Who is speaking in Revelation 19:5 and what are the implications of identifying the speaker?

Question

Revelation 19:5 (ASV):

And a voice came forth from the throne, saying, Give praise to our God, all ye his servants, ye that fear him, the small and the great.

I've been reading and re-reading Revelation recently and many interesting things are popping out at me that I don't recall from previous studies. This is one of them.

I looked through some commentaries and it seems to me that the minority identify Christ as the speaker here. The majority seem hesitant make the same identification. In fact, most just leave the speaker unidentified.

I'm wondering if this is because there just aren't enough contextual clues or because of some bigger reason?

I think that contextually we can determine who the speaker is NOT: God the Father.

But that leaves a host of other options.

Answer 1

There are suggestions in Revelation that the throne is jointly occupied by Father and Son.

"He who conquers, I will grant him to sit with me on my throne, as I myself conquered and sat down with my Father on his throne" (ch3 v21, RSV).

In ch21 v3 we hear again the "voice from the throne" that you've noticed, again speaking about God; "Behold, the dwelling of God is with men".

In ch22 v1, the water of life is flowing "from the throne of God and of the Lamb", and this expression is repeated in v3.

It seems to me that this ambiguity is Revelation's way of expressing the doctrine of the Incarnation.

Perhaps we ought to leave it as "This voice is expressing what God wants us to hear" without trying to pin things down more closely than that.