The ESV Study Bible

REVELATION—NOTE ON 11:1–14 The complementary visions of the temple and the witnesses, like those of the 144,000 and the international multitude between seals 6 and 7 (ch. 7), provide reassurance of God’s protection. Here, however, consistent with the bittersweet message committed to John (10:10–11), the motif of spiritual protection is interwoven with the darker thread of physical suffering.

REVELATION—NOTE ON 11:1–2 John was given a measuring rod and instructed to measure the temple of God. Many dispensationalists understand this to imply that during the great tribulation the Jewish temple will be rebuilt in Jerusalem, and Jewish worship will be reinstituted there, and that it is here that, in the middle of the tribulation, the Antichrist will take “his seat in the temple of God, proclaiming himself to be God” (2 Thess. 2:4). They understand the reference to the holy city to mean literal, earthly Jerusalem. Others see the “temple” in Revelation 11 as a symbol for believers. In the OT, Ezekiel in his vision watched an angel measure the temple (Ezek. 40:2–3), but John must measure not only the sanctuary and its altar but also those who worship there. This “measuring” of persons shows both God’s protection and his ownership and suggests that the temple itself symbolizes the saints, as the NT elsewhere affirms (1 Cor. 3:16–17; Eph. 2:20–22; 1 Pet. 2:4–10; see Rev. 3:12; 21:22). John must not measure the court outside, because “the holy city” will be given over to the nations for trampling. Because this language echoes Jesus’ prediction of Jerusalem’s destruction (Luke 21:24; cf. Dan. 8:13), some believe that Revelation was written before A.D. 70 and predicted that disaster. Again, however, others do not think that “the holy city” (cf. Rev. 21:2; 22:19) refers to earthly Jerusalem. Instead, they understand it as a reference to the true church. They argue that 11:8 implies that the earthly Jerusalem that rejected its Messiah now belongs to “the great city,” along with Sodom and Egypt (see 17:18). Forty-two months (see also 13:5) is equivalent to “1,260 days” (counting 30 days to a month; cf. 11:3; 12:6) and “a time, times, and half a time” (three and a half years; 12:14), which is one-half of a sabbatical-year cycle, symbolizing the brevity of the church’s suffering, which lasts until Christ comes. These calculations of time echo Dan. 7:25; 12:7 and are thought by premillennialists to refer to a final “great tribulation” period (Rev. 7:14) during which the Antichrist will “make war” against the saints (13:7).

REVELATION—NOTE ON 11:3–14 Scripture requires two witnesses to confirm testimony (Deut. 19:15; Matt. 18:16). The two witnesses here may symbolize the saints, as the parallel between Rev. 11:7 and 13:7 suggests. Wearing the sackcloth of repentance (cf. Isa. 37:1–2; Jonah 3:5; Matt. 11:21) to symbolize their message, they prophesy while the holy city suffers trampling (Rev. 11:2), the Messiah’s mother is nourished in the wilderness (12:6, 14), and the beast wields its authority (13:5). Some scholars believe that these are two actual individuals who will appear at the end of history.

REVELATION—NOTE ON 11:4 These are the two olive trees. In Zechariah’s vision, the “two olive trees” symbolized “two anointed ones” (Zech. 4:11, 14): a royal leader to rebuild God’s temple (Zech. 4:6–10) and a high priest to lead worship in it (Zech. 3:1–5). Thus the witnesses of Rev. 11:3 aptly represent all whom the Lamb has redeemed to serve as priests and rule as kings (1:6; 5:10).

REVELATION—NOTE ON 11:5–6 The witnesses especially fulfill the church’s prophetic role, pouring God’s word as fiery judgment from their mouth (cf. 2 Kings 1:10–12), announcing drought like Elijah (1 Kings 17:1), and turning waters … into blood like Moses (Ex. 7:14–25).

