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Revelation

About this book
Chapter 5

1 Then I saw in the right hand of the one who was seated on the throne a scroll written on the front and back and sealed with seven seals.⁠ 2 And I saw a powerful angel proclaiming in a loud voice: “Who is worthy to open the scroll and to break its seals?” 3 But no one in heaven or on earth or under the earth was able to open the scroll or look into it. 4 So I began weeping bitterly because no one was found who was worthy to open the scroll or to look into it. 5 Then one of the elders said to me, “Stop weeping! Look, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the root of David, has conquered;⁠ thus he can open the scroll and its seven seals.”⁠ 6 Then I saw standing in the middle of the throne and of the four living creatures, and in the middle of the elders, a Lamb that appeared to have been killed. He had seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent out into all the earth.⁠ 7 Then he came and took the scroll from the right hand of the one who was seated on the throne, 8 and when he had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders threw themselves to the ground before the Lamb. Each of them had a harp and golden bowls full of incense (which are the prayers of the saints). 9 They were singing a new song:⁠ “You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals because you were killed, and at the cost of your own blood you have purchased for God persons from every tribe, language, people, and nation. 10 You have appointed them as a kingdom and priests to serve our God, and they will reign on the earth.”⁠ 11 Then I looked and heard the voice of many angels in a circle around the throne, as well as the living creatures and the elders. Their number was ten thousand times ten thousand—thousands times thousands—⁠ 12 all of whom were singing in a loud voice: “Worthy is the lamb who was killed to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and praise!” 13 Then I heard every creature—in heaven, on earth, under the earth, in the sea, and all that is in them—singing: “To the one seated on the throne and to the Lamb be praise, honor, glory, and ruling power forever and ever!” 14 And the four living creatures were saying “Amen,” and the elders threw themselves to the ground and worshiped.

Texts in conversation

Compare 1 Enoch 14:21 and Revelation 5:11

Pseudepigrapha, Apocalypses · New Testament

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Summary

Revelation 5 describes angels around God's throne numbering ten thousand times ten thousand, a detail that parallels 1 Enoch 14 where the same language describes the overwhelming number of the divine army that surround God.

Passages

1 Enoch 14:21

Pseudepigrapha, Apocalypses
19 From underneath the throne came streams of flaming fire, so that I could not look at it. 20 The Great Glory sat on it, and His garment shone more brightly than the sun and was whiter than any snow. 21 None of the angels could enter and look on His face because of its magnificence and glory, and no mortal could look on Him. 22 A flaming fire was all around Him, and a great fire stood before Him; no one near Him could come close. Ten thousand times ten thousand stood before Him, yet He needed no counselor. 23 The most holy ones who were near Him did not leave by night nor depart from Him.
300 BCE – 100 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in 1 Enoch

Revelation 5:11

New Testament
9 They were singing a new song: “You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals because you were killed, and at the cost of your own blood you have purchased for God persons from every tribe, language, people, and nation. 10 You have appointed them as a kingdom and priests to serve our God, and they will reign on the earth.” 11 Then I looked and heard the voice of many angels in a circle around the throne, as well as the living creatures and the elders. Their number was ten thousand times ten thousand—thousands times thousands— 12 all of whom were singing in a loud voice: “Worthy is the lamb who was killed to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and praise!”
92–96 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in Revelation

References

"... Significantly, the phrase “day and night” used by John to denote the ceaseless worship of God comes close to what the Book of Watchers states about “the holy ones of the watchers who approached him (God)” in 1 Enoch 14:23 “they did not depart by night” and, if we may follow Nickelsburg’s emendation of the text, “did not leave ⟨by day⟩.” Only these two texts from the Second Temple period share this language in relation to the heavenly worship (also Revelation 7:15), while several documents apply the phrase to the cultic activity of priestly groups (1 Chronicles 23:3; Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews 7.14.7; 1QS vi 6–12). Though in reverse order, the presence of “myriads of myriads” and “thousands of thousands” is shared by two passages in the Book of Parables (40:1; 71:8; for the same order see Apocalypse of Zephaniah 4:1; 8:1; 1 Clement 34:6) with Revelation 5:11, whereas Psalm 68:17 refers to “a myriad thousands,” and the Book of Giants, in a tradition that relates to Daniel 7, describes the worship of God by “thousands” and “hundreds.” The sequence in Revelation, however, corresponds to that of the Book of Watchers (1 Enoch 14:22) and to Daniel 7:10, either text of which is likely to have shaped the wording here ..."
Loren T. Stuckenbruck, The Myth of Rebellious Angels: Studies in Second Temple Judaism and New Testament Texts (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2014), 294–295.

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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1 Enoch 14:21 and Revelation 5:11

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