Monday, July 27, 2020

Andrea L. Robinson on the Old Testament Background of Revelation 21:14

 

And the wall of the city had twelve foundations, and in them the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb. (Rev 21:14)

 

I discuss Rev 21:14 in my book After the Order of the Son of God: The Biblical and Historical Evidence for Latter-day Saint Theology of the Priesthood (2018), pp. 214-17. In her book, based on her PhD thesis, Andrea Robinson offered the following comments about the Old Testament background to this verse:

 

Foundation Stones (Rev 21:14; Ezek 40:30-34)

 

As in Ezekiel, the gates in Revelation bear the names of the tribes of Israel. However, John adds his own innovation in that the foundations of the walls bear the names of the twelve apostles (Rev 21:14). John’s addition of the apostles’ names is conspicuous. “Here, an element is added in a passage which otherwise is radically simplified and abridged” (Vogelgesang, “Interpretation of Ezekiel,” 90).

 

Yet the names on the foundation stones do not represent a different purpose than names on the gates in Ezekiel 38:30-34, but rather the consummation of Ezekiel’s hope. “Israel’s divine purpose from the beginning was fulfilled. For John, Jerusalem is one way to tell the two-stage story of the people of God, from nation to incarnation. The movement from historical Jerusalem to eternal Jerusalem is the story of the twelve tribes, Messiah, and the twelve apostles” (Stevens, Revelation, 535).

 

Nonetheless, Ezekiel made no mention of foundation stones. As noted above, Isaiah 54:11 is the most likely precursor for John’s foundation stones. In Revelation 21:14, the stones are identified with the apostles, much like the author of the Isaiah Pesher identified the stones of Isaiah 54:11 with the founding members of the sectarian community (4QpIsa I, 5-6). Thus, both Revelation 21:14 and the Isaiah Pesher reflect a similar understanding of Isaiah 54. “Furthermore, both texts associate the city gates of Isa. 54.12 with the gates belonging to the twelve tribes from Ezek 48.30-35” (Mathewson, New Heaven, 145).

 

John seemed to be working within a circle of tradition that utilized building imagery to describe a community of people. He combined passages such as Ezekiel 40-48, which has no precious building materials, with other OT prophecies such as Isaiah 54:11-12 to describe the glory of the future Jerusalem. “Indeed, John’s city is a temple-city, and the redeemed eschatological community is the spiritual temple in which God and the Lamb dwell and are worshipped. Thus, when viewed through the prism of building imagery, the costly ingredients of the city may represent the eternal glory, purity, and durability of the perfected community” (Fekkes, “Bride has Prepared Herself,” 286). Additionally, the significance of the twofold twelve is that John, rather than privileging one people group over another, unites peoples and makes the blessings promised to Israel available to all the saints (Beale, Book of Revelation, 1090).

 

In sum, the imagery of foundation stones clearly alludes to Isaiah 54:11. Yet, John almost certainly drew upon the gates of Ezekiel as well. He utilized imagery from both passages “to redefine the people of Israel as those faithful to God and the Lamb” (Palmer, “Imagining Space in Revelation,” 43).

 

Thus, the allusion to Ezekiel 48:30-35 can be classified as possible, based on similar concepts. Greater certainty is not possible due to the absence of parallel lexemes. The contextual function is literary prototype, due to the continued references to architectural elements found in Ezekiel. (Andrea L. Robinson, Temple of Presence: The Christological Fulfillment of Ezekiel 40-48 in Revelation 21:1-22:5 [Eugene, Oreg.: Wipf and Stock, 2019], 147-49)