Texts in Conversation
Revelation 11 describes the heavenly temple opening and the ark being revealed, alluding to a tradition found in 2 Maccabees where Jeremiah hides the ark until the time when Israel is restored, using it as a sign of divine action at the end of the age.
Share:
2500 BCE
1000+ CE
2 Maccabees 2:5
Deuterocanon
1 It is also found in the records that Jeremiah the prophet commanded those who were carried away to take some of the fire, as has been mentioned, 2 and how that the prophet charged those who were carried away, having given them the law, that they should not forget the statutes of the Lord or be led astray in their minds when they saw images of gold and silver, and their adornment. 3 With other such words he exhorted them, that the law should not depart from their hearts. 4 It was in the writing that the prophet, being warned by God, commanded that the tabernacle and the ark should follow with him, when he went out to the mountain where Moses had gone up and saw God’s inheritance. 5 Jeremiah came and found a cave, he brought the tabernacle, the ark, and the altar of incense into it; then he sealed the entrance. 6 Some of those who followed with him came there that they might mark the way, and could not find it. 7 But when Jeremiah learned about that, he rebuked them, saying, “The place shall be unknown until God gathers the people together again and shows mercy. 8 Then the Lord will disclose these things, and the glory of the Lord shall be seen with the cloud, as it was also shown to Moses, also as Solomon implored that the place might be consecrated greatly,
Date: 160–63 BCE (based on scholarly estimates)
Revelation 11:19
New Testament
16 Then the twenty-four elders who are seated on their thrones before God threw themselves down with their faces to the ground and worshiped God 17 with these words: “We give you thanks, Lord God, the All-Powerful, the one who is and who was, because you have taken your great power and begun to reign. 18 The nations were enraged, but your wrath has come, and the time has come for the dead to be judged, and the time has come to give to your servants, the prophets, their reward, as well as to the saints and to those who revere your name, both small and great, and the time has come to destroy those who destroy the earth.” 19 Then the temple of God in heaven was opened, and the ark of his covenant was visible within his temple. And there were flashes of lightning, roaring, crashes of thunder, an earthquake, and a great hailstorm.
Date: 92–96 CE (based on scholarly estimates)
Search:
Notes and References
"... Apocalyptic traditions of the Second Temple period, likely drawing from Ezekiel’s vision of a new temple, similarly looked to a future sanctuary (compare 1 Enoch 90:28-29). Initially, it was widely held that Zerubbabel’s structure paled in comparison to that of Solomon (compare Haggai 2:9; Zechariah 14:8-11; 1 Enoch 90:29) and was even considered ritually impure (1 Enoch 89:72-74; compare Testament of Levi 15:1; Testament of Moses 5:3-4). An earlier portion of 1 Enoch (the so-called Apocalypse of Weeks [1 Enoch 91; 93], dating from ca. 200 B.C.) asserts that ever since the exile all of Israel was apostate, apparently because of its inability to rightly engage in cultic worship (1 Enoch 93:9). Others viewed any human structure as inferior to that which God showed Moses at Sinai (Exodus 25:8) and therefore anticipated the establishment of that heavenly sanctuary on earth (compare 2 Baruch 4:5; Testament of Levi 5:1; 18:6; Jubilees 1:16, 27-28; 25:21; 49:18). Shortly after the destruction of the Herodian temple in A.D. 70, 2 Baruch anticipates a heavenly sanctuary (2 Baruch 32:2) that will “be renewed in glory and perfected forever” (2 Baruch 32:4; compare 2 Baruch 32:5; 68:5). Some of the cultic articles are said to have been removed prior to its destruction (2 Baruch 6:7) in anticipation of their restoration in an eschatological cultic structure (2 Baruch 6:8; compare 2 Baruch 10:19; 80:2; 2 Maccabees 2:5). Similarly, even the Herodian cult’s most ardent critics anticipated a renewal for the house of the Lord (Testament of Levi 17:10) ..."
Joel B. Green, Jeannine K. Brown, and Nicholas Perrin, eds., Dictionary of Jesus and the Gospels (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity, 2018), 941.
* 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.
Your Feedback:
Leave a Comment
Anonymous comments are welcome. All comments are subject to moderation.
User Comments
,