REVELATION 2:18-29 -- OLD TESTAMENT REFERENCES

It is well known that the whole of Revelation is seeped in Old Testament allusions even if, as it has often been stated, there are no exact OT quotations in it. (However, see my comments on verses 26-27 below) As an example, consider the letter that Christ wrote to the congregation at Thyatira.

Revelation 2:18 – “The words of the Son of God, who has eyes like a flame of fire, and whose feet are like burnished bronze.” (Ps. 2:7; Dan 10:6)

Ford: “In this verse the title [Son of God] has a much more profound significance than the description 'one like a son of man' in 1:13; it indicates a unique relationship to God.”

Revelation 2:20 – “...you tolerate the woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess and is teaching and beguiling my servants to practice immorality and to eat food sacrificed to idols.

Ford explains that “Jezebel is probably a nickname because the woman supported false prophets as did Queen Jezebel in Elijah's day.” As Morris says, “We may assume that the name is symbolic. “Certainly no Jew would have borne it in view of the evils practiced by Ahab's wife.”

Mounce: “The choice of the epithet, Jezebel, and references to fornication and eating things sacrificed to idols indicate a first-century parallel with the wicked queen of Ahab who fostered in Israel the idolatrous worship of the Canaanite Baal (I Kgs 16:29ff; II Kgs 9:30ff)...It is questionable whether her teaching was in any sense formal. It may only have taken the form of popular persuasion built upon unexamined assumptions. In any case, it had seduced a considerable number of believers into a fatal compromise with paganism.”

Revelation 2:21

“The concept of religious infidelity under the figure of harlotry is common in the OT. 'Rejoice not, O Israel!...for you have played the harlot, forsaking your God' (Hos 9:1; cf Jer 3:6; Ezek 23:19; etc.).” (Mounce)

Revelation 2:22

Ruiz reminds us, “In the Hebrew Bible idolatry is often called adultery, with marital infidelity used as a metaphor for worship of other gods than the LORD (Deut 31:16; Judg 2:17; 1 Chr 5:25).”

Ford notes that a “similar idiom occurs in Exod 21:18 ('...the man does not die but keeps his bed...') and I Macc 1:5 ('...he fell sick and perceived that he was dying...'): both suggest critical (lethal) illness. This is confirmed in vs. 23. In the ancient world sickness was seen as the result of sin. The punishment of the children, with the prophetess, may may suggest the Jewish belief that the sins of parents are visited upon their children (cf. Exod 34:7) or that the whole family is punished for the iniquity of one member (cf. Achan in Josh 7, Dan 6:24).”

“In some cases the inactivity of a bed connects not with rest or sloth but with pain as in Job 33:19, in which we read of one 'chastened on a bed of pain.' The 'sickbed' and 'bed of illness' (Ps 41:3) become at times symbols of pain and even punishment: pagan Jezebel, as the representative of sexual immorality and pagan idolatry, is 'cast on a bed of suffering' (Rev 2:22).” (Dictionary of Biblical Imagery)

Revelation 2:23

Mounce feels that “the reference to the killing of her children may reflect the bloody occasion when the rulers of Samaria slew the seventy sons of Ahab and sent their heads to Jezreel in baskets (II Kgs 10:1-11).

The literal phrase “kill with death” in this verse appears also in the Septuagint version of Ezekiel 33:27.

Morris: “From this judgment they shall know that Christ 'searcheth the reins and hearts' (cf. Je 11:20).”

Beale feels that “Jer. 17:10 is uppermost in mind, since both expressions appear together only here.” Compare the two passages below:

“I the LORD test the mind and search the heart, to give to all according to their ways, according to the fruit of their doings.” (Jeremiah 17:10)

“I am the one who searches minds and hearts, and I will give to each of you as your works deserve.” (Revelation 3:23)

Beale continues: “The statement in Jeremiah is especially suitable because it refers to God's judgment of those within the Israelite community who practice idolatry out of economic motives (cf. Jer. 17:3, 11; 11:10-17, 20). As in Jeremiah, the Thyatiran false teachers who promote involvement in idolatry may be able to hide their evil motives from human eyes, but not from God's searching vision.”

