ISB ~ Revelation 10 v1 - 11

An enormous angel descends to earth, its legs straddling the shoreline and its right arm raised to swear an oath. Its appearance radiates the glory of the Father (rainbow, 4:3), the Son (wrapped in clouds, 1:7; face like the sun, 1:16), and the Holy Spirit (pillars of fire, Ex 13:21). Perhaps this is the Lord’s angel who conveys to John the revelations of the book (1:1; 22:6).

• Elsewhere in Scripture the “angel of the Lord” swears an oath in the name of God (Gen 22:15-18) and commissions both Prophets and Judges (Ex 3:210; Judg 6:11-14; 1 Chron 21:18). The immediate background is Dan 10-12, where Daniel encounters a heavenly figure who stood over the Tigris River. This messenger, too, had a glorious appearance (Dan 10:5-6) and swore an oath that God’s plan would be fulfilled in the future (Dan 12:7). John stands at the other end of this prophetic pledge:what was far distant in Daniel’s day is fast approaching in his own (10:6).

• The angel takes an oath, not because of any defect in himself, as if one could not trust his word, but in order to show that his utterance proceeds from an infallible ordinance of God (St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae II-II, 89, 10).