Wahyu 1:5

1:5 and from Jesus Christ – the faithful ¹  witness, ²  the firstborn from among the dead, the ruler over the kings of the earth. To the one who loves us and has set us free ³  from our sins at the cost of ⁴  his own blood

Wahyu 2:22

2:22 Look! I am throwing her onto a bed of violent illness, ⁵  and those who commit adultery with her into terrible suffering, ⁶  unless they repent of her deeds.

Wahyu 3:17

3:17 Because you say, “I am rich and have acquired great wealth, ⁷  and need nothing,” but ⁸  do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, ⁹  poor, blind, and naked,

Wahyu 4:1

The Amazing Scene in Heaven

4:1 After these things I looked, and there was ¹⁰  a door standing open in heaven! ¹¹  And the first voice I had heard speaking to me ¹²  like a trumpet ¹³  said: “Come up here so that ¹⁴  I can show you what must happen after these things.”

Wahyu 4:4

4:4 In ¹⁵  a circle around the throne were twenty-four other thrones, and seated on those thrones were twenty-four elders. They were ¹⁶  dressed in white clothing and had golden crowns ¹⁷  on their heads.

Wahyu 7:3

7:3 “Do not damage the earth or the sea or the trees until we have put a seal on the foreheads of the servants ¹⁸  of our God.”

Wahyu 8:12

8:12 Then ¹⁹  the fourth angel blew his trumpet, and a third of the sun was struck, and a third of the moon, and a third of the stars, so that a third of them were darkened. And there was no light for a third of the day ²⁰  and for a third of the night likewise.

Wahyu 11:8

11:8 Their ²¹  corpses will lie in the street ²²  of the great city that is symbolically ²³  called Sodom and Egypt, where their Lord was also crucified.

Wahyu 13:4

13:4 they worshiped the dragon because he had given ruling authority ²⁴  to the beast, and they worshiped the beast too, saying: “Who is like the beast?” and “Who is able to make war against him?” ²⁵ 

Wahyu 16:21

16:21 And gigantic hailstones, weighing about a hundred pounds ²⁶  each, fell from heaven ²⁷  on people, ²⁸  but they ²⁹  blasphemed God because of the plague of hail, since it ³⁰  was so horrendous. ³¹ 

[1:5]  ¹ tn Or “Jesus Christ – the faithful one, the witness…” Some take ὁ πιστός (Jo pistos) as a second substantive in relation to ὁ μάρτυς (Jo martus). In the present translation, however, ὁ πιστός was taken as an adjective in attributive position to ὁ μάρτυς. The idea of martyrdom and faithfulness are intimately connected. See BDAG 820 s.v. πιστός 1.a.α: “ὁ μάρτυς μου ὁ πιστός μου Rv 2:13 (μάρτυς 3); in this ‘book of martyrs’ Christ is ὁ μάρτυς ὁ πιστὸς (καὶ ὁ ἀληθινός) 1:5; 3:14; cp. 19:11 (the combination of ἀληθινός and πιστός in the last two passages is like 3 Macc 2:11). Cp. Rv 17:14.”

[1:5]  ² sn The Greek term translated witness can mean both “witness” and “martyr.”

[1:5]  ³ tc The reading “set free” (λύσαντι, lusanti) has better ms support (̹⁸ א A C 1611 2050 2329 2351 Ï^A sy) than its rival, λούσαντι (lousanti, “washed”; found in P 1006 1841 1854 2053 2062 Ï^K lat bo). Internally, it seems that the reading “washed” could have arisen in at least one of three ways: (1) as an error of hearing (both “released” and “washed” are pronounced similarly in Greek); (2) an error of sight (both “released” and “washed” look very similar – a difference of only one letter – which could have resulted in a simple error during the copying of a ms); (3) through scribal inability to appreciate that the Hebrew preposition ב can be used with a noun to indicate the price paid for something. Since the author of Revelation is influenced significantly by a Semitic form of Greek (e.g., 13:10), and since the Hebrew preposition “in” (ב) can indicate the price paid for something, and is often translated with the preposition “in” (ἐν, en) in the LXX, the author may have tried to communicate by the use of ἐν the idea of a price paid for something. That is, John was trying to say that Christ delivered us at the price of his own blood. This whole process, however, may have been lost on a later scribe, who being unfamiliar with Hebrew, found the expression “delivered in his blood” too difficult, and noticing the obvious similarities between λύσαντι and λούσαντι, assumed an error and then proceeded to change the text to “washed in his blood” – a thought more tolerable in his mind. Both readings, of course, are true to scripture; the current question is what the author wrote in this verse.

