The Intertextuality of Ezekiel and Revelation

Introduction

The first attempt within the Christadelphian community to systematically detail and examine the intertextuality of the Apocalypse occurred in 1977 with the publication of “701 Quotations in the Apocalypse”.[1] It is of more than passing interest that an analysis of these quotations[2] shows that nearly two thirds of the total comprise 3 major prophets (Ezekiel 16%, Isaiah 15.6%, Daniel 13%), plus Exodus (12%), and Psalms (9%). In addition to this, every book of the OT is quoted, save Ruth, Lamentations, Micah, Haggai and Malachi.

From this we can safely conclude that, (1) the Apocalypse is rooted in the OT; and (2) if we are to understand the Apocalypse at all, then we must look for the clues to its interpretation amongst these quotations. This is not to denigrate other sources of evidence, which have their part to play, but inter-textual links between different books of Scripture have to be the primary source of evidence in determining meaning. The sound principle of interpretation being that the meaning of the later quotation or allusion is determined wholly or in part by the meaning of the earlier corresponding reference within its scriptural usage.

Revelation and Ezekiel

Reflecting on the above, the preponderance of quotations from Ezekiel, Isaiah and Daniel should alert us that what is being dealt with in the Apocalypse is about the themes they spoke on, i.e. (1) Judgement of the ungodly; and (2) the exoneration of the spiritual with most of the action centred on the city of Jerusalem standing as a symbol of the nation of Israel.

The presence of the Exodus quotations gives us a strong clue that the Apocalypse must also be about the trials and tribulations of a new and emerging nation or people, which struggles for birth against a powerful set of forces which represent (at the ultimate level) the serpent power of sin in the flesh in both spiritual and military form.

R. Morgan[3] has drawn attention to the importance of the Daniel quotations within the Apocalypse, and linked these to the Daniel 2 image. In this article, I want to focus on the Ezekiel heritage, which as the table below shows has a more than a bit part to play.

Revelation / Ezekiel Touch Points Revelation Ezekiel
1 The Throne Vision 4 1
2 The Book 5 2-3
3 The Four Plagues 6:1-8 5
4 The Slain Under The Altar 6:9-11 6
5 The Wrath of God 6:12-17 7
6 The Seal on the Saints Foreheads 7 9
7 The Coals From The Altar 8 10
8 No More Delay 10:1-7 12
9 The Eating of the Book 10:8-11 2
10 The Measuring of the Temple 11:1-2 40-43
11 Jerusalem and Sodom 11:8 16
12 The Cup of Wrath 14 23
13 The Vine of the Land 14:18-20 15
14 The Great Harlot 17-18 16 & 23
15 The Lament Over the City 18 27
16 The Scavengers Feast 19 39
17 Resurrection 20:4-6 37
18 The Battle with Gog and Magog 20:7-9 38-39
19 The New Jerusalem 21 40-48
20 The River of Life 22 47

On first view, the table above is quite startling; principally because, set out in this way, a number of Christadelphian end time teachings derived from the Apocalypse seem oddly juxtaposed with Ezekiel’s prophetic record. For example,

  • Item 14: the Harlot (Revelation 17-18), has generally been identified within the community as the Papacy/Rome. Here, juxtaposed to Ezekiel 16 and 23 do we find a scriptural basis for the Harlot being identified with Jerusalem? It would seem so.
  • Item 17: we find reference in the Apocalypse to the first resurrection with a counterpoint to Ezekiel 37, which deals with the “resurrection” of the Jewish nation under Messiah. But this latter resurrection is a gathering of existing people scattered across the globe rather than an actual resurrection from the death state. So is this a true parallel, perhaps not, but there is certainly a connection of theme.
  • Item 15: the lament over Tyre. Revelation 18 shows the greatest concentration of Ezekiel references for any one chapter (32 all told out of 118). We know who the Tyre of Ezekiel’s day was and within the prophecy of Ezekiel we also know that Tyre was singled out for special judgment because she was in covenant relation with God through Israel. For Tyre, the judgement would be particularly severe because of her exalted relations to God – hence the “swept bare rock” destruction leaving the ancient site much as it is today (cf. Ezek 26:4). But if we carry this theme of Tyre in covenant relation with God through to the Apocalypse, and use it as an aid to interpretation, how do we square the identification of Tyre with the Papacy/Rome? In what sense have these ever been in covenant relationship with God either through Israel or associated with Israel?

