A code is one‑to‑one. You decode it, you get the message, and it is spent. A symbol is a compression — one image carrying a great deal at once. Revelation does not hand us codes.
So this is a lookup study, and it is slow on purpose. For each image below you are given the verse and a short list of Old Testament passages standing behind it. Look them up in whatever Bible you have. Read the whole chapter straight through before you start on its images.
This is for you to learn. Do not worry about getting it wrong. There is no answer key here, and nobody is collecting these. A wrong answer you arrived at by looking something up is worth more than a right one you were handed.
The question, every time
Using what you learned in Skill One about the situation on the ground, and what you have just found in these passages — what do you think this symbol is meant to evoke? What is the compressed meaning?
Chapter 1 · Transfer
The vision of Christ
Watch what happens in verse 14. In Daniel 7:9 the one whose hair is “white like wool” is the Ancient of Days — God himself. John hands that description to the son of man standing in front of him. The image is not borrowed here. It is reassigned, and the reassignment is the claim.
Revelation 1:14
Hair white like wool
The hairs of his head were white, like white wool, like snow.
Look up
Daniel 7:9
Read Daniel 7:9 and then read Daniel 7:13. Two different figures stand in that vision. Ask yourself which one John has just described — and what he is saying by doing it.
What is it compressing? — write it in your notebook
Revelation 1:7
Coming with the clouds
Behold, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, even those who pierced him.
Look up
Daniel 7:13
Zechariah 12:10
What is it compressing? — write it in your notebook
Revelation 1:6
A kingdom, priests to his God
… and made us a kingdom, priests to his God and Father.
Look up
Exodus 19:5–6
What is it compressing? — write it in your notebook
Revelation 1:12
Seven golden lampstands
… and on turning I saw seven golden lampstands.
Look up
Exodus 25:31–40
Zechariah 4:1–6
Count them. Exodus has one lampstand with seven branches; John has seven lampstands. He tells you why in 1:20.
What is it compressing? — write it in your notebook
Revelation 1:13
One like a son of man
… one like a son of man, clothed with a long robe and with a golden sash around his chest.
Look up
Daniel 7:13–14
Daniel 10:5
Exodus 28:4
What is it compressing? — write it in your notebook
Revelation 1:14
Eyes like a flame of fire
His eyes were like a flame of fire.
Look up
Daniel 10:6
What is it compressing? — write it in your notebook
Revelation 1:15
Feet like burnished bronze
His feet were like burnished bronze, refined in a furnace.
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Daniel 10:6
Ezekiel 1:7
What is it compressing? — write it in your notebook
Revelation 1:15
A voice like many waters
… and his voice was like the roar of many waters.
Look up
Ezekiel 1:24
Ezekiel 43:2
What is it compressing? — write it in your notebook
Revelation 1:16
A sharp two-edged sword from his mouth
… from his mouth came a sharp two‑edged sword.
Look up
Isaiah 11:4
Isaiah 49:2
What is it compressing? — write it in your notebook
Revelation 1:16
A face like the sun
… and his face was like the sun shining in full strength.
Look up
Judges 5:31
Exodus 34:29–35
What is it compressing? — write it in your notebook
Revelation 1:17
Falling as though dead
When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. But he laid his right hand on me, saying, “Fear not.”
Look up
Daniel 8:17–18
Daniel 10:9–12
Ezekiel 1:28
What is it compressing? — write it in your notebook
Revelation 1:17
The first and the last
“I am the first and the last.”
Look up
Isaiah 44:6
Isaiah 48:12
What is it compressing? — write it in your notebook
Revelation 1:18
The keys of Death and Hades
“… and I have the keys of Death and Hades.”
Look up
Isaiah 22:22
What is it compressing? — write it in your notebook
Before you leave this chapter
You have just watched John describe Jesus almost entirely in borrowed words. Nearly every phrase came from Daniel or Ezekiel or Isaiah. So why does he do it this way, instead of describing what he actually saw in plain terms?
Write it in your notebook
Chapter 4 · Assembly
The throne room
Nothing is redefined in this chapter. Three prophets’ throne visions are layered into one room. Isaiah 6 supplies the six wings and the thrice‑holy. Ezekiel 1 supplies the four living creatures, the crystal expanse, the rainbow. Daniel 7 supplies the thrones and the myriads. John is not quoting. He is building.
Revelation 4:1
A door standing open in heaven
Behold, a door standing open in heaven! And the first voice… said, “Come up here.”
Look up
Ezekiel 1:1
Exodus 24:1–2
What is it compressing? — write it in your notebook
Revelation 4:2
A throne, and one seated on it
… behold, a throne stood in heaven, with one seated on the throne.
Look up
Isaiah 6:1
Ezekiel 1:26–28
Daniel 7:9
What is it compressing? — write it in your notebook
Revelation 4:3
A rainbow around the throne
… and around the throne was a rainbow that had the appearance of an emerald.
