Foundation Text

Revelation 18:4

Greek Key Terms

• G1831 ἐξέρχομαι (exerchomai) - "come out" - command to depart
• G897 Βαβυλών (Babylōn) - "Babylon" - the world system opposed to God
• G2842 κοινωνέω (koinōneō) - "share/participate" - joint participation in sin
• G4127 πληγή (plēgē) - "plagues" - divine judgments

Context: Revelation 18 describes the fall of "Babylon the Great"—the world system in rebellion against God. The command "Come out of her, My people" echoes the exodus commands of Isaiah and Jeremiah, applying the deliverance pattern to the eschatological church. What Cyrus's decree accomplished physically, this heavenly voice commands spiritually.

OT-to-OT Development

• Isaiah 48:20 - "Leave Babylon! Flee from the Chaldeans!"
• Jeremiah 51:6, 45 - "Flee from Babylon! Escape with your lives!"
• Isaiah 52:11 - "Depart, depart, go out from there! Touch no unclean thing"

Connections

• TO: The historical exodus from Babylon under Cyrus's decree
• FROM OT: Isaiah and Jeremiah's commands to flee Babylon
• FROM NT: 2 Corinthians 6:17 - "Therefore come out from among them and be separate"

Christological Connection: Cyrus opened the way for return to Jerusalem; Christ opens the way to the New Jerusalem. The trajectory from Cyrus to Christ to consummation reveals God's consistent pattern: He delivers His people from bondage and brings them to His dwelling place. The Babylonian return was to an earthly, temporary Jerusalem; the final exodus is to the eternal city where "the dwelling place of God is with man, and He will dwell with them" (Rev 21:3). What Cyrus began, Christ accomplishes, and eternity consummates.

Connection Method(s): Typology (Providential, Backward-Looking) — of the exodus-from-Babylon pattern, not of Cyrus; Promise-Fulfillment; Redemptive-Historical Progression — The command "Come out of her, My people" echoes Isaiah 48:20 (demonstrable at the LXX) and takes up the Jeremiah 51:6, 45 summons at the level of motif, completing the exodus trajectory from the historical Babylon to the final exodus from the world system into the New Jerusalem where God dwells permanently with His people. ANTI-DEFAULT CHECK: What escalates here is the summons and the pattern — leave-Babylon, developed at TT 108 — not the figure of Cyrus, who issued no summons of this kind and whom no NT writer names. Within the Cyrus trajectory his decree is the historical occasion of the first departure; his relation to Christ is Contrast.

Trajectory Table: 040 - Cyrus (Gentile Deliverer)