Caird {Revelation, 62) wi'ites that “the final reality which will still be standing when heaven and earth have disappeared is the great white throne” (20:11).
You said in your heart, “I will ascend to heaven;
I will raise my throne above the stars of God; I will sit enthroned on the mount of assembly, on the utmost height of the sacred mountain. I will ascend above the tops of the clouds;
I will make myself like the Most High.”
Isa 14:13-14, NIV, emphasis added Second, Jolm’s description of the tlnone, its visual impact, and the precious stones found in the immediate setting (Rev 4:3.5-6) recall the setting of Ezekiel’s inaugural vision (Ezek 1:26-27), but this depiction also conjures up the context of Ezekiel’s poem about the “covering chemb” (Ezek 28:11-19).^^ The importance of this comiotation to the reading of Revelation is not only that John has an experience of the tlnone room like that of Ezekiel and thus wraps himself in the mantle of the Old Testament prophet. In the light of the war-in-heaven theme and the conflict seeking a resolution in Revelation, the setting becomes a reference point for the story line in Revelation and a telling reminder of where the conflict began.
The text nudges the reader not to disparage the setting and the spatial perspective by a third element in the throne room nanative. Jolm sees “four living creatures, full of eyes in front and behind,” and he strives to locate them with a high degree of precision è v péocp t oO Bpovou i c a l k u k à c o tou Gpovou (4:6). As proof that the
pluase is more than an accident, it comes up again when the next chapter introduces the figure of the lamb into the tluone room scene. Jolm sees the lamb standing ev péoto tou Opovou K a l T (5v teooapwv (wwu i c a l è v p é o c p tcûv T ip e o pu t é p co v (5:6). Where exactly is this “middle” that John seeks to represent by these terms, recognizing the awkward constmction?
In Rev 4:3 the one sitting on the tlirone resembles is o ir o L o ç opdoet loco-itlÔi i< a l oapôito,
and the rainbow around the throne is opoioç opdoet oiaapaY^lucj). In Ezek 28:13 the first thiee stones
according to the LXX are odpôiov K a l r o T r d ( tou Ka l opdpayôou; cf. Mounce, Revelation, 134; Beale, Revelation, 320.
Charles, lacking neither courage nor ingenuity, finds the phrase ev p e a c p t ou
Gpovou completely unintelligible, dismissing it either as a gloss or as a mistranslation of a Hebrew antecedent."'® Interpreters who are more reluctant to solve difficulties by surgical excision seek ways to make this expression confoim to various imaginary constructions either of the throne room"" or of the throne itself."'^ Despairing of a definite corollary to the conceptual precision suggested by the phrase. Aune
nevertheless opts for the literal “in the midst of the throne and around the throne,”"'^ but he adds that that this cannot mean on the throne itself but must only refer to its
immediate vicinity."'"' Mounce likewise prefers “in the immediate vicinity of,”"*^
admitting that it falls short of the connotation conveyed hy the author, and Beale settles for the wording “around the immediate vicinity of the tlu'one,” apparently with less qualms as to its adequacy."'® These proposed solutions amoimts to de facto deletions of the phrase kv péoq) tou Gpovou, making it virtually redundant in teiins of adding to the meaning conveyed by k u kXco tou Gpovou alone.
Charles, Revelation I, 118-19.
Raymond R. Brewer (“Revelation 4:6 and Translations Thereof,” JBL 71 [1952], 227-31) suggests that the stage of the Greek theatre is the setting that explains John’s terminology, envisioning an elevation on stage corresponding to the thione of God. Kraft {Offenbarung, 98), noting the impossibility and self-contradiction of something being “in the midst of the tlnone” and “around the thione,” seeks to solve the dilemma by giving the ‘tlnone’ a double meaning: It is the seat of honour for the heavenly Majesty, and it may also refer to heaven itself.
Robert G. Hall (“Living Creatures in the Midst of the Tlnone: Another Look at Revelation 4.6,” NTS 36 [1990], 609-13) finds the throne intimately related to the ark and sees on the basis of ark imagery the four living creatures as integral to the tlnone as the back, arms and legs of a chair at one and the same time belong to the chair and surround the chair. By his own admission this solution does not work for Rev 5:8 when the four living creatures fall down before the lamb. Darrell D. Hannah (“Of Cherubim and the Divine Tlnone: Rev 5:6 in Context,” NTS 49 [2003], 528-42) supports Hall’s conclusions, arguing that that the Lamb is on the tlnone and at its centre and not in some other relationship to it.
Aune, Revelation 1-5, 269. Aune, Revelation 1-5, 272. Mounce, Revelation, 137. Beale, Revelation, 350.
