Matthew 17:2

17:2 And he was transfigured before them. ¹  His ²  face shone like the sun, and his clothes became white as light.

Psalms 104:4

104:4 He makes the winds his messengers,

and the flaming fire his attendant. ³ 

Ezekiel 1:4-14

1:4 As I watched, I noticed ⁴  a windstorm ⁵  coming from the north – an enormous cloud, with lightning flashing, ⁶  such that bright light ⁷  rimmed it and came from ⁸  it like glowing amber ⁹  from the middle of a fire. 1:5 In the fire ¹⁰  were what looked like ¹¹  four living beings. ¹²  In their appearance they had human form, ¹³  1:6 but each had four faces and four wings. 1:7 Their legs were straight, but the soles of their feet were like calves’ feet. They gleamed ¹⁴  like polished bronze. 1:8 They had human hands ¹⁵  under their wings on their four sides. As for the faces and wings of the four of them, 1:9 their wings touched each other; they did not turn as they moved, but went straight ahead. ¹⁶ 

1:10 Their faces had this appearance: Each of the four had the face of a man, with the face of a lion on the right, the face of an ox on the left and also the face of an eagle. ¹⁷  1:11 Their wings were spread out above them; each had two wings touching the wings of one of the other beings on either side and two wings covering their bodies. 1:12 Each moved straight ahead ¹⁸  – wherever the spirit ¹⁹  would go, they would go, without turning as they went. 1:13 In the middle ²⁰  of the living beings was something like ²¹  burning coals of fire ²²  or like torches. It moved back and forth among the living beings. It was bright, and lightning was flashing out of the fire. 1:14 The living beings moved backward and forward as quickly as flashes of lightning. ²³ 

Daniel 10:5-6

10:5 I looked up ²⁴  and saw a ²⁵  man ²⁶  clothed in linen; ²⁷  around his waist was a belt made of gold from Upaz. ²⁸  10:6 His body resembled yellow jasper, ²⁹  and his face had an appearance like lightning. His eyes were like blazing torches; ³⁰  his arms and feet had the gleam of polished bronze. His voice ³¹  thundered forth like the sound of a large crowd.

Revelation 1:14-16

1:14 His ³²  head and hair were as white as wool, even as white as snow, ³³  and his eyes were like a fiery ³⁴  flame. 1:15 His feet were like polished bronze ³⁵  refined ³⁶  in a furnace, and his voice was like the roar ³⁷  of many waters. 1:16 He held ³⁸  seven stars in his right hand, and a sharp double-edged sword extended out of his mouth. His ³⁹  face shone like the sun shining at full strength.

Revelation 10:1

The Angel with the Little Scroll

10:1 Then ⁴⁰  I saw another powerful angel descending from heaven, wrapped ⁴¹  in a cloud, with a rainbow above his head; his face was like the sun and his legs were like pillars of fire. ⁴² 

Revelation 18:1

Babylon is Destroyed

18:1 After these things I saw another angel, who possessed great authority, coming down out of heaven, and the earth was lit up by his radiance. ⁴³ 

[17:2]  ¹ sn In 1st century Judaism and in the NT, there was the belief that the righteous get new, glorified bodies in order to enter heaven (1 Cor 15:42-49; 2 Cor 5:1-10). This transformation means the righteous will share the glory of God. One recalls the way Moses shared the Lord’s glory after his visit to the mountain in Exod 34. So the disciples saw Jesus transfigured, and they were getting a sneak preview of the great glory that Jesus would have (only his glory is more inherent to him as one who shares in the rule of the kingdom).

[17:2]  ² tn Here καί (kai) has not been translated.

[104:4]  ³ tc Heb “and his attendants a flaming fire.” The lack of agreement between the singular “fire” and plural “attendants” has prompted various emendations. Some read “fire and flame.” The present translation assumes an emendation to “his attendant” (יו in the Hebrew text being virtually dittographic).

[1:4]  ⁴ tn The word הִנֵּה (hinneh, traditionally “behold”) indicates becoming aware of something and has been translated here as a verb.