[1:5]  tn Or “and released us” (L&N 37.127).

[1:5]  ⁴ tn The style here is somewhat Semitic, with the use of the ἐν (en) + the dative to mean “at the price of.” The addition of “own” in the English is stylistic and is an attempt to bring out the personal nature of the statement and the sacrificial aspect of Jesus’ death – a frequent refrain in the Apocalypse.

[2:22]  ⁵ tn Grk “onto a bed,” in this context an idiom for severe illness (L&N 23.152).

[2:22]  ⁶ tn Or “into great distress.” The suffering here is not specified as physical or emotional, and could involve persecution.

[3:17]  ⁷ tn Grk “and have become rich.” The semantic domains of the two terms for wealth here, πλούσιος (plousios, adjective) and πλουτέω (ploutew, verb) overlap considerably, but are given slightly different English translations for stylistic reasons.

[3:17]  ⁸ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “but” to indicate the contrast present in this context.

[3:17]  ⁹ tn All the terms in this series are preceded by καί (kai) in the Greek text, but contemporary English generally uses connectives only between the last two items in such a series.

[4:1]  ¹⁰ tn Grk “and behold.” The Greek word ἰδού (idou) at the beginning of this statement has not been translated because it has no exact English equivalent here, but adds interest and emphasis (BDAG 468 s.v. 1).

[4:1]  ¹¹ tn Or “in the sky” (the same Greek word means both “heaven” and “sky”).

[4:1]  ¹² tn Grk “with me.” The translation “with me” implies that John was engaged in a dialogue with the one speaking to him (e.g., Jesus or an angel) when in reality it was a one-sided conversation, with John doing all the listening. For this reason, μετ᾿ ἐμοῦ (met’ emou, “with me”) was translated as “to me.”

[4:1]  ¹³ sn The phrase speaking to me like a trumpet refers back to Rev 1:10.

[4:1]  ¹⁴ tn The conjunction καί (kai), much like the vav-consecutive in Hebrew, appears to be introducing a final/purpose clause here rather than a coordinate clause.

[4:4]  ¹⁵ tn Here καί (kai) has not been translated because of differences between Greek and English style.

[4:4]  ¹⁶ tn Because of the length and complexity of the Greek sentence, a new sentence was started here in the translation by supplying the words “They were” to indicate the connection to the preceding material.

[4:4]  ¹⁷ sn See the note on the word crown in Rev 3:11.

[7:3]  ¹⁸ tn See the note on the word “servants” in 1:1.

[8:12]  ¹⁹ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence of events within the vision.

[8:12]  ²⁰ tn Grk “the day did not shine [with respect to] the third of it.”

[11:8]  ²¹ tn Here καί (kai) has not been translated because of differences between Greek and English style.

[11:8]  ²² tn The Greek word πλατεῖα (plateia) refers to a major (broad) street (L&N 1.103).

[11:8]  ²³ tn Grk “spiritually.”

[13:4]  ²⁴ tn For the translation “ruling authority” for ἐξουσία (exousia) see L&N 37.35.

[13:4]  ²⁵ tn On the use of the masculine pronoun to refer to the beast, see the note on the word “It” in 13:1.

[16:21]  ²⁶ tn Here BDAG 988 s.v. ταλαντιαῖος states, “weighing a talent…χάλαζα μεγάλη ὡς ταλαντιαία a severe hailstorm with hailstones weighing a talent (the talent=125 librae, or Roman pounds of c. 343 gr. or 12 ounces each) (weighing about a hundred pounds NRSV) Rv 16:21.” This means each hailstone would weigh just under 100 pounds or 40 kilograms.

[16:21]  ²⁷ tn Or “the sky.” Due to the apocalyptic nature of this book, it is probably best to leave the translation as “from heaven,” since God is ultimately the source of the judgment.

[16:21]  ²⁸ tn Grk “on men,” but ἄνθρωπος (anqrwpo") is used here in a generic sense to refer to people in general (the hailstones did not single out adult males, but would have also fallen on women and children).

[16:21]  ²⁹ tn Grk “the men”; for stylistic reasons the pronoun “they” is used here.

[16:21]  ³⁰ tn Grk “the plague of it.”

[16:21]  ³¹ tn Grk “since the plague of it was exceedingly great.”