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Revelation

About this book
Chapter 14

1 Then I looked, and here was the Lamb standing on Mount Zion, and with him were 144,000, who had his name and his Father’s name written on their foreheads. 2 I also heard a sound coming out of heaven like the sound of many waters and like the sound of loud thunder.⁠ Now the sound I heard was like that made by harpists playing their harps, 3 and they were singing a new song before the throne and before the four living creatures and the elders. No one was able to learn the song except the 144,000 who had been redeemed from the earth. 4 These are the ones who have not defiled themselves with women, for they are virgins. These are the ones who follow the Lamb wherever he goes. These were redeemed from humanity as firstfruits to God and to the Lamb, 5 and no lie was found on their lips; they are blameless. 6 Then I saw another angel flying directly overhead, and he had an eternal gospel to proclaim to those who live on the earth—to every nation, tribe, language, and people. 7 He declared in a loud voice: “Fear God and give him glory because the hour of his judgment has arrived, and worship the one who made heaven and earth, the sea and the springs of water!” 8 A second angel followed the first, declaring: “Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great city! She made all the nations drink of the wine of her immoral passion.”⁠ 9 A third angel followed the first two, declaring in a loud voice: “If anyone worships the beast and his image, and takes the mark on his forehead or his hand, 10 that person will also drink of the wine of God’s anger that has been mixed undiluted in the cup of his wrath, and he will be tortured with fire and sulfur in front of the holy angels and in front of the Lamb.⁠ 11 And the smoke from their torture will go up forever and ever, and those who worship the beast and his image will have no rest day or night, along with anyone who receives the mark of his name.”⁠ 12 This requires the steadfast endurance of the saints—those who obey God’s commandments and hold to their faith in Jesus. 13 Then I heard a voice from heaven say, “Write this: ‘Blessed are the dead, those who die in the Lord from this moment on!’” “Yes,” says the Spirit, “so they can rest from their hard work, because their deeds will follow them.” 14 Then I looked, and a white cloud appeared, and seated on the cloud was one like a son of man!⁠ He had a golden crown on his head and a sharp sickle in his hand. 15 Then another angel came out of the temple, shouting in a loud voice to the one seated on the cloud, “Use your sickle and start to reap, because the time to reap has come, since the earth’s harvest is ripe!”⁠ 16 So the one seated on the cloud swung his sickle over the earth, and the earth was reaped. 17 Then another angel came out of the temple in heaven, and he, too, had a sharp sickle. 18 Another angel, who was in charge of the fire, came from the altar and called in a loud voice to the angel who had the sharp sickle, “Use your sharp sickle and gather the clusters of grapes off the vine of the earth, because its grapes are now ripe.”⁠ 19 So the angel swung his sickle over the earth and gathered the grapes from the vineyard of the earth and tossed them into the great winepress of the wrath of God.⁠ 20 Then the winepress was stomped outside the city, and blood poured out of the winepress up to the height of horses’ bridles for a distance of almost 200 miles.⁠

Texts in conversation

Compare Revelation 14:20 and 6 Ezra 15:36

New Testament · Early Christian

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Summary

Revelation describes a wine press where grapes are crushed until blood flows for miles. 6 Ezra similarly describes the nations trampled in a slaughter, echoing Isaiah’s use of a winepress for divine judgment.

Passages

Revelation 14:20

New Testament
18 Another angel, who was in charge of the fire, came from the altar and called in a loud voice to the angel who had the sharp sickle, “Use your sharp sickle and gather the clusters of grapes off the vine of the earth, because its grapes are now ripe.” 19 So the angel swung his sickle over the earth and gathered the grapes from the vineyard of the earth and tossed them into the great winepress of the wrath of God. 20 Then the winepress was stomped outside the city, and blood poured out of the winepress up to the height of horses’ bridles for a distance of almost 200 miles.
92–96 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in Revelation

6 Ezra 15:36

Early Christian · 2 Esdras 15–16
34 Behold, clouds from the east, and from the north to the south! They are very horrible to look at, full of wrath and storm. 35 They will clash against one another. They will pour out a heavy storm on the earth, even their own storm. There will be blood from the sword to the horse’s belly, 36 and to the thigh of man, and to the camel’s hock. 37 There will be fearfulness and great trembling upon earth. They who see that wrath will be afraid, and trembling will seize them. 38 After this, great storms will be stirred up from the south, from the north, and another part from the west.
262–313 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in 6 Ezra

References

"... We begin with a collection of texts which are clearly related in some way (Revelation 14:20; 1 Enoch 100:3; 4 Ezra 15:35-36; Ginza; y. Ta'an 4:8; Lamentations Rabbah 2:24; b. Gittin 57a; Prayer of Rabbi Shimon ben Yohai 9) ... This collection of texts, ranging in date from the second or first century B.C. to the medieval period, from Jewish, Christian and (in one case) Mandean works, clearly shows that Revelation 14:20 makes use of a topos which was widely used to indicate slaughter, in war, of exceptional proportions. In most cases it occurs in the context of apocalyptic prophecy. Most appropriately it is used with reference to the last battle of history, in which sinners will destroy each other on an unprecedented scale, but in many of the later apocalypses it describes an earlier battle in the sequence of events which lead to the end of history. In some cases, the battle which, from the fictitious standpoint of the pseudepigraphal prophecy, is set in the future may be an event already in the past from the standpoint of the author and his readers ..."
Richard Bauckham, The Climax of Prophecy: Studies on the Book of Revelation (Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 1993), 40–43.

References are not endorsements of their contents. Read each reference in full to understand its author's intentions in using these texts.

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Revelation 14:20 and 6 Ezra 15:36

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