Beale and McDonough add, “Furthermore, the statement in Jeremiah is especially suitable because it refers to God's judgment of those within the Israelite community who practice idolatry out of economic motives (see Jer. 17:3,11; cf. 11:10-17,20). Believers in the province of Asia may have been tempted to worship idols to maintain their status in local trade guilds, which often had pagan gods as patrons.”

Revelation 2:26-27 – “He who conquers and who keeps my works until the end, I will give him power over the nations, and he shall rule them with a rod of iron, as when earthen pots are broken in pieces, even as I myself have received power from my Father.” (Ps 2:8-9)

“Mounce states, “Verses 26b-27 are a free rendering of Psalm 2:8-9, which had been interpreted messianically as early as the first century BC. The Psalms of Solomon (written probably between 70 and 40 BC) say of the son of David who is to rule over Israel, “He shall destroy the pride of the sinners as a potter's vessel. With a rod of iron he shall break in pieces all their substance (17:23-24).”

Beale calls this an actual quotation from Psalms, with a closer semblance to the Greek Septuagint (LXX) than the Hebrew version. Thus, he explains that “John has poimaino ('shepherd') in line with the LXX but in contrast with the MT [Hebrew text], which reads r'' ('smite'). It is possible that the LXX represents the original Hebrew text, which is known to be the case elsewhere in the OT...However, the parallelism of the Psalm could argue against this (Ps 2:9b reads 'break'), although this is not decisive. The unpointed Hebrew text read tr'm (a unique grammatical form of this word in the MT), which could be pointed to read 'you shall smite' (from r'') or 'you shall shepherd' (from r'h), and the LXX could easily have retained the tradition of the original vocalization...Accordingly, the 'authority' that Jesus received to begin to rule in fulfillment of the Psalm is understood to be the authority that a king wields in protecting his subjects and defeating his enemies. It is best to understand this as having begun fulfillment in the cross and resurrection, which have the double significance of salvific protection for believers, but of judgment for unbelievers.”

“In a similar manner to bronze, iron symbolizes might and even brutality (Ps 107:10,16; Dan 2:40; 7:7,19; cf. Rev 2:27).” (DBI)

“God's punishment, anger or rule is pictured by the rod approximately a dozen times, with the books of Isaiah and Revelation containing a preponderance of the references. Here the rod becomes an image of ultimate terror, as in references to God's breaking the rebellious kings of the earth 'with a rod of iron' (Ps 2:9; cf. Rev 2:27; 19:15) as well as God speaking of 'the rod of my anger, the staff of my fury' (Is 10:5.” (DBI)

“Shepherding with an iron rod might denote no more than strength or firmness were it not linked with breaking to pieces like clay vessels (cf. Ps. 2:9; Je. li:20).” (Morris)

Revelation 2:28 –

Ford: “Cf. The military savior of Israel described in Num 24:27 as a star coming out of Jacob and a scepter rising out of Israel. As Farrer...avers, 'morning star' is probably associated with the privilege of ruling or sovereignty...The word 'morning' may qualify 'star' because in Jer 23:5, 33:15, Zech 3:8, 6:12, which refer to the shoot out of Jesse, a word is employed which may mean either 'shoot' or 'dayspring.' The reward, then, is the Son of God Himself under the symbol of the morning star.”

“Here again the primary reference is to Christ himself, Rev. 22:16. As the morning-star rules the heavens, so believers will reign with Christ; they will share in his royal splendor and dominion. The star is ever the symbol of royalty, being linked with the scepter, Num 24:17. Cf. Matt. 2:2.” (Hendricksen)

Contra the above opinions, Hagner states, “Although this can be related to the words of Num. 24:17 ('a star shall come out of Jacob'), more probably it alludes to the morning star Venus, with the connotation not only of beauty, but of daybreak, and so of sovereignty and victory....In Rev. 2:28, then, we may also understand the morning star given to the faithful as sovereignty or rule, which has the virtue of being consistent with the context as well as avoiding the awkward identification of the morning star with Christ.”

Beale and McDonough add: “In addition to the parallels between Ps. 2 and Num. 24, the Numbers prophecy is a natural fit to combine with that of Ps. 2 in Rev. 2:26-28 since the prophecy was issued by Balaam, and Balaam is a symbol in Rev. 2:14 for the same heresy as is mentioned in Rev. 2:20.”

So you can see from the above that a good knowledge of the Old Testament is absolutely necessary for those wishing to understand the Book of Revelation.