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 2:14

2:14 But I have a few things against you: You have some people there who follow the teaching of Balaam, ⁶  who instructed Balak to put a stumbling block ⁷  before the people ⁸  of Israel so they would eat food sacrificed to idols and commit sexual immorality. ⁹ 

Revelation 5:8

5:8 and when he had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders threw themselves to the ground ¹⁰  before the Lamb. Each ¹¹  of them had a harp and golden bowls full of incense (which are the prayers of the saints). ¹² 

Revelation 8:3

8:3 Another ¹³  angel holding ¹⁴  a golden censer ¹⁵  came and was stationed ¹⁶  at the altar. A ¹⁷  large amount of incense was given to him to offer up, with the prayers of all the saints, on the golden altar that is before the throne.

Revelation 12:4

12:4 Now ¹⁸  the dragon’s ¹⁹  tail swept away a third of the stars in heaven and hurled them to the earth. Then ²⁰  the dragon stood before the woman who was about to give birth, so that he might devour her child as soon as it was born.

Revelation 12:10

12:10 Then ²¹  I heard a loud voice in heaven saying,

“The salvation and the power

and the kingdom of our God,

and the ruling authority ²²  of his Christ, ²³  have now come,

because the accuser of our brothers and sisters, ²⁴ 

the one who accuses them day and night ²⁵  before our God,

has been thrown down.

Revelation 20:12

20:12 And I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne. Then ²⁶  books were opened, and another book was opened – the book of life. ²⁷  So ²⁸  the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to their deeds. ²⁹ 

---

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

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.

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

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).

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.”

⁶ sn See Num 22-24; 31:16.

⁷ tn That is, a cause for sinning. An alternate translation is “who instructed Balak to cause the people of Israel to sin by eating food sacrificed to idols…”

⁸ tn Grk “sons,” but the expression υἱοὶ ᾿Ισραήλ (Juioi Israhl) is an idiom for the people of Israel as an ethnic entity (see L&N 11.58).

⁹ tn Due to the actual events in the OT (Num 22-24; 31:16), πορνεῦσαι (porneusai) is taken to mean “sexual immorality.” BDAG 854 s.v. πορνεύω 1 states, “engage in illicit sex, to fornicate, to whore…W. φαγεῖν εἰδωλόθυτα ‘eat meat offered to idols’ Rv 2:14, 20.”

¹⁰ tn Grk “fell down.” BDAG 815 s.v. πίπτω 1.b.α.ב. has “fall down, throw oneself to the ground as a sign of devotion or humility, before high-ranking persons or divine beings.”

¹¹ tn Because of the length and complexity of the Greek sentence, a new sentence was started here in the translation.

¹² sn This interpretive comment by the author forms a parenthesis in the narrative.

¹³ tn Here καί (kai) has not been translated because of differences between Greek and English style.

¹⁴ tn Grk “having.”

¹⁵ sn A golden censer was a bowl in which incense was burned. The imagery suggests the OT role of the priest.

¹⁶ tn The verb “to station” was used to translate ἑστάθη (Jestaqh) because it connotes the idea of purposeful arrangement in English, which seems to be the idea in the Greek.

¹⁷ tn Because of the length and complexity of the Greek sentence, a new sentence was started here in the translation. Here καί (kai) has not been translated because of differences between Greek and English style.

¹⁸ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “now” to indicate that this remark is virtually parenthetical.

¹⁹ tn Grk “its”; the referent (the dragon) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

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

²¹ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence of events within the vision.

²² tn Or “the right of his Messiah to rule.” See L&N 37.35.

²³ tn Or “Messiah”; both “Christ” (Greek) and “Messiah” (Hebrew and Aramaic) mean “one who has been anointed.”

²⁴ tn Grk “brothers,” but the Greek word may be used for “brothers and sisters” or “fellow Christians” (cf. BDAG 18 s.v. ἀδελφός 1, where considerable nonbiblical evidence for the plural ἀδελφοί [adelfoi] meaning “brothers and sisters” is cited). The translation “fellow believer” would normally apply (L&N 11.23), but since the speaker(s) are not specified in this context, it is not clear if such a translation would be appropriate here. The more generic “brothers and sisters” was chosen to emphasize the fact of a relationship without specifying its type.

²⁵ tn Or “who accuses them continually.”

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

²⁷ tn Grk “another book was opened, which is of life.”

²⁸ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “so” to indicate the implied result of the books being opened.

²⁹ tn Grk “from the things written in the books according to their works.”