Texts in Conversation
Revelation shows the souls crying for justice and being told to wait until all the martyrs are killed. 4 Ezra presents a similar scene where the righteous dead ask the same question and receive the same answer about a set number yet to be fulfilled.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
4 Ezra 4:35
2 Esdras
Pseudepigrapha, Apocalypses
32 When the grains which are without number are sown, how great a threshing floor they will fill!” 33 Then I answered and said, “How long? When will these things come to pass? Why are our years few and evil?” 34 He answered me, and said, “Don’t hurry faster than the Most High; for your haste is for your own self, but he who is above hurries on behalf of many. 35 Didn’t the souls of the righteous ask about these things in their chambers, saying, ‘How long will we be here? When does the fruit of the threshing floor come?’ 36 To them, Jeremiel the archangel answered, ‘When the number is fulfilled of those who are like you. For he has weighed the world in the balance. 37 By measure, he has measured the times. By number, he has counted the seasons. He won’t move or stir them until that measure is fulfilled.’” 38 Then I answered, “O sovereign Lord, all of us are full of ungodliness.
Revelation 6:9
New Testament
9 Now when the Lamb opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been violently killed because of the word of God and because of the testimony they had given. 10 They cried out with a loud voice, “How long, Sovereign Master, holy and true, before you judge those who live on the earth and avenge our blood?” 11 Each of them was given a long white robe, and they were told to rest for a little longer, until the full number was reached of both their fellow servants and their brothers who were going to be killed just as they had been. 12 Then I looked when the Lamb opened the sixth seal, and a huge earthquake took place; the sun became as black as sackcloth made of hair, and the full moon became blood red; 13 and the stars in the sky fell to the earth like a fig tree dropping its unripe figs when shaken by a fierce wind. 14 The sky was split apart like a scroll being rolled up, and every mountain and island was moved from its place.
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Notes and References
"... The entire scene in vv 9–11 has close parallels in both form and content with 1 Enoch 47:4 and 4 Ezra 4:35–37 ... Despite some difficulties with the text (Knibb, Enoch 2:133, note on 47.4), the reference is probably to the predetermined number of the elect (Black, 1 Enoch, 209–10). Here we find the juxtaposition of two motifs, the complete number of the righteous and the prayer for vengeance by righteous martyrs. Similarly, in 4 Ezra 4:35–37, we find a comparable sequence of motifs consisting of a brief question put by the righteous dead (beginning with the phrase “How long ... ?” as in Revelation 6:11; see Westermann, ZAW 66 [1954] 53) and the comforting answer by a supernatural being, which contains the motif of the numerus iustorum, i.e., the complete number of the righteous ..."
* The use of references are not endorsements of their contents. Please read the entirety of the provided reference(s) to understand the author's full intentions regarding the use of these texts.
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