Whose blood is on the white rider's robe?

Question

The vision in Revelation 19:11 and following describes a rider on a white horse making war against the nations. While introducing the rider, verse 13 mentions, "He is dressed in a robe dipped in blood." There seems to be a possible connection to Isaiah 63, which might suggest that the blood is that of the rider's enemies. However, elsewhere in Revelation, the saints are those who have washed their robes in the blood of the Lamb. Moreover, the white rider appears to be headed to battle, which seems to discount the possibility of it being enemy blood. Whose blood is the robe dipped in?

Answer 1

Reading Revelation 19 with chapter 14

As a quick preface, I think the imagery from Revelation 19, of the blood-spattered robe and the winepress, needs to be read in unison with Revelation 14, where we also find the winepress image being used.

Some writers are evenly split between Views 1 and 3, described below, with a few actually holding to both. Davïd mentioned some commentaters in his answer, so I'll pass by them.

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1. Blood of the lamb

Bauckham takes this view directly when commenting on Revelation 19:

Similarly, although he [Jesus] is not portrayed as the Lamb (but cf. 7:14), the blood of his faithful witness to death still marks him (19:13a) . . .¹

However, notice that Bauckham cites only Revelation 19.13 in this comment, the robe with blood, and not verse 19.15, the winepress. I find it puzzling that Bauckham makes no connection between Isaiah 63.1-3 and Revelation verse 19.13, but he does with verse 19.15 (as explained in section 3 below). This seems, to me, to be a severe oversight.

Wright takes this view when commenting on Revelation 19.11-21 proper, he says:

The symbolism is appropriate because it is taken directly from the passages which speak most powerfully . . . Isaiah 63, where he [the Messiah] will tread the winepress of the wrath of God. As John's readers know well by now, the actual weapons which Jesus uses to win the battle are his own blood, his loving self-sacrifice.²

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2. Blood of the saints

Wright follows View 1, but adds more to it by suggesting the wine is also the blood of Jesus' followers. While commenting on Revelation 14.14-20, he writes:

But when John appeals to Isaiah 63 later in the book, the staining on the clothes of the Messiah is from his own blood (19.13-16). We are told, again and again, that the lamb has conquered through his blood, his sacrificial death, and that his followers are to conquer in the same way. . . . the wine itself [from the winepress] is the lifeblood of the martyrs who are being harvested.²

This seems to be a minority view (Wright is the only commentater I have found mention it), and dependent on View 1.

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3. Blood of the enemies

Mentioned above, Bauckham identifies the blood on the robes as belonging to the lamb. However, when commenting on the John's use of the winepress imagery as taken from Isaiah 63.1-6, as well as Joel 3.13, he clearly takes the view that the blood flowing out of the winepress belongs to 'the nations' who are 'judged':

The vintage (of 14:17-20) comprises two actions: gathering the grapes into the winepress and treading the winepress. These two actions, we learn later in Revelation, correspond to the gathering of the kings of the earth to Armageddon (16:12-14) and the judgment of the nations at the parousia (19:15, which echoes 14:19 and reveals the identity of the one who treads the winepress, left enigmatic in 14:20).¹

Chilton identifies with View 3 outright. For Revelation 14, he writes:

The imagery of this passage is based on Isaiah's prophecy of the destruction of Edom, where God is described as a man crushing grapes in a wine press. He explains why His robe is stained with "juice" . . .³

He then quotes Isaiah 63.1-6, explicitly identifying the blood on the robe as belonging to God's enemies. But shortly after, he flips back to View 1:

Theologically, however, the fulfillment of this text must also be related to the sacrifice of Christ.³

He does the same in Revelation 19:

. . . Christ's robe dipped in blood is explained by v.15b. The blood is, clearly, that of Christ's enemies, the "grapes of wrath"; yet (as we saw in 14:20), there is a sense in which the blood robe is stained by Christ's own sacrifice of Himself as well.⁴

Johnson takes View 3. Commenting on chapter 14:

