Chapter # 4 Paragraph # 1 Study # 5
February 11, 2024
Broadlands, Louisiana
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Thesis: The all-encompassing "emerald" signals God's identity as "surrounded by" the thesis of "Legal Desserts".
Introduction: In our last study we focused upon the "memorial stones" of Benjamin and Reuben as the chief characteristic of God upon the throne in heaven: The God of Israel.
This evening we are going to look deeper into the emerald "iris".
- I. This Chapter Is The Ultimate Background For All That Follows.
- A. It is a vision of The Heaven as the initial presentation of the realm of Heaven (with its characteristics and significances) in respect to "what must take place after these things..." (4:1).
- B. The relationship of "being in the spirit" to the summons to Heaven.
- C. What John saw...
- 1. The "First" issue: he saw a throne...
- 2. The "Second" Issue: he describes the One sitting upon the "Throne of Heaven".
- 3. The "Third" Issue: the emerald "iris".
- a. The issue of the "iris", translated "rainbow".
- 1) There are only two references to a "rainbow" in all of the New Testament by the use of the word so translated (iris). There is only one reference, by the use of "iris", in the Septuagint: Exodus 30:24.
- a) In the Septuagint of Exodus 30:24 this word is a translation of "cassia", but it is the only place in the Septuagint that "iris" is used.
- i. The Logos Library System says of the word "iris" that it refers to a "rainbow, [or] any bright colored circle".
- ii. In the Septuagint, the word "iris" is the Greek word that translates the Hebrew word "cassia" (Online interlinear of the Septuagint).
- iii. In the context of Exodus 30, the issue is the preparation of the holy anointing oil that was seriously restricted in use to the point of "being cut off from his people" (i.e., probably killed).
- b) In the Revelation, the uses are found in 4:3 without a definite article, and in 10:1 with a definite article, strongly implying a link.
- i. In chapter four, we have the beginning of the vision.
- ii. In chapter ten, we have another "little book" (10:8) and the declaration "you must prophesy again concerning many peoples and nations and tongues and kings". Chapter ten marks a new "beginning" of "prophesying" and comes after the sixth trumpet has sounded (9:13). Starting in chapter eleven we are told of the special persons involved (beginning with the two witnesses).
- 2) The issue of the "iris" is that it encompassed...
- a) The throne in 4:3 and the head of the powerful, cloud-clothed angel in 10:1.
- i. That both the "iris encircled throne of the God of Israel" and the "iris" encircled head of the strong angel had direct connections to "little books" in the hands of the "encircled" signifies that the "iris" is connected to the "prophecy/history" of those upon the earth.
- (a) The "little book" in the hand of the God of Israel is sealed so that the "history" that it contains is "prophetic potential".
- (b) The "little book" in the hand of the strong angel was open as an indication that it was time, for the events recorded in it were already begun.
- ii. The significance of the "encompassing" is only given in Revelation 4:3, 4, and 8 where each use (the only ones in the New Testament) of "kuklothen" indicates a "full surrounding".
- (a) This is not the typical "rainbow" which is never a full circle.
- (b) The "full circle" is, in each case, a complete "surround" that involves some characteristic of the descriptions given, and those involved in the "complete surround" are notable for their position as powerful "determiners".
- b) The verb, "kuklothen", is used widely in the Septuagint and signals a "surrounding" characteristic (Joshua 21:42).
- b. The issue of the "emerald" appearance.
- 1) The word translated "emerald" is only used here in the entire New Testament.
- 2) In the Septuagint, the "smaragdinos" is used to translate four different Hebrew words, and the translations complicate things.
- a) The "smaragdinos" in Exodus 28:17 and 39:10 is the third stone in the first row of three stones in the ephod, which is the stone of Levi.
- i. Levi was so called by Leah because he was her third son and she hoped that "now, this time, my husband will become attached to me because I have borne him three sons" (Genesis 29:34).
- ii. Levi, being the third time Leah pinned her hope upon "acceptance through performance" (Reuben: "surely now will my husband love me", 29:32; Simeon: "because the Lord has heard that I am unloved", 29:33; and Levi: "Now, this time, my husband will become attached to me because I have borne him three sons", 29:34), was to be the standard bearer for the priesthood of the Law which was early on considered to be the basis for salvation by works.
- b) In keeping with the other "stones", The God of Israel is encompassed by the concept of the priesthood of the Levites, and the "tone" of the contents of the "little book" is revealed in Revelation 16:6: "they deserve it". Over all, the "little book" contains the contents of the "wrath of God" rooted in the works of men's hands. However, the priesthood's main thesis was "forgiveness through sacrifice" and Jesus was the all-encompassing Sacrifice within the context of a "better priesthood", not Levitical (Hebrews 5:6; 6:20; 7:17; 7:19, 21, 22, 24, 28; 8:6; 9:23; and 12:24).