Look up
Ezekiel 1:28
Genesis 9:12–17
Genesis 9 is worth sitting with. What is a rainbow for, in the first place it appears?
What is it compressing? — write it in your notebook
Revelation 4:4
Twenty-four elders with crowns
… twenty‑four elders, clothed in white garments, with golden crowns on their heads.
Look up
1 Chronicles 24:1–19
Isaiah 24:23
The link to the twenty‑four priestly divisions is a proposal, not a settled reading. Weigh it.
What is it compressing? — write it in your notebook
Revelation 4:5
Lightning, rumblings, thunder
From the throne came flashes of lightning, and rumblings and peals of thunder.
Look up
Exodus 19:16–19
What is it compressing? — write it in your notebook
Revelation 4:5
Seven torches of fire
… and before the throne were burning seven torches of fire, which are the seven spirits of God.
Look up
Zechariah 4:2, 6, 10
Isaiah 11:2
What is it compressing? — write it in your notebook
Revelation 4:6
A sea of glass like crystal
… and before the throne there was as it were a sea of glass, like crystal.
Look up
Exodus 24:9–11
Ezekiel 1:22
1 Kings 7:23–26
What is it compressing? — write it in your notebook
Revelation 4:6–8
Four living creatures, full of eyes
… four living creatures, full of eyes in front and behind… each of them with six wings.
Look up
Ezekiel 1:5–14
Isaiah 6:2
What is it compressing? — write it in your notebook
Revelation 4:7
Lion, ox, man, eagle
… the first like a lion, the second like an ox, the third with the face of a man, the fourth like an eagle in flight.
Look up
Ezekiel 1:10
What is it compressing? — write it in your notebook
Revelation 4:8
Holy, holy, holy
Day and night they never cease to say, “Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty.”
Look up
Isaiah 6:3
What is it compressing? — write it in your notebook
Revelation 4:8
Who was and is and is to come
… who was and is and is to come!
Look up
Exodus 3:13–15
What is it compressing? — write it in your notebook
Revelation 4:10
Casting crowns before the throne
… they cast their crowns before the throne.
Look up
Nothing. That is the finding.
This one has no Old Testament source. Vassal kings laid their crowns before the emperor — it is a Roman image, not a Hebrew one. Not every picture in this book comes from the same bucket, and it matters that you can tell.
What is it compressing? — write it in your notebook
Before you leave this chapter
Lay Isaiah 6, Ezekiel 1 and Daniel 7 side by side. John has taken something from each. What does his room have that none of theirs has — and what has he left out?
Write it in your notebook
Chapter 5 · Redefinition
The scroll and the Lamb
John hears one thing and sees another. An elder announces the Lion of the tribe of Judah; John turns to look and finds a slaughtered lamb. The image is announced and then replaced by its opposite — and the replacement tells you what the word “conquered” means everywhere else in this book.
Revelation 5:1
A scroll written front and back, sealed
… a scroll written within and on the back, sealed with seven seals.
Look up
Ezekiel 2:9–10
Daniel 12:4, 9
Isaiah 29:11
What is it compressing? — write it in your notebook
Revelation 5:6
Seven horns
… with seven horns.
Look up
Daniel 7:7–8, 20–24
Psalm 132:17
1 Samuel 2:10
What is it compressing? — write it in your notebook
Revelation 5:6
Seven eyes
… and with seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent out into all the earth.
Look up
Zechariah 4:10
What is it compressing? — write it in your notebook
Revelation 5:8
Golden bowls of incense
… and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints.
Look up
Psalm 141:2
Exodus 30:1–10
What is it compressing? — write it in your notebook
Revelation 5:9
A new song
And they sang a new song…
Look up
Psalm 96:1–3
Psalm 98:1
Isaiah 42:10
What is it compressing? — write it in your notebook
Revelation 5:9
From every tribe and language and people and nation
… by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation.
Look up
Daniel 7:14
Exodus 6:6–7
What is it compressing? — write it in your notebook
Revelation 5:10
A kingdom and priests
… and you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God.
Look up
Exodus 19:5–6
You met this one in chapter 1. What has changed by the time it comes back here?
What is it compressing? — write it in your notebook
Revelation 5:11
Myriads of myriads
… numbering myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands.
Look up
Daniel 7:10
What is it compressing? — write it in your notebook
Revelation 5:5–6
The Lion — and the Lamb
“Behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has conquered…” And between the throne and the four living creatures and among the elders I saw a Lamb standing, as though it had been slain.
Look up
Genesis 49:8–10
Isaiah 11:1–10
Genesis 22:6–8
Exodus 12:1–13
Isaiah 53:6–9
Take the first two references for the Lion and the last three for the Lamb. Then hold them together. John is told to expect one animal and shown another. He does not correct the elder — both titles stand. What does that do to the word conquered?
What is it compressing? — write it in your notebook
Before you leave this chapter
Genesis, Exodus, Isaiah, Daniel and Zechariah are all inside 5:6. What is that one verse doing that no single one of them does on its own?