Revelation 20:1-3

The Thousand Year Reign

20:1 Then ¹  I saw an angel descending from heaven, holding ²  in his hand the key to the abyss and a huge chain. 20:2 He ³  seized the dragon – the ancient serpent, who is the devil and Satan – and tied him up for a thousand years. 20:3 The angel ⁴  then ⁵  threw him into the abyss and locked ⁶  and sealed it so that he could not deceive the nations until the one thousand years were finished. (After these things he must be released for a brief period of time.)

Ephesians 2:2

2:2 in which ⁷  you formerly lived ⁸  according to this world’s present path, ⁹  according to the ruler of the kingdom ¹⁰  of the air, the ruler of ¹¹  the spirit ¹²  that is now energizing ¹³  the sons of disobedience, ¹⁴ 

Ephesians 6:12

6:12 For our struggle ¹⁵  is not against flesh and blood, ¹⁶  but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world rulers of this darkness, ¹⁷  against the spiritual forces ¹⁸  of evil in the heavens. ¹⁹ 

[20:1]  ¹ tn Grk “And.” Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence within the narrative.

[20:1]  ² tn The word “holding” is implied. The two clauses “having the key of the abyss” and “a huge chain in his hand” can be construed in two ways: (1) both are controlled by the participle ἔχοντα (econta) and both are modified by the phrase “in his hand” – “having in his hand the key to the abyss and a huge chain.” (2) The participle ἔχοντα refers only to the key, and the phrase “in his hand” refers only to the chain – “having the key of the abyss and holding a huge chain in his hand.” Because of the stylistic tendency in Rev to use the verb ἔχω (ecw) to mean “hold (something)” and the phrase “in his hand” forming a “bracket” along with the verb ἔχω around both the phrases in question, the first option is preferred.

[20:2]  ³ tn Here καί (kai) has not been translated because of differences between Greek and English style.

[20:3]  ⁴ tn Grk “he”; the referent (the angel introduced in v. 1) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[20:3]  ⁵ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence of events within the vision.

[20:3]  ⁶ tn Or “and shut.” While the lexical force of the term is closer to “shut,” it is acceptable to render the verb ἔκλεισεν (ekleisen) as “locked” here in view of the mention of the key in the previous verse.

[2:2]  ⁷ sn The relative pronoun which is feminine as is sins, indicating that sins is the antecedent.

[2:2]  ⁸ tn Grk “walked.”

[2:2]  ⁹ tn Or possibly “Aeon.”

[2:2]  ¹⁰ tn Grk “domain, [place of] authority.”

[2:2]  ¹¹ tn Grk “of” (but see the note on the word “spirit” later in this verse).

[2:2]  ¹² sn The ruler of the kingdom of the air is also the ruler of the spirit that is now energizing the sons of disobedience. Although several translations regard the ruler to be the same as the spirit, this is unlikely since the cases in Greek are different (ruler is accusative and spirit is genitive). To get around this, some have suggested that the genitive for spirit is a genitive of apposition. However, the semantics of the genitive of apposition are against such an interpretation (cf. ExSyn 100).

[2:2]  ¹³ tn Grk “working in.”

[2:2]  ¹⁴ sn Sons of disobedience is a Semitic idiom that means “people characterized by disobedience.” However, it also contains a subtle allusion to vv. 4-10: Some of those sons of disobedience have become sons of God.

[6:12]  ¹⁵ tn BDAG 752 s.v. πάλη says, “struggle against…the opponent is introduced by πρός w. the acc.”

[6:12]  ¹⁶ tn Grk “blood and flesh.”

[6:12]  ¹⁷ tn BDAG 561 s.v. κοσμοκράτωρ suggests “the rulers of this sinful world” as a gloss.

[6:12]  ¹⁸ tn BDAG 837 s.v. πνευματικός 3 suggests “the spirit-forces of evil” in Ephesians 6:12.

[6:12]  ¹⁹ sn The phrase spiritual forces of evil in the heavens serves to emphasize the nature of the forces which oppose believers as well as to indicate the locality from which they originate.