Revelation 5:5

5:5 Then ¹  one of the elders said ²  to me, “Stop weeping! ³  Look, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the root of David, has conquered; ⁴  thus he can open ⁵  the scroll and its seven seals.”

Revelation 6:1

The Seven Seals

6:1 I looked on when the Lamb opened one of the seven seals, and I heard one of the four living creatures saying with a thunderous voice, ⁶  “Come!” ⁷ 

Revelation 9:2

9:2 He ⁸  opened the shaft of the abyss and smoke rose out of it ⁹  like smoke from a giant furnace. The ¹⁰  sun and the air were darkened with smoke from the shaft.

Revelation 9:18

9:18 A third of humanity was killed by these three plagues, that is, ¹¹  by the fire, the smoke, and the sulfur that came out of their mouths.

Revelation 15:8

15:8 and the temple was filled with smoke from God’s glory and from his power. Thus ¹²  no one could enter the temple until the seven plagues from the seven angels were completed.

Revelation 16:21

16:21 And gigantic hailstones, weighing about a hundred pounds ¹³  each, fell from heaven ¹⁴  on people, ¹⁵  but they ¹⁶  blasphemed God because of the plague of hail, since it ¹⁷  was so horrendous. ¹⁸ 

Revelation 17:6

17:6 I saw that the woman was drunk with the blood of the saints and the blood of those who testified to Jesus. ¹⁹  I ²⁰  was greatly astounded ²¹  when I saw her.

Revelation 18:3

18:3 For all the nations ²²  have fallen ²³  from

the wine of her immoral passion, ²⁴ 

and the kings of the earth have committed sexual immorality with her,

and the merchants of the earth have gotten rich from the power of her sensual behavior.” ²⁵ 

Revelation 19:21

19:21 The ²⁶  others were killed by the sword that extended from the mouth of the one who rode the horse, and all the birds gorged ²⁷  themselves with their flesh.

¹ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence within the narrative.

² tn Grk “says” (a historical present).

³ tn The present imperative with μή (mh) is used here to command cessation of an action in progress (ExSyn 724 lists this verse as an example).

⁴ tn Or “has been victorious”; traditionally, “has overcome.”

⁵ tn The infinitive has been translated as an infinitive of result here.

⁶ tn Grk “saying like a voice [or sound] of thunder.”

⁷ tc The addition of “and see” (καὶ ἴδε or καὶ βλέπε [kai ide or kai blepe]) to “come” (ἔρχου, ercou) in 6:1, 3-5, 7 is a gloss directed to John, i.e., “come and look at the seals and the horsemen!” But the command ἔρχου is better interpreted as directed to each of the horsemen. The shorter reading also has the support of the better witnesses.

¹¹ tn Here καί (kai) has not been translated because of differences between Greek and English style.

¹² tn Grk “the shaft,” but since this would be somewhat redundant in English, the pronoun “it” is used here.

¹³ tn Here καί (kai) has not been translated because of differences between Greek and English style.

¹⁶ tn The phrase ἐκ τοῦ πυρὸς καὶ τοῦ καπνοῦ καὶ τοῦ θείου τοῦ ἐκπορευομένου ἐκ τῶν στομάτων αὐτῶν (“by the fire, the smoke, and the sulfur that came out of their mouths”) is taken as epexegetical (explanatory) to the phrase τῶν τριῶν πληγῶν τούτων (“these three plagues”).

²¹ tn Grk “power, and no one.” A new sentence was started here in the translation. Here καί (kai) has been translated as “thus” to indicate the implied result of the temple being filled with smoke.

²⁶ tn Here BDAG 988 s.v. ταλαντιαῖος states, “weighing a talent…χάλαζα μεγάλη ὡς ταλαντιαία a severe hailstorm with hailstones weighing a talent (the talent=125 librae, or Roman pounds of c. 343 gr. or 12 ounces each) (weighing about a hundred pounds NRSV) Rv 16:21.” This means each hailstone would weigh just under 100 pounds or 40 kilograms.