REVELATION—NOTE ON 11:7–10 Although the witnesses are invincible until they have finished their testimony, when their mission is accomplished the beast from the bottomless pit (13:1) will conquer them, not through spiritual seduction (God will soon vindicate them) but through martyrdom (11:7; cf. 13:7). The great city that symbolically is called Sodom and Egypt is identified as the site of the martyrs’ death and their Lord’s crucifixion. See also references to “the great city” in 16:19; 17:18; and five times in 18:10–21, where in these instances “the great city” is symbolically identified as “Babylon,” a euphemism for Rome. In this verse (11:8), however, the symbol is apparently to be understood in a broader sense to include Jerusalem, where the two martyrs are killed and the “Lord was crucified.” It is likely that John has merged Rome and Jerusalem here into one combined symbol, which would be fitting because Jerusalem was under the domination of Roman rule and because Jerusalem is identified as the capital of the new “unholy Roman Empire,” where the Antichrist himself will establish his rule (cf. Matt. 24:15; 2 Thess. 2:3). “The great city” is further identified symbolically (or “spiritually”; see esv footnote) as “Sodom” (known for its depravity and rebellion against God) and as “Egypt” (known for its persecution of God’s people), both of which again correspond to the city of Jerusalem, both in its persecution and martyrdom of the prophets and its rejection and crucifixion of the Messiah. Thus the symbol of “the great city” had broad significance in John’s day, but it also stands as a representative symbol for every empire that grasps after divine glory and afflicts Christ’s church even in this present day. three and a half days. The celebration of the rebellious over the church’s apparent demise through persecution will be short-lived.

REVELATION—NOTE ON 11:11–14 they stood up on their feet … they went up to heaven in a cloud. If the two witnesses (v. 3) symbolize the church, then these verses predict the vindication of God’s witnessing church in resurrection (cf. Ezek. 37:10) and enthronement in heaven (see Dan. 7:13; Acts 1:9). If they are two actual individuals, then they are miraculously resurrected at this point (cf. Rev. 11:7). Even if they are taken as literal people, their resurrection could still symbolize the resurrection of the saints either in the middle or at the end of the “great tribulation” period (7:14). As in 1:7, Acts 1:9, and several OT passages, the “cloud” symbolizes the mysterious active presence of God. This event will coincide with a great earthquake (Rev. 11:13; cf. 6:12; 16:18) that strikes terror in the hearts of survivors. The third woe is soon to come: the seventh and last trumpet (10:7; 11:15–18).

REVELATION—NOTE ON 11:15–18 the seventh angel blew his trumpet. Nearly all futurists and many idealists (see Introduction: Schools of Interpretation) see this trumpet as heralding the second coming of Christ. As with the seventh seal (8:1–6), the scene now shifts from woes on earth to worship in heaven. Songs from the future consummation speak back through time to the suffering church, announcing the day when the world’s kingdom has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, reversing the present when the nations and their rulers still “rage … against the LORD and against his Anointed” (Ps. 2:1–2). God’s redemptive kingdom was inaugurated in Christ’s first coming, death, and exaltation (Mark 1:15; 9:1; Acts 2:30–36). Here the elders celebrate a day still future, when God and his Christ have begun their unchallenged reign by judging the dead (foreshadowing Rev. 20:11–13), rewarding their servants (cf. 21:1–7; 22:1–5), and destroying the destroyers of the earth (cf. 20:14–15). Many futurists think that 11:18 skips forward beyond the millennium to the final judgment.

REVELATION—NOTE ON 11:19–14:20 The Woman, Her Son, the Dragon, and the Beasts: The Cosmic Conflict between Christ and Satan. At the center point of the book, John records the vision that reveals the deepest dimension of the conflict in which the church is engaged: through his sacrificial blood Christ (the seed of the woman) has defeated Satan (the accuser of his people). In light of the cross, believers’ sufferings, though intensely painful and inflicted by powerful opponents, are merely symptoms of the dragon’s desperation, since “he knows that his time is short” (12:12).

REVELATION—NOTE ON 11:19 Heaven’s Temple Opened. A deeper opening of God’s temple in heaven brings the ark of his covenant into view as John peers into the Most Holy Place itself, prepared to receive visions that expose the deepest perspective on the church’s spiritual conflict.

REVELATION—NOTE ON 12:1–17 Two signs in heaven—a woman who gives birth, and a dragon intent on destroying her offspring—dominate the two visions in this chapter. Twice John sees the dragon decisively defeated, and both descriptions of the battle’s aftermath describe the woman’s protection in the wilderness (vv. 6, 13–17). The first vision (vv. 1–6) portrays a decisive battle at the turning point of history when Christ’s incarnation, obedience, sacrifice, and exaltation forever disqualified Satan as the accuser of believers (see v. 10). Some interpreters think the second vision (vv. 7–17) also represents the same series of events, while others think it portrays events at the beginning of the great tribulation.

