Revelation 1:4

1:4 From John, ¹  to the seven churches that are in the province of Asia: ²  Grace and peace to you ³  from “he who is,” ⁴  and who was, and who is still to come, ⁵  and from the seven spirits who are before his throne,

Revelation 1:7

1:7 (Look! He is returning with the clouds, ⁶ 

and every eye will see him,

even ⁷  those who pierced him, ⁸ 

and all the tribes ⁹  on the earth will mourn because ¹⁰  of him.

This will certainly come to pass! ¹¹  Amen.) ¹² 

Revelation 2:5

2:5 Therefore, remember from what high state ¹³  you have fallen and repent! Do ¹⁴  the deeds you did at the first; ¹⁵  if not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place – that is, if you do not repent. ¹⁶ 

Revelation 3:10

3:10 Because you have kept ¹⁷  my admonition ¹⁸  to endure steadfastly, ¹⁹  I will also keep you from the hour of testing that is about to come on the whole world to test those who live on the earth.

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, ²⁰  “Come!” ²¹ 

Revelation 6:5

6:5 Then ²²  when the Lamb opened the third seal I heard the third living creature saying, “Come!” So ²³  I looked, ²⁴  and here came ²⁵  a black horse! The ²⁶  one who rode it ²⁷  had a balance scale ²⁸  in his hand.

Revelation 14:7

14:7 He declared ²⁹  in a loud voice: “Fear God and give him glory, because the hour of his judgment has arrived, and worship the one who made heaven and earth, the sea and the springs of water!”

Revelation 17:1

The Great Prostitute and the Beast

17:1 Then ³⁰  one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls came and spoke to me. ³¹  “Come,” he said, “I will show you the condemnation and punishment ³²  of the great prostitute who sits on many waters,

Revelation 18:10

18:10 They will stand a long way off because they are afraid of her torment, and will say,

“Woe, woe, O great city,

Babylon the powerful city!

For in a single hour your doom ³³  has come!”

[1:4]  ¹ tn Grk “John.” The word “From” is not in the Greek text, but has been supplied to indicate the sender of the letter.

[1:4]  ² tn Grk “Asia”; in the NT this always refers to the Roman province of Asia, made up of about one-third of the west and southwest end of modern Asia Minor. Asia lay to the west of the region of Phrygia and Galatia. The words “the province of” are supplied to indicate to the modern reader that this does not refer to the continent of Asia.

[1:4]  ³ tn It is probable that the ὑμῖν (Jumin) applies to both elements of the greeting, i.e., to both grace and peace.

[1:4]  ⁴ tc The earliest and best mss (Ì^18vid א A C P 2050 al lat sy co) lack the term “God” (θεοῦ, qeou) between “from” (ἀπό, apo) and “he who is” (ὁ ὤν, Jo wn). Its inclusion, as supported by the bulk of the Byzantine witnesses, is clearly secondary and a scribal attempt to achieve two things: (1) to make explicit the referent in the passage, namely, God, and (2) to smooth out the grammar. The preposition “from” in Greek required a noun in the genitive case. But here in Rev 1:4 the words following the preposition “from” (ἀπό) are in another case, i.e., the nominative. There are two principal ways in which to deal with this grammatical anomaly. First, it could be a mistake arising from someone who just did not know Greek very well, or as a Jew, was heavily influenced by a Semitic form of Greek. Both of these unintentional errors are unlikely here. Commenting on this ExSyn 63 argues: “Either of these is doubtful here because (1) such a flagrant misunderstanding of the rudiments of Greek would almost surely mean that the author could not compose in Greek, yet the Apocalypse itself argues against this; (2) nowhere else does the Seer [i.e., John] use a nom. immediately after a preposition (in fact, he uses ἀπό 32 times with the gen. immediately following).” The passage appears to be an allusion to Exod 3:14 (in the LXX) where God refers to himself as “he who is” (ὁ ὤν), the same wording in Greek as here in Rev 1:4. Thus, it appears that John is wanting to leave the divine name untouched (perhaps to allude to God’s immutability, or as a pointer to the Old Testament as the key to unlocking the meaning of this book), irrespective of what it “looks” like grammatically. The translation has placed the “he who is” in quotation marks to indicate to the reader that the syntactical awkwardness is intentional. (For further comments, see ExSyn 63).

[1:4]  ⁵ tn BDAG 106 s.v. ἀπό 5.d states: “The expr. εἰρήνη ἀπὸ ‘ὁ ὢν καὶ ὁ ἦν καὶ ὁ ἐρχόμενος’ Rv 1:4 is quite extraordinary. It may be an interpretation of the name Yahweh already current, or an attempt to show reverence for the divine name by preserving it unchanged, or simply one more of the grammatical peculiarities so frequent in Rv.”

