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 7:17 → Isaiah 25:8

Allusion

Later text

Revelation 7:17BSB

For the Lamb in the center of the throne will be their shepherd. ‘He will lead them to springs of living water,’ and ‘God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.’”

Earlier text

Isaiah 25:8BSB

He will swallow up death forever. The Lord GOD will wipe away the tears from every face and remove the disgrace of His people from the whole earth. For the LORD has spoken.

Significance

The closing phrase of Revelation 7:17, "God will wipe away every tear from their eyes" (exaleipsei ho theos pan dakryon ek tōn ophthalmōn autōn), is a near-direct quotation of Isaiah 25:8, where YHWH promises to "wipe away the tears from every face" (umahah 'Adonay YHWH dim'ah me'al kol panim) in the context of the eschatological banquet on Mount Zion. Isaiah 25:6-8 envisions a future feast where death itself is swallowed up and all mourning ceases. John applies this promise to the great tribulation survivors who now stand before the throne, experiencing the firstfruits of Isaiah's eschatological comfort. The same promise recurs in Revelation 21:4 in the context of the new creation, showing that 7:17 is a proleptic glimpse of the final state. The progression from Isaiah's prophecy through its partial application here to its complete fulfillment in Revelation 21 illustrates the already/not-yet dynamic of eschatological fulfillment.

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

Linked Mentions 1

Trajectory Tables 1

Lament to Praise (From Complaint to Thanksgiving) Trajectory Table