When John reaches the Third Heaven he sees God on his throne, the four Living Creatures around him, the glassy sea, the Sevenfold Spirit of God, and Twenty-Four Elders. When the Living Creatures give praise to God, the Elders bow down and throw their golden crows before the throne.
Now, the traditional interpretation that pretty much everyone follows is that these Elders are the dead saints in heaven.
In Revelation 2:10, Jesus promises a 'crown of life' to those who endure the trials and attacks of Satan even unto death. Likewise, James 1:12:
Blessed is the man that endureth temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him.
Crowns are promised to the saints in many other passages. 1 Corinth. 9:25 says that those of the world pursue a corruptible crown, but Christians pursue one that is incorruptible. 2 Timothy promises a Crown of Righteousness, 1 Thess and Phillipians promise a Crown of Exhalation to evangelists, and 1 Peter promises those who guide the flock that they will receive a Crown of Glory from the Greatest Shepherd.
The idea is that we get our rewards for what we've done on earth, but then we realize that God alone is worthy so we give them all to him.
And this has inspired a lot of hymns over the years, but I don't actually think that's the idea.
First of all, context alone indicates that these are not deceased humans. The Spirits of God, the angels and the Living Creatures are all heavenly spiritual beings. In the ancient Hebrew cosmology, the Third Heaven is the realm of God alone, and though humans may be taken there in visions, they are not meant to live there.
Biblically, that's what the New Heavens and Earth are for.
The Resurrected army of the saints doesn't make an appearance until Revelation 7, unless you count John's vision of the martyred souls under the altar in Revelation 6, which is in a whole different part of the story than these Elders.
Secondly, the rewards to be given to the saints in the mini-epistles of Revelation 2-4, though two do fit the descriptions of the Elders, are much more abundant than that.
1. Those who overcome will eat from the Tree of Life, in the midst of God's Paradise
2. They won't be hurt of the second death
3. They will eat of the hidden manna
4. They will receive a stone on which is written the Secret Name of Christ and his New Kingdom
5. They will be given power over the nations, to rule them with an iron rod. It says they will receive power from Christ just as he received power from the Father
6. They will be given the morning star.
7. They will be clothed in white raiment
8. They will not be blotted out of the Book of Life
9. They will be a pillar in the temple of God
10. The New Name will be written on their very selves.
Finally, 3:21 promises the final and ultimate reward.
To him that overcomes will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I overcame and am set down with my father on his throne.
See, Revelation is not just a story of Jesus' victory over Satan and the fallen world. It is a story of our shared part in that victory. He was the first man to ascend to his father's right hand, but we are meant to follow in his footsteps, bearing crosses of our own, and join Our Father in his rulership of the cosmos.
That's an element of the Bible's story that gets ignored in our oversimplified modern 'Adam ate so we fell but Jesus died and took away our sins so we can go to heaven.'
Of the eleven promised rewards, only two of them fit the Elders- the Crowns of Life (which, as we'll see, are related but different things from the Elders' crowns) and the white raiment (which is just a general symbol of holiness, used often of angelic beings and specifically of the Army of Heaven in Revelation 19).
In light of this final promise, we see the other ten fall into a framework of royal inheritance and power through Christ. For instance 2:26-27:
He that overcomes and keeps my works to the very end, to him I will give power over the nations, and he shall rule them with a rod of iron... even as I received from my Father.
This ruling with an iron rod is the exact same image used of Christ in Revelation 12.
And this also lends context to the use of crowns as metaphors for rewards- they symbolize the status as Kings and Queen through Christ, which we lost in Eden and will regain in the Resurrection.
That theme runs through all of Scripture- Daniel 7:22 says that "the Ancient of Days... pronounced judgment in favor of the saints of the Most High, and the time came for them to possess the kingdom."
1 Corinthians 6:3 says that we will judge angels.
Another reason I don't think the elders and the saints is because Revelation 3:11 warns the Christians not to let any take their crowns. Obviously, it's important to Jesus that we participate in his ruling of the cosmos, just as he wants us to engage in creative work as a mirror of his ultimate creative power.
He doesn't want us to give up our crowns, he wants us to treasure them.
C.S. Lewis wrote that God "will make the feeblest and filthiest of us into a god or goddess... a bright stainless mirror which reflects back to God perfectly."
I get annoyed with that Christian cliche of "we're made in the image of God." The actual idea from the actual Bible is that, yes, Adam and Eve were made in that image, but humanity lost that privilege at the Tree of Good and Evil. A central part of God's whole promise is that we will regain that image through Christ.
2 Corinthians 3:18: And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord's glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory.
We aren't made in the Image of God, we are being made back into it. And just as with our struggle to be Christ-like, it is a process that won't be fully accomplished until the New Heavens and the New Earth.
The image of God was our crown, our mark of divinity.
Psalm 8:5-6 depicts the initial glory of humanity- You made them a little lower than the angels, you crowned them with glory and honor, and set them over the works of your hands.
Hebrews 2:8 explains that this is not the present state, but that Christ crossed that gap to bring us back up to even higher divinity with him.
In putting everything under them, God left nothing that is not subject to them. Yet at present we do not see everything subject to them. But we do see Jesus, who was made lower than the angels for a little while, now crowned with glory and honor because he suffered death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.
And the old theologians understood this. St. Athanasius wrote, "God became man so that men might become gods."
Acts 26:23 describes Christ as the 'first to rise from the dead.'