Against [the view that these are the saints] is the fact that John's vision picks up imagery from Joel 3:13 . . . This angel, who has "power" or authority (exousia) over the fires of judgment, brings God's command to gather rebellious humanity, to be crushed in God's press until the blood--the blood of those who have shed the martyr's blood--flows like a flood of red wine. . . . In Revelation 19, John will see the Word of God riding forth on his white horse, his robe stained with blood as in Isaiah 63, ready to strike down the nations with his sword and to tread "the wine press of the fierce wrath of God, the Almighty" (19:13-15).⁵

He repeats this later for Revelation 19:

This [the blood on the robes in 19.13] is the blood of God's enemies, a preview of the defeat of the beast and the false prophet, with the slaughter of earth's kings and armies (19:21). His robes are soaked blood red because "he treads the wine press of the fierce wrath of God, the Almighty" (19:15), from which his enemies' blood flows deep and wide (14:20). The imagery of this vision is drawn from Isaiah 63:1-6 . . .⁵

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The chiasmus

I think View 3 has a stronger case exegetically, based on the interdependence of Revelation 14 and 19, as well as their mutual dependence on Isaiah 63. With that, a significant point in favor of View 3 is the chiamsus John has created in 19.12-16. This chiasmus is constructed as the following (my translation):

1 His eyes were like flames of fire, and many royal crowns were on his head, and he has a name written that no one but him knows. (19.12)
  2 He was dressed in clothes immersed in blood, (19.13a)
    3 and his name was called the Word of God. (19.13b)
      4 and the armies in heaven followed him on white horses, clothed in white and pure linen. (19.14)
    3' a sharp sword comes from his mouth to strike the nations, and he will rule them with an iron rod. (19.15a)
  2' He will tread the winepress of the wine of God almighty's passion and wrath. (19.15b)
1' He had his name written on his clothes and on his thigh: King of kings and Lord of lords. (19.16)

Points 1 and 1' of the chiasmus identify the 'name' he alone 'knows' (King of kings, Lord of lords, for which he receives 'many royal crowns'). Points 3 and 3' pertain to the sword of his mouth, i.e. the word of God. Point 4 is the hinge, and focuses on his followers.

This leaves points 2 and 2', which identify the blood spattered on his robe as coming from the winepress he treads, taking readers back to Revelation 14, and ultimately over to the obvious source of the overall image: Isaiah 63, where the blood comes from the enemies of the one treading the winepress (View 3), not from himself (View 1) or his followers (View 2).

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But he hasn't tread the winepress yet

The question was brought up that, if Jesus is seen with the blood on his robe in Revelation 19.13, before he treads the winepress in 19.15, how can the blood belong to his enemies?

I think this is easily accounted for given the nature of the Revelation. The book, of course, is organized and tightly structured, but in terms of the actual 'chronological order' of the visionary content, the book is very relaxed. John's visions are not strictly sequential, they are a panoramic kaleidoscope. What John sees in one vision is reflected later in another vision, regardless of their order, because he writes based on theme, not chronology. (This is why he is able to introduce the same beast three separate times, in chapters 11, 13, and 17. Or why he is able to see the fall of Babylon three separate times, in chapters 14, 16, and 17-19.)

Whether John intended readers to understand Revelation 19 as chronologically later than Revelation 14 is one thing. But in terms of written form, chapter 19 does come after all of chapters 1-18, so this vision freely incorporates imagery from earlier visions, e.g. the sword of his mouth, the white horse, the rod of iron, and, yes, even the robe stained in the winepress with his enemies' blood.

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Footnotes

¹ Richard Bauckham, The Theology of the Book of Revelation (1993, 1999). [I have the Kindle version; no page numbers.]

² N.T. Wright, Revelation For Everyone (2011), bold original. [Kindle.]

³ David Chilton, Days of Vengeance (1987, 1990), p.154.

⁴ Ibid., p.192.

