Revelation 12:10

12:10 Then ¹  I heard a loud voice in heaven saying,

“The salvation and the power

and the kingdom of our God,

and the ruling authority ²  of his Christ, ³  have now come,

because the accuser of our brothers and sisters, ⁴ 

the one who accuses them day and night ⁵  before our God,

has been thrown down.

Revelation 12:15-17

12:15 Then ⁶  the serpent spouted water like a river out of his mouth after the woman in an attempt to ⁷  sweep her away by a flood, 12:16 but ⁸  the earth came to her rescue; ⁹  the ground opened up ¹⁰  and swallowed the river that the dragon had spewed from his mouth. 12:17 So ¹¹  the dragon became enraged at the woman and went away to make war on the rest of her children, ¹²  those who keep ¹³  God’s commandments and hold to ¹⁴  the testimony about Jesus. ¹⁵  (12:18) And the dragon ¹⁶  stood ¹⁷  on the sand ¹⁸  of the seashore. ¹⁹ 

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¹ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence of events within the vision.

² tn Or “the right of his Messiah to rule.” See L&N 37.35.

³ tn Or “Messiah”; both “Christ” (Greek) and “Messiah” (Hebrew and Aramaic) mean “one who has been anointed.”

⁴ 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.

⁵ tn Or “who accuses them continually.”

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

⁷ tn Grk “so that he might make her swept away.”

⁸ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “but” to indicate the contrast present here.

⁹ tn Grk “the earth helped the woman.”

¹⁰ tn Grk “the earth opened its mouth” (a metaphor for the ground splitting open).

¹¹ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “so” to indicate the implied result of the woman’s escape.

¹² tn Grk “her seed” (an idiom for offspring, children, or descendants).

¹³ tn Or “who obey.”

¹⁴ tn Grk “and having.”

¹⁵ tn Grk “the testimony of Jesus,” which may involve a subjective genitive (“Jesus’ testimony”) or, more likely, an objective genitive (“testimony about Jesus”).

¹⁶ tn Grk “he”; the referent (the dragon) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

¹⁷ tc Grk ἐστάθη (estaqh, “he stood”). The reading followed by the translation is attested by the better mss (Ì⁴⁷ א A C 1854 2344 2351 pc lat sy^h) while the majority of mss (051 Ï vg^mss sy^ph co) have the reading ἐστάθην (estaqhn, “I stood”). Thus, the majority of mss make the narrator, rather than the dragon of 12:17, the subject of the verb. The first person reading is most likely an assimilation to the following verb in 13:1, “I saw.” The reading “I stood” was introduced either by accident or to produce a smoother flow, giving the narrator a vantage point on the sea’s edge from which to observe the beast rising out of the sea in 13:1. But almost everywhere else in the book, the phrase καὶ εἶδον (kai eidon, “and I saw”) marks a transition to a new vision, without reference to the narrator’s activity. On both external and internal grounds, it is best to adopt the third person reading, “he stood.”

¹⁸ tn Or “sandy beach” (L&N 1.64).

¹⁹ sn The standard critical texts of the Greek NT, NA²⁷ and UBS⁴, both include this sentence as 12:18, as do the RSV and NRSV. Other modern translations like the NASB and NIV include the sentence at the beginning of 13:1; in these versions chap. 12 has only 17 verses.