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Revelation

About this book
Chapter 4

1 After these things I looked, and there was a door standing open in heaven! And the first voice I had heard speaking to me like a trumpet said: “Come up here so that I can show you what must happen after these things.” 2 Immediately I was in the Spirit, and a throne was standing in heaven with someone seated on it!⁠ 3 And the one seated on it was like jasper and carnelian in appearance, and a rainbow looking like it was made of emerald encircled the throne. 4 In a circle around the throne were twenty-four other thrones, and seated on those thrones were twenty-four elders.⁠ They were dressed in white clothing and had golden crowns on their heads. 5 From the throne came out flashes of lightning and roaring and crashes of thunder.⁠ Seven flaming torches, which are the seven spirits of God, were burning in front of the throne, 6 and in front of the throne was something like a sea of glass, like crystal. In the middle of the throne and around the throne were four living creatures full of eyes in front and in back.⁠ 7 The first living creature was like a lion, the second creature like an ox, the third creature had a face like a man’s, and the fourth creature looked like an eagle flying.⁠ 8 Each one of the four living creatures had six wings and was full of eyes all around and inside. They never rest day or night,⁠ saying: “Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord God, the All-Powerful, Who was, and who is, and who is still to come!” 9 And whenever the living creatures give glory, honor, and thanks to the one who sits on the throne, who lives forever and ever, 10 the twenty-four elders throw themselves to the ground before the one who sits on the throne and worship the one who lives forever and ever, and they offer their crowns before his throne, saying: 11 “You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, since you created all things, and because of your will they existed and were created!”⁠

Texts in conversation

Compare Ezekiel 1:22 and Revelation 4:6

Hebrew Bible · New Testament

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Summary

Revelation describes a sea of glass before God’s throne, echoing Ezekiel’s vision of a shining surface. In Ezekiel, this forms the base of God’s throne and reflects an ancient view of the heavens divided by a solid dome over the earth.

Passages

Ezekiel 1:22

Hebrew Bible
20 Wherever the spirit would go, they would go, and the wheels would rise up beside them because the spirit of the living being was in the wheel. 21 When the living beings moved, the wheels moved, and when they stopped moving, the wheels stopped. When they rose up from the ground, the wheels rose up from the ground; the wheels rose up beside them because the spirit of the living being was in the wheel. 22 Over the heads of the living beings was something like a dome41, glittering awesomely like ice, stretched out over their heads. 23 Under the platform their wings were stretched out, each toward the other. Each of the beings also had two wings covering its body. 24 When they moved, I heard the sound of their wings—it was like the sound of rushing waters, or the voice of the Sovereign One, or the tumult of an army. When they stood still, they lowered their wings.
600–501 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Ezekiel

Revelation 4:6

New Testament
1 After these things I looked, and there was a door standing open in heaven! And the first voice I had heard speaking to me like a trumpet said: “Come up here so that I can show you what must happen after these things.” 2 Immediately I was in the Spirit, and a throne was standing in heaven with someone seated on it! 3 And the one seated on it was like jasper and carnelian in appearance, and a rainbow looking like it was made of emerald encircled the throne. 4 In a circle around the throne were twenty-four other thrones, and seated on those thrones were twenty-four elders. They were dressed in white clothing and had golden crowns on their heads. 5 From the throne came out flashes of lightning and roaring and crashes of thunder. Seven flaming torches, which are the seven spirits of God, were burning in front of the throne, 6 and in front of the throne was something like a sea of glass, like crystal. In the middle of the throne and around the throne were four living creatures full of eyes in front and in back. 7 The first living creature was like a lion, the second creature like an ox, the third creature had a face like a man’s, and the fourth creature looked like an eagle flying.
92–96 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in Revelation

References

"... There are other Old Testament allusions: Ezekiel 1:22 - the firmament, which is the crystal platform for God’s throne. Note that Revelation 15’s context is the divine throne room. Beale also loops in Daniel 7 along with Ezekiel 1 and Exodus 15 in his comments on the “sea of glass” mentioned in Revelation 4:6. He describes its relationship to the council decision (Daniel 7:10) to judge the fourth beast, whose body was given to be burnt with fire (Daniel 7:11) ..."
Michael S. Heiser, The Old Testament in Revelation: Notes from the Naked Bible Podcast (Naked Bible, 2021), 242.

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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Ezekiel 1:22 and Revelation 4:6

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