The Jewish Annotated New Testament (307 page)

24
:
Blood of prophets and of saints
, an allusion to Jer 51.49 but a contrast to the Gospel Sayings Source, which blamed the murder of prophets on Israel itself (Mt 23.34–36; Lk 11.49–51).

19.1
–6: Heavenly celebration.
The concluding glorification of God’s judgment shifts the antiphonal chanting to heaven and the voices of beings at the throne of God.

2
:
Judgments … just
, Ps 19.9 [Heb v. 10];
avenged … blood
, Ps 79.10.
Great whore
, see 17.1.
Fornication
, see 14.8.

4
–5
:
Hallelujah
, Heb “praise Yah,” Ps 146–150; 106.1; etc. That the voice
from the throne
calls for praises to
our God
implies that its source (on or in the throne) is not God but another aspect of God.

19.7
–10: Announcement of the marriage supper.
The heavenly antiphony shifts from the destruction of the
whore
(v. 2), the image of abomination and pollution, to the celebration of the marriage of the Lamb to his pure bride Jerusalem.

8
:
Fine linen
, see 15.6–7n.
Deeds
, see 14.13n.; 16.15n.

9
:
Blessed are
, see 1.3n.
Supper
, often interpreted as the great eschatological feast for the righteous to which some Jewish apocalyptic texts allude (cf. Isa 25.6–8;
2 Bar
. 29.4;
4 Ezra
6.52;
1 En
. 62.14), but the horrible nature of this feast is soon revealed, 19.17–18;

10
: Cf. 22.8–9.
To worship him
, seers privy to extraordinary visions of heaven often misunderstand who is God and who is an angel or secondary expression of God. If in earlier times the mistake went unnoticed (cf. Tob 12.16–22), the recurrence of the motif in Jewish-Christian texts of the first and second centuries suggests that questions about the concept of monotheism were quite pressing in such quarters (cf.
Apoc. Zeph
. 6.11–15;
Ascen. Isa
. 4.2–14). It is God, not the Lamb/Jesus, who is to be worshiped.
Testimony
about Jesus is the
spirit of prophecy
that communicates from God to John.

19.11
–16:
The avenging warrior.

11
:
White horse … rider
, the personification of God’s Word as a militant warrior, an expression of vengeance, appears in contemporaneous Jewish texts (esp. Wis 18.15–16); the imagery draws on such traditions as Isa 63.1–3;
Pss. Sol
. 17.24; and
4 Ezra
13.4–11.

13
:
Robe dipped in blood
could designate military efficacy (cf. Isa 63.3), purity (cf. Rev 7.14), or, least likely, identification with Christ.

14
:
Armies of heaven
, see e.g., 2 Kings 2.12; Judg 5.20.

15
:
Mouth … sword
, see 1.16n.
Rod of iron
, see 12.5n.
Wine press
, see 14.19n.; 14.20n. The enemies imagined here are
the nations
(Gentiles).

16
:
King …lords
, cf. Deut 10.17.

19.17
–18: The perverse marriage supper.
Cf. v. 9.

17
:
The great supper
is for all the birds’, not the saints’, delectation; it vividly recalls Ezekiel’s invocation of birds and beasts to feast on the forces of the defeated Gog (Ezek 39.17–20); cf. Isa 34.5–7.

18
:
Eat the flesh of kings
, a parody of the supper of the Lord (v. 9n.).

19.19
–20.3: Punishment of beast, false prophet, and Satan. 19.19–20
:
Beast
, see 13.1; 17.8.
False prophet
, see 16.13n.
Mark
, see 7.3n.; 13.16–17n.
Lake of fire … sulfur
, see 14.10n.

20.1
:
Bottomless pit
, the Satan-dragon from ch 12 is bound, like most great demons, in a pit (cf. Tob 8.3;
1 En
. 10.3–6; 14.5; 18.16; 21.3–6;
Jub
. 10.7–11; cf. Mk 3.27). See 9.1n.; 9.11n.

2
:
Dragon
, see 12.1–2n.; 12.3–4n.
Thousand years
, while
1 Enoch
specifies the period of the fallen angels’ binding with an incalculably huge number, 10, 000 years (21.6), John envisions the Satan-dragon’s thousand-year imprisonment as a temporary reprieve for the world.

3
:
He must be let out for a little while
, the dragon’s release (20.7–10) reignites a great eschatological war echoing Ezekiel’s vision of Gog’s defeat.

