Use of Earlier Writings

Still another and more subtle mark of the confidence of the later Bible writers in the earlier group, and a clear indication of their careful study and wide knowledge of the former writings, is the manner in which the language of later books incorporates more of phraseology and ideas of earlier books. The simplest way to see something of the tie-in between the two Testaments is to use the ordinary marginal references in the Bible. Cross-checking will reveal scores of ideas and expressions taken directly from Old Testament language used by New Testament writers. A thorough study will produce hundreds of such items. The book of the Revelation is probably the best example. Of the approximately 400 verses in the Revelation, more than three-fifths contain old Testament language. About 550 references are made to passages in the Old Testament. It has been suggested that it is doubtful there is a single sentence not somewhat dependent on the Old Testament for some of its materials. Sometimes the quotations are exact, again there are allusions. As a sample of what may be found throughout the book to a greater or less degree, it will be of interest to notice in parallel columns selections from Revelation 18 which reveal the similar expressions found in the Old Testament.APAY 8.1

Revelation 18 Old Testament Parallels Revelation 18:4. “Come out of her, My people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.” Jeremiah 51:45, 6. “My people, go ye out of the midst of her, and deliver ye every man his soul from the fierce anger of the Lord.” “Be not cut off in her iniquity.” Revelation 18:7. “How much she hath glorified herself, and lived deliciously, so much torment and sorrow give her: for she saith in her heart, I sit a queen, and am no widow, and shall see no sorrow.” Isaiah 47:8. “Therefore hear now this, thou that art given to pleasures, that dwellest carelessly, that sayest in thine heart, I am, and none else beside me; I shall not sit as a widow, neither shall I know the loss of children.” Revelation 18:2. “Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and is become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird.” Isaiah 21:9. “Babylon is fallen, is fallen; and all the graven images of her gods he hath broken unto the ground.”   Isaiah 13:21, 22. “But wild beasts of the desert shall lie there; and their houses shall be full of doleful creatures; and owls shall dwell there, and satyrs shall dance there. And the wild beasts of the islands shall cry in their desolate houses.” Revelation 18:8. “She shall be utterly burned with fire.” Jeremiah 50:32. “I will kindle a fire in his cities, and it shall devour all round about him.”

John’s mind must have been steeped in Old Testament language for him to draw so fully upon it to describe the things that were presented to him in “the Revelation of Jesus Christ.” Were it not for the similarity between the figures and symbols used in the New Testament and the Old, we would, in numerous instances, have scant basis for arriving at correct interpretations of prophecies. The regular use of the language of the older portions of the Scriptures gives us one of our best insights into the knowledge of earlier writings possessed by those prophets who came later. They searched diligently for an understanding of all that had been recorded before their time. “Searching what, or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify, when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow.” 1 Peter 1:11. Daniel gives us an example of the type of studying done. “In the first year of his [Darius’s] reign I Daniel understood by books the number of the years, whereof the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah the prophet, that he would accomplish seventy years in the desolations of Jerusalem.” Daniel 9:2; cf. Jeremiah 25:11, 12. While Daniel and Jeremiah were contemporaneous prophets during the first part of the seventy-year period, Daniel studied diligently the product of his fellow prophet. The sentiment “It is written” runs throughout the whole of the Bible.APAY 8.2