Jeff Ragan’s Reviews > John's Use of the Old Testament in Revelation > Status Update

"The way they actually carry out their reign with him is likely through agreement with and praise of his judicial decisions (cf. Rev. 19:1–6), which is consummated by their witness being a basis for Christ’s judgment of the ungodly at the end of the age (e.g. cf. 11:3–13; 17:14; 19:14–15)" (p. 373).

"...a fourfold ending of the book reflects the ending of Ezekiel 37–48: resurrection of God’s people (Rev. 20:4b; Ezek. 37:1–14), messianic kingdom (Rev. 20:4b–6; Ezek. 37:15–28), final battle against Gog and Magog (Rev. 20:7–10; Ezek. 38–39), and final vision of the new temple and new Jerusalem, described as a restored Eden and sitting on an exceedingly high mountain(Rev. 21:1–22:5; Ezek. 40–48)" (362).

"The following exegetical idea for Rev. 20:1–15 can be formulated: the millennium is inaugurated during the interadvent age by God’s limitation of Satan’s deceptive powers (vv. 1–3) and by deceased Christians being vindicated through reigning in heaven (vv. 4–6), and it is concluded by a resurgence of Satan’s deceptive assault against the Church (vv. 7–8) and the final judgment (vv. 9–15)" (358).

"...a number of the expressions appear irregular because John is carrying over the exact grammatical form of the Old Testament wording in order to create ‘syntactical dissonance’, which causes the reader/hearer to pause and increases their chances of recognizing the unusual wording to be an Old Testament allusion" (345).

"Like the solecism in 1:4 following ἀπό, the phrase here is probably kept in the nominative because it is part of the very wording of the Old Testament allusion, which was also in the nominative in its Old Testament context..." (330).

"The overall purpose of these Septuagintalisms, stylistic Semitisms, and awkward Old Testament allusions was probably to create a ‘biblical’ effect in the hearer and, hence, to show the solidarity of his writing with that of the Old Testament" (323–324).

"The parables throughout the book not only have a judicial effect on the unbelieving but are meant also to shock believers caught up in the church’s compromising complacency by revealing to them the horrific, beastly nature of the idolatrous institutions with which they are beginning to associate" (310).

"...the general main point of chs. 2–3 can be formulated in the following manner: Christ encourages the churches to witness, warns them about compromise, and exhorts them to ‘hear’ and to overcome compromise in order to inherit the promise of eternal life with him" (302).

"...the use of Isaiah 43 and 65 in Rev. 3:14 indicates that Christ is the true Israel and the divine ‘Amen, the faithful and true witness’ to his own resurrection as ‘the beginning of the new creation of God’, in inaugurated fulfillment of the Isaianic new creation prophecies" (294).

"Therefore, Jesus as the principle, origin or source of the original creation is not in mind, but Jesus as the inaugurator of the new creation is the focus. The genitive construction τῆς κτίσεως (‘of the creation’) is best taken as a partitive genitive like the phrase ‘Christ … the first fruits of those sleeping’ in 1 Cor. 15:20. Christ’s resurrection is the beginning of a much larger new creation to come" (285).