NOTES for Rev 7:1-12

The question of what seal is placed upon the faithful and believers very often leads people to look for a hidden meaning in these words. It should be noted that the words of the prophet Ezekiel used in this text are rendered imprecisely in the Russian Synodal translation. The original literally says, “Put a tav.” In ancient forms of the alphabet, this letter looked like a cross. What was a prophecy for Ezekiel probably became, for the first Christians, the tav sign: the first sign with which they crossed themselves and a sign of Christ. Perhaps, by using here both the prophetic text in Ezek 9:4-6 and the number 144,000, which symbolizes fullness, the apostle John expresses the fact that eternal life is offered to everyone and that everyone may enter into the fullness of Christ.