Original Meaning

SCHOLARS HAVE READ in various ways the section of Revelation following the letters to the churches.1 But most likely chapters 4–5 introduce the heavenly events that precede and explain the seals, trumpets, and vials of chapters 6–16; events in heaven affect and are affected by events on earth (12:7–12).

John’s throne vision in Revelation 4, like most of this book, resembles visions in the biblical prophets (esp. Isa. 6:1–5; Ezek. 1:4–28; Dan. 7:9–14).2 Yet while Revelation is biblical, it is also relevant to the issues and language of its day: John frequently emphasizes the themes most dominant in the literature of his contemporaries, which we call apocalyptic literature. From an early period, Jewish apocalyptic texts focused on and developed particularly the throne visions of Ezekiel and Isaiah.3 John’s language regularly echoes Scripture, but he shares this feature with some of his contemporaries: “And I looked and behold” (lit. trans. of 4:1) is standard language from Ezekiel (e.g., Ezek. 1:4, 15; 2:9; 8:2, 7, 10; 44:4) and Daniel (Dan. 8:3, 15; 10:5; 12:5), which also becomes characteristic of apocalyptic visions (e.g., 1 Enoch 14:14–15, 18; 85:3).4

The similarity of subject matter between Revelation and other apocalyptic visions makes some of the differences in detail all the more striking. Apocalyptic texts frequently narrate the visionary’s arduous journey through various heavenly gates to reach God’s throne (e.g., 1 Enoch 14:9–13); some suggest dangers involved in this journey.5 By contrast, yet like his biblical predecessors, John is simply transported there by God’s sovereign summons (Rev. 4:1) and the Spirit’s inspiration (4:2; cf. 17:3; 21:10). Some texts provide angelic help for the ascent (e.g., 1 Enoch 71:5; 87:3; 2 Enoch 7:1; 2 Bar. 6:3–4), but John ascends simply by the Spirit, as did Ezekiel (Ezek. 2:2; 3:12, 14, 24; 8:3; 11:1, 5, 24; 37:1; 43:5).6

The “open” door in heaven (4:1) signifies what openings in heaven often signify, namely, God’s revelation (11:19; 15:5; cf. Ezek. 1:1; Mark 1:10; John 1:51).7 John does not have to force his way into heaven, as some of his contemporaries thought they did; he is invited, in language that recalls God’s call to Moses to receive his revelation: “Come up here” (Rev. 4:1; cf. Ex. 19:20, 24; 24:12; 34:2) recalls the Bible’s first throne vision (Ex. 24:10–12; cf. also 19:24). Jewish tradition acknowledged (Jub., title; Ps-Philo 11:2) and further developed God’s summons to Moses, eventually to the extent that many averred that it included an ascent to heaven.8 Jewish writers applied the same language to other heavenly visions as well.9

If John’s mode of entry into heaven (4:1–2) differs strikingly from the apocalyptic visions of his contemporaries, so does his vision of the heavenly court (4:3–11). Chief deities of surrounding cultures, understood as rulers, were naturally portrayed as enthroned. Thus Jewish people naturally recognized that God was enthroned, and biblical visions elaborated this image (1 Kings 22:19; Isa. 6:1; 66:1; Ezek. 1:26; 10:1); but visions of the throne especially characterized Jewish apocalypses and mysticism.10 Beholding the throne was actually the goal of some forms of Jewish mysticism (e.g., 3 Enoch 1).

Some apocalypses elaborate the character of God’s throne in great detail to amplify his majesty; being more ready to acknowledge the inadequacy of human language to communicate God’s grandeur, John presents his vision of God’s throne without such adornment.11 The heavenly court also provides a harsh contrast with the pretense of merely earthly grandeur in the court of the Roman emperors worshiped in Asia.12 The heavenly worship thus contrasts starkly with earthly worship of the beast (13:4–8, 15).13 As a Greek chorus would explain the action of a Greek drama, so the heavenly songs in Revelation provide the true picture of the events of the book: No matter what is experienced on earth, God is truly in charge of it all.14

The “rainbow” (4:3) recalls the radiance of God’s throne in Ezekiel 1:28. “Jasper” (4:3) was also crystal clear and brilliant, so John’s audience will later recognize the new Jerusalem as the place of his glorious dwelling (21:11, 18–20); in Ezekiel God’s throne appeared like sapphire (Ezek. 1:26; 10:1).