There is little risk involved in maintaining that John seeks to recapture the connotation of an important biblical metaphor and that his aspiration in this respect is not fully matched by the translations noted so far. Since the description of the four living creatures derives from the tlirone room vision of Ezekiel (Ezek 1:4-28)/^ the imagery of this chapter may yield additional insights. One possibility is that the entire setting is to be framed within the ancient perception of the ‘middle/ perceived as the mountain of God and the very centre of the cosmos."'^ Stephen G. Brown claims that the terni ‘middle’ (péaoç) is important in itself, representing “an archetypal symbol referring to a sacred center, a place where earth and heaven met originally.”"'® When Ezekiel in the introductoiy vision sees “a gi eat cloud with brightness around it and fire flashing forth continually, and in the middle of the fire, something like gleaming amber” (Ezek 1:4), the scene is in itself a view of the ‘middle,’ and the connotation of the ‘middle’ intensifies further because the prophet’s attention seems fixated on the
middle literally and figuratively. Greenberg’s translation shows why by preserving the suspense in Ezekiel’s narrative: “out of it — out of the fire — appeared something that looked like hashmal,"^^ meaning the divine Majesty (Ezek 1:4).^’
There is no disagreement among interpreters on the point of its Old Testament antecedent; Lohmeyer {Offenbarung, 48) holds that the description of the foin living beings is in its entirety taken from Ezekiel 1.
Possible background for this conception is surveyed in Samuel Tenien’s essay, “The Omphalos Myth and Hebrew Religion,” VT 20 (1979), 315-38. It is noteworthy that Terrien makes special mention of Ezekiel as an example of this notion in the Old Testament {Ibid., 319). See also Michael Fishbane, Close Readings o f Selected Biblical Texts (New York: Schocken Books, 1979), 112- 3; and, idem., “The Sacred Center: The Symbolic Stiucture of the Bible,” in Texts and Responses: Studies Presented to Nahum N. Glatzer (eds. Michael A. Fishbane and Paul R. Flolu; Leiden: E. J. Brill 1975) 6-27.
Stephen G. Brown, “The Intertextuality of Isaiah 66.17 and 2 Thessalonians 2.7: A Solution for the ‘Restrainer’ Problem,” in Paid and the Scriptures o f Israel (ed. Craig A. Evans and James A. Sanders; JSNTSup 83; Sheffield: JSOT Press, 1993), 263.
Moshe Greenberg, Ezekiel 1-20 (AB; New York: Doubleday, 1983), 37.
But the gain of a translation that brings the divine Majesty to view in the
opening scene need not come at the expense of the connotation of the ‘middle’ that John seeks to preserve when the same scene appears in Revelation. Ezekiel seems to
emphasize the notion of the middle - riDlnül - “from the middle of it [the fire], like from the eye or the source, so to speak, appeared something that looked like the hashmal from the middle of the fire” (Ezek 1:4, translation mine), hr fact, the focus on the middle seems so persistent that the translators of the Septuagint also struggled to convey it, thereby anticipating the laboured phraseology of Revelation - and probably for the same reason.
When this expression catches the eye in Revelation, it seems more important to gi asp the connotation that it is a view of the ‘middle’ than to specify exactly the qualifying referent. The acknowledged oddity of the phr ase kv péocp t o u Gpovou Kod kukA-o) t o u Gpovou (4;6b) and of the closely related péocp t o u Gpovou Kal tc S v
Teooapcoy (w w y Kal kv péoo) t c û v ïïpeopUTépœy (5:6a) is in itself suggestive that the
‘middle’ is a loose construction that seeks to highlight the fact that we are witnessing events taking place in the ‘middle’ as much as to specify that these events happen in the immediate vicinity o f the throne or in the midst o f the four living creatures.
But this perspective also puts the theme of cosmic conflict in the foreground from the moment of entry into the heavenly tlirone room in Revelation. On the terms of Ezekiel alone the first glimpse of the divine Majesty in Ezekiel’s inaugural vision conditions the reading of his poem about the “covering chemb” (Ezek 28:11-19). Dismissive readings of this poem fail to notice that it is profusely allusive to Ezekiel’s
Note tlie triple kv ( lé o c ^ in the first two verses of the vision; kvT ($ [xéot^ aûtoO c ô ç o paoi ç T |A ,6K i:p ou kv [j,éo(j^ ToO iT U p o ç K a l (j)6 Y Y 0(; è v au r c S . K a l kv T ($ péaco c ô ç ô p o L c o pa x eoa à p c j v ( w w v (Ezek
1:4-5). Note also Ezek 1:13, Ka l kv t w v ( w w v o pa a t ç w ç â vG p d c K w y iru po ç i c a i o p é v w v q ç ô \ l /i ç X a p ir a ô o j y ouo x p e c ji o p é y w y àvà péoov T w y ( w w y K a l c()éYYOÇ to O n u p o ç Ka l éic t oû ï ï o p o ç è ^ e ïïo p eu e T O
own narrative and charged with reminders of the inaugural vision of the ‘middle’ and the fire and brightness flashing forth fiom the majestic hashmal. The “covering chemb” was “on the holy mountain of God,” walking back and forth “in the middle of stones of fire” {èv péacûA.l0cov Trupivcay; Ezek 28:14). From his state of exaltation and
innocence he was made to leave “the mountain of God” (Ezek 28:16). “And I destroyed you, O covering chemb. From the midst of the fiery stones” (NKJV), expressed as e/c
jj.4oovliGwy TTupLywy in the Septuagint (28:16). Ezekiel’s inaugural vision and the poem about the “covering chemb” occupy coimnon ground: in both instances attention is riveted on the fiery middle.
