An important component of advances in recent scholarship on the use of the OT in the NT has been the increased attention given to the presence of extensive inner-biblical interpretation and intertextuality within the OT itself. As a result, many have recognized the substantial overlap between the kinds of interpretive strategies utilized in the OT and those employed by NT authors. Nevertheless, one area of study that remains largely unexplored within research on the NT’s use of the OT is the broader inner-biblical framework to which OT texts cited or alluded to in the NT are related—a concept which Gary Schnittjer designates as a text’s “vertical context.”[1] The book of Revelation provides a fertile source for investigation in this regard, since there is perhaps no work in the NT more saturated with references to the OT Scriptures.
In this vein, the present paper examines the OT background of Rev 19:11–16 and its highly allusive portrayal of Christ’s future return as a royal messianic warrior. It is widely acknowledged that this passage’s striking imagery depends on Isa 63, Isa 11, and Ps 2. But starting from the recognition that NT texts (“offspring texts”) frequently refer to OT texts (i.e., “parent texts”) which are themselves inner-biblical developments of prior OT texts (i.e., “grandparent texts”),[2] I seek to demonstrate that the import of these intertextual references, and thus of Rev 19:11–16 as a whole, is fully grasped only when viewed in light of their broader OT context—that is, the fact that they are themselves inner-biblical interpretations and developments of key Pentateuchal texts (i.e., Gen 49 and Num 24). I argue that the author of Revelation was not only aware of the intertextual links associating Isa 63, Isa 11, and Ps 2 with Gen 49 and Num 24, but that he intended to activate these texts and their broader interpretive network in his identification of Christ as the messianic warrior-king who is their embodiment and fulfillment. Understanding the context of the OT allusions in Rev 19:11–16 in this way amplifies this passage’s theological significance by illuminating further intertextual associations relevant for its interpretation.
To defend this argument, I first describe the study’s methodology, defining central concepts like vertical context and discussing the approach to intertextuality and inner-biblical allusion. Next, in the heart of the paper, I examine the vertical context of Rev 19:11–16 by establishing its allusions to OT texts and then investigating its relationship to each of these texts in turn, starting with the most remote layer (Gen 49 and Num 24) and moving to the more direct source of Revelation’s allusions (Isa 63, Isa 11, and Ps 2). Following this, I reevaluate Rev 19:11–16 in light of the preceding analysis of vertical context, addressing the implications of the study for interpreting the passage’s OT allusions and theological message. [473 words]
[1] See esp. Gary Edward Schnittjer, Old Testament Use of Old Testament: A Book-by-Book Guide (Grand Rapids: Zondervan Academic, 2021), 850–56, 903, and now Gary Edward Schnittjer and Matthew S. Harmon, How to Study the Bible’s Use of the Bible: Seven Hermeneutical Choices for the Old and New Testaments (Grand Rapids: Zondervan Academic, 2024), 85–104.
[2] I am borrowing these clever and useful labels from Gary Edward Schnittjer, “Long-Lost Grandparent Texts of the New Testament.” Didaktikos 5.5 (2022): 27–31.