⁵ Dennis E. Johnson, Triumph of the Lamb (2001). [Kindle.]

Answer 2

It's possible to be a little more emphatic about the connection to Isaiah 63:3 which is routinely cited by commentators as an "intertext" for Revelation 19:13.

This is a significant connection because, as noted in the question, this is judgment context, and the "blood" in question is that of the LORD's enemies. But (again, as noted), in Revelation the "Rider on the white horse" is heading into battle ... so whose blood?

The options are all canvassed in the older commentaries:

• Swete's notes on the Apocalypse hold out the possibility of this being the "blood of the Lamb", although this must be kept "subordinate" to Christ as Judge;
• Charles's ICC commentary opts for the "Parthian kings and their armies, whose destruction had already been proleptically prophesied in 17:14";
• Moffat, in the Expositor's Greek Testament is content to identify it simply as that of "the blood of his foes".

As I wrote this answer originally, I wasn't aware of any recent commentators defending the option that this blood is that of the "saints" or martyrs; however, as Mark Edward points out, it is apparently adopted by N.T. Wright (and so also by G.B. Caird).

Meanwhile, there is only internal evidence to go on: that is, the language of the passage which resonantly echoes Isaiah 63, along with the logic one applies to John's unfolding vision.

Recent commentators often note the variety of possibilities, but seem to have converged on the following observations:
(1) the connection with Isaiah 63 as judgment, and the blood (unambiguously) as that of the enemies;
(2) the context of judgment persisting in Revelation 19; and
(3) the lack of necessity for strictly logical progression, the Rider heading into battle not requiring spotless robes.

Each of Aune (p. 1057), Beale (p. 959), Beasley-Murray (p. 280), Blount (p. 353), Mounce (p. 354), Smalley (pp. 491-2), and Witherington (p. 243) take this view, and it strikes me as compelling. (Aune and Smalley, like Swete, think that an underlying resonance with the "blood of the Lamb" would also have been "heard".) The visions of Revelation swirl rather than "unfold", and there seems no need to adhere rigidly to strict sequencing here. And besides, as widely noted, this Rider has been doing some damage already.

Answer 3

The Idea in Brief

Those who follow the Lamb in heaven are clothed in white except the Lamb, who was slain and whose robe appears late in the narrative drenched in blood. So there is imagery that His blood was not only the basis for saving and making the robes of the elect to be white, but was also the basis for defeating sin and its power. That is, the Revelation narrative presents the Son of Man drenched in blood only after the non-elect on earth had drunk the wine-pressed blood of death (as contained in the seven Bowl Judgments). In other words, before the conclusion of the Revelation narrative, the blood imagery merges to present the blood as both the basis of redemption and the basis of defeating sin and its power.

Discussion

In the Revelation, every person in heaven with direct association with the Lamb of God has white robes except the Lamb, who appeared as one slain.

Revelation 5:6-7 (NASB)
⁶ And I saw between the throne (with the four living creatures) and the elders a Lamb standing, as if slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God, sent out into all the earth. ⁷ And He came and took the book out of the right hand of Him who sat on the throne.

In previous chapters, He is "the one who was dead" (Rev 1:18 and Rev 2:8). His first appearance in the first chapter of the narrative mentions the color imagery of His appearance with the sole exception of the color of His robe.

Revelation 1:13-15 (NASB)
¹³ and in the middle of the lampstands I saw one like a son of man, clothed in a robe reaching to the feet, and girded across His chest with a golden sash. ¹⁴ His head and His hair were white like white wool, like snow; and His eyes were like a flame of fire. ¹⁵ His feet were like burnished bronze....

The head and hair of "the Son of Man" are white; there is white wool, and fire and burnished bronze, but there is no mention of any robe being white (here or anywhere else in the narrative). On the other hand, the elect who surround Him in heaven are clothed in white robes throughout the entire Revelation narrative. (Please click here to review all these verses.) In one specific verse, the robes were made white by the blood of the Lamb (Rev 7:14), which means the blood of the Lamb was the basis of their righteousness, which exists through redemption.

Revelation 19:8 (NASB)
⁸ It was given to her to clothe herself in fine linen, bright and clean; for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints.

In other words, the contrast is that everyone with direct association with the Son of Man (Lamb) is clothed in white except the Lamb, who was slain ("was dead and now is alive") whose robe will only later in the narrative finally appear drenched red in blood.

Revelation 19:13-15 (NASB)
¹³ He is clothed with a robe dipped in blood, and His name is called The Word of God. ¹⁴ And the armies which are in heaven, clothed in fine linen, white and clean, were following Him on white horses. ¹⁵ His feet were like burnished bronze...

In the course of the Revelation narrative, the reader finally sees the red-soaked robe as if to close the loop. That is, He was the one who was slain ("was dead and now is alive"), and therefore His robe is blood red. However, these verses (above) appear to be direct quotes from the LXX, where the context was not the blood of the sacrifice, but the actual winepress of enemy blood. (Please click here.) That is, the context of Isaiah in the LXX provides the direct backdrop of the wine Bowl Judgments, which are bowls of blood mentioned in Revelation 16:1-21.

In other words, the blood is not only the basis of redemption, but is the basis for defeating sin and its power. In the Revelation narrative at this point, the Son of Man now appears "on the cloud" with the golden crown on His head for the first time (Rev 14:14), indicating His immediate right to take rulership of the earth since the same imagery of the Son of Man with the clouds occurs in Daniel (compare Dan 7:13-14 with Rev 14:14) who in turn defeats the beasts (Gentile powers) of the earth. Jesus used the very same imagery with the High Priest Caiaphas and the Sanhedrin to refer to His own future advent to the earth (Matt 26:63-64). This return to the earth starts with the defeating the foes of "the city" (Jerusalem?), whose blood in turn is used to fill the seven bowls, which are then poured out upon the entire earth as the seven Bowl Judgments.

Again, the sickles reaped the grapes of wrath outside of the heavenly temple and near the heavenly altar (Rev 14:14-20), and therefore this location is the place of the sacrifice, where the Lamb of God was slain from the foundation of the world (Rev 13:8). But the blood is not from the Lamb, but from the earth where the foes are trampled to create wine (blood).

Revelation 14:18-20 (NASB)
¹⁸ Then another angel, the one who has power over fire, came out from the altar; and he called with a loud voice to him who had the sharp sickle, saying, “Put in your sharp sickle and gather the clusters from the vine of the earth, because her grapes are ripe.” ¹⁹ So the angel swung his sickle to the earth and gathered the clusters from the vine of the earth, and threw them into the great wine press of the wrath of God. ²⁰ And the wine press was trodden outside the city, and blood came out from the wine press, up to the horses’ bridles, for a distance of two hundred miles.

The "death" of those killed is harvested as wine (blood), which the Son of Man harvested and trampled (Rev 14:14-20), which causes the blood-drenching of His robe. As already noted, He now forces the non-elect to drink this wine (blood) in the seven Bowl Judgments, since the non-elect had been drunk on the blood of the elect.

Revelation 16:6 (NASB)
⁶ for they poured out the blood of saints and prophets, and You have given them blood to drink. They deserve it.

Revelation 17:6 (NASB)
⁶ And I saw the woman drunk with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the witnesses of Jesus. When I saw her, I wondered greatly.

In summary, the non-elect on earth are forced to drink "death" in full-strength, and therefore they receive complete "undiluted wrath" from heaven through the seven Bowl Judgments, which climax in the Second Advent. Jesus Christ is drenched in this blood, which came from the winepress (as noted in the LXX of Isaiah), where the sickles in heaven reaped the grapes of wrath on earth (as noted in the Revelation narrative).

Finally, the mention of the color of the His robe in the Revelation narrative up to this point was absent, notwithstanding that everyone following the Lamb is clothed in white. That is, they are white because of His blood. The implied assumption then is that the robe of the Lamb was soaked with blood at the First Advent, and the robe of the Son of Man was soaked with blood at the Second Advent. Therefore the Revelation narrative merges the imagery of blood on the robe to include not only redemption (culminated by the Lamb at the First Advent), but also the conquering of sin and its power (culminated by the Son of Man at His Second Advent).

Answer 4

What one has to remember is the blood on the robe that the rider on the white horse wears,is symbolic and the verse is to be interpreted symbolically.An example of this method of interpretation is in this same chapter of Revelation at verse 15 where we read,

Out of his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations.

When this scripture is looked at in a literal sense,it would appear that the rider on the white horse will strike down the nations with a sword that is coming out of his mouth,but common sense would let one understand that this is not the case because it is written in the book of Ephesians 6-17 regarding spiritual warfare,

Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit,which is the word of God.

Looking at the above scripture and taking into account that the rider on the white horse is to be interpreted symbolically,it is reasonable to suggest that the sword that comes out of the riders mouth is "The word of God". The article in this link is helpful.

http://www.sharefaith.com/guide/christian-principles/spiritual-warfare/sword-of-the-spirit.html.

It is now easier to understand from the scripture, that the rider will strike down the nations with "the Word of God" and not a sword that comes out of his mouth.

In Revelation 19:15 (with reference to the rider) it is written,

He treads the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God Almighty.

This scripture gives the "possible connection to Isaiah 63," where it is written in verse 3,

"I have trodden the winepress alone;

from the nations no-one was with me.

I trampled them in my anger

and trod them down in my wrath;

their blood spattered my garments,

and stained all my clothing.

Reading the first and second line's in the above scriptures,the one treading the winepress does so alone but when we look at Rev 19:14 (when the rider departs from Heaven-The armies of heaven follow him) it is written,

The armies of Heaven were following him,

riding on white horses and dressed in fine linen,white and clean.

Due to these above difference's, it is difficult to fully reconcile the passage in Revelation with the passage in Isaiah which leaves one to look at other scriptures to further ones understanding.

One can assume that the Rider on the white horse whose robe is "dipped in blood" is Jesus Christ, but his name is not mentioned anywhere in Revelation 19. To help one understand who the rider is, we must turn to Rev 19:15, where it is written,

He will rule them with an iron sceptre (the nations)

There is a repeat of this scripture in Revelation 12:5 (when the woman gives birth to the child) where it is written,

She gave birth to a son,a male child

who will rule all the nations with an iron sceptre

Looking at these scriptures it is very clear that it is Jesus Christ who the rider represents.One must also remember that it was the scripture in Revelation 19 that supplies the link to Isaiah 63 in the same way as Revelation 19 supplies the link to Revelation 12. Due to the reference of the iron sceptre that is written in Rev 19-15 and Rev 12-5- one can see that the scriptures are in context. But what has Rev 12-5 got to do with "a robe dipped in blood,? One must look to the Sun,moon and stars for interpretation

In Revelation 12:1 we read about the vision that John received.

A great and wondrous sign appeared in heaven:

a woman clothed with the sun,

with the moon under her feet

and a crown of twelve stars on her head.

Now this is not the first time this vision has appeared in scripture.It is also in the book of Genesis and concerns a young man by the name of Joseph."His visionary dream" is written in Genesis 37:9,

Then he had another dream,and he told his brothers,

"Listen," he said,"i had another dream,

and this time the sun and moon and eleven stars were bowing down to me."

We also know Joseph had a robe for it is written in Genesis 37:3,

Now Israel loved Joseph more than any of his other sons,

because he had been born to him in his old age,

and he made a richly ornamented robe for him.

Because of the Fathers love for Joseph,the brothers of Joseph hated him so much that one day they got a hold of Joseph and threw him into a cistern.We read in Genesis 37:31,

Then they got Joseph's robe,slaughtered a goat and dipped the robe in the blood.