The twenty-four elders around the throne (4:4), like other worshipers in heaven (4:7–9; 5:11–14), illustrate the appropriate response to God’s glory: worship (4:10–11; 5:8–10, 14).15 While their literary function in this sense is difficult to dispute, their exact identity does not share the same accessibility. Some regard them as angels, others as Old Testament saints.16 But most likely they represent all believers. The doubling of the twelve could represent the Old and New Testament peoples of God together (see 21:12–14). But given their function in worship they probably represent the twenty-four courses of priests in the Old Testament (1 Chron. 24:4).17

White robes characterized priests and worshipers in a variety of Mediterranean religions.18 Further, some Jewish traditions envision special priestly access to the throne (3 Enoch 2:3–4) or a priestly model of worship in heaven (2 Enoch 22:3 A). Because crowns were appropriate to victors or “overcomers” in athletic competitions, their crowns may signify that these are Christians who have persevered to the end, as each of the letters to the churches demands. But crowns were more often “golden” when won in games sacred to a deity, and most often golden when worn by priests approaching a deity.19

But we should hardly take this to limit this number to the leaders of God’s people. In Asiatic art a small number of priests have represented a much larger number of worshipers.20 Elders were leaders of the people and stood as their representatives before God’s glory at Sinai (Ex. 24:9–10) as they would in the eschatological time (Isa. 24:23). Thus these elders represent God’s people as a whole, all of whom together are a “kingdom and priests” (Rev. 1:6; 5:10).21

The thunders around God’s throne (4:5; 8:5; 11:19; 16:18) reveal his sovereignty. This would have been clear to Revelation’s first readers; not only Jews (Ps. 29:3) but other prominent Mediterranean religions portrayed the supreme deity associated with lightning and thunder.22 Lightnings were also characteristic of the heavens, as one might expect (cf. 1 Enoch 14:8; 17:3; 69:23); some Jewish texts delegated lightnings to the high angels (3 Enoch 29:2).23 Most important, however, the thunders and lightnings around the throne recall the revelation of God’s majesty when he gave the law at Mount Sinai (Ex. 19:16; 20:18).24

The “sea” (4:6) merits special comment; it probably suggests to readers the great glory of the heavenly temple. Mighty waters (cf. 1:15) also appear in apocalyptic visions of heaven or paradise, perhaps developing Psalm 104:3; 148:4; and especially Ezekiel 1:24; note too that rain and lightning fall from heaven.25 Thus some texts of uncertain date portray a vast ocean in the lowest heaven (2 Enoch 3:3 J; 4:2 A) or a heavenly sea of fire (Apoc. Zeph. 6:1–2). John’s most direct source here, however, is the bronze “sea” of Solomon’s temple for the priests to wash in (1 Kings 7:23–44; 1 Chron. 18:8; 2 Chron. 4:2, 6), because heaven in Revelation appears like a temple (Rev. 7:15; 11:19; 14:15, 17; 15:5–16:1; 16:17; for temple apparatus in heaven, see Contemporary Significance section of Rev. 1:10). Solomon’s temple probably included a “sea” for the same reason that ancient Egyptian temples depicted heaven on their ceilings: to testify that their deity ruled the entire cosmos.26