REVELATION—NOTE ON 12:1–6 The Woman’s Son Defeats the Dragon. Christ, the promised son of Israel and of Eve, though apparently a defenseless newborn before the mighty dragon, has been caught up to reign with God.

REVELATION—NOTE ON 12:1–2 The woman’s description as a great sign in heaven and her clothing with sun, moon, and twelve stars show that she symbolizes Israel (cf. Joseph’s dream, Gen. 37:9).

REVELATION—NOTE ON 12:3 The great red dragon is “that ancient serpent, the devil and Satan” (v. 9; cf. 20:2; Gen. 3:1–15; Isa. 27:1). Its seven heads with seven diadems and ten horns symbolize great power (cf. Dan. 7:6–7). Cf. the description of the beast (Rev. 13:1).

REVELATION—NOTE ON 12:4 His tail swept down a third of the stars of heaven. Evil spirits (demons) in league with Satan share his defeat and downfall before the forces of God (cf. vv. 7–9). Some interpreters think this refers to the original fall of Satan, taking one-third of the angels with him (cf. 2 Pet. 2:4; Jude 6; perhaps Isa. 14:12–15). The dragon’s intent to devour the woman’s child at birth recalls Gen. 3:15, which predicts that the woman’s offspring will bruise the serpent’s head as the serpent bruises his heel.

REVELATION—NOTE ON 12:5 This male child, the promised Messiah who is born to rule all the nations with a rod of iron (cf. Ps. 2:9), is not destroyed by the dragon but is exalted to God’s throne (cf. Acts 2:33–36; Rev. 3:21). Yet the second vision (12:7–17) will reveal that the Messiah’s suffering was integral to his victory (v. 11; cf. 5:9–10). The “rod of iron” (also 2:27; 19:15) is not a royal scepter (as in some translations) but the shepherd’s club, here used to shatter the nations like pottery (cf. Ps. 2:9).

REVELATION—NOTE ON 12:6 The child’s mother fled into the wilderness, a setting in which God’s people are utterly dependent on him but are protected from the dragon’s rage (vv. 13–14). There, she was nourished by God’s provision, as were Israel (Ex. 16:13–18) and Elijah (1 Kings 17:6; 19:5–8). Some scholars think the time period symbolized as 1,260 days (or “a time, and times, and half a time,” Rev. 12:14; cf. 11:2–3) began with Christ’s ascension and will end when God withdraws his restraint on the dragon’s power to deceive the nations and gather them against the church (20:7–10). Others understand the “1,260 days” (three and a half years) to represent the second half of the great tribulation, and to be the same period as the second half of Daniel’s seventieth week (Dan. 9:27). On this view, the woman’s fleeing into the wilderness indicates that during the great tribulation Jewish believers will be persecuted by the Antichrist and will flee into the wilderness (see note on Rev. 11:1–2).

REVELATION—NOTE ON 12:7–17 Michael and Heaven’s Armies Defeat the Dragon. The second of the two visions of vv. 1–17 reveals more detail about Christ’s victory and the dragon’s ongoing attempt to destroy the people of God.

REVELATION—NOTE ON 12:7 In Daniel, Michael is the spiritual prince and guardian of God’s people (Dan. 10:13, 21; 12:1). Jude 9 identifies Michael as the archangel, attributing to him words that echo the angel of the Lord’s answer to Satan the accuser (Zech. 3:2). Many futurists think Michael’s battle with the dragon marks the beginning of the “time of trouble” (Dan. 12:1), which is also the great tribulation.

REVELATION—NOTE ON 12:8–9 The victory of Michael and the holy angels over the dragon and its coconspirators may symbolize the triumphant power of Jesus’ cross (cf. Col. 2:15), or a subsequent defeat of demonic forces flowing from Christ’s victory at the cross, or the original casting of Satan and his demons out of heaven (see note on Rev. 12:4). The devil (Gk.) and Satan (Hb.) describe a legal opponent, an accuser at law (see note on vv. 10–11). Many futurists think he was thrown down to the earth indicates intensified demonic activity on earth during the great tribulation.

REVELATION—NOTE ON 12:10–11 The dragon’s expulsion from heaven shows that Satan cannot press charges as the accuser of our brothers because the Lamb shed his blood for them and they maintain their testimony of trust even unto death. Although “conquered” by the beast physically in death (11:7; 13:7), in fact the martyrs have conquered both the beast (15:2) and the dragon that empowers it. They have conquered him is set in ironic and beautiful contrast to 13:7.