20.4
–6:
First resurrection and thousand-year reign of witnesses.

4
:
Thrones
, symbols of authority (see chs 4–5).
Beheaded
, reflects both Roman execution style and an incipient martyrological tradition that focuses on the torments of the righteous (2.13; 6.9–10; cf. 2 Macc 7;
Ascen. Isa
. 5). This new detail does not require that any systematic legal persecution of Jesus-believers had taken place in the author’s time.

5
–6
:
First resurrection
, John’s innovation of a dual resurrection, first of the saints and then (v. 12) of the rest of humanity, maintains the distinctive glory of the saints, whose holiness allows them the privilege of reigning a thousand years longer than those redeemed at the final judgment (vv. 13,15) and guarantees their immunity from further punishment or “second death.”
Priests
, a quality of the heavenly state achieved by the beheaded martyrs, cf. 1.6; 5.10.

20.7
–10: The end of the millennial rule.
That
Satan will be released
does not result in a theomachy (divine battle), as in 12.7–9 (cf. Isa 27.1; 51.9–10; Ps 74.12–15) but rather a great amassing of armies, recalling the war against Gog and Magog in Ezek 38–39 (cf. Rev 19.17–21). The Satan-dragon serves as the instrument of deception behind the armies rather than as the opponent himself (cf. 16.13–16). Large-scale eschatological war often takes precedence in Jewish apocalyptic tradition over heroic theomachy (Dan 11.40–12.1; Mk 13.7–8; 1QM), although sometimes the traditions are combined: Dan 12.1;
4 Ezra
13.

8
:
Gog and Magog
, see Ezek 38–39; the names refer to kings seen as archetypal enemies of God and the people of God.

9
:
Camp
[Gk “parembolē”; Heb “machaneh”], cf. Deut 23.10–14, reflects the holy-war context for John’s notion of sainthood, purity, and conflict (cf. Rev 14.4).
Beloved city
, Jerusalem.

10
:
Devil
, see 2.10n.; 12.3–4n.
Lake of fire
, 19.19–20n.; 14.10n. Eternally
tormented
, cf.
1 En
. 21.6–10; see also Dan 12.2.

20.11
–15:
Last judgment.

11
:
White throne
, symbolizing both purity and authority.
One who sat on it
, God.
The earth and the heaven fled
, see 6.14; creation begins to come to an end in the presence of the creator; cf. Mt 24.25,39.

12
: John’s interest in heavenly
books
(see 1.3; 6.14; 10.8–11; 22.7,18–19) reflects a broader Jewish tradition (e.g., Dan 7.10;
1 En
. 47.3;
4 Ezra
6.20).
Book of life
, see 3.5n.

13
–15
:
The sea
as the place of lost bodies reflects John’s attention to maritime culture (cf. 8.9; 18.11–20).
Death and Hades
, hitherto presented as mounted agents of God’s vengeance (6.7–8), are themselves consigned to eternal punishment as demonic forces.
Lake of fire
, 19.19–20n.; 14.10n.

21.1
–8:
New world and new Jerusalem.

1
:
New heaven and a new earth
, cf. Isa 65.17; 66.22.

2
:
New Jerusalem
, cf. 19.7–9.
Prepared as a bride
, see 19.7–10n.

3
: The descent of the heavenly city signifies God’s
home
[Gk “skēnē“; Heb “mishkan,” “tent/dwelling”] among people, following Ezek 37.27 (cf.
4 Ezra
7.26). A similar passage about God’s holy dwelling among the pure, probably also of Jewish origin, appears in 2 Cor 6.16–18. See also Ex 25.8.

4
:
Every tear … Death will be no more
, 7.17; cf. Isa 25.8; 35.10.

5
: John continues to interpose divine declarations reminiscent of Isa 65–66 and Ezek 37 with the distinctive divine attributes introduced in 1.8,17–18.
Seated on the throne
, God.

6
:
It is done
, cf. Jn 19.30.
Alpha and the Omega
, see 1.8n.
Water of life
, the river that runs through the Edenic Jerusalem (22.1–2; cf. Ezek 47.1–12).

7
:
Conquer
, see conclusions to letters, chs 2–3.

8
: The list of evildoers may be meant to characterize the Greco-Roman city.
Lake … with fire
, 19.19–20n.; 14.10n.