That the sea is of “glass, clear as crystal” reflects the sapphire that was “clear” in God’s revelation to Israel at Sinai (Ex. 24:10), but especially the crystalline, heavenly expanse beneath God’s throne and above the throne angels in Ezekiel 1:22. That it is like “crystal” links it with the new Jerusalem, clear enough for God’s great glory to shine through it (Rev. 21:11, 18, 21). It is thus probably not a symbol of subdued cosmic evil, as some commentators have suggested.27 That the glass was “clear” contrasts with most of the glass available in John’s day.28

In view of descriptions of heavenly worship in Isaiah 6:1–4; Ezekiel 1:4–28; and Daniel 7:9–14, it is not surprising that John’s contemporaries believed that worship was a major feature of heavenly activity (see 1 En. 12:3; 39:7; Ps-Philo 19:16). The people who wrote the Dead Sea Scrolls even tried to align their earthly worship with heavenly worship so they could worship God along with the angels; the first Christians who heard John’s descriptions of worship during their own worship services undoubtedly would have identified with the heavenly chorus.29

Again, because Jewish descriptions of heaven nearly always started with what Scripture already said, it is not surprising that most emphasize the living creatures around the throne, Isaiah’s fiery “seraphim” (Isa. 6:2–3), or Ezekiel’s cherubim supporting God’s throne (Ezek. 1:5–21; 10:1–20; 11:22).30 The cherubim probably functioned as a throne pedestal from the start (cf. 1 Sam. 4:4; 2 Sam. 6:2; 2 Kings 19:15; 1 Chron. 13:6; Ps. 80:1; 99:1).31 Like the portraits of most of his contemporaries, John’s probably come directly from Ezekiel; the lion, bull (here a calf), eagle, and human faces were also on Ezekiel’s creatures (except that in Ezekiel each creature had all four faces). Ezekiel’s vision probably employed the most powerful and regal of animals to communicate the majesty of the creatures that carry God’s throne.32 That the creatures were “covered with eyes” (Rev 4:6; cf. Ezek 1:18; 10:12; 3 Enoch 22:8) suggests that nothing on earth is hidden from them (Zech. 4:10), with the implication, “How much less from God himself?” That they never rest from worship (Rev. 4:8) suggests both divine empowerment for worship and the worthiness of God (cf. 7:15).33

The climax of the presentation of the four living creatures is not their own splendor but their message. These beings, glorious beyond human conception, serve no other function than to extol the character of God: “Holy, holy, holy!” (4:8). John is familiar with the praise of these creatures from Isaiah 6:3, as are his contemporaries; Jewish tradition even adopted these words into the third benediction of a prayer that was becoming part of the synagogue liturgy.34

As if all this proved insufficient reminder of God’s greatness, John twice in the following breath reiterates that God is the sovereign one—the one who sits on the throne—and that he lives forever and ever (4:9–10).35 All the heavenly creatures—all beings who directly witness God’s greatness—give him glory, hence summon us (and ultimately all creation in 5:13) to do the same.36 Falling on one’s face before another (4:10) was the ultimate obeisance, the supreme gesture of honoring the other far above oneself, appropriately applied to worship of God.37 John was well aware that earthly kings might demand the same obeisance—the same combination of “falling down” to “worship” appears six times in the summons to worship Nebuchadnezzar in Daniel 3:5–15; but Revelation calls Christians to respectfully reserve true worship for God alone.

God alone should receive all glory and power, for he created all things (4:11), a claim that again challenged the pretensions of Caesar in John’s day as well as all human idols since then.38 Jewish tradition often suggested that God created the world for the sake of humanity or of Israel; we as Christians see God’s ultimate purpose in his saving work in Christ (cf. Eph. 1:10; Col. 1:18–22).39 But this text reminds us that whatever God’s other interests, it is also fair to say simply that all things were created for (or “on account of”) God’s will.