REVELATION—NOTE ON 12:12 his time is short. Jesus’ death and exaltation inaugurated “the kingdom of our God” (v. 10) and guaranteed the certain and approaching demise of Satan’s tyranny. All the demonic activity here and in the Gospels is connected to Satan’s frustrated anger.

REVELATION—NOTE ON 12:14 two wings of the great eagle. A metaphor of the exodus (see Ex. 19:4) becomes an image of God’s care for his church, exposed in the wilderness yet guarded and nourished in its pilgrimage. a time, and times, and half a time. This half-sabbatical period, derived from Dan. 7:25, signifies the brevity of the saints’ suffering and of their persecutors’ power (see note on Rev. 11:1–2; also 12:6; 13:7).

REVELATION—NOTE ON 12:15 water like a river. The serpent tries to destroy the people of God by lies and false teaching from its mouth, as it had deceived Eve (Gen. 3:13).

REVELATION—NOTE ON 12:17 Having failed to destroy the Messiah (cf. 12:4–5) and his mother (i.e., Israel; see note on 12:1–2), the frustrated dragon makes war on the rest of her offspring—that is, war on either the church on earth down through the ages (including the last three and a half years), or, as some hold, war on believing Israel (or the remnant in ch. 7). These include all who hold to the testimony of Jesus—that is, all who persevere in faithfulness and obedience to the gospel while under the persistent attack of Satan. The dragon’s weapon is the “beast” that emerges from the sea to wage war on the saints (13:2, 7).

REVELATION—NOTE ON 13:1–10 The Beast from the Sea. As the dragon stands on the seashore (12:17), a beast emerges from the sea. This beast is sometimes identified with the Antichrist (see 1 John 2:18, 22; 4:3; 2 John 7) or the man of lawlessness (2 Thess. 2:3–12). Its blasphemous words and demand for worship reinforce the connections between these predictions of a final, future opponent to Christ’s reign. Yet the imagery of Daniel 7 that appears in the description of the beast shows that it represents not only a future individual but also present world powers that wage Satan’s war against the Lamb and his church. Most dispensationalists, and many other futurists, think the first beast (Rev. 13:1–10) is a political world leader and the second beast (vv. 11–18) is his religious counterpart, who enforces worship of the first beast.

Enemies of the Church (Revelation 13–19)

View this chart online at http://kindle.esvsb.org/c236

Enemy	Method of Attack
The beast	intimidating violence
The false prophet	deceptive heresy
The prostitute	beguiling affluence

REVELATION—NOTE ON 13:1–2 The beast looks like a leopard but has feet like a bear’s, a mouth like a lion’s mouth, and ten horns, and it wages “war on the saints” (v. 7). Thus it resembles all four beasts that Daniel saw emerge from the sea before the Son of Man appeared (Dan. 7:1–8, 21). As those beasts symbolized kingdoms (Dan. 7:17, 23), so this beast, a composite of them all, represents every human empire—Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Persia, Greece, Rome, and their successors—that demands absolute allegiance and trust, enforcing its demand with coercion. Its 10 horns and seven heads mirror those of the dragon (Rev. 12:3), who gives the beast its great authority.

REVELATION—NOTE ON 13:3 seemed to have a mortal wound. Lit., “as slain to death.” The beast falsely imitates the Lamb, “standing, as though it had been slain” (5:6; cf. chart). Rome, the manifestation of the beast in John’s day, seemed to have been mortally wounded by Nero’s suicide (A.D. 68) and the civil chaos that followed, but experienced a “resurrection” in the reigns of Vespasian and his sons Titus and Domitian. Then in Domitian’s reign (A.D. 81–96), Nero’s beastly persecution of the church also revived. Many interpreters think this verse also predicts a future remarkable recovery of the Antichrist from a deadly wound, a deceptive attempt to parallel Christ’s resurrection.