All in all, a perplexing list in some respects, but whatever our reaction may be to the table, the inter-textual links can clearly be seen. And we have to face up to the challenge that this listing poses, and address ourselves to the task of soundly interpreting what we find.

So, (1) how do we account for the strong inter-textual links between these 2 books, separated as they are by more than 600 hundred years or so of history? Moreover, (2) if this analysis is correct, what interpretive impact does the Ezekiel prophetic record have on our current understanding of the Apocalypse?

These are difficult questions to answer, but if we can find the solutions to these questions, then we will surely get to the crux of the true meaning of the Apocalypse.

Suffice to say none of this is new. A. Vanhoye had noted the high level of correspondence between the Apocalypse and Ezekiel (noting up to 130 separate references to Ezekiel in the Apocalypse).[4] More specifically, P. Carrington has said the following,

The Revelation is a Christian rewriting of Ezekiel. Its fundamental structure is the same. Its interpretation depends upon Ezekiel. The first half of both books leads up to the destruction of the earthly Jerusalem; in the second they describe a new and holy Jerusalem. There is one significant difference. Ezekiel’s lament over Tyre is transformed into a lament over Jerusalem…[5]

Whilst there will doubtless be on-going debate about the identity of the Harlot/Tyre, and other challenges to our settled notions of end time matters, it has to be stated that if the table above is a valid analysis, then far from being a bit-part player, Ezekiel sits at the heart of the Apocalypse, and appears to be the basic template or ‘chassis’ from which the Lord Jesus constructed his last message. Quotations from other OT Scriptures must therefore, be re-arranged around the basic ‘chassis’ of the Ezekiel record to form the Apocalypse.

Clearly, more evidence is required to complete the foundations of the thesis being put forward, which is not within the purview of this article; but if the basic thesis is correct, then it means we have an interpretive background from which to work, as we address ourselves to the task of interpretation.

So, having given an outline argument for Ezekiel being the basis for the Apocalypse, we should, for the remainder of this article, try at least to attempt an answer to the questions that were posed above.

(1) How do we account for the strong inter-textual links between these 2 books?

We suggest the Ezekiel template was chosen based on similarity of message and purpose. In other words, the matters which Ezekiel dealt with in his prophecy in the years 600-586 BCE had some resonance or bearing to those to whom the Apostle John was directed to write in the 1c. CE. So what is the crux of Ezekiel’s prophecy, what resonances did the Lord Jesus wish to carry through from Ezekiel into the Apocalypse?

J. Allfree says,[6]

For nearly seven years Ezekiel’s message was one of warning of the impending judgement of Almighty God upon Zedekiah and the people of Israel still in the land.[7]

As anticipated in Leviticus 26, it was because the people had failed to walk in the statutes and judgements that God’s wrath was now about to come upon them.[8]

Even though Israel had refused to co-operate in revealing God to the Gentiles, yet God would still make himself know to the nations through the people that he had chosen – but now in Judgement.[9]

The crux of Ezekiel’s prophecy, as the quotations set out above explain, is

  • the Covenant curses visited upon a corrupt and faithless people,
  • a highly visible casting out of the nation of Israel from the land of promise and the burning of the temple.

All the covenant curses would be visited upon Jerusalem and her faithless people. Ezekiel 5 has no less than 30 references to the Law with implicit breaches, and in addition contains 17 clear allusions to Leviticus 26,[10] the chapter that details the most chilling covenant curses. As Ezekiel 16 and 23 make clear, Jerusalem had become a wanton Harlot in the eyes of God; so for her, the only fitting punishment was that prescribed in the law – she would be burned with fire (Lev 21:9), which is precisely what Nebuzaradan the military commander of Nebuchadnezzar did in 586 BCE (2 Kings 25:8-9; Jer 52:13).

So, are these the resonances that the Lord Jesus Christ was attempting to capture when choosing Ezekiel as the template for the Apocalypse?

