living creatures?

Shalom,

 I thought I would share a little something that some might find of interest. Personally, I am not even sure what exactly to make of the New Testament, nor whether I believe its legitimacy, but if the book of Revelation has anything to do with Torah and the Prophets, then the symbolism would have to be consistent, imo. One of the things in Revelation that can be difficult to notice due to translation is that John uses 2 different Greek terms that are both translated "beast" in the KJV, obscuring the distinction John may have been trying to make. The term John uses to describe the "beasts" surrounding the throne of YHWH is (Strongs G2226) zoon which means "a live thing, an animal", and I will use "alive ones" instead of beasts for there does seem to be a difference between these alive ones and the beasts found elsewhere in Revelation.

 So, what could John be referring to with these 4 alive ones? Well, in Torah there is the encampment in the wilderness, where tribes were encamped in four encampments around the Mishkan. There was firstly the 4 Levitical encampments, and outside them were the 4 major encampments of the tribes. Judah (the lion) to the east, Reuben (the man) to the south, Ephraim (the ox) to the west, and Dan (the eagle) to the north. These may very well be what John was referring to.

 Now what is also interesting is getting back to the Greek term zoon, for this is the same Greek word used in the Septuagint. It is the "living creatures" spoken of in Ezekiel where he envisions these same 4 faces, and he also speaks of the wheel within the wheel with its eyes all around, which could be the Levitical encampment within the outer encampment, the wheel within the wheel, with the Levitical encampment being the ones with "eyes all around". Like a mother who a child might think has eyes in the back of her head cause she seems to see everything. In case you might think this crazy, notice how right there in Ezekiel 1:22-23 he says these alive ones were under the firmament, just like all us humans and beasts, but these were "alive ones" for they had Torah and YHWH in their midst. There is also how they were following the Spirit, and how the One was walking around in the encampment (just as described in Torah).

 Anyway, what is also interesting (if you find any validity to these ruminations) is why is the face of the ox in Ezekiel 1 turned to the face of a cherub in Ezekiel 10?

 But, I digress, that is a subject in itself, what I want to focus on is Revelation and some possible conclusions. First there is the 4 wings of Ezekiel and the 6 wings of Revelation, which may, maybe, possibly be, something to do with how they could only go in 4 directions (north, south, east and west) but can later be seen going up and down too. I don't know, but there is also the 4 seals which each respective alive one is pictured by. The first one being the lion, the white horse, which I see the possiblity that these 4 horsemen are somehow used to describe the rise and fall of nations. The white horse being how nations begin, starting out righteous with righteous leaders, Yehudite rule. The second horse being the man, edom (edom and adam are basically the same in Hebrew), this is describing civil war, bloody battles within, power struggles which come as time goes by, Reubenite rule (Reuben and his "redness" is in his birthstone and other places, but I don't want to get into that now). The 3rd horse being the ox, where trade is used to rule and keep people in line, Ephramite rule. And the 4th being the eagle, Dan, the adjudicator (dan means "to adjudicate") which represents judgment, which comes as the nation becomes fat and happy and turns away from God and gives in to debauchery. These stages of the rise and fall of nations may have something to do with this imagery.

 Check the contexts, see if it makes any sense to you. If so, and you would like to discuss it further, don't be afraid to comment, wether to support or contradict. There is more "evidence" that supports this which I could go into more detail concerning if any find this of interest.

I pray all enjoy a wonderful Shabbat.

Sincerely,
Tom