Sermon Tone Analysis

Summary

Revelation 7 is the first of two passages in the book that refer to the 144,000.

The passage bristles with questions.

Who are these individuals, 12,000 from 12 tribes of Israel?

Should we understand the 144,000 literally or metaphorically, or both?

Why is the tribe of Dan omitted from the list?

Why are the tribes of Joseph and Manasseh mentioned, when Manasseh (with Ephraim) constituted the tribe of Joseph?

Why the tribal arrangement at all? Might the 144,000 still represent the Church and the twelve apostles?

Are the 144,000 specially protected as the apocalypse plays out?

In this episode we begin our journey into these and other questions with a specific eye to the role of the Old Testament in John’s thinking and theology.

Introduction

Well, this is Part 1, which obviously means we’re going to need more time.

I don't know yet if we’re going to need a Part 3. We’re going to get at least two parts, obviously.

In this episode, we’re going to tackle a few transparently obvious questions when it comes to repurposing the Old Testament and whatnot.

And then in the next episode we’ll get into some of the odder stuff.

But I’ve actually written a little bit about, “Why is Dan missing from the list of tribes?”

So we’ll get back into that sort of thing and a little bit of interpretive stuff.

And even here, there’s going to be some of that, too.

But this is what the passage is known for—the 144,000, the first eight verses.

This is the first of two listings of the 144,000, or two sections of the book of Revelation that spend any time on them.

And so, this is what everybody thinks of when you hit Revelation 7 … Here’s a teaser: how the text (the 144,000) may indeed factor into the Watcher story.

But that’s for Part 2. But again, we’ll get into a little more detail than we devoted to it there.

So let’s for today just jump into the passage (the first eight verses).

And I’m reading from ESV.

It says:

Now a couple of general observations.

Because we’re focused here on what John is doing with the Old Testament.

You know, the obvious ones are the tribes and the numbers.

So let’s just start with the numbers.

What about all this counting?

What does it remind you of in the Old Testament?

Well, the answer is kind of obvious.

It reminds you of census counting.

I mean, you get these lists of tribes numbered in the Old Testament (like the book of Numbers—what a surprise).

That’s immediately what you think of.

Now Aune, in his Revelation commentary (and this is Volume 2: Revelation 6-16), writes this:

The census is a specific form of list that occurs with some frequency in the OT, where it is used for purposes of taxation (Exod 30:11–16; 2 Kgs 15:19–20), for labor conscription (2 Chr 2:17–18; cf. 1 Kgs 5:13–18), for determining the cultic duties and social structure of members of the tribe of Levi (Num 3:14–4:49), for determining Israelite descent (Ezra 2 and par. in Neh 7 and 1 Esdr 5), but most commonly as a means for determining military strength (Num 1:2–46…)

Numbers 1:2-46 is a very obvious parallel or a source text for that.

… This suggests that the census in Rev 7:4–8 is for military purposes…

That might be a bit of an overstatement, but you could see it in the context of Revelation.

And this is where Aune goes.

I mean, he lists all these other things that don’t really fit.

So bad things are coming with boots-on-the-ground and all this sort of stuff, lots of conflict.

It’s an apocalyptic text.

So this is a reasonable deduction.

Again, he suggests:

… the census in Rev 7:4–8 is for military purposes, a possibility that is partially confirmed by the present literary context of this pericope since, according to Rev 14:3–4 [ that’s the second mention of the 144,000], the group of 144,000 consists exclusively of adult males who practice sexual abstinence, an ancient Israelite requirement for holy warriors…

Again, we’re going to get into the characterization of them being male virgins next week, when we get into more Levitical connections, possibly having to do with the story of the Book of the Watchers in Enoch.

But just store that away.

For now, Aune is noting that this was kind of the practice before as one of the preparations for war.

You didn’t have sex with your wife, that sort of thing.

So again, he’s saying this suggests we have a military context.

