The Twenty-four Elders

4:4 And in a circle round the throne I saw twenty-four thrones, and seated upon the thrones twenty-four elders, clothed in white garments, with golden crowns upon their heads.

We now approach one of the difficult passages for which the Revelation is notorious. In it we meet twenty-four elders and then four living creatures; and we have to try to identify them.

We find the twenty-four elders frequently appearing in the Revelation. Let us set down the facts about them. They sit around the throne, clothed in white robes and wearing crowns ( Revelation 4:4 ; Revelation 14:3 ); they cast their crowns before the throne ( Revelation 4:10 ); they continually worship and praise ( Revelation 5:11 ; Revelation 5:14 ; Revelation 7:11 ; Revelation 11:16 ; Revelation 14:3 ; Revelation 19:4 ); they bring to God the prayers of the saints ( Revelation 5:8 ); one of them encourages the seer, when he is sad ( Revelation 5:5 ); and one of them acts as interpreter of one of the visions ( Revelation 7:13 ). We may note five lines of explanation.

(i) In the Old Testament there are indications of a kind of council surrounding God. The prophet sees God sitting on his throne and all the host of heaven standing by him on his right hand and on his left ( 1 Kings 22:19 ). In Job the sons of God come to meet with him ( Job 1:6 ; Job 2:1 ). Isaiah speaks of God reigning in glory--among his elders ( Isaiah 24:23 ). In the Genesis story of the garden, the accusation against Adam is that he has eaten of the fruit of the forbidden tree and become like one of us ( Genesis 3:22 ). It may be that the idea of the elders has something to do with the idea of God's council surrounding him.

(ii) When the Jews were in Babylon, they could not avoid coming into contact with Babylonian ideas. And it might well be that sometimes they incorporated Babylonian ideas into their own thinking, especially if there was some initial resemblance. The Babylonians had twenty-four star gods, for the worship of the stars was a part of Babylonian religion; and it has been suggested that these became in Jewish thought twenty-four angels who surrounded the throne of God, and that the elders stand for these.

(iii) We move on to explanations which we think are much more likely. There were so many priests in Israel that they could not possibly serve in the Temple at the one time and so they were divided into twenty-four different courses ( 1 Chronicles 24:7-18 ). Each of these courses had its president, known as an elder of the priests. Sometimes these elders were called princes, or governors, of the house of God ( 1 Chronicles 24:5 ). It is suggested that the twenty-four elders stand symbolically for the twenty-four courses of the priests. They present the prayers of the faithful to God ( Revelation 5:8 ), and that is priestly work. The Levites were similarly divided into twenty-four courses for the work of the Temple and they praised God with harps and psalteries and cymbals ( 1 Chronicles 25:6-31 ), and the elders also have their harps ( Revelation 5:8 ). So the twenty-four elders may stand for the heavenly ideal of the earthly worship of the priests and Levites in the Temple.

(iv) It has been suggested that the twenty-four elders stand for the twelve patriarchs and the twelve apostles combined. In the new Jerusalem the names of the twelve patriarchs are on the twelve gates and the names of the twelve apostles are on the foundation stones of the wall.

(v) We think that the likeliest explanation is that the twenty-four elders are the symbolic representatives of the faithful people of God. Their white robes are the robes promised to the faithful ( Revelation 3:4 ), and their crowns (stephanoi, Greek #4735 ) are those promised to those who are faithful unto death ( Revelation 2:10 ). The thrones are those which Jesus promised to those who forsook all and followed him ( Matthew 19:27-29 ). The description of the twenty-four elders fits well with the promises made to the faithful.

The question will then be, "Why twenty-four?" The answer is because the Church is composed of Jews and Gentiles. There were originally twelve tribes, but now it is as if the tribes were doubled. Swete says that the twenty-four elders stand for the Church in its totality. We remember that this is a vision, not of what yet is, but of what shall be; and the twenty-four elders stand as representatives of the whole Church which one day in glory will worship in the presence of God himself.