different types of numerological perfection in seven (Gen 2.1–3; 7.2–4) and twelve (Gen 35), while four signified (as in most cultures) the cardinal directions, and forty conveyed an enormous but limited period.
Apocalyptic texts regarded these numbers as based in heaven, linked intrinsically to God’s own perfection. Enoch’s tours of the cosmos revealed four very different regions of heavenly activity (
1 En
. 17–36), and Ezekiel beheld four “living creatures” surrounding God’s throne, while many texts presumed four principal archangels and seven or twelve heavens. The periodizations of history that some apocalypses offered to explain the alternation of fortune and misfortune in Jewish experiences usually unrolled according to some perfect number: 490 (= 7 × 70, Dan 9) or fourteen (= 12 + 1 + 1,
2 Bar
. 53–74). By the second century some Christians envisioned their four most popular Gospels as expressing the perfection of the divine number four, even connecting them to Ezekiel’s four living creatures (Irenaeus,
Adv. Haer
. 3.11.8).
Revelation is especially interested in the unfolding potentiality of the number seven as God’s heavenly number. The main sevenfold entities consist of temple materials (1.12) and angelic servants of the heavenly temple (8–9; 16), although this heavenly number is extended to the congregations to which the heavenly Christ, himself holding seven stars (1.16), addresses his letters (2–3) and to the number of seals on the mysterious scroll of judgment (6). In this way the nature of the Jesus-congregations in John’s world becomes an intrinsic extension of the perfect order of the heavenly world.
John also develops the symbolism of the number twelve, which signifies the special perfection of Jewish heritage (Gen 35), but probably had also acquired astrological associations by the Roman period (see Rev 12.1). The blessed of Israel are organized in twelve groups of twelve thousand each (where the word “thousand” signifies a sufficient enormity, 7.4–8; 12.1), and the mysterious “elders” John finds in heaven are themselves numbered at twenty-four (4.4). Recalling the perfection of measurements in Ezekiel (40–48) and the Dead Sea Temple Scroll, the structure of John’s eschatological Jerusalem reflects the twelve-fold perfection of Israel (21.12–14,16–17).
Revelation also offers three forms of “negative” numerology. The period designated for the rampage of the nations and the activity of the two martyrs in ch 11 is limited to forty-two months, precisely half of seven years and so an indication of incompleteness. The association of the dragon and the polymorphic beast with the numbers seven and ten (12.3; 13.1; 17.7–12) may indicate these creatures’ deceptive pretenses to holiness. On the other hand, the “number of the beast,” 666 (13.18), is merely the calculation of the numerical equivalents of the Hebrew letters that would spell “Nero Caesar.” This calculation reflects an ancient Jewish practice called “gematria”: exploring the mysteries of words through their corresponding numbers (on the assumption that Hebrew letters themselves had a divine origin). By itself, however, 666 (or 616 in some manuscripts) had no special numerological significance.
3
When he opened the second seal, I heard the second living creature call out, “Come!”
*
4
And out came
*
another horse, bright red; its rider was permitted to take peace from the earth, so that people would slaughter one another; and he was given a great sword.
5
When he opened the third seal, I heard the third living creature call out, “Come!”a I looked, and there was a black horse! Its rider held a pair of scales in his hand,
6
and I heard what seemed to be a voice in the midst of the four living creatures saying, “A quart of wheat for a day’s pay,
*
and three quarts of barley for a day’s pay,
*
but do not damage the olive oil and the wine!”
7
When he opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living creature call out, “Come!”
*
8
I looked and there was a pale green horse! Its rider’s name was Death, and Hades followed with him; they were given authority over a fourth of the earth, to kill with sword, famine, and pestilence, and by the wild animals of the earth.
9
When he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slaughtered for the word of God and for the testimony they had given;
10
they cried out with a loud voice, “Sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long will it be before you judge and avenge our blood on the inhabitants of the earth?”
11
They were each given a white robe and told to rest a little longer, until the number would be complete both of their fellow servants
*
and of their brothers and sisters,
*
who were soon to be killed as they themselves had been killed.
12
When he opened the sixth seal, I looked, and there came a great earthquake; the sun became black as sackcloth, the full moon became like blood,
13
and the stars of the sky fell to the earth as the fig tree drops its winter fruit when shaken by a gale.
14
The sky vanished like a scroll rolling itself up, and every mountain and island was removed from its place.
15
Then the kings of the earth and the magnates and the generals and the rich and the powerful, and everyone, slave and free, hid in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains,
16
calling to the mountains and rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of the one seated on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb;
17
for the great day of their wrath has come, and who is able to stand?”
7
After this I saw four angels standing at the four corners of the earth, holding back the four winds of the earth so that no wind could blow on earth or sea or against any tree.
2
I saw another angel ascending from the rising of the sun, having the seal of the living God, and he called with a loud voice to the four angels who had been given power to damage earth and sea,
3
saying, “Do not damage the earth or the sea or the trees, until we have marked the servants
*
of our God with a seal on their foreheads.”
4
And I heard the number of those who were sealed, one hundred forty-four thousand, sealed out of every tribe of the people of Israel: