Priests or Rainbow?
At Revelation 4:3, our translation says:
‘…and all around his throne were priests looking like emerald.’
However, most translations say something like:
‘…and all around his throne was [a] rainbow, like an emerald.’
Why the difference?
Our most ancient source text, the Codex Sinaiticus is very early, from the early 4th century, and older than the manuscripts most Bibles use for this verse. It says that the one sitting on the throne is surrounded by ‘priests’. In Greek, that’s ireis (ΙΡΕΙϹ). They are said to look like emerald.
Technically, the correct spelling of ‘priests’ is (h)iereis (ἹEΡΕΙϹ). But breathing marks (h) are often dropped when written in this earlier all-capitals script, and in the more common Greek dialects, an epsilon (ε) that appears after an iota (ι) is often dropped too. That means a word like (h)iereis (ἹEΡΕΙϹ) can easily be spelled as ireis (ΙΡΕΙϹ).
The exact same spelling is used in the Codex Sinaiticus copy of Jeremiah 5:31, where the ‘priests clapped their hands’. Unless a rainbow can clap its hands, then it’s probably not a rainbow.
This spelling is also seen on many ancient inscriptions, clearly meaning ‘priest’ or ‘priests’ (the singular for ‘priest’ could also be whittled down to the same spelling). So yes, it really does say ‘priests’ here in Revelation in the Codex Sinaiticus.
On the other hand, there are other manuscripts, the majority of which are much later, that say it was an emerald-colored ‘halo’ or ‘rainbow’, spelled as (h)iris (ἸΡΙΣ).
So we have:
- ireis (priest or priests)
- iris (halo or rainbow)
Since there’s only one letter difference, it’s reasonable to assume there was a scribal error here at some point. But which is the error? Well, we don’t know, but ‘priests’ makes more sense:
- There is no such thing as a green halo, and certainly no such thing as a green rainbow. Yet the Greek word for ‘emerald’ literally means ‘green gem’.
- It makes the bodies of the priests match up with that of the one sitting on the throne, as both are decribed as being like gemstones.
- It’s fitting for God to be seen as being served by nearby priests, just like in Daniel 7:10 where God is sitting on a throne and thousands around him minister to him. Indeed this vision could be based on that one in Daniel, and people who minister to God are called priests. So while we do have this other reference to God being surrounded by priests, we have zero other references to God being surrounded by a green light.
Additionally, in the Sinaiticus, the word ‘priests’ was first written into the manuscript using any even clearer variant spelling of priests (ιερειϲ), but a later scribe corrected it to the Attic dialect which drops the epsilon (ε) after the iota (ι). So they seemed quite sure it should say ‘priests’, and no later proofreader touched it any further.
There are, unfortunately, no early quotes of this verse from the Church Fathers to compare. Also, the surviving Aramaic translation from Greek came quite late, likely centuries after our source text, so would likely copy earlier errors.
So we don’t know which is correct, but ‘priests’ certainly makes more sense. We use it in our translation in order to faithfully portray what 4th century Christians read in the source manuscript, and to bring the matter to your attention.
So if you’ve ever wondered why a halo or a rainbow would be described as green, which is very weird, you now have a possible answer!