Looking again at Rev 19:13-14 it is written,

He is dressed in a robe dipped in blood (Jesus)

and his name is the word of God.

14****The armies of Heaven were following him,

riding on white horses and dressed in fine linen,white and clean.

Matthew 25:31-33 it is written,

"When the son of man comes in all his glory,and all his angels with him,

he will sit on his throne in heavenly glory.

32 All the nations will be gathered before him,

and he will separate the people from one another,

as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.

33 He will put the sheep on his right

and the goats on his left.

These two portions of scripture have the same meaning.The armies of heaven and all his angels with him which again tells us that Jesus does not tread the winepress alone.Although these scriptures have no mention of the armies/angels being on horse-back, it is obvious to the reader, if Jesus rides out on horse-back-then his army that follows him will also be on horse-back.For a better understanding regarding the horses,one must now turn his attention to " harvest of the earth,"written in Revelation 14:14-20,and focus on verse 20 (Niv) where it is written,

They were trampled in the winepress outside the city,

and the blood flowed out of the press,

rising as high as the horses' bridles,for a distance of 1,600 stadia.

The horses bridles are in context with the rider on the white horse and his armies that follow him and who tread the winepress along with him.

Now the blood from the winepress reaches the horses bridles,the meaning of this would be that the blood comes up to just below the horses mouth.So this leaves one to consider the robe that the rider on the white horse wears- Is the robe that Jesus wears "Dipped" or "Spattered" in blood

Revelation 14:20 describes the end of the judgement against the nations.One can visualize the blood that has flowed from the winepress coming up to the horses mouth,but it is at this portion of scripture that the vision ends.There is no mention of the rider on horseback.It is at this point,the scripture leaves the reader to create his own imagery and the reader will visualize the white horse standing in a "river of blood," and the reader will also visualize the rider sitting on the horse, clothed in his robe which is being immersed in the blood,or to be more "precise"-it is reasonable to say, "the rider on the white horse," wears a "Robe Dipped In Blood."

To answer your question "whose blood is on the riders robe"?

The robe that Jesus wears dipped in blood is symbolic of the robe of Joseph.

The robe that Jesus, the rider on the white horse wears, is dipped in symbolic Goats blood.

He comes to separate the sheep from the goats. and he does so by,

Treading the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God.

He will put the sheep on his right,

and the goats on his left.

Answer 5

The Campaign of Armageddon

Two answers here in particular survey various ideas about the blood—Mark Edward's and Davïd's and both settle in a conclusion of being that of the enemies, which is also (a bit more cryptically) the conclusion of Babpipes answer of "Goats" blood.

This answer shares that same conclusion, that it is enemies blood, but with a particular exception: there is a chronological progression of judgment involved that answers more specifically why and how the blood is on the robe in Revelation 19.

A common Dispensational understanding sees a progression of battles occur within the war/campaign of Armageddon. This progression also includes various appearances of Christ during the process of defeating His enemies.¹

Edom

Chiefly, the progression relevant here is seen in one of the passages noted in question itself...

Isaiah 63:1-6 (emphasis added, ESV):

1 Who is this who comes from Edom, in crimsoned garments from Bozrah, he who is splendid in his apparel, marching in the greatness of his strength? “It is I, speaking in righteousness, mighty to save.”

2 Why is your apparel red, and your garments like his who treads in the winepress?

3 “I have trodden the winepress alone, and from the peoples no one was with me; I trod them in my anger and trampled them in my wrath; their lifeblood spattered on my garments, and stained all my apparel. 4 For the day of vengeance was in my heart, and my year of redemption had come. 5 I looked, but there was no one to help; I was appalled, but there was no one to uphold; so my own arm brought me salvation, and my wrath upheld me. 6 I trampled down the peoples in my anger; I made them drunk in my wrath, and I poured out their lifeblood on the earth.”

The first verse references where this one with stained robes came from, that being the area of Edom, where Bozrah is located. This destruction is also referenced in ...