Satanic Imitations of God’s Reality

View this chart online at http://kindle.esvsb.org/c232

God’s Reality		Satanic Imitation
the real Trinity (Father, Son [Lamb], Spirit)	1:4–5	the false trinity (dragon, beast, false prophet)	16:13; 20:10
Lamb standing, as though it had been slain	5:6	many-headed beast with mortal wound healed	13:3
sealing of the saints	7:2–3	mark of the beast	13:16–18
Bride in white	19:7–8	prostitute in purple and scarlet	17:1–6

REVELATION—NOTE ON 13:4 Who is like the beast … ? The worshipers’ question copies Israel’s praise of the Lord after the exodus (Ex. 15:11), reinforcing the beast’s arrogant claim to divine honors. It also mirrors the acclamation often given to Caesar as he entered cities.

REVELATION—NOTE ON 13:5 was given … was allowed. See note on 9:1. The beast uttered haughty and blasphemous words, like the horn (king) on the fourth beast in Daniel’s vision (Dan. 7:20, 25). forty-two months. See note on Rev. 11:1–2; also 12:6, 14. Many futurists think this is the second half of the great tribulation.

REVELATION—NOTE ON 13:6 The identification of God’s dwelling as those who dwell in heaven confirms that the measured sanctuary (11:1) symbolized the worshipers in it. Likewise, the “holy city” is the Lamb’s church-bride (21:2, 9–27; see Eph. 2:22).

REVELATION—NOTE ON 13:7 to make war on the saints and to conquer them. The martyrdom of believers seems to be their defeat, but their death-defying faithfulness conquers the dragon and the beast (12:11; 15:2).

REVELATION—NOTE ON 13:8 written before the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb who was slain. Before creation and by grace alone, God chose individuals to be redeemed by Christ’s death (see Eph. 1:4–14; and note on Eph. 1:11). God’s registry of life appears in Ex. 32:32–33; Dan. 12:1; Luke 10:20; Rev. 3:5; 17:8; 20:15. Those not enrolled in the Lamb’s book blindly worship the beast and will be cast with it into the lake of fire. The parallel expression in 17:8 shows that “before the foundation of the world” is best taken to modify “written” rather than “slain” as in some translations.

REVELATION—NOTE ON 13:9–10 Because captivity and sword are God’s ordained route to victory for his saints, they must practice endurance. Perseverance is a major theme in Revelation (12:17; 14:12; 16:15; 17:14; 21:7–8; 22:7, 10, 12, 14; see also “overcoming” in the seven letters, chs. 2–3, and chart).

REVELATION—NOTE ON 13:11–18 The False Prophet from the Land. A second beast rose out of the earth to enlist worshipers for the first beast through lying words and miracles. Later called the “false prophet” (16:13; 19:20), this beast wields power through deceptive words. In John’s day the imperial cult in Asia fostered “worship” of the empire and the emperor as divine savior and lawgiver. The abuse of religious devotion to manipulate thoughtless allegiance to the state is an ageless phenomenon.

REVELATION—NOTE ON 13:11 The second beast resembles the Lamb, but its lying words expose its real nature; it is like a dragon (cf. 12:15; 16:13–14; 19:20).

REVELATION—NOTE ON 13:13 making fire come down from heaven. The false prophet (the second beast) counterfeits God’s judgments to bolster the specious claim that the first beast is divine (cf. 1 Kings 18:38; 2 Kings 1:10; Rev. 8:7; 11:5).

REVELATION—NOTE ON 13:14–15 Since idols “have mouths but cannot speak” (Ps. 115:5), the impression that the first beast’s image has breath and might even speak may simply be another hoax, one with which it deceives those who dwell on the earth. But it is more likely that this describes some kind of miracle worked by demonic power yet still subject to God’s sovereign control (it is allowed, Rev. 13:14; cf. 19:20; Deut. 13:1–4; 2 Thess. 2:9). Those who refuse to worship the symbol of the state, whether bowing to Nebuchadnezzar’s statue (Daniel 3) or burning incense to the Roman emperor, will be slain.

REVELATION—NOTE ON 13:16–17 marked on the right hand or the forehead. The Israelites bore God’s law on their hands and foreheads to signify his authority over their deeds and thoughts (Deut. 6:8). Neither the beast’s mark nor the seal of God on believers’ foreheads (cf. Rev. 7:3; 14:1; cf. also Ex. 28:36–38; Ezek. 9:4) have to be understood as physical features, though they may be that. Both symbolize the spiritual control of heart allegiance and behavior, either by the beast or by the Lamb; but God’s seal secures safety.

