Also
before the throne there was what looked like a sea of glass, clear as
crystal. In the center, around the throne, were four living creatures,
and they were covered with eyes, in front and in back. The first living
creature was like a lion, the second was like an ox, the third had a
face like a man, the fourth was like a flying eagle.
//In John's vision while on the isle of Patmos, he visits heaven and
spies the throne of God. Revelation mentions this throne 46 times!
Jewish literature, for perhaps 300 years before Revelation, showed a
great fascination with the throne of God. We don't see this trend so
much in canonical scriptures, but we do in other popular writings of
that day, such as material from the Dead Sea scrolls. This fascination
may have originated with the book of 1 Enoch, much of which was written in the third century B.C. or even earlier.
Carved
animals of various forms customarily supported the thrones of monarchs
in that day. John animates these carvings using imagery already familiar
to his readers. His beasts blend together Isaiah's seraphim (Isaiah
6:2) and Ezekiel's cherubim (Ezekiel 1:5-14). He divides these two
images into four creatures--matching the four faces of the cherubim--the
lion, the ox, the eagle, and the man.
These
symbols, of course, are seen in the four corners of the zodiac.
Abraham's contemporaries visualized the constellation Scorpio as an
eagle, according to the Chaldean system then in vogue. Thus, God rules
over the entire heavens.
Revelation falls back on astronomy a surprising number of times, but if you aren't paying attention, they go unnoticed.
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