[1:7]  ⁶ sn An allusion to Dan 7:13.

[1:7]  ⁷ tn Here καί (kai) was translated as ascensive.

[1:7]  ⁸ sn An allusion to Zech 12:10.

[1:7]  ⁹ tn In this context, tribes (φυλαί, fulai) could also be translated as “nations” or “peoples” (L&N 11.56).

[1:7]  ¹⁰ tn The conjunction ἐπί (epi) is most likely causal here. The people who crucified him are those of every tribe on the earth and they will mourn because he comes as judge.

[1:7]  ¹¹ tn Grk “Yes, Amen.” The expression “This will certainly come to pass” is an attempt to capture the force of the juxtaposition of the Greek ναί (nai) and the Hebrew ἀμήν (amhn). See L&N 69.1.

[1:7]  ¹² sn These lines are placed in parentheses because they form an aside to the main argument.

[2:5]  ¹¹ tn Grk “from where,” but status is in view rather than physical position. On this term BDAG 838 s.v. πόθεν 1 states, “from what place? from where?…In imagery μνημόνευε πόθεν πέπτωκες remember from what (state) you have fallen Rv 2:5.”

[2:5]  ¹² tn Grk “and do” (a continuation of the previous sentence in the Greek text). For stylistic reasons in English a new sentence was started here in the translation. The repeated mention of repenting at the end of the verse suggests that the intervening material (“do the deeds you did at first”) specifies how the repentance is to be demonstrated.

[2:5]  ¹³ tn Or “you did formerly.”

[2:5]  ¹⁴ tn Although the final clause is somewhat awkward, it is typical of the style of Revelation.

[3:10]  ¹⁶ tn Or “obey.” For the translation of τηρέω (threw) as “obey” see L&N 36.19. In the Greek there is a wordplay: “because you have kept my word…I will keep you,” though the meaning of τηρέω is different each time.

[3:10]  ¹⁷ tn The Greek term λόγον (logon) is understood here in the sense of admonition or encouragement.

[3:10]  ¹⁸ tn Or “to persevere.” Here ὑπομονῆς (Jupomonhs) has been translated as a genitive of reference/respect related to τὸν λόγον (ton logon).

[6:1]  ²¹ tn Grk “saying like a voice [or sound] of thunder.”

[6:1]  ²² 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.

[6:5]  ²⁶ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence of events within the vision.

[6:5]  ²⁷ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “so” to indicate the implied result of the summons by the third creature.

[6:5]  ²⁸ tc The reading “and I looked” (καὶ εἶδον, kai eidon) or some slight variation (e.g., ἶδον, idon) has excellent ms support ({א A C P 1611}) and its omission seems to have come through the mss that have already placed “and look” (καὶ ἴδε or καὶ βλέπε [kai ide or kai blepe]) after the verb “come” (ἔρχου, ercou) in 6:1. Thus, for these copyists it was redundant to add “and I looked” again.

[6:5]  ²⁹ tn The phrase “and here came” expresses the sense of καὶ ἰδού (kai idou).

[6:5]  ³⁰ tn Here καί (kai) has not been translated because of differences between Greek and English style.

[6:5]  ³¹ tn Grk “the one sitting on it.”

[6:5]  ³² sn A balance scale would have been a rod held by a rope in the middle with pans attached to both ends for measuring.

[14:7]  ³¹ tn Grk “people, saying.” In the Greek text this is a continuation of the previous sentence. For the translation of λέγω (legw) as “declare,” see BDAG 590 s.v. 2.e.

[17:1]  ³⁶ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence within the narrative.

[17:1]  ³⁷ 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.”

[17:1]  ³⁸ tn Here one Greek term, κρίμα (krima), has been translated by the two English terms “condemnation” and “punishment.” See BDAG 567 s.v. 4.b, “mostly in an unfavorable sense, of the condemnatory verdict and sometimes the subsequent punishment itself 2 Pt 2:3; Jd 4…τὸ κ. τῆς πόρνης the condemnation and punishment of the prostitute Rv 17:1.”

[18:10]  ⁴¹ tn Or “judgment,” condemnation,” “punishment.” BDAG 569 s.v. κρίσις 1.a.β states, “The word oft. means judgment that goes against a person, condemnation, and the sentence that follows…ἡ κ. σου your judgment Rv 18:10.”