Isaiah 34:1-7 (emphasis added, ESV):

1 Draw near, O nations, to hear, and give attention, O peoples! Let the earth hear, and all that fills it; the world, and all that comes from it. 2 For the Lord is enraged against all the nations, and furious against all their host; he has devoted them to destruction, has given them over for slaughter. 3 Their slain shall be cast out, and the stench of their corpses shall rise; the mountains shall flow with their blood. 4 All the host of heaven shall rot away, and the skies roll up like a scroll. All their host shall fall, as leaves fall from the vine, like leaves falling from the fig tree.

5 For my sword has drunk its fill in the heavens; behold, it descends for judgment upon Edom, upon the people I have devoted to destruction. 6 The Lord has a sword; it is sated with blood; it is gorged with fat, with the blood of lambs and goats, with the fat of the kidneys of rams. For the Lord has a sacrifice in Bozrah, a great slaughter in the land of Edom. 7 Wild oxen shall fall with them, and young steers with the mighty bulls. Their land shall drink its fill of blood, and their soil shall be gorged with fat.

The essence of this view is that the first place Christ comes back to during the period of His second coming is in defense of part of the nation of Israel in the area of Edom. It is the beginning of His personal judgment upon the nations, which He does "alone" (Isa 63:3).

Valley of Jehoshaphat (between Jerusalem & the Mt. of Olives)

The events in Edom apparently happen prior to the events of His return descent to the Mount of Olives prophesied in Act 1:11, but also prophesied in a judgment context in ...

Zech 14:3-5 (emphasis added, ESV):

3 Then the LORD will go out and fight against those nations as when he fights on a day of battle. 4 On that day his feet shall stand on the Mount of Olives that lies before Jerusalem on the east, and the Mount of Olives shall be split in two from east to west by a very wide valley, so that one half of the Mount shall move northward, and the other half southward. 5 And you shall flee to the valley of my mountains, for the valley of the mountains shall reach to Azal. And you shall flee as you fled from the earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah. Then the LORD my God will come, and all the holy ones with him.

Note that the Mount of Olives is outside Jerusalem, not near Edom/Bozrah). This coming Zech 14:5 notes is not alone, for "Then the Lord my God will come, and all the holy ones with him," paralleling the coming with the armies of the saints from heaven in Rev 19:11-21, and that army's participation in the Rev 19 encounter (Rev 19:19). This return is the last part of the campaign against the nations. It likely is the same winepress event that occurs in the Valley of Jehoshaphat, which is near the Mt. of Olives, as prophesied in ...

Joel 3:12-14 (emphasis added, ESV):

12 Let the nations stir themselves up and come up to the Valley of Jehoshaphat; for there I will sit to judge all the surrounding nations. 13 Put in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe. Go in, tread, for the winepress is full. The vats overflow, for their evil is great. 14 Multitudes, multitudes, in the valley of decision! For the day of the LORD is near in the valley of decision.

So there is more than one "winepress" trodding being done at different locations/times during the events leading up to the millennial reign. Isaiah 63 refers to one in Edom, whereas Joel 3 refers to one in the Valley of Jehoshaphat.

Conclusion

In Revelation 19, Christ is pictured as already having started His judgment upon the nations (which is why His robe is already dipped in blood). Isaiah 63 answers the "where" and "how" His garments became bloodied—in the judgment done in Edom. Then Joel 3 and Zech 14 prophesy of the same event as Rev 19, which is not in Edom, but near Jerusalem in the Valley of Jehoshaphat, but is another winepress trodding event during Christ's second coming ²

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NOTES

¹ For some discussion of this, see Dwight Pentecost, Things to Come: A Study in Biblical Eschatology (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1964), ch. 5 titled "The Campaign of Armageddon"; Arnold G. Fruchtenbaum, "The Little Apocalypse of Zechariah" in The End Times Controversy: The Second Coming Under Attack, Tim Lahaye and Thomas Ice, eds. (Eugene, OR: Harvest House Publishers, 2003), 251-281. Note that there are slight variations of opinion among Dispensationalists in synchronizing prophetic events, but a general consensus on a multi-stage aspect to Christ's second coming.