REVELATION—NOTE ON 13:18 The number of the beast, which is 666, may symbolize creaturely deficiency as the number of a man in contrast to divine completeness (symbolized by seven). The invitation to one with understanding to calculate this number, however, suggests the use of gematria, an ancient code using the numerical values of letters. Both “beast” and “Nero Caesar,” written in Hebrew characters, add up to 666, but many interpreters expect a future, greater fulfillment in a world ruler who is violently opposed to God and his people.

REVELATION—NOTE ON 14:1–15:8 The vision sequence leading to the seven last plagues (which will be described as “bowls” of God’s wrath, 16:1–21) opens and closes with scenes of a heavenly choir singing praise to God (14:1–5; 15:2–4). Between these anthems John sees three angels who announce impending judgment (14:6–13) and three who order and execute harvests (14:15–20). At the center, between the three announcing angels and the three harvesting angels, John sees a seventh figure, one like a son of man, gathering his grain from the earth (14:14). Despite the beast’s cruel persecution (ch. 13), these visions (like those in chs. 7 and 10–11) provide reassurance that God and the Lamb rule, and that martyrs already celebrate victory.

REVELATION—NOTE ON 14:1–5 The Lamb and His Sealed Victors. John’s second vision of the 144,000 (cf. 7:1–8) interprets the seal they had received and the protection it provided.

REVELATION—NOTE ON 14:1 Mount Zion. Fulfilling Ps. 2:6, the Lamb stands in glory on God’s holy hill in heaven (cf. Heb. 12:22), accompanied by his army. The sound of their harps and voices descends from heaven like a waterfall’s thundering cascades as they sing “before the throne, the four living creatures,” and “the elders” (Rev. 4:2–8; 7:9–12). The seal on their foreheads (see note on 13:16–17) is the name of the Lamb and of his Father—a token of possession and protection by God, promised to every conqueror in the spiritual war (3:12). Most dispensationalists see these 144,000 as the same group mentioned in 7:4: Jewish believers who have trusted in Christ as their Messiah during the great tribulation.

REVELATION—NOTE ON 14:2 The singers with their harps will reappear beside the sea of glass (15:2–4; see 4:6); their song indicates that they are redeemed.

REVELATION—NOTE ON 14:3 The new song celebrates God’s triumph over sin through the Lamb (5:9; 15:3), just as the Lord’s prior victories were celebrated in new songs (Ps. 96:1; 98:1; 144:9). Their song belongs only to those who have experienced the Lamb’s redemption (Ps. 107:1–3), into whose salvation angels “long to look” (1 Pet. 1:12). This is another indication that 144,000 should not be taken as a literal number; they represent those who have been redeemed (see notes on Rev. 7:1–17; 7:4–8).

REVELATION—NOTE ON 14:4–5 have not defiled themselves with women, for they are virgins. The spiritual purity of those who bear the Lamb’s name is symbolized by the sexual self-denial that consecrated Israel for the wars that God commanded (cf. Deut. 23:9–11; 1 Sam. 21:5). Although portrayed as celibate males, the 144,000 (Rev. 14:3) signify believers of both sexes who, dying in faith, are gathered as firstfruits for God, foreshadowing a greater harvest. in their mouth no lie was found. They resemble Jesus, the blameless servant of the Lord (cf. Isa. 53:9).

REVELATION—NOTE ON 14:6–13 Angelic Announcements of Judgment. Three angels announce the hour of God’s judgment, the fall of Babylon, and the eternal punishment of the beast’s worshipers.

REVELATION—NOTE ON 14:6–7 The flying angel proclaims an eternal gospel. Its command that every nation is to fear, give … glory to, and worship God the Creator means that the long-awaited reign of God and his Christ is about to be consummated (cf. 11:15–18).

REVELATION—NOTE ON 14:8 Another angel announces that Babylon is fallen (echoing Isa. 21:9) before Babylon even appears in the narrative (Rev. 16:19; 17:1–18). As ancient Babylon had carried Judah into captivity, so in John’s day Rome was the pagan power with “dominion over the kings of the earth” (17:18) that oppressed Christ’s people (17:6). Yet Revelation’s “Babylon” transcends Rome, since its fall awaits the end of history (15:1; 16:17–19). the passion of her sexual immorality. Babylon the prostitute represents society’s allure of material prosperity and pleasure, seducing the unwary into adultery against the Lord.

