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Revelation

About this book
Chapter 6

1 I looked on when the Lamb opened one of the seven seals, and I heard one of the four living creatures saying with a thunderous voice, “Come!” 2 So I looked, and here came a white horse!⁠ The one who rode it had a bow, and he was given a crown, and as a conqueror he rode out to conquer. 3 Then when the Lamb opened the second seal, I heard the second living creature saying, “Come!” 4 And another horse, fiery red, came out, and the one who rode it was granted permission to take peace from the earth so that people would butcher one another, and he was given a huge sword. 5 Then when the Lamb opened the third seal I heard the third living creature saying, “Come!” So I looked, and here came a black horse! The one who rode it had a balance scale in his hand. 6 Then I heard something like a voice from among the four living creatures saying, “A quart of wheat will cost a day’s pay, and three quarts of barley will cost a day’s pay. But do not damage the olive oil and the wine!” 7 Then when the Lamb opened the fourth seal I heard the voice of the fourth living creature saying, “Come!” 8 So I looked and here came a pale green horse! The name of the one who rode it was Death, and Hades followed right behind.⁠ They were given authority over a fourth of the earth, to kill its population with the sword, famine, and disease, and by the wild animals of the earth.⁠ 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. 15 Then the kings of the earth, the very important people, the generals, the rich, the powerful, and everyone, slave and free, hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains.⁠ 16 They said to the mountains and to the rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of the one who is seated on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb,⁠ 17 because the great day of their wrath has come, and who is able to withstand it?”

Texts in conversation

Compare Revelation 6:9 and 3 Enoch 48C:12

New Testament · Pseudepigrapha, Apocalypses

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Summary

Revelation describes the souls of slain martyrs under the heavenly altar. In 3 Enoch, Metatron gathers the souls of children and students of the Torah under the Throne of Glory, following a similar tradition.

Passages

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.
92–96 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in Revelation

3 Enoch 48C:12

Pseudepigrapha, Apocalypses · Hebrew Book of Enoch
10 as it is written (Is. lv. 11): "so shall my word be that goes forth out of my mouth; it shall not return to me void but shall accomplish (that which I please)". 'E'eseh' (I shall accomplish) is not written here, but 'asah' (he shall accomplish), meaning, that whatever word and whatever utterance goes forth from before the Holy One, blessed be He, Metatron stands and carries it out. And he establishes the decrees of the Holy One, blessed be He. 11 ["And he shall make to prosper that which I sent". 'Asliah (I will make to prosper) is not written here, but wehisliah (and he shall make to prosper), teaching, that whatever decree goes forth from before the Holy One, blessed be He, concerning a man, as soon as he makes repentance, they do not execute it (upon him) but upon another, wicked man, as it is written (Prov. xi. 8): "The righteous is delivered out of trouble, and the wicked comes in his stead".] 12 And not only that but Metatron sits three hours every day in the high heavens, and he gathers all the souls of those dead who died in their mother's womb, and the sucklings who died on their mother's breasts, and of the scholars who died over the five books of the Law. And he brings them under the Throne of Glory and places them in companies, divisions and classes round the Presence: and he teaches them the Law, and (the books) of Wisdom, and Haggada and Tradition and finishes (completes) their instruction (education) [for them]. As it is written (Is. xxviii. 9): "Whom will he teach knowledge? and whom will he make to understand tradition? them that are weaned from the milk and drawn from the breasts".
400–600 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in 3 Enoch

References

“... In Judaism also we find the belief that the souls of the righteous were under the altar in heaven. This in the Aboth R.N. xxvi, " Rabbi Akiba declares . . . that whoever was buried in the land of Israel was just as if he were buried under the altar, and whoever was buried under the altar was just as if he were buried under the throne ofglory? In Shabb. i52 b it is stated that "the souls of the righteous are preserved under the throne of glory," and in Debarim rabba, ii, God says to the soul of Moses: "Go forth, delay not, and I will bring thee up to the highest heaven, and cause thee to dwell under the throne of My glory amidst the Cherubim and Seraphim and heavenly hosts. ...”
R. H. Charles, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Revelation of St. John, Volume 1 (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1920), 173.
“... Nathaniel Deutsch observes that both Metatron and Abathur are associated with the care of human souls in other ways. Metatron is characterized as the teacher of “all the souls of the dead that have died in their mothers’ wombs, and of the babies that have died at their mothers’ breasts, and of the schoolchildren that have died while studying the five books of the Torah.” Abathur’s watch house is depicted as the storage place for the pre-existent souls that have not yet descended to earth. Once again we observe the logic of the angelic vice regent: he is a guardian of the gate; a lord of mediation. Therefore, Metatron and Abathur are in charge of souls that are betwixt and between different modes of existence. In one case, the souls belong to those individuals who were never born or who died too young to receive a proper education; in the other case, the souls are waiting for their corresponding bodies to be born. Deutsch, Guardians of the Gate, 99. [...] Synopse §75 (3 Enoch 48C:12) attests to a similar tradition; it reads: Metatron sits for three hours every day in the heaven above, and assembles all the souls of the dead that have died in their mother’s wombs, and of the babes that have died at their mothers’ breasts, and of the schoolchildren beneath the throne of glory, and sits them down around him in classes, in companies, and in groups, and teaches them Torah, and wisdom, and haggadah, and tradition, and he completes for them their study of the scroll of the Law, as it is written, “To whom shall one teach knowledge, whom shall one instruct in the tradition? Them that are weaned from the milk, them that are taken from the breasts.” Alexander, “3 Enoch,” 1.313. ...”
Andrei A. Orlov, The Greatest Mirror: Heavenly Counterparts in the Jewish Pseudepigrapha (Albany, NY: State University of New York, 2017), 243–244.

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Revelation 6:9 and 3 Enoch 48C:12

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