² As I noted in a comment and am adding here for clarity, the Rev 14:19 gathering into the winepress is probably a reference to the gathering in general (to various locations—at least Edom and Valley of Jehoshaphat), though I believe 14:20 is probably a reference more directly to the final event in the valley (thus forecasting Rev 19 events).

Answer 6

Revelation 19:13 is not a description of Jesus in quite the way people are perceiving. Jesus does not come back to execute his own judgement and wrath. Jesus comes back as God's divinely anointed shalliah (agent) to execute YHWH's judgment and wrath. Isaiah 63:3-6 makes it clear that it is YHWH's judgement and wrath. Jesus is the agent YHWH uses to execute his judgement and wrath. Remember Jesus words? "It is the Father doing his works in me and I can do nothing on my own."

Jesus is not God YHWH. Jesus is the exalted and glorified human messiah that was procreated (begotten, born, fathered) by YHWH in the womb of Mary.

The title:"The Word of God" is figurative. It cannot be applied literally to Jesus anymore than the figurative title "the Lamb of God" can be applied to Jesus literally. Jesus is not a literal lamb, and Jesus is not the literal Word of God. God's word is His word. His word is His attribute and possession, not a person.

Revelation 19:13 cannot be used as a proof text to support the view that Jesus is the literal word of God in John's prologue. The word of God did not become the flesh of Jesus. John 1:14 is correctly translated "and the word CAME TO(egeneto) HUMANITY(sarx) and dwelt IN US(en hemin), and we experienced the glory of it working in our hearts and minds, the same glory we saw working in Jesus, the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.

You have all been duped by Philo.

Answer 7

Biblical Jewish marriage custom called for the groom to display the bloody sheet from the marriage bed when the marriage is consummated. The Heavenly couple (Jesus and Church) have consummated their marriage prior to judgment, so perhaps the bloody sheet symbolizes the virgin Bride.

Answer 8

The details are all presented in Is: 63. The key is in Rev 16:15 when completely out of context we hear "behold I come as a thief" and by the way you better be dressed and ready for me. Yes, Jesus is spattered and covered in blood from Is:63 but everyone is confused because we have been taught to believe (many rapture believers anyway) that Jesus shows up in the air to rapture the church and then to return on the white horse later after the big battle begins.

Here is the key. 1.Rapture, 2.unannounced thief (steal, kill, destroy) and then later still bloody from the Edom battle 3.the return on the white horse. Three appearances, two announced. One where the Prophet Isaiah doesn't even recognize Jesus? Who is Jesus warning to keep their clothes on and why? It is know that the remnant were told to escape to the wilderness where they are protected for 3.5 years. It seems logical that after that amount of time the anti-christ is ready to wipe them off the face of the earth with that demon inspired army of his. Jesus is pulling a one-man special forces assault against unbelievable odds to steal his remnant away from Satan perhaps at Petra? A thief steals, kills and destroys which is hard to picture Jesus as a thief. Unless he is doing that to save his peeps.

My retired investigator brain asks "how big would someone have to be to literally trample people to death by the hundreds if not thousands?" The old winepresses were a group of people trampling the grapes in a wooden vat with bare feet. This is one mighty individual trampling enough folks to get to his remnant and rescue them. If he returned in a 100 to 120 foot tall frame with a 10 foot long foot weighing tons the task would be possible. A 6 foot tall man could not inflict the trampling or would take weeks to stomp each combatant enough.

Finally, When he returns on the white horse with all the saints it is clear that visual impact is stunning to the world. Owning and riding equines my whole life I can tell you at even a half mile distance a horse and rider are small. Think of jets flying over at altitude. Think of how tiny planes become at the heights they fly. Think outside the box and in the literal word. The great sign of the woman clothed in the sun is 9-23-17 I suggest we all get ready to saddle up.