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 2:7

2:7 The one who has an ear had better hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who conquers, ⁶  I will permit ⁷  him to eat from the tree of life that is ⁸  in the paradise of God.’ ⁹ 

Revelation 4:5

4:5 From ¹⁰  the throne came out flashes of lightning and roaring ¹¹  and crashes of thunder. Seven flaming torches, which are the seven spirits of God, ¹²  were burning in front of the throne

Revelation 11:11

11:11 But ¹³  after three and a half days a breath of life from God entered them, and they stood on their feet, and tremendous fear seized ¹⁴  those who were watching them.

Revelation 13:15

13:15 The second beast ¹⁵  was empowered ¹⁶  to give life ¹⁷  to the image of the first beast ¹⁸  so that it could speak, and could cause all those who did not worship the image of the beast to be killed.

Revelation 16:14

16:14 For they are the spirits of the demons performing signs who go out to the kings of the earth ¹⁹  to bring them together for the battle that will take place on the great day of God, the All-Powerful. ²⁰ 

Revelation 17:3

17:3 So ²¹  he carried me away in the Spirit ²²  to a wilderness, ²³  and there ²⁴  I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast that was full of blasphemous names and had seven heads and ten horns.

Revelation 18:2

18:2 He ²⁵  shouted with a powerful voice:

“Fallen, fallen, is Babylon the great!

She ²⁶  has become a lair for demons,

a haunt ²⁷  for every unclean spirit,

a haunt for every unclean bird,

a haunt for every unclean and detested beast. ²⁸ 

Revelation 21:10

21:10 So ²⁹  he took me away in the Spirit ³⁰  to a huge, majestic mountain ³¹  and showed me the holy city, Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God.

Revelation 22:6

A Final Reminder

22:6 Then ³²  the angel ³³  said to me, “These words are reliable ³⁴  and true. The Lord, the God of the spirits of the prophets, has sent his angel to show his servants ³⁵  what must happen soon.”

Revelation 22:17

22:17 And the Spirit and the bride say, “Come!” And let the one who hears say: “Come!” And let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who wants it take the water of life free of charge.

[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.”

[2:7]  ⁶ tn Or “who is victorious”; traditionally, “who overcomes.” The pendent dative is allowed to stand in the English translation because it is characteristic of the author’s style in Revelation.

[2:7]  ⁷ tn Or “grant.”

[2:7]  ⁸ tn Or “stands.”

[2:7]  ⁹ tc The omission of “my” (μου, mou) after “God” (θεοῦ, qeou) is well attested, supported by א A C and the Andreas of Caesarea group of Byzantine mss (Ï^A). Its addition in 1611, the Ï^K group, latt, and others, seems to be evidence of a purposeful conforming of the text to 3:2 and the four occurrences of “my God” (θεοῦ μου) in 3:12.

[4:5]  ¹¹ tn Here καί (kai) has not been translated because of differences between Greek and English style.

[4:5]  ¹² 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?…).”

[4:5]  ¹³ sn Some interpret the seven spirits of God as angelic beings, while others see them as a reference to the sevenfold ministry of the Holy Spirit.

[11:11]  ¹⁶ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “but” to indicate the contrast present in this context.

[11:11]  ¹⁷ tn Grk “fell upon.”

[13:15]  ²¹ tn Grk “it”; the referent (the second beast) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[13:15]  ²² tn Grk “it was given [permitted] to it [the second beast].”

[13:15]  ²³ tn Grk “breath,” but in context the point is that the image of the first beast is made to come to life and speak.

[13:15]  ²⁴ tn Grk “of the beast”; the word “first” has been supplied to specify the referent.

[16:14]  ²⁶ tn BDAG 699 s.v. οἰκουμένη 1 states, “the inhabited earth, the world…ὅλη ἡ οἰκ. the whole inhabited earth…Mt 24:14; Ac 11:28; Rv 3:10; 16:14.”

[16:14]  ²⁷ tn On this word BDAG 755 s.v. παντοκράτωρ states, “the Almighty, All-Powerful, Omnipotent (One) only of God…(ὁ) κύριος ὁ θεὸς ὁ π. …Rv 1:8; 4:8; 11:17; 15:3; 16:7; 21:22.”

[17:3]  ³¹ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “so” to indicate the implied result of the angel’s invitation to witness the fate of the prostitute.

[17:3]  ³² tn Or “in the spirit.” “Spirit” could refer either to the Holy Spirit or the human spirit, but in either case John was in “a state of spiritual exaltation best described as a trance” (R. H. Mounce, Revelation [NICNT], 75).

[17:3]  ³³ tn Or “desert.”

[17:3]  ³⁴ tn The word “there” is not in the Greek text, but is supplied for stylistic reasons.

[18:2]  ³⁶ tn Here καί (kai) has not been translated because of differences between Greek and English style

[18:2]  ³⁷ tn Or “It” (the subject is embedded in the verb in Greek; the verb only indicates that it is third person). Since the city has been personified as the great prostitute, the feminine pronoun was used in the translation.

[18:2]  ³⁸ tn Here BDAG 1067 s.v. φυλακή 3 states, “a place where guarding is done, prison…Of the nether world or its place of punishment (πνεῦμα 2 and 4c) 1 Pt 3:19 (BReicke, The Disobedient Spirits and Christian Baptism ’46, 116f). It is in a φ. in the latter sense that Satan will be rendered harmless during the millennium Rv 20:7. The fallen city of Babylon becomes a φυλακή haunt for all kinds of unclean spirits and birds 18:2ab.”

[18:2]  ³⁹ tc There are several problems in this verse. It seems that according to the ms evidence the first two phrases (i.e., “and a haunt for every unclean spirit, and a haunt for every unclean bird” [καὶ φυλακὴ παντὸς πνεύματος ἀκαθάρτου καὶ φυλακὴ παντὸς ὀρνέου ἀκαθάρτου, kai fulakh panto" pneumato" akaqartou kai fulakh panto" orneou akaqartou]) are to be regarded as authentic, though there are some ms discrepancies. The similar beginnings (καὶ φυλακὴ παντός) and endings (ἀκαθάρτου) of each phrase would easily account for some mss omitting one or the other phrase. The third phrase (“a haunt for every unclean animal” [καὶ φυλακὴ παντὸς θηρίου ἀκαθάρτου, kai fulakh panto" qhriou akaqartou]), however, is more problematic since it is missing in several important mss (א C 051 Ï). The passage as a whole, including the third phrase, seems to be an allusion to Isa 13:21 and 34:11. It seems reasonable, in such a case, to assume that since there is good ms evidence to support the third phrase (A 1611 2329 al), it probably dropped out of certain mss because of its similarity to the two preceding clauses. It is the presence of all three phrases in the original that most likely gave rise to the divergent ms evidence extant today.

[21:10]  ⁴¹ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “so” to indicate the implied result of the angel’s invitation.

[21:10]  ⁴² tn Or “in the spirit.” “Spirit” could refer either to the Holy Spirit or the human spirit, but in either case John was in “a state of spiritual exaltation best described as a trance” (R. H. Mounce, Revelation [NICNT], 75).

[21:10]  ⁴³ tn Grk “to a mountain great and high.”

[22:6]  ⁴⁶ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence within the narrative.

[22:6]  ⁴⁷ tn Grk “he”; the referent (the angel mentioned in 21:9, 15; 22:1) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[22:6]  ⁴⁸ tn Grk “faithful.”

[22:6]  ⁴⁹ tn See the note on the word “servants” in 1:1.