(2) What interpretive impact does the Ezekiel prophetic record have on our current understanding of the Apocalypse?

Our answer to question (2) is that the impact is significant. If the Lord Jesus chooses as his template for the Apocalypse an existing OT prophecy which details the punishment of covenant breakers, details the destruction of their temple, and speaks of the removal of their place and nationhood, he must be doing it for a reason. When we set this consideration against a first century context, then link this interpretive background from Ezekiel with a number of clear references between the Olivet prophecy and the first four seals,[11] then we can see that whatever the Apocalypse is about, there is a certainly a clear AD70 flavour in the early chapters.

Two further observations. If we go back to the table above and look at the points of interconnection, particularly items 4 and 14, we find two interesting features.

(1) In item 4 we have a scene reversal. In the Apocalypse, the righteous slain of the 5th seal are gathered together and protected under the altar. They are crying out to God for vengeance and asking how long until they be avenged (Rev 6:9-11). The corresponding chapter in Ezekiel has a completely different picture with God telling the unrighteous of Ezekiel’s day that he will scatter the bones of the unrighteous around the altar of their false Gods (Ezek 6:13). So we have 2 very different scenes, but a common point of connection in that both scenes revolve around altars, the one holy with true believers and the other very profane and associated with the corrupt practices of idol worship.

(2) We have already commented on item 14 the Harlot of Revelation 17-18. In Ezekiel 24:15-22, the 6th century BCE destruction of the temple is likened to the death of Ezekiel’s wife. This seems to be paralleled in Revelation 17-18 with the death of the harlot Babylon. Prior to her death, the harlot claims she is still a wife (“I sit a Queen and am no widow”, Rev 18:7). And yet the would-be husband who had come to her to turn her from her harlotry, she had rejected and murdered. In the final week of his life, the Lord Jesus prophesied to his disciples that with respect to the temple “there shall not be left here one stone upon another” (Matt 24:2). The fate of the harlot had been predicted a generation before the consummation of the judgement took place. So again, we have common points of connection (the death of a wife/harlot, and the destruction of two temples) between the two books, but with details applicable to 586 BCE, and AD 70 respectively.

Conclusion

The publication of the “701 Quotations in the Apocalypse” has given us a rich scriptural resource with which we can dig and delve to derive meaning for the Apocalypse.

We have looked into this resource briefly in this article, and considered the close inter-textual relations of Ezekiel and the Apocalypse. It has been argued in outline that Ezekiel is the template for the Apocalypse, with a summary of evidence given in the table above. It is accepted that the subject requires much further analysis.

On the supposition that the argument put forward here is correct, the Ezekiel template for the Apocalypse should serve as an interpretive aid when we come to expound the Apocalypse.[12]

[1] A. Gibson, “701 Quotations in the Apocalypse” The Testimony 47 (1977): 17-24, 57-64.

[2] The reader is encouraged to review the Testimony articles particularly to derive an understanding of what the term ‘quotation’ means in the context of the Apocalypse.

[3] R. Morgan, “Intertextuality” CeJBI 5/4 (2011): 57-61.

[4] A. Vanhoye, “L’Utilisation du Livre d’Ezechiel dans L’Apocalypse” Biblia 43 (1962): 436-76 (473-76).

[5] P. Carrington, The Meaning of the Revelation (London: SPCK, 1931), 65.

[6] J. Allfree, Ezekiel An Exposition of Chapters 1-39 (CSSS, 1999).

[7] Allfree, Ezekiel An Exposition of Chapters 1-39, 15.

[8] Allfree, Ezekiel An Exposition of Chapters 1-39, 78.

[9] Allfree, Ezekiel An Exposition of Chapters 1-39, 78.

[10] Allfree, Ezekiel An Exposition of Chapters 1-39, 76-77.

[11] H. A. Whittaker, Revelation: A Biblical Approach (Cannock: Biblia, 1969), chap. 11.

[12] It should be noted that this article is not arguing for a Preterist interpretation of the whole of Revelation.