REVELATION—NOTE ON 14:9–11 A third angel announces that the beast’s worshipers (like the prostitute Babylon, 16:19) will drink the wine of God’s wrath and endure constant torment in eternal restlessness. The smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever shows that hell is eternal, and that the wicked are not annihilated and put out of existence at death.

REVELATION—NOTE ON 14:12–13 Blessed. Revelation’s second of seven benedictions (see chart). Saints who heed God’s call to endurance, keeping God’s commandments and their faith in Jesus, are blessed at death with rest from their labors.

The Seven Benedictions

View this chart online at http://kindle.esvsb.org/c234

Blessed is the one who reads aloud, hears, and keeps the words of this prophecy	1:3
Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord	14:13
Blessed is the one who stays awake, keeping his garments on	16:15
Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb	19:9
Blessed and holy is the one who shares in the first resurrection	20:6
Blessed is the one who keeps the words of the prophecy of this book	22:7
Blessed are those who wash their robes	22:14

REVELATION—NOTE ON 14:14–20 Harvests of Earth and Vine. Two reapers appear in heaven, sharp sickles in hand. Angels emerge from the temple with God’s directive, “Put in your sickle, and reap.” First “one like a son of man” gathers the grain of the earth, then an angel gathers grapes from the earth’s vine, to be crushed in the “winepress of the wrath of God.” Although both harvests could signify either God’s judgment on the wicked or Christ’s gathering of his saints, probably the grain harvest shows the Son of Man’s gathering of believers (cf. Matt. 13:30) and the grape harvest envisions the bloody destruction of the wicked. Cf. the Lord’s gathering of nations in the valley of judgment because the harvest is ready for reaping (Joel 3:12–13).

REVELATION—NOTE ON 14:14 One like a son of man, seated on the cloud and wearing a golden crown (cf. Dan. 7:13–14; Rev. 1:7, 13) is Jesus, the Lord of the harvest. He came first as gospel sower (Matt. 13:37) but will return as just reaper.

REVELATION—NOTE ON 14:15–16 The harvest of the earth refers to wheat or barley, for ripe (Gk. xērainō, “to dry up, be ripe”; a different word from that used of “ripe” grapes in v. 18) describes dried heads of grain. Christ’s harvest, of which the martyrs were firstfruits (v. 4), is gathered safely into his barns (Matt. 3:12).

REVELATION—NOTE ON 14:17–20 The second harvest involves not only cutting grape clusters from the vine but also crushing them in God’s winepress. Trodden translates Greek pateō, rendered “trample” in 11:2. The Lord will trample nations that have trampled God’s holy city, as Isaiah foretold (Isa. 63:1–6). Their blood is shed outside the city (probably Jerusalem), where all defiled things belong (cf. Rev. 21:27).

REVELATION—NOTE ON 15:1–16:21 The Bowls of God’s Final Wrath. Another view of the victors’ choir prepares for the seven “last” plagues, envisioned as “bowls full of the wrath of God” poured out on earth’s inhabitants. Futurists see these bowls as representing future global judgments unlike anything seen before in history. They occur at the end of the great tribulation period and culminate in the battle of Armageddon (16:14–16), just prior to Christ’s return to establish his millennial kingdom.

REVELATION—NOTE ON 15:1–8 Heaven’s Sanctuary Filled with Glory. Just as earlier vision cycles began with an opening of God’s heavenly sanctuary (4:1; 8:1; 11:19), so the cycle of bowls containing the last plagues, in which God’s wrath on rebels is completed, is preceded by a scene of celebratory worship offered by believers who share the Lamb’s victory.

REVELATION—NOTE ON 15:1 another sign in heaven. Like the woman and the dragon (12:1, 3), these angels signify another turning point in the war between Christ and Satan: the completion of God’s triumph in the destruction of his enemies.

REVELATION—NOTE ON 15:2–4 The harps of God and the song of the Lamb suggest to some that this choir is the same as the 144,000 (the redeemed people of God) who appeared with the Lamb before God’s throne (7:9–12; 14:1–3). Others see them as those converted and perhaps martyred during the great tribulation. They conquered the beast by holding fast to their faith even when threatened with death (12:11). The sea of glass is the transparent pavement surrounding God’s throne (cf. 4:6; Ex. 24:10; Ezek. 1:22).