[1:4]  ⁵ sn Storms are often associated with appearances of God (see Nah 1:3; Ps 18:12). In some passages, the “storm” (סְעָרָה, sÿ’arah) may be a whirlwind (Job 38:1, 2 Kgs 2:1).

[1:4]  ⁶ tn Heb “fire taking hold of itself,” perhaps repeatedly. The phrase occurs elsewhere only in Exod 9:24 in association with a hailstorm. The LXX interprets the phrase as fire flashing like lightning, but it is possibly a self-sustaining blaze of divine origin. The LXX also reverses the order of the descriptors, i.e., “light went around it and fire flashed like lightning within it.”

[1:4]  ⁷ tn Or “radiance.” The term also occurs in 1:27b.

[1:4]  ⁸ tc Or “was in it”; cf. LXX ἐν τῷ μέσῳ αὐτοῦ (en tw mesw autou, “in its midst”).

[1:4]  ⁹ tn The LXX translates חַשְׁמַל (khashmal) with the word ἤλεκτρον (hlektron, “electrum”; so NAB), an alloy of silver and gold, perhaps envisioning a comparison to the glow of molten metal.

[1:5]  ¹⁰ tc Heb “from its midst” (מִתּוֹכָהּ, mitokhah). The LXX reads ἐν τῷ μέσῳ (en tw mesw, “in the midst of it”). The LXX also reads ἐν for מִתּוֹךְ (mitokh) in v. 4. The translator of the LXX of Ezekiel either read בְּתוֹךְ (bÿtokh, “within”) in his Hebrew exemplar or could not imagine how מִתּוֹךְ could make sense and so chose to use ἐν. The Hebrew would be understood by adding “from its midst emerged the forms of four living beings.”

[1:5]  ¹¹ tn Heb “form, figure, appearance.”

[1:5]  ¹² tn The Hebrew term is feminine plural yet thirty-three of the forty-five pronominal suffixes and verbal references which refer to the living beings in the chapter are masculine plural. The grammatical vacillation between masculine and feminine plurals suggests the difficulty Ezekiel had in penning these words as he was overcome by the vision of God. In ancient Near Eastern sculpture very similar images of part-human, part-animal creatures serve as throne and sky bearers. For a discussion of ancient Near Eastern parallels, see L. C. Allen, Ezekiel (WBC), 1:26-31. Ezekiel’s vision is an example of contextualization, where God accommodates his self-revelation to cultural expectations and norms.

[1:5]  ¹³ sn They had human form may mean they stood erect.

[1:7]  ¹⁴ sn The Hebrew verb translated gleamed occurs only here in the OT.

[1:8]  ¹⁵ tc The MT reads “his hand” while many Hebrew mss as well as the Qere read “hands of.” Two similar Hebrew letters, vav and yod, have been confused.

[1:9]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “They each went in the direction of one of his faces.”

[1:10]  ¹⁷ tc The MT has an additional word at the beginning of v. 11, וּפְנֵיהֶם (ufÿnehem, “and their faces”), which is missing from the LXX. As the rest of the verse only applies to wings, “their faces” would have to somehow be understood in the previous clause. But this would be very awkward and is doubly problematic since “their faces” are already introduced as the topic at the beginning of v. 10. The Hebrew scribe appears to have copied the phrase “and their faces and their wings” from v. 8, where it introduces the content of 9-11. Only “and (as for) their wings” belongs here.

[1:12]  ¹⁸ tn See the note on “straight ahead” in v. 9.

[1:12]  ¹⁹ tn Or “wind.”

[1:13]  ²⁰ tc The MT reads “and the form of the creatures” (וּדְמוּת הַחַיּוֹת, udÿmut hakhayyot). The LXX reads “and in the midst of the creatures,” suggesting an underlying Hebrew text of וּמִתּוֹךְ הַחַיּוֹת (umittokh hakhayyot). The subsequent description of something moving among the creatures supports the LXX.