Reader’s response from the July, 2012 edition of Christadelphian Ejournal:

Dear Editors,

Bro. Richard Dargie in his January column seems to suggest that the quotations from Ezekiel in the Apocalypse support the idea that the harlot of Revelation 17 is Jerusalem. However, he also points out that there is abundant use of the judgment on Tyre in Ezekiel in Revelation 18. He quotes the following:

The Revelation is a Christian rewriting of Ezekiel. Its fundamental structure is the same. Its interpretation depends upon Ezekiel. The first half of both books leads up to the destruction of the earthly Jerusalem; in the second they
describe a new and holy Jerusalem. There is one significant difference. Ezekiel’s lament over Tyre is transformed into a lament over Jerusalem…

Again, he seems to suggest that the Jerusalem spoken of is the Jerusalem of AD 70, i.e. the Preterist interpretation of Revelation. However, I don’t believe you can have it both ways. On the one hand he wants the quotes regarding Jerusalem to refer to the literal Jerusalem as a harlot, but the quotes from Tyre to be used as a type of Jerusalem and not of Tyre itself. That sounds to me like mixing the use of OT quotations.

Instead, what is wrong with saying that both Jerusalem and Tyre are being used as types to describe a system that is like both cities but in a new historical context? Is Revelation merely reiterating OT prophecy concerning Jerusalem or is it using the harlotry of Jerusalem as described in Ezekiel and saying “what happened to Israel also happens in a NT context”?

The context of Revelation is that it was written to servants of Jesus Christ, not to the Jews. If it was written to the Jews and warning them about AD70 (or the equivalent futurist time) then fair enough, but it was written to the Gentile ecclesia warning them about things in their world. Just as Israel fell into apostasy so would the ecclesia; and the result is eventually what we see in Revelation 17-18.

Furthermore, the historical context, in which the city on seven hills was known as Rome, the other links between Revelation 17 and Rome, leads me to the conclusion that Rome is the best identification for the system in Revelation. The covenant people of God fell away from truth to form the NT apostasy we now know as Christendom. This is all very exhortational for us, but the idea of Revelation simply being a reiteration of OT prophecy regarding AD 70 and/or a future invasion of Jerusalem, leaves the book entirely meaningless for the vast majority of believers through the ages.

To summarize: I understand the book of Revelation’s use of OT quotations in the simple sense of using OT events as types, i.e. “look at what happened to Israel, because the NT church follows the same pattern”.

R. Morgan

Author’s Reply:

Thank you for your observations, some of the matters that you refer to have already been dealt with in previous issues by others. On the question of who are the ‘servants’ (Rev 1:1), the Diaspora Ecclesias of Asia Minor had a mixed make-up of Jew and Gentile.[1] The message was sent to this mixed audience who used it to warn Judaizers of the coming temple destruction (must shortly take place, Rev.1:1) and to bolster (and vindicate) the faith of first century Christians (both Jew and Gentile).

A Preterist interpretation of Revelation is not being offered here –   that would mean that Revelation was completely fulfilled in the first century when it is obvious that much still lies in the future.  However, that does not preclude a partial fulfillment in the first century that forms a pattern (type) for future events.[2] We think here of the Olivet Prophecy that has relevance to the first century and also to the future.

The question of the Harlotry of Israel is dealt with in the current issue. The nation of Israel and Jerusalem in particular, is the OT harlot par excellence. Only two cities outside Israel are accused of harlotry in the OT; Tyre (Isa 23:16-17) and Nineveh (Nah 3:4). Yet, both these cities had been in covenant with God (1 Kings 5:1-12; 9:13; Amos 1:9; Jonah 3:5-10).

Finally, the question of how to interpret OT metaphor and symbol when employed in Revelation 17-18:  Do we understand ‘Babylon’ as Rome, or as referring to Jerusalem (or perhaps something else?). This needs an extended discussion. I would invite you to submit an article for discussion that the ‘great city’ of Revelation is Rome.

R. Dargie

[1] See P. Wyns, “Intertextuality in Revelation: A Response” CeJBI 5/3 (July 2011): 60-63.

[2] See P. Wyns, “Rebuttal” CeJBI 5/4 (Oct 2011): 60-64.