Such a dramatic statement reinforces the portrait of God’s sovereignty here. John’s contemporaries would have understood the connection between God as Creator and God as rightful Ruler (1 En. 9:5). The emperor Domitian expected worship as dominus et deus, “lord and god,” and all who resisted such worship would be suspect to many agents of imperial power in Asia.40 But as anyone who knew the ancient Scriptures of Israel would expect, the heavenly choirs of angels and redeemed people hail the true “Lord and God” (4:11), who created and rules his universe.41

Bridging Contexts

THE GREATNESS OF GOD. One seeking to digest or communicate this chapter should not bog down in the details of most of its background, important as they are for understanding the details of John’s portrait. One should instead place all the details (expounded in the context of their primary Old Testament background) in the broader perspective of their function—to reveal the greatness of God’s court, hence, his own greatness. Thus, they also reveal a striking contrast with the pretense of the earthly ruler’s arrogant pomp. The text invites us to worship, today no less than at its first reading in Ephesus. It also invites us to relinquish our fear of human grandeur, which pales before the majesty of the eternal God with whom we have become intimate.

Common pitfalls and important guidelines. We must also address some common pitfalls in interpretation as well as guidelines for moving from interpretation of the original sense to application. Only an overwhelming commitment to read one’s views of the end times into the text can force the vision in Revelation 4 to address our questions about the sequence of end-time details, but this has sometimes been attempted. (We comment here on the method of proving the doctrine, not on whether or not the doctrine is accurate on the basis of other texts.) Thus some who find the church age in the letters to the churches and the Tribulation in Revelation 6–16 locate the Rapture in 4:1 (specifically in the words, “Come up here”). They argue that if the church (on the basis of other Scriptures) is raptured before the Tribulation, it must either be located here or be admitted that Revelation does not provide explicit mention of a pretribulation Rapture (which some pretribulationists concede). Usually these interpreters acknowledge that 4:1 refers to John’s vision, but argue that John functions here as a “type” of the church.42

Nevertheless, most interpreters who use 4:1 to portray the Rapture of the church before the Tribulation admit that the text does not actually prove their position. Strombeck, who contends that “no event recorded in Revelation can better represent the rapture of the Church” than John’s experience in 4:1, admits that such a “type” cannot function as a proof, “but if one is seeking an event” in Revelation that resembles the pretribulational Rapture, “none other as good can be found.”43

One does wonder why John’s revelation in 4:1 makes a better type of the Rapture than other revelations of John elsewhere in the book. John also hears a trumpet in 1:10 and is elsewhere told, “Come” (17:1; 21:9), but these are not viewed as “raptures” because they occur at the wrong places in the book to typify a pretribulational Rapture. And even if this text were a type of the Rapture, its timing could be significant only if its context were also types; thus it might symbolize a rapture after a time of martyrdom rather than before (see the context of the “Come up here” in 11:12). But here in 4:1, “Come up here” probably simply recalls God’s call to Moses on Sinai, as we noted above. John is “in the Spirit” (4:2), caught up in visions like Ezekiel (Ezek. 8:3).

Some interpreters press too much understanding of end-time events into John’s “after these things” (4:1, NASB), as if this chronological marker separated the present “church age,” typified in the letters to the churches, from a distant future Tribulation (cf. 1:19). But “after these things” is a common transition device in ancient texts, including both apocalyptic literature (1 Enoch 89:30) and other writings (e.g., John 5:1; Tob. 1:1). “After these things” can refer to events that follow (Rev. 9:12; 20:3), but also to revelations that follow earlier revelations (7:9; 15:5; 18:1; 19:1); here it simply implies that after John heard from Jesus the letters to the churches, he heard a voice calling him to a heavenly vision. That is, it applies to the sequence of John’s seeing, not to the sequence of historical events.44

Claiming that the “seven lamps” before the throne (4:5) represent the raptured church in heaven45 might have worked (cf. 1:20), except that the text explicitly claims that these lamps represent the seven spirits of God (4:5); further, a Greek word different from that for the lampstands in 1:20 is used (the same word is translated “torch” in 8:10).