[1:13]  ²¹ tc The MT reads “and the form of the creatures – their appearance was like burning coals of fire.” The LXX reads “in the midst of the creatures was a sight like burning coals of fire.” The MT may have adjusted “appearance” to “their appearance” to fit their reading of the beginning of the verse (see the tc note on “in the middle”). See M. Greenberg, Ezekiel (AB), 1:46.

[1:13]  ²² sn Burning coals of fire are also a part of David’s poetic description of God’s appearance (see 2 Sam 22:9, 13; Ps 18:8).

[1:14]  ²³ tc The LXX omits v. 14 and may well be correct. The verse may be a later explanatory gloss of the end of v. 13 which was copied into the main text. See M. Greenberg, Ezekiel (AB), 1:46.

[10:5]  ²⁴ tn Heb “I lifted up my eyes.”

[10:5]  ²⁵ tn Heb “one.” The Hebrew numerical adjective is used here like an English indefinite article.

[10:5]  ²⁶ sn The identity of the messenger is not specifically disclosed. Presumably he is an unnamed angel. Some interpreters identify him as Gabriel, but there is no adequate reason for doing so.

[10:5]  ²⁷ tn The Hebrew word בַּדִּים (baddim) is a plural of extension. See GKC 396-97 §124.a, b, c and Joüon 2:500 §136.c.

[10:5]  ²⁸ tn The location of this place and even the exact form of the Hebrew name אוּפָז (’ufaz) are uncertain. Apparently it was a source for pure gold. (See Jer 10:9.) The Hebrew word פָז (paz, “refined gold” or “pure gold”) is more common in the OT than אוּפָז, and some scholars emend the text of Dan 10:5 to read this word. Cf. also “Ophir” (1 Kgs 9:28; Isa 13:12; Job 22:24; 28:16).

[10:6]  ²⁹ tn The Hebrew word translated “yellow jasper” is תַּרשִׁישׁ (tarshish); it appears to be a semiprecious stone, but its exact identity is somewhat uncertain. It may be the yellow jasper, although this is conjectural. Cf. NAB, NIV “chrysolite”; NASB, NRSV “beryl.”

[10:6]  ³⁰ tn Heb “torches of fire.”

[10:6]  ³¹ tn Heb “The sound of his words” (cf. v. 9).

[1:14]  ³² tn Here δέ (de) has not been translated.

[1:14]  ³³ tn The clause, “even as white as snow” seems to heighten the preceding clause and is so understood in this ascensive sense (“even”) in the translation.

[1:14]  ³⁴ tn The genitive noun πυρός (puros) has been translated as an attributive genitive.

[1:15]  ³⁵ tn The precise meaning of the term translated “polished bronze” (χαλκολιβάνῳ, calkolibanw), which appears nowhere else in Greek literature outside of the book of Revelation (see 2:18), is uncertain. Without question it is some sort of metal. BDAG 1076 s.v. χαλκολίβανον suggests “fine brass/bronze.” L&N 2.57 takes the word to refer to particularly valuable or fine bronze, but notes that the emphasis here and in Rev 2:18 is more on the lustrous quality of the metal.

[1:15]  ³⁶ tn Or “that has been heated in a furnace until it glows.”

[1:15]  ³⁷ tn Grk “sound,” but the idea is closer to the roar of a waterfall or rapids.

[1:16]  ³⁸ tn Grk “and having.” In the Greek text this is a continuation of the previous sentence, but because contemporary English style employs much shorter sentences, a new sentence was started here in the translation by supplying the pronoun “he.”

[1:16]  ³⁹ tn This is a continuation of the previous sentence in the Greek text, but a new sentence was started here in the translation.

[10:1]  ⁴⁰ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence of events within the vision.

[10:1]  ⁴¹ tn Or “clothed.”

[10:1]  ⁴² tn Or “like fiery pillars,” translating πυρός (puros) as an attributive genitive.

[18:1]  ⁴³ tn Grk “glory”; but often in the sense of splendor, brightness, or radiance (see L&N 14.49).