Book of Revelation

== Old Testament origins ==
Much of Revelation employs ancient sources, primarily but not exclusively from the Old Testament. For example, Howard-Brook and Gwyther<ref>Wes Howard-Brook & Anthony Gwyther ''Unveiling Empire'' New York: Orbis (1999) p. 76</ref> regard the [[Book of Enoch]] as an equally significant but contextually different source. "Enoch's journey has no close parallel in the Hebrew scriptures."

Academics showed little interest in this topic until recently.<ref>S Moyise p. 13 reports no work whatsoever done between 1912 and 1984</ref> An anonymous Scottish commentary of 1871<ref>Anon ''An exposition of the Apocalypse on a new principle of literal interpretation'' Aberdeen: Brown (1871)</ref> prefaces Revelation 4 with the Little Apocalypse of Mark 13, places Malachi 4:5 ("Behold I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord") within Revelation 11 and writes Revelation 12:7 side by side with the role of "the Satan" in the [[Book of Job]]. The message is that everything in Revelation will happen in its previously appointed time.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Chapman|first=Charles T.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qPAiFCpfNUEC&q=The+message+is+that+everything+in+Revelation+will+happen+in+its+previously+appointed+time&pg=PA12|title=The Message of the Book of Revelation|date=1995|publisher=Liturgical Press|isbn=978-0-8146-2111-0|language=en}}</ref>

[[Steve Moyise]] uses the index of the United Bible Societies' Greek New Testament to show that "Revelation contains more Old Testament [[allusion]]s than any other New Testament book, but it does not record a single quotation."<ref>S. Moyise ''The Old Testament in the Book of Revelation'' Sheffield: [[Sheffield Academic Press]] (1995) p. 31</ref> Perhaps significantly, Revelation chooses different sources than other New Testament books. Revelation concentrates on Isaiah, Psalms, and Ezekiel, while neglecting, comparatively speaking, the books of the Pentateuch that are the dominant sources for other New Testament writers.{{Citation needed|date=October 2016}}

Yet, with Revelation, the problems might be judged more fundamental. The author seems to be using his sources in a completely different way to the originals. For example, the author borrows the 'new temple' imagery of Ezekiel 40–48 but uses it to describe a New Jerusalem which, quite pointedly, no longer needs a temple because it is God's dwelling. [[Ian Boxall]]<ref>Ian Boxall The Revelation of St John London: Continuum & Peabody MA: Hendrickson (2006) p. 254</ref> writes that Revelation "is no montage of biblical quotations (that is not John's way) but a wealth of allusions and evocations rewoven into something new and creative." In trying to identify this "something new", Boxall argues that Ezekiel provides the 'backbone' for Revelation. He sets out a comparative table listing the chapters of Revelation in sequence and linking most of them to the structurally corresponding chapter in Ezekiel. The interesting point is that the order is not the same. John, on this theory, rearranges Ezekiel to suit his own purposes.{{Citation needed|date=October 2016}}

Some commentators argue that it is these purposes – and not the structure – that really matter. [[Gregory Beale|G. K. Beale]] believes that, however much John makes use of Ezekiel, his ultimate purpose is to present Revelation as a fulfillment of [[Daniel 7]].<ref>G. K. Beale John's use of the Old Testament in Revelation Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press (1998) p. 109</ref> [[Richard Bauckham]] has argued that John presents an early view of the Trinity through his descriptions of the visions and his identifying Jesus and the Holy Spirit with YHWH.{{sfn|Bauckham|1993|p=}} Brandon Smith has expanded on both of their proposals while proposing a "trinitarian reading" of Revelation, arguing that John uses Old Testament language and allusions from various sources to describe a multiplicity of persons in YHWH without sacrificing monotheism, which would later be codified in the trinitarian doctrine of [[Nicene Christianity]].<ref>Brandon D. Smith, "The Trinity in the Book of Revelation: Seeing Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in John's Apocalypse" (IVP Academic, 2022)</ref>