Acts 7:56

7:56 “Look!” he said. ¹  “I see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God!”

Ezekiel 1:1

A Vision of God’s Glory

1:1 In the thirtieth year, ²  on the fifth day of the fourth month, while I was among the exiles ³  at the Kebar River, ⁴  the heavens opened ⁵  and I saw a divine vision. ⁶ 

Luke 3:21

The Baptism of Jesus

3:21 Now when ⁷  all the people were baptized, Jesus also was baptized. And while he was praying, ⁸  the heavens ⁹  opened,

John 1:51

1:51 He continued, ¹⁰  “I tell all of you the solemn truth ¹¹  – you will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.” ¹² 

Revelation 4:1

The Amazing Scene in Heaven

4:1 After these things I looked, and there was ¹³  a door standing open in heaven! ¹⁴  And the first voice I had heard speaking to me ¹⁵  like a trumpet ¹⁶  said: “Come up here so that ¹⁷  I can show you what must happen after these things.”

Revelation 11:19

11:19 Then ¹⁸  the temple of God in heaven was opened and the ark of his covenant was visible within his temple. And there were flashes of lightning, roaring, ¹⁹  crashes of thunder, an earthquake, and a great hailstorm. ²⁰ 

Revelation 19:11

The Son of God Goes to War

19:11 Then ²¹  I saw heaven opened and here came ²²  a white horse! The ²³  one riding it was called “Faithful” and “True,” and with justice ²⁴  he judges and goes to war.

[7:56]  ¹ tn Grk “And he said, ‘Look!’” Because of the length of the Greek sentence and the tendency of contemporary English style to use shorter sentences, καί (kai) has not been translated here; a new sentence is begun instead.

[1:1]  ² sn The meaning of the thirtieth year is problematic. Some take it to mean the age of Ezekiel when he prophesied (e.g., Origen). The Aramaic Targum explains the thirtieth year as the thirtieth year dated from the recovery of the book of the Torah in the temple in Jerusalem (2 Kgs 22:3-9). The number seems somehow to be equated with the fifth year of Jehoiachin’s exile in 1:2, i.e., 593 b.c.

[1:1]  ³ sn The Assyrians started the tactic of deportation, the large-scale forced displacement of conquered populations, in order to stifle rebellions. The task of uniting groups of deportees, gaining freedom from one’s overlords and returning to retake one’s own country would be considerably more complicated than living in one’s homeland and waiting for an opportune moment to drive out the enemy’s soldiers. The Babylonians adopted this practice also, after defeating the Assyrians. The Babylonians deported Judeans on three occasions. The practice of deportation was reversed by the Persian conquerors of Babylon, who gained favor from their subjects for allowing them to return to their homeland and, as polytheists, sought the favor of the gods of the various countries which had come under their control.

[1:1]  ⁴ sn The Kebar River is mentioned in Babylonian texts from the city of Nippur in the fifth century b.c. It provided artificial irrigation from the Euphrates.

[1:1]  ⁵ sn For the concept of the heavens opened in later literature, see 3 Macc 6:18; 2 Bar. 22:1; T. Levi 5:1; Matt 3:16; Acts 7:56; Rev 19:11.

[1:1]  ⁶ tn Or “saw visions from God.” References to divine visions occur also in Ezek 8:3; 40:2

[3:21]  ⁷ tn Grk “Now it happened that when.” The introductory phrase ἐγένετο (egeneto, “it happened that”), common in Luke (69 times) and Acts (54 times), is redundant in contemporary English and has not been translated.

[3:21]  ⁸ tn Grk “and while Jesus was being baptized and praying.” The first of these participles has been translated as a finite verb to be more consistent with English style.

[3:21]  ⁹ tn Or “the sky”; the Greek word οὐρανός (ouranos) may be translated “sky” or “heaven,” depending on the context. In this context, although the word is singular, the English plural “heavens” connotes the Greek better than the singular “heaven” would, for the singular does not normally refer to the sky.

[1:51]  ¹⁰ tn Grk “and he said to him.”

[1:51]  ¹¹ tn Grk “Truly, truly, I say to you.”

[1:51]  ¹² sn The title Son of Man appears 13 times in John’s Gospel. It is associated especially with the themes of crucifixion (3:14; 8:28), revelation (6:27; 6:53), and eschatological authority (5:27; 9:35). The title as used in John’s Gospel has for its background the son of man figure who appears in Dan 7:13-14 and is granted universal regal authority. Thus for the author, the emphasis in this title is not on Jesus’ humanity, but on his heavenly origin and divine authority.

[4:1]  ¹³ tn Grk “and behold.” The Greek word ἰδού (idou) at the beginning of this statement has not been translated because it has no exact English equivalent here, but adds interest and emphasis (BDAG 468 s.v. 1).

[4:1]  ¹⁴ tn Or “in the sky” (the same Greek word means both “heaven” and “sky”).

[4:1]  ¹⁵ tn Grk “with me.” The translation “with me” implies that John was engaged in a dialogue with the one speaking to him (e.g., Jesus or an angel) when in reality it was a one-sided conversation, with John doing all the listening. For this reason, μετ᾿ ἐμοῦ (met’ emou, “with me”) was translated as “to me.”

[4:1]  ¹⁶ sn The phrase speaking to me like a trumpet refers back to Rev 1:10.

[4:1]  ¹⁷ tn The conjunction καί (kai), much like the vav-consecutive in Hebrew, appears to be introducing a final/purpose clause here rather than a coordinate clause.

[11:19]  ¹⁸ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence on events within the vision.

[11:19]  ¹⁹ tn Or “sounds,” “voices.” It is not entirely clear what this refers to. BDAG 1071 s.v. φωνή 1 states, “In Rv we have ἀστραπαὶ καὶ φωναὶ καὶ βρονταί (cp. Ex 19:16) 4:5; 8:5; 11:19; 16:18 (are certain other sounds in nature thought of here in addition to thunder, as e.g. the roar of the storm?…).”

[11:19]  ²⁰ tn Although BDAG 1075 s.v. χάλαζα gives the meaning “hail” here, it is not clear whether the adjective μεγάλη (megalh) refers to the intensity of the storm or the size of the individual hailstones, or both.

[19:11]  ²¹ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence within the narrative.

[19:11]  ²² tn The phrase “and here came” expresses the sense of καὶ ἰδού (kai idou).

[19:11]  ²³ tn A new sentence was started in the translation at this point and καί (kai) was not translated because of differences between Greek and English style.

[19:11]  ²⁴ tn Or “in righteousness,” but since the context here involves the punishment of the wicked and the vindication of the saints, “justice” was preferred.