Days of Vengeance - The Preterist Archive

4:4
rainbow around the Throne, like an emerald in
appearance. It is worth noting that these three stones,
jasper (perhaps an opal or a diamond), 12 sardius (a
reddish stone), and emerald, represented three of the
twelve tribes of Israel on the breastplate of the high
priest (Ex. 28:17-19, LXX); they are also mentioned
among the jewelry that littered the ground in the
Garden of Eden (Ezek. 28:13, LXX). Compare John’s
vision with that of the prophet Ezekiel:
. . . there was something resembling a Throne, like lapis
lazuli in appearance; and on that which resembled a
Throne, high up, was a figure with the appearance of a
man. Then I noticed from the appearance of His loins
and upward something like glowing metal that looked
like fire all around within it, and from the appearance of
His loins and downward I saw something like fire; and
there was a radiance around Him. As the appearance of
the rainbow in the clouds on a rainy day, so was the
appearance of the surrounding radiance. Such was the
appearance of the likeness of the glory of the LORD.
(Ezek. 1:26-28)
St. John is thus in the true Temple, the heavenly
archetype that formed the pattern for Moses’
construction of the Tabernacle (Ex. 25:40; Heb. 8:1-2,
5; 9:23-24). He sees the Throne, corresponding to the
Mercy-Seat; the Seven Lamps, corresponding to the
Seven-Branched Lamp; the Four Living Creatures,
corresponding to the Cherubim; the Sea of Glass,
corresponding to the Bronze “Sea”; and the Twenty-
Four Elders, corresponding to the Twenty-Four Courses
of Priests. (See Appendix A for a more full account of
the Levitical symbolism here and throughout
Revelation.)
4 Around the Throne St. John sees twenty-four
thrones, on which are seated twenty-four elders. Who
are these elders? In a well-known essay, the great New
Testament scholar Ned Storehouse, of Westminster
Seminary, defended the view that these elders are
“celestial beings of a rank superior to the angels in
general, like the cherubim and seraphim of the Old
Testament if they are not to be identified specifically
with them.” 13 Despite Stonehouse’s masterful defense
of his position, it rests on an assumption about the text
that is certainly incorrect, and thus his interpretation is
seriously astray. (More on this textual issue, and
Stonehouse’s opinion, will be covered below, in the
discussion of 5:9).
On the other hand, there are cogent reasons for
understanding these elders as representatives of the
Church in heaven (or, as St. John progressively unfolds
throughout his prophecy, the earthly Church that
worships in heaven). First, the mere name elders would
indicate that these beings represent the Church, rather
than a class of angels. Nowhere else in the Bible is the
term elder given to anyone but men, and from earliest
times it has stood for those who have rule and
representation within the Church (see Ex. 12:21; 17:5-
6; 18:12; 24:9-11; Num. 11:16-17; 1 Tim. 3:1-7; Tit.
1:5-9; Heb. 13:17; James 5:14-15). Thus, the elders in
Revelation would appear, at face value, to be
representatives of God’s people, the senate sitting in
council around their bishop.
This consideration is reinforced by a second observation
about these elders: They are seen sitting on
thrones. We have already been told in this prophecy
that Christians are reigning with Christ (1:6), that they
wear crowns (2:10; 3:11), that they have been granted
kingly authority with Him over the nations (2:26-27),
that apostates will be forced to bow before them (3:9),
and that they are seated with Christ on His Throne
(3:21). Now, in chapter 4, we see elders seated on
thrones; is this not a continuation of the teachings
already presented?
Third, we should consider the symbolism of the number
twenty-four. In general, since twenty-four is a multiple
of twelve, there is again a prima facie reason to assume
that this number has something to do with the Church.
Twelve is a number Biblically associated with the people
of God: Israel was divided into twelve tribes; and even
the administration of the New Covenant Church is
spoken of in terms of “twelve tribes,” because the
Church is the New Israel (see Matt. 19:28; Mark 3:14-
19; Acts 1:15-26; cf. James 1:1). St. John uses the word
elder twelve times in Revelation (4:4, 10; 5:5, 6, 7, 11,
14; 7:11, 13; 11:16; 14:3; 19:4). The number twentyfour
is thus a “double portion” of twelve. Multiples of
twelve are also built into the symbolic structure of the
New Jerusalem, as we read in the final vision of the
prophecy (21:12-14):
It had a great and high wall, with twelve gates, and at the
gates twelve angels; and names were written on them,
which are those of the twelve tribes of the sons of Israel....
And the wall of the city had twelve foundation stones,
and on them were the twelve names of the twelve
apostles of the Lamb.
But the picture of the twenty-four elders is based on
something much more specific than the mere notion of
multiplying twelve. In the worship of the Old
Covenant there were twenty-four divisions of priests (1
Chron. 24) and twenty-four divisions of singers in the
Temple (1 Chron. 25). Thus, the picture of twenty-four
leaders of worship was not a new idea to those who first
read the Revelation: It had been a feature of the
worship of God’s people for over a thousand years. 14 In
fact, St. John has brought together two images that
support our general conclusion: (1) The elders sit on
thrones – they are kings; (2) The elders are twenty-four
in number – they are priests. What St. John sees is
simply the Presbytery of Heaven: the representative
assembly of the Royal Priesthood, the Church. 15
That these elders are both priests and kings shows that
the Aaronic priesthood of the Old Covenant has been
12. “In antiquity the name was not limited to the variety of quartz now called
jasper, but could designate any opaque precious stone.” William F. Arndt and
F. Wilbur Gingrich, A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other
Early Christian Literature (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1957),
p. 369.
13. Ned B. Stonehouse, “The Elders and the Living-Beings in the Apocalypse,”
in Paul Before the Areopagus, and Other New Testament Studies (Grand Rapids:
William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1957), p. 90.
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