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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 February 2009
R. H. Charles, noting that no one had successfully explained how the living creatures of Rev 4.6 could be at the same time ‘in the middle of the throne’ and ‘around the throne’, boldly but logically throws out έν μέσῳ το
θρόνου καί as a gloss. Since no manuscript omits the phrase έν μέσῳ το θρόνου, those with a literary conscience less robust than Charles' have tried to explain it. Yet attempts to interpret έν μέσῳ το θρόνου as ‘in the middle of each side of the throne’, ‘at the height of the middle of the throne’, or ‘in the center where the throne was’ heighten our surprise at the author's choice of words even as they explain his phraseology. Affirming that John has added ‘around the throne’ to the traditional ‘in the middle of the throne’ explains how the contradiction might have arisen but hardly lessens the tension between the two phrases.
1 Charles, R. H., A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Revelation of St. John (ICC; Edinburgh: T & T Clark, 1920) 1.118.Google Scholar
2 Beckwith, I. T., The Apocalypse of John (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1979 [reprint Macmillan, 1919]) 501–2;Google ScholarSwete, H. B., The Apocalypse of St. John (London: Macmillan, 1922);Google ScholarFriedrich, Düsterdieck, Critical and Exegetical Handbook to the Revelation of John (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 1983 [German, 1884]) 197;Google ScholarAlfred, Wikenhauser, Die Offenbarung des Johannes 3 (Regensberger Neues Testament 9; Regensburg: Friedrich Pustet, 1959) 52;Google ScholarLohmeyer, Ernst, Die Offenbarung des Johannes 2 (HZNT 16; Tübingen: Mohr/Siebeck, 1953)48.Google Scholar
3 Theodor, Zahn, Die Offenbarung des Johannes (Wuppertal: Brockhaus, 1986 [reprint 2nd ed.; KNT 18; Leipzig, 1924–26]) 325–6; Lohmeyer, 48;Google ScholarPeter, Morant, Das Kommen des Herren, Eine Erklärung der Offenbarung des Johannes (Zurich: Thomas, 1969) 115.Google Scholar
4 Siegbert, W. Becker, Revelation, The Distant Triumph Song (Milwaukee, WI: Northwestern, 1985) 86.Google Scholar
5 Jürgen, Roloff, Die Offenbarung des Johannes (Zuricher Bibelkommentare NT18; Zurich: Theologischer Verlag, 1984) 69.Google Scholar
6 Heinrich, Kraft, Die Offenbarung des Johannes (HNT 16a; Tübingen: Mohr/Siebeck, 1974) 98.Google Scholar
7 Alfred, Loisy, L'Apocalypse de Jean (Paris: Nourry, 1923) 125–6, 133–4.Google Scholar
8 Brewer, R. R., ‘Revelation 4,6 and the Translations Thereof’, JBL 71 (1952) 227–51.Google ScholarFord judges Brewer's explanation the best available. Ford, J. Massingberde, Revelation (AB 38; Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1975) 74. The resulting perspective is surprising: apocalyptic imagery regularly moves up to God; in an amphitheatre the heavenly audience would look down on God. Even Dante, whose ‘rose’ resembles an amphitheatre (Paradiso 31–3) places God above so that the privileged seats are those in the highest tiers.Google Scholar
9 Ithamar, Gruenwald, Apocalyptic and Merkavah Mysticism (Arbeiten zur Geschichte des antiken Judentums und der Urchristentums 14; Leiden: Brill, 1980) 67–8.Google Scholar
10 
Text from Louis Finkelstein, ed. Sifra, or Torat, Kohanim According to Codex Assemani LXVI (New York: Jewish Theological Seminary of America, 1956) 9. [Hebrew]Google Scholar
11 Charles, 1.119–23; Ford, 74–9.Google Scholar
12 Caird alertly suspects that the ‘mercy seat’ might have significance for interpreting this passage, but does not pursue his own suggestion. Caird, G. B., A Commentary on the Revelation of St. John the Divine (HNTC; New York: Harper and Row, 1966) 64.Google Scholar
13 
My own translation. Text from Michael, Haygaar, ‘Pirqe R. Eliezer’, Horeb 8 (1944) 92 [Hebrew].Google Scholar
14 Shir R 3.10.4, trans, by Simon, M. in Midrash Rabba, Freedman, H. and Simon, M., eds. (London: Soncino, 1939) vol. 9. Text in Samson Donesecy, Midrash Rabbah Shir ha Shirim Midrash Hazoth (Israel, Dvir 1980) 
[Hebrew].Google Scholar
15 Schürer, E., Vermes, G., Millar, F., The History of the Jewish People in the Age of Jesus Christ (Edinburgh: T & T Clark, 1973) 1. 95, 98.Google Scholar
16 Josephus (Loeb).Google Scholar
17 Cf. Liddell and Scott, προστυπής, 1528.Google Scholar
18 Ex 25. 18–19 may imply that the Cherubim and ‘mercy seat’ are all made of one piece of gold, or better that the Cherubim are made from the gold of the ‘mercy seat’. Cf. RSV of 25.19 ‘of one piece with the mercy seat you shall make the cherubim on its two ends’ (
). Given this description it is hardly surprising that Josephus and Shir R describe the living creatures as ‘engraved’ on God's throne.Google Scholar
19 Trinquet, J., ‘Kerub, Kerubim’, Supplément au Dictionnaire de la Bible 5, Pirot, L., Robert, A., Cazelles, H., eds. (Paris: Letouzey et Ane) 167–9.Google Scholar
20 Beasts surround Solomon's throne; they form the back as well as the sides of the chair.Google Scholar
21 The author of Revelation describes the ark with the same trappings as the throne. Both are surrounded with άστραπαì καì φωναì καì βρονταì καì σεισμòς καì χάλαζα μεγάλη (Rev 11. 19, cf. 4. 5). Charles (1. 111–12) correlates the throne in Revelation with the ark, ‘This altar is within the heavenly temple; vii.15; and as the altar is before the throne, viii.3, it follows that the throne surrounded by the four Living Creatures is also within the Temple. The heavenly throne, therefore, was probably conceived as being in the Holy of Holies, where also was the ark of the covenant, xi.19.’Google Scholar
22 Although the ark has two cherubim rather than four, associating the cherubim with Ezekiel's four living creatures is a logical step taken as well by the passages from Pirqe R. Eliezer and Shir R. A pre-critical reading of the t ext would yield four cherubim in the holy of holies of Solomon's temple: the two affixe d to the mercy seat and two standing beside and over the ark (1 Kings 6. 23–28; 8. 6–7).Google Scholar
23 According to Liddell and Scott to τò μέσον denotes ‘intervening space’, the space within bounds. In this verse the outline of the throne delimits the space within which the living creatures appear, hence the translation, ‘within the space taken up by the throne’. In English ‘in the midst’ better captures the nuance of έν μέσω here than ‘in the middle’ does. In the present context έν μέσω τοῳ θρóνου does not mean ‘in the centre of the throne’ but ‘within the space defined by the throne’. See LSJ, ‘μέσος III’, page 1107.Google Scholar
24 Though part of the merkavah complex, Ezekiel's living creatures can also move independently to do God's bidding (Ez 10. 7; cf. Is 6. 6).Google Scholar
25 Charles, 1.140.Google Scholar
26 Loisy, 133.Google Scholar
27 I am grateful to Ben Altman, one of my students, for the lively interest he took in helping track down Hebrew references and discussing them with me.Google Scholar