²⁷ tn Or “the sky.” Due to the apocalyptic nature of this book, it is probably best to leave the translation as “from heaven,” since God is ultimately the source of the judgment.

²⁸ tn Grk “on men,” but ἄνθρωπος (anqrwpo") is used here in a generic sense to refer to people in general (the hailstones did not single out adult males, but would have also fallen on women and children).

²⁹ tn Grk “the men”; for stylistic reasons the pronoun “they” is used here.

³⁰ tn Grk “the plague of it.”

³¹ tn Grk “since the plague of it was exceedingly great.”

³¹ tn Or “of the witnesses to Jesus.” Here the genitive ᾿Ιησοῦ (Ihsou) is taken as an objective genitive; Jesus is the object of their testimony.

³² tn Here καί (kai) has not been translated because of differences between Greek and English style.

³³ tn Grk “I marveled a great marvel” (an idiom for great astonishment).

³⁶ tn Or “all the Gentiles” (the same Greek word may be translated “Gentiles” or “nations”).

³⁷ tc ‡ Several mss (א A C 1006* 1611 1841 2030 Ï^K), including the best witnesses, read “have fallen” (πεπτώκασιν or πέπτωκαν [peptwkasin or peptwkan]). The singular πέπτωκεν (peptwken), which is better grammatically with the neuter plural subject πάντα τὰ ἔθνη (panta ta eqnh, “all the nations”), is read by 1854 2062 pc; 2042 pc read πεπότικεν (pepotiken). A few mss (1006^c 2329 pc latt sy^h) read “have drunk” (πέπωκαν/πεπώκασιν, pepwkan/pepwkasin); the singular πέπωκεν (pepwken) is read by P 051 1 2053* al. The more difficult reading and that which has the best ms support is “have fallen.” That it is not too difficult is evidenced by the fact that the great majority of Byzantine minuscules, which have a tendency to smooth out problems, left it stand as is. Nonetheless, it is somewhat difficult (TCGNT 683 says that this reading is “scarcely suitable in the context”), and for that reason certain mss seem to have changed it to “have drunk” to agree with the idea of “wine” (οἴνου, oinou). One can understand how this could happen: A scribe coming to the text and seeing the term “wine” expects a verb of drinking. When he sees “have fallen” and knows that in Greek the verbs “have fallen” and “have drunk” are spelled similarly, he concludes that there has been a slip of the pen in the ms he is using, which he then seeks to correct back to the “have drunk” reading. This appears to be more reasonable than to conclude that three early uncials (i.e., א A C) as well as a great number of other witnesses all felt the need to change “have drunk” (πέπωκαν) to “have fallen” (πέπτωκαν), even if “fallen” occurs in the immediate context (“fallen, fallen, [ἔπεσεν ἔπεσεν, epesen epesen] Babylon the great” in the preceding verse). The preferred reading, on both external and internal grounds, is “have fallen,” and thus the Seer intends to focus on the effects of wine, namely, a drunken stupor.

³⁸ tn See the notes on the words “passion” in Rev 14:8 and “wrath” in 16:19.

³⁹ tn According to BDAG 949 s.v. στρῆνος and στρηνιάω, these terms can refer either to luxury or sensuality. In the context of Rev 18, however (as L&N 88.254 indicate) the stress is on gratification of the senses by sexual immorality, so that meaning was emphasized in the translation here.

⁴¹ tn Here καί (kai) has not been translated because of differences between Greek and English style.

⁴² tn On the translation of ἐχορτάσθησαν (ecortasqhsan) BDAG 1087 s.v. χορτάζω 1.a states, “of animals, pass. in act. sense πάντα τὰ ὄρνεα ἐχορτάσθησαν ἐκ τῶν σαρκῶν αὐτῶν all the birds gorged themselves with their flesh Rv 19:21 (cp. TestJud. 21:8).”