When Revelation places its entire prophetic and apocalyptic narrative in the setting of Ezekiel’s throne room, the appropriation extends to more than the location conceived in static terms. Revelation’s story of cosmic conflict is conditioned not only by the spatial parameters of Ezekiel’s inaugural vision but also by the plot described in Ezekiel, that is, the story of the “covering chemb” who was part of the intimate and privileged circle in the ‘middle’ but is no longer there.^^
A fourth element in John’s vision of the heavenly throne room lends further support to this trajectory in the narrative, reflecting as well as anticipating the atmosphere of tension that is building steadily in the story (cf. 5:1-4). John sees the four living creatures, each of them with six wings “full of eyes in front and behind” (4:6) or “full of eyes all around and inside” (4:8).^"* The repeated mention of their eyes comiotes intelligence, awareness, and insight,^® all of which are revealing characteristics
In spatial terms it is sufficient to retain the meaning proposed by Mounce {Revelation, 137), “in the immediate vicinity” of the tlu one, but this designation should also resonate with the action of the evolving plot.
The imagery of countless eyes alludes to Ezek 1:18 and 10:12.
Kraft {Offenbarung, 99) sees the eyes as a metaphor for the omnipresence of God’s spirit with the implication that they symbolize the all-seeing character of God, that is, what Godsees. In view of
in view of the fact that they are ceaselessly preoccupied with the actions and the reputation of the one who sits on the thione. “Day and night without ceasing” the four living creatures sing, “Holy, holy, holy, the Lord God the Almighty, who was and is and is to come” (4:8).®® Their words and example trigger a chain reaction among the twenty-four elders who are also at the centre of the proceedings in the tln one room. Casting their crowns before the throne, they prostrate themselves, singing, “You ai*e worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honour and power, for you created all things, and by your will they existed and were created” (4:11).
Allowing the war-in-heaven theme to condition the reading of the beginning of Revelation enhances the impact of this scene. Plausible as it may seem that the scene represents “the mysterious fonnula of the timeless divine totality,”®^ or John’s attempt to “create a bridge between the timelessness of the divine existence and the
subseiwience of creation to time,”®^ or that Revelation, like other apocalyptic literature, has “continuous adoration” as a prominent feature,®® the rising curve of the narrative resists the blandness and detacliment implied in these generalizations. As suggested already, the emphatic utterance of praise is not generic in nature; it is cognizant of conflict, and this scene lays the groundwork for appreciating the conflict that rises into the open in the form of the sealed scroll (5:1).
their worship and adoration of God, it is more likely that the emphasis should be on how they see God in relation to all things. In other words, their worship is informed and intelligent. To Mounce {Revelation,
138), the eyes signify “alertness and knowledge. Nothing escapes their notice.”
Fekkes {Isaiah in Revelation, 145) notes that the trisagionof the four living creatures is “unanimously recognized” to come from Is 6:3. It is clear that John conflates Isaiah’s and Ezekiel’s visions of the thi one room (Is 6:1-4; Ezek 1:4-28).
Lohmeyer, Offenbarung, 49. Kraft, Offenbarung, 101.
Attempting to capture the implied sentiment within the constraints of human language, the four living creatures and the twenty-foui' elders are not merely spending another routine day at the office, mindlessly repeating their prescribed hallelujahs. Instead, they are expressing their admiration for God in a context where God’s
worthiness is contested.®® Worship and adoration take place in intense awareness of the searing memory that one of their own created order aspired to occupy God’s throne, and in full recognition of the fact that advocacy for the aspiration of “the Shining One” won a staggering measure of support (12:4).
Remaining Issues: Characters and Plot
The foregoing indicates that there is a compelling unity and continuity in Revelation’s nanative. This view is supported by the similarities between the seven trumpets (8:6- 9:21) and the seven bowls (16:2-21), and it is ftirther substantiated by the fact that the fall of “the Shining One” is unmistakably featured in the first half of Revelation (4:1- 11:19) and not only in the second half (12:1-22:5). The agent executing the horrendous evils unfolding in the trumpet sequence is twice referred to as a star that fell from heaven (8:10; 9:1), and the demonic character of what takes place in this sequence is undeniable. It is important to emphasize that the recapitulation that is in view between the seven trumpets and the seven bowls does not only point toward thematic continuity but also to continuity of agency.
I have suggested that it is inadequate to interpret the dramatic shift from an earthly to a heavenly setting (4:1) as though Revelation merely wishes to contrast earthly turmoil with heavenly peace. Instead, the theme of cosmic conflict accounts
Roloff {Revelation, 72) spots the polemic context to some extent although he relates it to