Wahyu 12:17

12:17 So ¹  the dragon became enraged at the woman and went away to make war on the rest of her children, ²  those who keep ³  God’s commandments and hold to ⁴  the testimony about Jesus. ⁵  (12:18) And the dragon ⁶  stood ⁷  on the sand ⁸  of the seashore. ⁹ 

Wahyu 13:7

13:7 The beast ¹⁰  was permitted to go to war against the saints and conquer them. ¹¹  He was given ruling authority ¹²  over every tribe, people, ¹³  language, and nation,

[12:17]  ¹ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “so” to indicate the implied result of the woman’s escape.

[12:17]  ² tn Grk “her seed” (an idiom for offspring, children, or descendants).

[12:17]  ³ tn Or “who obey.”

[12:17]  ⁴ tn Grk “and having.”

[12:17]  ⁵ tn Grk “the testimony of Jesus,” which may involve a subjective genitive (“Jesus’ testimony”) or, more likely, an objective genitive (“testimony about Jesus”).

[12:17]  ⁶ tn Grk “he”; the referent (the dragon) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[12:17]  ⁷ 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.”

[12:17]  ⁸ tn Or “sandy beach” (L&N 1.64).

[12:17]  ⁹ 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.

[13:7]  ¹⁰ tn Grk “and it was given to him to go to war.” Here the passive construction has been simplified, the referent (the beast) has been specified for clarity, and καί (kai) has not been translated because of differences between Greek and English style.

[13:7]  ¹¹ tc Many mss omit the phrase “it was given to make war with the saints and to overcome them” (Ì⁴⁷ A C 2053 Ï^A sa). It is, however, found in Ì^115vid א 051 1006 (1611) 1841 (1854) 2329 2344 2351 (Ï^K) lat sy^ph,(h) bo. Although the ms evidence is somewhat in favor of the shorter reading, the support of ̹¹⁵ (a recently-discovered ms) for the longer reading balances things out. Normally, the shorter reading should be given preference. However, in an instance in which homoioteleuton could play a role, caution must be exercised. In this passage, accidental omission is quite likely. That this could have happened seems apparent from the two occurrences of the identical phrase “and it was given to him” (καὶ ἐδόθη αὐτῷ, kai edoqh autw) in v. 7. The scribe’s eye skipped over the first καὶ ἐδόθη αὐτῷ and went to the second, hence creating an accidental omission of eleven words.

[13:7]  ¹² tn For the translation “ruling authority” for ἐξουσία (exousia) see L&N 37.35.

[13:7]  ¹³ tn Grk “and people,” but καί (kai) has not been translated here or before the following term since English normally uses a coordinating conjunction only between the last two elements in a series of three or more.