Revelation 11:11-12

11:11 But ¹  after three and a half days a breath of life from God entered them, and they stood on their feet, and tremendous fear seized ²  those who were watching them. 11:12 Then ³  they ⁴  heard a loud voice from heaven saying to them: “Come up here!” So the two prophets ⁵  went up to heaven in a cloud while ⁶  their enemies stared at them.

Revelation 12:11

12:11 But ⁷  they overcame him

by the blood of the Lamb

and by the word of their testimony,

and they did not love their lives ⁸  so much that they were afraid to die.

Revelation 13:14--14:5

13:14 and, by the signs he was permitted to perform on behalf of the beast, he deceived those who live on the earth. He told ⁹  those who live on the earth to make an image to the beast who had been wounded by the sword, but still lived. 13:15 The second beast ¹⁰  was empowered ¹¹  to give life ¹²  to the image of the first beast ¹³  so that it could speak, and could cause all those who did not worship the image of the beast to be killed. 13:16 He also caused ¹⁴  everyone (small and great, rich and poor, free and slave ¹⁵ ) to obtain a mark on their right hand or on their forehead. 13:17 Thus no one was allowed to buy ¹⁶  or sell things ¹⁷  unless he bore ¹⁸  the mark of the beast – that is, his name or his number. ¹⁹  13:18 This calls for wisdom: ²⁰  Let the one who has insight calculate the beast’s number, for it is man’s number, ²¹  and his number is 666. ²² 

An Interlude: The Song of the 144,000

14:1 Then ²³  I looked, and here was ²⁴  the Lamb standing on Mount Zion, and with him were one hundred and forty-four thousand, who had his name and his Father’s name written on their foreheads. 14:2 I also heard a sound ²⁵  coming out of heaven like the sound of many waters and like the sound of loud thunder. Now ²⁶  the sound I heard was like that made by harpists playing their harps, 14:3 and they were singing a new song before the throne and before the four living creatures and the elders. No ²⁷  one was able to learn the song except the one hundred and forty-four thousand who had been redeemed from the earth.

14:4 These are the ones who have not defiled themselves ²⁸  with women, for they are virgins. These are the ones who follow the Lamb wherever he goes. These were redeemed from humanity as firstfruits to God and to the Lamb, 14:5 and no lie was found on their lips; ²⁹  they ³⁰  are blameless.

[11:11]  ¹ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “but” to indicate the contrast present in this context.

[11:11]  ² tn Grk “fell upon.”

[11:12]  ³ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence of events within the vision.

[11:12]  ⁴ tn Though the nearest antecedent to the subject of ἤκουσαν (hkousan) is the people (“those who were watching them”), it could also be (based on what immediately follows) that the two prophets are the ones who heard the voice.

[11:12]  ⁵ tn Grk “they”; the referent (the two prophets) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[11:12]  ⁶ tn The conjunction καί (kai) seems to be introducing a temporal clause contemporaneous in time with the preceding clause.

[12:11]  ⁷ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “but” to indicate the contrast.

[12:11]  ⁸ sn They did not love their lives. See Matt 16:25; Luke 17:33; John 12:25.

[13:14]  ⁹ tn Grk “earth, telling.” This is a continuation of the previous sentence in Greek.

[13:15]  ¹⁰ tn Grk “it”; the referent (the second beast) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[13:15]  ¹¹ tn Grk “it was given [permitted] to it [the second beast].”

[13:15]  ¹² 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]  ¹³ tn Grk “of the beast”; the word “first” has been supplied to specify the referent.

[13:16]  ¹⁴ tn Or “forced”; Grk “makes” (ποιεῖ, poiei).

[13:16]  ¹⁵ tn See the note on the word “servants” in 1:1.

[13:17]  ¹⁶ tn Grk “and that no one be able to buy or sell.” Because of the length and complexity of the Greek sentence, a new sentence was started here in the translation. Although the ἵνα (Jina) is left untranslated, the English conjunction “thus” is used to indicate that this is a result clause.

[13:17]  ¹⁷ tn The word “things” is not in the Greek text, but is implied. Direct objects were frequently omitted in Greek when clear from the context. In the context of buying and selling, food could be primarily in view, but the more general “things” was used in the translation because the context is not specific.

[13:17]  ¹⁸ tn Grk “except the one who had.”

[13:17]  ¹⁹ tn Grk “his name or the number of his name.”

[13:18]  ²⁰ tn Grk “Here is wisdom.”

[13:18]  ²¹ tn Grk “it is man’s number.” ExSyn 254 states “if ἀνθρώπου is generic, then the sense is, ‘It is [the] number of humankind.’ It is significant that this construction fits Apollonius’ Canon (i.e., both the head noun and the genitive are anarthrous), suggesting that if one of these nouns is definite, then the other is, too. Grammatically, those who contend that the sense is ‘it is [the] number of a man’ have the burden of proof on them (for they treat the head noun, ἀριθμός, as definite and the genitive, ἀνθρώπου, as indefinite – the rarest of all possibilities). In light of Johannine usage, we might also add Rev 16:18, where the Seer clearly uses the anarthrous ἄνθρωπος in a generic sense, meaning ‘humankind.’ The implications of this grammatical possibility, exegetically speaking, are simply that the number ‘666’ is the number that represents humankind. Of course, an individual is in view, but his number may be the number representing all of humankind. Thus the Seer might be suggesting here that the antichrist, who is the best representative of humanity without Christ (and the best counterfeit of a perfect man that his master, that old serpent, could muster), is still less than perfection (which would have been represented by the number seven).” See G. K. Beale, Revelation, [NIGTC], 723-24, who argues for the “generic” understanding of the noun; for an indefinite translation, see the ASV and ESV which both translate the clause as “it is the number of a man.”

[13:18]  ²² tc A few mss (̹¹⁵ C, along with a few mss known to Irenaeus {and two minuscule mss, 5 and 11, no longer extant}), read 616 here, and several other witnesses have other variations. Irenaeus’ mention of mss that have 616 is balanced by his rejection of such witnesses in this case. As intriguing as the reading 616 is (since the conversion of Nero Caesar’s name in Latin by way of gematria would come out to 616), it must remain suspect because such a reading seems motivated in that it conforms more neatly to Nero’s gematria.

[14:1]  ²³ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence within the narrative.

[14:1]  ²⁴ tn The phrase “and here was” expresses the sense of καὶ ἰδού (kai idou).

[14:2]  ²⁵ tn Or “a voice” (cf. Rev 1:15), but since in this context nothing is mentioned as the content of the voice, it is preferable to translate φωνή (fwnh) as “sound” here.

[14:2]  ²⁶ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “now” to indicate the introduction of a new topic.

[14:3]  ²⁷ tn Grk “elders, and no one.” This is a continuation of the previous sentence in the Greek text, but because of the length and complexity of the sentence a new sentence was started here in the translation.

[14:4]  ²⁸ tn The aorist passive verb is rendered as a reflexive (“defiled themselves”) by BDAG 657 s.v. μολύνω 2.

[14:5]  ²⁹ tn Grk “in their mouth was not found a lie.”

[14:5]  ³⁰ tc Several mss (Ì⁴⁷ א 1 1006 1611 2351 Ï^K pc) have the conjunction “for” (γάρ, gar) here so that the phrase reads: “for they are blameless.” Other important mss (A C P 1854 2053 al lat) lack the word. The shorter reading is to be preferred since the scribes were more likely to make the connection explicit through the addition of “for” than they would have been to omit the conjunction. As it is, the passage without the conjunction makes good sense and evokes a very somber tone.