1 After these things I looked, and I saw an open door in heaven. The first voice that I had heard was speaking to me like a trumpet, saying, “Come up here, and I will show you what must happen after these things.” 2 At once I was in the Spirit, and I saw there was a throne placed in heaven, with someone sitting on it. 3 The one who was sitting on it looked like jasper and carnelian. There was a rainbow around the throne. The rainbow looked like an emerald. 4 Around the throne were twenty-four thrones, and seated on the thrones were twenty-four elders, dressed with white garments, with golden crowns on their heads. 5 From the throne came flashes of lightning, rumblings, and crashes of thunder. Seven lamps were burning in front of the throne, lamps that were the seven spirits of God. 6 Before the throne was a sea of glass, like crystal. In the middle of the throne and around the throne were four living creatures, full of eyes, front and back. 7 The first living creature was like a lion, the second living creature was like a calf, the third living creature had a face like a man, and the fourth living creature was like a flying eagle. 8 The four living creatures each had six wings, full of eyes on top and underneath. Night and day they do not stop saying, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty who was, and who is, and who is to come.” 9 Whenever the living creatures give glory, honor, and thanks to the one who sits on the throne, the one who lives forever and ever, 10 the twenty-four elders fall down before the one seated on the throne, and worship him who lives forever and ever. They lay their crowns before the throne, saying, 11 “Worthy are you, our Lord and our God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they existed and were created.”
Revelation · Unlocked Literal Bible
Revelation 4 Unlocked Literal Bible
Audio: World English Bible (WEB), read by Winfred W. Henson · About the recordings
Cross references (11)
Related passages for each verse, from the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge as collected and ranked by readers at OpenBible.info.
- 1 Revelation 11:12; Exodus 24:12; Revelation 1:19; Revelation 1:10; Mark 1:10
- 2 Revelation 1:10; 1 Kings 22:19; Isaiah 6:1; Ezekiel 3:12–14; Ezekiel 1:26
- 3 Ezekiel 1:28; Revelation 21:11; Genesis 9:13–16; Revelation 10:1; Ezekiel 28:13
- 4 Matthew 19:28; Revelation 11:16; Revelation 4:10; Revelation 7:11; Revelation 20:4
- 5 Revelation 11:19; Revelation 8:5; Revelation 1:4; Revelation 5:6; Revelation 16:17–18
- 6 Revelation 15:2; Revelation 5:6; Revelation 4:8–9; Revelation 14:3; Ezekiel 10:12
- 7 Ezekiel 10:14; Ezekiel 1:10; Ezekiel 10:21; Ezekiel 1:8; Revelation 4:6
- 8 Isaiah 6:2–13; Revelation 1:8; Hebrews 13:8; Revelation 4:6; Exodus 15:11
- 9 Revelation 5:13–14; Revelation 7:11–12; Revelation 10:6; Revelation 15:7; Psalm 47:8
- 10 Revelation 5:8; Psalm 95:6; Revelation 19:4; Revelation 11:16; 1 Chronicles 29:11–16
- 11 Colossians 1:16–17; Revelation 5:12; Isaiah 40:28; Proverbs 16:4; John 1:1–3
Cross references: OpenBible.info (CC BY), drawn mainly from the public-domain Treasury of Scripture Knowledge. · Sources & licences
What the Fathers said
Passages from the Church Fathers that expound or quote this chapter, verbatim from the public-domain Schaff edition (19th-century English translations).
How these were chosen
“Commentary” is the opening of a homily or exposition on this chapter (John Chrysostom’s homilies, Augustine’s tractates, sermons and expositions of the Psalms). “Quotes” are sentences where the edition’s own footnotes identify a quotation of a verse here, kept only when the wording matches the verse. Only works whose authorship is not in doubt are used. Psalms follow the Hebrew/English numbering (Augustine numbers them as the Septuagint does: his Psalm 50 is Psalm 51 here).
For, [as the Scripture] says, "The first living creature was like a lion," symbolizing His effectual working, His leadership, and royal power; the second [living creature] was like a calf, signifying [His] sacrificial and sacerdotal order; but "the third had, as it were, the face as of a man,"--an evident description of His advent as a human being; "the fourth …