2 Cents

Of the many important new things I've learned over the last few months plodding through the book of Revelation one of the most surprising was how much the author - John - relied on the Old Testament for his imagery.

Did you know that of all the New Testament books Revelation, by far, has the most quotations of and allusions to the Old Testament?  They're absolutely all over the place.

Now on your first read this won't be recognizable because most of these are allusions, not quotations.  If we're only considering quotations the book of Revelation doesn't have nearly as many as say Hebrews.  But the number of OT allusions are staggering.

Not only that but going back and understanding the OT passages that are referenced will greatly help you understand some cryptic and confusing portions of Revelation.

Take for instance, Revelation 20:7-8...

And when the thousand years are ended, Satan will be released from his prison and will come out to deceive the nations that are at the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them for battle.

G.K. Beale finds allusions to portions of six different books of the OT in verse 8 alone! (Carson & Beale, Commentary on the New Testament Use of the Old Testament)  But let's just focus on one of them.

Gog and Magog...where did that come from?  And what in the world does it mean?

Well in Ezekiel 38-39 we read that Gog was the leader of a rebellious party that came to destroy the Israelites.  His land that he had influence over was called Magog.  God has Ezekiel prophesy that he will allow Gog to attack the Israelites when they are defenseless and extremely vulnerable.  Then God will destroy Gog and Magog himself to show his own power and glory to the world and to his people.

The reason John alludes to Gog and Magog here is because God will do the same thing to Satan at the last day.  In fact, God's destruction of Gog and Magog was an intentional foreshadowing of his ultimate and final destruction of all evil at the Judgment.  Satan will gather his forces to attack God's people in the end but the attack will never even get started.  God will destroy Satan and his followers easily to reveal his power and glory to them and to his people.

And that's just one allusion in one verse!  The entire book of Revelation is overflowing with this stuff.

So one thing that I would encourage everyone reading Revelation to do is to get a reference work or a commentary to help you identify and understand all the allusions to and quotations of the Old Testament that John uses to form his imagery.  I've listed some that have helped me below.  Doing this will greatly help you understand this cryptic book of the Bible.

D.A. Carson & G.K. Beale, Commentary on the New Testament Use of the Old Testament
G.K. Beale, The Book of Revelation, New International Greek Testament Commentary Series
Robert Mounce, The Book of Revelation, New International Commentary on the New Testament Series