A better argument could be made for proposing that the “elders” in 4:4 refer to the saints before the throne—hence the notion that Christians have already been resurrected. This argument, however, also falters. Saints can arrive in heaven and receive white robes without being resurrected (6:11), and crowns can imply martyrdom (2:10) and can be conditionally promised before the judgment (3:11). Thus, arguing that these elders are the “saints” (as we would agree) provides no necessary evidence that they have been “raptured.”46

To be sure, the “church” is not mentioned on earth by that name during Revelation’s Tribulation, but neither is it mentioned by that name in heaven; the “saints” appear, however, in both locations.47 Worse still, neither John nor his heavenly guides employ the word “church” to describe Christians in general even before 4:1; he speaks only of local churches. Yet to my knowledge no one argues for a rapture of specific local churches (despite 3:10)—except one nonevangelical sect in the Philippines (which reportedly argues that even the church buildings will be raptured). Further, the scene in heaven provides the logic for the judgments poured out in the seals; if it tells us anything about chronology, it probably tells us, as we will argue below, about the state of heaven before judgments that began nearly two thousand years ago.

Contemporary Significance

GOD IS IN CHARGE. Because chapters 4–5 introduce the pictures of God’s judgments on the world, they summon us to a heavenly perspective that reminds us who is in charge. As Gregory Beale rightly puts it, “The pastoral purpose [of Rev. 4–5] is to assure suffering Christians that God and Jesus are sovereign and that the events that the Christians are facing are part of a sovereign plan that will culminate in their redemption and the vindication of their faith through the punishment of their persecutors.”48

There is no evidence that John worked himself up into a vision; in contrast to the explicit testimonies of many of his contemporaries about their own experiences, he seems to have simply been available to God’s Spirit (4:2). Though we should walk intimately with God and be open to his voice, we are not responsible to generate spiritual experiences, as in some circles (or to negate them, as in some others). We should give God the praise he deserves and let him bestow those experiences that he wills.49 The focus of the revelation John receives is God’s glory; even the judgments he will soon witness glorify God and explain his activity, rather than simply entertain our curiosity about the future.

Invitation to praise. If the twenty-four elders symbolize the church (and probably even if they do not), the total nature of their worship invites us to similar praise. They offer God not only their words but their own glory, casting their crowns before the throne (4:10; cf. 21:24), because they recognize God as the author and purpose of existence (4:11).50 As one scholar notes, “In antiquity a common sign of vassalage was the taking off of the diadem (symbol of royalty) by the conquered ruler and the placing of that diadem at the feet of the conqueror (Cicero, Sest. 27; Tacitus, Ann. 15.29).” By imitating “such an act of subordination,” the elders demonstrate that they do not claim the crowns as their own or the dragon’s, but God’s alone.51 Humility is not simply humiliation; it is recognizing who God is and who we are, and the consequent vast difference between God and ourselves.

This passage in Revelation and others like it remind us that our primary job in heaven, like that of every other created being in heaven, is to worship God. In the present life, worship that focuses on God’s worthiness—both his character (4:8) and deeds (4:11; 5:9; cf. both in Ps. 150:2)—is our nearest foretaste of heaven, an experience in the down payment of the end-time Spirit (1 Cor. 2:9–10; 2 Cor. 1:22). Worship also reminds us that whatever else our calling or gifts now, all Christians become the same as God’s worshipers; the eternal future leaves little place for gifts now valued, but our devotion to God will always rise (cf. 1 Cor. 13:8–13).

The holy God. Although the praise was commonly reused in other contexts, most ancient listeners hearing the living creatures crying out, “Holy! Holy! Holy!” would think first of Isaiah 6. In Isaiah, a holy priest in the holy sanctuary among the holiest of peoples in one of the purer periods in their history cries out in utter dismay, “I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips” (6:5). He recognizes his uncleanness not because he compares himself with others but because he stands before the holy God, before whom no mortal creature is adequate (6:3); he is confronted with his uncleanness once his eyes see “the King, the LORD Almighty” (6:5). Nothing banishes pride of mortal flesh or human competition and agendas better than a taste of God’s infinite greatness.