We Christians will follow him, rise up to heaven and be given the crowns which the Elders once possessed. We are to be let into the presence of God not only as worshipers, but as participants in its glory.
But while I don't think that the Elders are the dead saints, I do think there is a connection. I've written at length about the Biblical concept of the gods of the nations. Deuteronomy 32:8–9 tells us that the God of Gods split all the nations of the world between his sons, the lesser gods, keeping only the minuscule desert nation of Israel for himself.
Psalm 82, which talks about those gods, Psalm is actually key to Revelation.
"You are gods,
Sons of the Most High, all of you.
nevertheless like men you shall die,
and fall like earthly rulers.
Arise O God, judge the earth,
for you shall inherit all the nations!"
So basically, God prophecies that he is going to strip the rulership of the nations from these lesser gods, and take the whole world, not just measly little Israel, as his spiritual kingdom. And that's exactly the story of Revelation, which functions at the core as an epic poem revealing how Christ fulfilled the prophecies of the Old Testament.
But notice that, while all those addressed in Psalm 82 are gods, not necessarily all gods are addressed by it. So, while the national deities in general are demonic, fallen Watchers, not everyone in the Divine Council is fallen, as we know from passages like Job 1, 1 Kings 22, or Daniel 7 where they are treated as Yahweh's helpers, and participate in his decision-making.
I believe that the Elders are those unfallen gods, and they gave up their crowns willingly to the great Son of Man. The cosmic struggle of Revelation is one of a conquering king. The fallen angels are destroyed, the elders willingly prostrate themselves before him who they recognize as infinitely superior to themselves.
The crowns here symbolize their spiritual rulership over the nations. When Jesus took the gentiles into his fold, the whole world became his spiritual kingdom and the elders gave up their crowns to him.
Crowns are mentioned all throughout Revelation in seemingly random contexts. The constellation Virgo, symbolizing Mary in Revelation 12, is described as wearing the Pleiades as a crown. The locust-spirits of Abaddon appear to have crowns of gold on their monstrous heads.
Christ himself is described in conjunction with crowns three different times in Revelation.
The first time is with the Horsemen of the Apocalypse. The first of the seven seals is broken, and a rider emerges.
Revelation 6:2 : I looked, and there before me was a white horse! Its rider held a bow, and he was given a crown, and he rode out as a conqueror bent on conquest.
None of the other three Horsemen (War, Famine, and Death) are given crowns. They are given specific functions and problems to cause, but this first Horseman on a white horse is only described as a conqueror.
I do believe this to be one of the many, many Christ-forms appearing in Revelation. Here he is Abaddon, the Destroyer, coming to take the power from the gods of the world and to bring justice upon his enemies.
The second time is in Revelation 14, where a succession of angels fly around talking about the destruction of Babylon (the ultimate Biblical symbol for the rebellious world) and the punishment of the rebels, but also preaching the "everlasting gospel... unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people" (Revelation 14:6).
And that right there is the crux of Revelation. Everything comes to a climax, Ultimate Punishment and Ultimate Reward are right atop one other, the Destroyer and the Lamb of God are hand in hand. In the midst of these preaching angels, verse 14 describes another Christ-form, who appears as a Grim-Reaperesqe judge.
And I looked, and behold a white cloud, and upon the cloud one sat like unto the Son of Man, having on his head a golden crown, and in his hand a sharp sickle.
So all throughout this book we have these little appearances of Christ, each described as kings or as wearing crowns. Then, finally, they all come together as one great and invincible conqueror, riding out with a new Name, not Michael or Abaddon or Jesus.
Chapter 19 is Scripture's most awe-inspiring description of Christ, as he comes in full and blinding light, wearing all his crowns and ready to defeat all his enemies.
11-16: And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he doth judge and make war. His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on his head were many crowns; and he had a name written, that no man knew, but he himself. And he was clothed with a robe dipped in blood: and his name is called The Word of God...
And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron: and... he hath on his robe and on his leg a name written, King Of Kings, And Lord Of Lords.
Christ's appearance with all the crowns on his head shows that he has taken the whole world as his spiritual kingdom.
Then, in opposition to this glorious conqueror, there is the lurking antagonist of Revelation, the dragon Satan.
He is described as having seven crowns, one for each of his seven heads. This is to show his status as the "god of this world," as says 2 Corinthians 4:4, and the "prince of this world" as he is described all throughout John, which follows the 'prince' terminology of Daniel as the term for divine rulers of nations (Michael, for instance, in described as the great prince of Israel).
In Matthew 4, a powerful parallel to the Temptation of Eve, Satan offers the Second Adam all the kingdoms of the world. Satan says that God gave him the authority over the whole earth, but he says that this authority could be Christ's if he will only bow.
But Christ turns down the offer, knowing that if he perseveres he will receive all the kingdoms not only of this world but the next.
In Genesis 3:5, the serpent promised Adam and Eve that they could be like God, ruling over the world with their own standards of good and evil. But by taking that offer, they failed the test that would have brought them even greater honor, not to be merely copies of God, but to be part of God, to be joined with the Infinite, temples of his spirit and essence.
St. Gregory of Nazianzus implores us to “become gods for his sake, since he became man for our sake.”
I would take it a step further- yes, we will become gods. But one could even argue that we will become God. Or rather, we will become one with God. By regaining the crown of divinity and becoming the spiritually perfected Bride of Christ, the church will essentially marry into the Divine Family. The Ancient of Days will become our Father, Wisdom our Mother.
Christianity is the true path to the goal of mystics and shamans. It is the only real way to become one with the true Everything.
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