It was round about eighteen thousand
measures: and the name of the city that day shall be, The Lord is there. (Ezek
48:35)
And they shall see his face; and his name
shall be in their foreheads. (Rev 22:4)
Commenting
on the “new name” and its Old Testament background, Andrea L. Robinson wrote:
The New Name (Rev 22:4; Ezek 48:35)
In Revelation 2:17, John specified that the
saints will receive a new name, and in Revelation 22:4, the inhabitants of the
new Jerusalem receive God’s name upon their foreheads. The mark of God
functions as the inverse of the beat’s mark, indicating that those who bear God’s
name profess allegiance to him (Mark of God: Rev 3:12; 7:1-5; 9:4; 14:1; mark
of the beat: Rev 13:17; 14:11; 16:2; 19:20). Being marked with God’s name also
recalls Ezekiel 9:4, in which those who mourn over the idolatry in Jerusalem
receive a mark on the forehead and are spared the outpouring of God’s wrath.
Similarly, in Revelation, individuals who are marked by the Lord receive his
protection (Rev 7:1-3). The naming thus represents the security of the saints
and “the idea of the eternal residence of God with his people” Cooper, Ezekiel, 425). Such is the case in Revelation
22:4, and also Ezekiel 48:35, wherein Ezekiel’s city receives the name יְהוָה שָׁמָּה,
or “the Lord is there.”
Biblically, a new name encapsulates the
essence of a person. To know someone’s name is to discern his or her character.
“When God chooses to reveal himself he does so by revealing his name (cf. Gen
17,1; Exod 3,14; 6,2). In so doing, he reveals more than simply that by which
he is called. He discloses a part of himself, of who he is” (Spatafora, From the “Temple of God," 137-38)
For saints to bear God’s name indicates that they understand something of his
nature and correspondingly reflect his character.
In the OT cultic system, the name of God was
written on the foreheads of priests (Exod 28:36-38). The significance of the
inscription was that those who bore the mark served as representative of the
Lord. The inscription of God’s name in Revelation 22:4 thus reinforces the
priestly character of the inhabitants of the new Jerusalem. Bauckham succinctly
explained, “They are priests who worship him and kings who reign with him”
(Bauckham, Theology of the Book,
142).
As in Ezekiel and Revelation, several passages
in Isaiah indicate that the people of God will receive a new name (Isa 56:5;
62:2; 65:15). These verses may be in the background of Revelation 22:4.
However, the inscription of the name on the forehead, as well as the
overarching literary prototyping of Revelation 21:1—22:5 on Ezekiel 40-48,
indicates that the Ezekielian referents are primary. Further, the author of the
Isaian passages did not indicate that the new name was the name of God, as did
John and Ezekiel.
Strong conceptual affinities exist between Revelation
22:4 and Ezekiel 48:35. In both passages, those who are marked with God’s name
(1) reflect God’s character, (2) receives God’s protection, and (3) enjoy God’s
presence. Lexical affinities, however, are vague. Although both Revelation 22:4
and Ezekiel 48:35 utilize ονομα, or “name,” the term is too common to imply
dependence. The literary contexts of Ezekiel 48:35 and Revelation22:4 likewise
do not align. In Ezekiel 48, the prophet dealt with land allotments, while in Revelation
22:1-5, John described the renewed heaven and earth. In Ezekiel, the name
applies to the city, and in Revelation the name applies to the people. Yet in
Revelation, the people are the city, so the parallel remains conceptually
similar.
A structural parallel can be identified as
well. The naming of the saints is found at the end of the visions in both
Revelation 21:1-22:5 and Ezekiel 40-48. Bearing in mind John’s tendency to
conflate and condense, he may have combined the new name of Ezekiel 48:35 with
the mark of God in Ezekiel 9:4 as he iterated the name of the city-saints in
Revelation 22:4. In sum, the parallel will be regarded as probable due to the
presence of strong structural and conceptual affinities. The function of the
intertext is most likely thematic. (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], 177-78)