How to read this page

An Intertextuality Pair — one connection between two passages, shown as linked verse cards: the Later text and the Earlier text it quotes, alludes to or echoes. The Significance essay explains why the link matters and where it points in Christ.

Reference Type— how explicit the link is: Quotation, Allusion, or Echo
Connection Method(s)— how it carries meaning: e.g. Typology, Promise-Fulfillment, Analogy, Longitudinal Theme
Found via— where the connection was identified, e.g. the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge or an Anchor-Text Network

Graph View — tap the constellation icon in the top bar to see this page's connections as a web of light: gold points are passages, and the coloured threads are the connection types. Click any type in the graph's own legend to filter it in or out, and use the expand control for the full-screen night sky.

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Intertextuality Pair

Revelation 1:4 → Exodus 3:14

Allusion

Later text

Revelation 1:4BSB

John, To the seven churches in the province of Asia: Grace and peace to you from Him who is and was and is to come, and from the seven Spirits before His throne,

Earlier text

Exodus 3:14BSB

God said to Moses, "I AM WHO I AM. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: 'I AM has sent me to you.'"

Walk the Square · a single-voice walk of this pair around the Clowney square10:22

Significance

John's tripartite formula "who is and was and is to come" (ho ōn kai ho ēn kai ho erchomenos) is a paraphrase of the divine name revealed at the burning bush. In Exodus 3:14, God identifies Himself as 'ehyeh 'asher 'ehyeh ("I AM WHO I AM"), grounding His covenant faithfulness in His eternal, self-existent being. John expands this into a threefold temporal expression — present, past, and future — to emphasize that the God of the Exodus covenant is the same God who governs the apocalyptic events about to unfold. The phrase also carries eschatological weight: "is to come" (ho erchomenos) shifts from mere future existence to active intervention, signaling that YHWH is not only eternally self-existent but is arriving in judgment and salvation. This formulation anchors the entire book of Revelation in the covenant identity of Israel's God.

Found via: Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Reference Type: Allusion
Connection Method(s): Longitudinal Theme + Analogy

Linked Mentions 1

Trajectory Tables 1

Burning Bush (Divine Presence in Fire) Trajectory Table