But he also adds:

However, the absence of all military and holy war imagery from Rev 7:4–8 makes this suggestion doubtful [ so he’s pulling back a little bit].

The author’s insistence on an equal number (12,000) from each of twelve tribes indicates his interest in the eschatological restoration of the twelve-tribe nation of Israel (Luke 22:30; 24:21; Acts 1:6).

The eschatology of the late OT and early Jewish periods emphasized the hope of the restoration of Israel (Deut 30:3–5; Isa 11:11–16; 27:12–13; 49:5–6; 54:7–10; Jer 31:7–14; Ezek 37:15–23 [ that one’s a favorite on this podcast]; Hos 11:10–11; Pss 106:47; 147:2; Bar 5:5–9; 2 Macc 2:7; Sir 36:11; Tob 13:13; 1 Enoch 57; 90:33; 4 Ezra 13:12–13, 39–47; 2 Apoc.

Bar.

78:5–

7; T. Jos.

19:4; Pss.

Sol.

11:2–7; 17:26; Shemoneh Esreh 10; m.

Sanh.

10:3; Matt 19:28)…

He gives you 10 or 15 references here to this “hope of the restoration of Israel.”

And specifically, a number of these texts have all twelve tribes included.

So that’s Aune’s assessment.

He angles for the military thing, points that out.

“Okay, you could see that,” but then he backs away and says, “Eh, restoration seems like a better way to go here.”

And that’s actually going to go better with where we’ll land next week when we hit the whole thing about the characterization of the 144,000 as sexual virgins—male virgins—and all that stuff.

Bauckham also pushes back on the holy war/military context in his article, “The Book of Revelation as a Christian War Scroll”.

One of the Dead Sea Scrolls (one of the more famous ones from the original truckload) is something called the War Scroll.

It’s 1QM.

And this is an apocalyptic war between (I like the phrase) gods and men.

But you have angels and angelic beings and humans fighting on both the good side and the bad side.

That’s why it’s known as the War Scroll.

It’s set in the End Times.

So Bauckham has this article comparing the book of Revelation to the War Scroll, calling the book of Revelation a Christian War Scroll.

We’re not going to go point by point through it, but just so that you have access to it.

But Bauckham says it’s a more fruitful trajectory to think about the tribes as opposed to this sort of faint military imagery.

So he’s going to agree with Aune.

He acknowledges the military element is there, but doesn’t find it that persuasive.

So let’s talk about the tribes.

So this is the second thing that stands out.

The tribes and the tribal arrangement.

So Bauckham writes this:

The list of the twelve tribes in Revelation 7 has several peculiarities which require comment [ that’s an understatement, believe me]:

The order of the list corresponds to no other extant list of the tribes

[ in the Bible—this one’s unique in terms of its order].

Most significant is the fact that Judah heads the list.

This is true of Old Testament lists in which the tribes are arranged geographically, moving from south to north (Nm 34:19; Jos 21:4; Jdg 1:2; 1 Chr 12:24), but the list in Revelation 7 bears no other resemblance to a geographical list.

The only other Old Testament list of tribes which puts Judah first is that of Numbers 2:3 (followed by 7:12; 10:14), that is the tribes in their military order in the camp.

So again, here he is making this comment about how there’s a military flavoring to this, but then Bauckham says:

But, again, the rest of the order of the tribes in Revelation 7 bears no resemblance to the list in Numbers 2…

And again, he has his own pushback about, “Okay, there’s some military stuff in here,” but not enough to make him or Aune think that this is really what it’s about.

I don't think we should lose the military context personally.

I think it does fit with spiritual warfare.

But again, that’s for Part 2 with the whole Watchers story.

I think there’s a reason why we get some military sprinkles in the text.

But continuing on with Bauckham, he says that’s one peculiarity: “the order of the list corresponds to no other extant list of the tribes.

The inclusion of both Joseph and Manasseh (Rv 7:6,8) (rather than either Joseph alone or Ephraim and Manasseh)…