God is holy, almighty, and eternal (4:8; see comment on 1:8), in contrast to the pretense of the mortal human frame, so easily reduced to dust. Imperial choirs throughout Asia were hailing the mighty emperor as god in their own hymns.52 Before John’s portrait of the most majestic throne room of all, however, the emperor’s claims fade into absurdity, and worshiping Christians find strength to withstand the falsehood of the emperor’s claims.53

The praises of the living creatures also remind us that simply declaring truly who God is and what he is like brings him glory. God is “holy,” alone in his perfection; no one else can be compared with him. Worship is not the invention of nice things to say about God; it is the recognition of who God already is (4:8), as well as what he has already done or promised to do (4:11; 5:9–12), and how worthy he is of our praise (4:11; 5:12–14).54

Yet worship is not mere theological information; as J. I. Packer notes, we must “turn our knowledge about God into knowledge of God” by turning “each truth that we learn about God into matter for meditation before God, leading to prayer and praise to God.”55 One difference between our worship and the model provided for it here is that we desperately need the model! While the creatures before God’s throne worship him in the clarity of his present glory, we usually worship him in this age in faith, seeing through a glass darkly but confident that the One we worship is greater than all the work of his hands (cf. 1 Cor. 13:12).

To fall on our faces (4:10) is to make our own honor nothing in comparison with God’s. Some of us are too anxious for our own honor or reputation, even when we disguise it as concern for our “call.” We should, of course, do our best to retain our good reputation for the gospel’s sake (1 Tim. 3:2, 7; cf. Prov 22:1), but the kind of competition and petty disputes that ministers and others often experience in the kingdom (Mark 9:34; Luke 9:46; 22:24; 1 Cor. 3:4–7; 2 Cor. 10:12; Phil. 1:15–17) should vanish into ashamed silence when we together recognize the only one who genuinely deserves any glory.

The heart of God. God is self-sufficient, but Augustine rightly declared that “God thirsts to be thirsted after.” His love makes him vulnerable to those he loves, if we dare use such language to describe his desire for intimacy with us. As Richard Foster points out, “Our God is not made of stone. His heart is the most sensitive and tender of all. No act goes unnoticed, no matter how insignificant or small.”56 A cup of cold water is enough to secure his attention (Mark 9:41), like a mother delighted to receive her child’s offering of dandelions. Jesus was moved by the one cleansed leper who returned to give thanks and sad about the nine who did not (Luke 17:17–18). Jesus was touched by the woman who anointed his feet (Mark 14:6–8).57 God delights in our affection for him and in our pausing to allow him to lavish his affection on us by his Spirit.

Standing up to contemporary idols. John’s vision encourages Christians in Roman Asia that the worship in the imperial cult is merely a farce, a pale imitation of the true worship in the heavenly court. And as late first-century Christians gained courage to declare that the emperor had no clothes, we must declare the same for the idols of our generation. Caesar did not create (4:11) and is not eternal (4:8), nor did he redeem us by his blood (5:9); he had no control over ultimate hope. In view of present knowledge about the narrow parameters essential for the formation of life in the universe, we can see God’s loving design in creation today in greater detail than our forebears.58 Only in the depths of worship, as we stand in awe of God’s majestic glory, do all other competing claims for affection and attention recede into their rightful place. God alone is God, and he alone merits first place—beyond every other love, every other anxiety, every other fear that consumes us.

If God’s grandeur dwarfs the emperor’s majesty, it also challenges in a different way the numbing triteness of modern Western culture. God’s greatness summons our attention: Who are we to be overwhelmed by the mortal emperor or our present trials? That God is Lord of history and has everything under control helps us view everything else in life the way we should. Praise puts persecution, poverty, and plagues into perspective; God is sovereignly bringing about his purposes, and this world’s pains are merely the birth pangs of a new world (Rev. 21–22).