The scene that greets John when the fifth seal is broken is at the altar, and the saints are “underneath the altar.” When John ascended to heaven in the Spirit, he did not see an altar in the heavenly sanctuary. There was a throne (ark) and a lampstand and a sea, but no table and no altar. The reason the altar is missing is because it is not a heavenly item; heaven is the throne room, the heavenly equivalent of the Holy Place and Most Holy Place. There is no altar, but rather the Lamb ascends from the altar of the earth to the heavens. But the altar is on the earth, which is where martyr blood has been poured out. They are sacrifices, slain ( esphagmenon ) as the Lamb was slain ( esphagmenon ; 6:9; cf. 5:6)

The altar that John sees here links to the bronze altar in the court of the tabernacle and temple, and the place “under” the altar is a significant location for the sacrificial system. In various offerings, blood is poured out at the base of the altar after being sprinkled on other parts of the altar (Exodus 29:12; Leviticus 4:1-7, 18, 25, 30, 34; 5:9). There was perhaps a trench around the altar to catch this blood, as with Elijah’s altar on Mount Carmel (1 Kings 18:32, 35). The Hebrew word is ?????, which means foundation in other passages. It is the foundation of a city in Psalm 137:7 and Lamentation 4:11 and Micah 1:6. It is a foundation of a wall or house in Ezekiel 13:14. A related word ??? is a common word for found or foundation for houses, cities, the earth, the mountains. The altar, which has a foundation, is like a house, a mountain, a temple, a city.

The offerings that require blood to be poured out at the base of the altar are sin offerings. In that offering, blood is smeared on the horns of the altar, sometimes on the horns of the golden altar of incense, and then the remainder is poured out at the base of the altar. The sin offering is the first offering in a sequence of offerings, and it cleanses the furniture and opens up a path of blood into God’s presence. First you offer a sin offering, with blood coming down from above on the horns all the way down to the base. The sin or purification offering opens the doors that allow an ascension offering to go into the presence of God and then a peace offering that involves a meal between Yahweh and His people.

The saints are at the base of the altar, where the blood goes. The life is in the blood; literally in Hebrew, the “soul” ( nephesh ) is in the blood, and now we see “souls” ( tas psuchas ) of the martyrs under the altar. They are under the altar because that is where their life-blood has been spilled. The picture fits the sin offering. And that means that the blood of the saints begins to open a path into the Lord’s presence, a path of ascent. The blood of the martyrs has perhaps prepared the path for the Lamb’s ascent. It has also prepared the way for their own ascent. They are expecting that, but their blood has been poured out long ago and they are still awaiting ascent.

Think about this concretely: These are martyrs whose blood has been shed on the land. Enemies of God, enemies of the faithful, have put them to death, so that their blood makes the foundation of the world. The world is built on the blood of the righteous. They sacrifice the saints for their own wicked purposes, but those wicked purposes are being undone. Because the world is God’s altar, and the blood of the saints is the blood at the base that prepares the way for an ascent to God. In other words, martyrdom is indefeasible: It is intended as a sacrifice that destroys the church, but in fact it turns out to be a sacrifice that cracks open the foundations of the world that is built on their blood and opens pathways of ascent.