REVELATION—NOTE ON 15:3–4 The song of Moses, celebrating Israel’s exodus from Egypt (Ex. 15:1–18), is fulfilled in the song of the Lamb, which tells of a greater redemption of a new kingdom of priests (Rev. 5:9–10). A later song of Moses extolled the Lord whose ways are just (Deut. 32:1–43; esp. v. 4). In keeping with the angel’s eternal gospel (Rev. 14:7), the King of the nations will be feared, glorified, and worshiped by all nations (Ps. 86:9; Jer. 10:7) for his righteous acts of judgment (Ps. 98:2).

REVELATION—NOTE ON 15:5–8 Seven angels emerge from the opened … sanctuary (cf. 11:19), the inner chamber, of the tent of witness in heaven (cf. Heb. 8:2–5; 9:11–12) to execute God’s final sequence of judgments upon a defiant world.

REVELATION—NOTE ON 15:6 pure, bright linen. A preview of the bride’s holy beauty (19:7–8). The angels’ golden sashes resemble that of the Son of Man (1:13; see Dan. 10:5).

REVELATION—NOTE ON 15:8 As when the tabernacle (Ex. 40:34–35) and temple (1 Kings 8:10–11) were consecrated, God’s holy glory is so intense that no one could enter the sanctuary. In this case, they couldn’t enter until the seven plagues … were finished (cf. “finished,” Rev. 15:1). The seven bowls (16:1–21) complete God’s judgment and mark the end of history, as confirmed by the severity of the judgments.

REVELATION—NOTE ON 16:1–21 Angels Pour Out Seven Bowls. The bowls present varying perspectives on the final destruction of the first heaven and earth. The first four bowls inflict plagues on the same spheres as the first four trumpets (8:7–12): earth, sea, rivers and springs, and sun. The trumpet judgments were limited to one-third of each sphere (see also 9:4–5, 18), but the destruction poured out from the bowls is total. Unlike the seal and trumpet sequences, no interlude (7:1–17; 10:1–11:14) injects delay between the sixth and seventh bowls. The end has come. See note on 6:1–8 for the “four-plus-three” format of the judgments.

The Seven Bowls of Wrath (16:2–21)

The Unrestrained, Comprehensive Expression of God’s Wrath

View this chart online at http://kindle.esvsb.org/c235

Bowl	Area Affected	Reference	Result
Bowl 1	earth	16:2	sores on the beast’s worshipers
Bowl 2	sea	16:3	blood and death
Bowl 3	rivers and springs	16:4–7	blood to drink
Bowl 4	sun	16:8–9	burning heat
Bowl 5	beast’s throne	16:10–11	palpable darkness
Bowl 6	Euphrates River	16:12–16	gathering for the battle
Bowl 7	air	16:17–21	earthquake shattering the great city

REVELATION—NOTE ON 16:2 When the first bowl is poured out on the earth, it will afflict not the land itself (contrast the first trumpet, 8:7) but earth’s inhabitants, who bear the beast’s mark, with painful sores, like the sixth plague on Egypt (Ex. 9:8–12; Deut. 28:27, 35).

REVELATION—NOTE ON 16:3 The second bowl will turn the waters of the sea into blood, and all sea life will die. The first plague on Egypt (Ex. 7:21) is magnified to universal dimensions.

REVELATION—NOTE ON 16:4–7 With the third bowl, rivers and springs (sources of drinking water) will be turned to blood. “It is what they deserve,” declares the angel … of the waters, referring to those who shed the blood of saints and prophets (see 17:6). Isaiah 49:26 promises that Israel’s bloodthirsty oppressors will be forced to drink their own blood. The heavenly altar, under which the martyrs’ souls pooled like sacrificial blood (Rev. 6:9), agrees with the angel’s judgment, echoing the song just sung by the victors (16:7; cf. 15:3). People will receive from God exactly what they deserve (see notes on 20:12; 20:13).

REVELATION—NOTE ON 16:8–9 Instead of darkening the sun (see 8:12), the fourth bowl will intensify its heat to inflict a terrible foretaste of the coming lake of fire (20:15) on those who defiantly refuse to repent and give God the glory (cf. 9:20–21; 14:7).

REVELATION—NOTE ON 16:10–11 The fifth bowl shows that the very throne of the beast is not immune to God’s just wrath. Darkness was the ninth plague on Egypt, the last before the slaughter of the firstborn compelled a heart-hardened Pharaoh to release Israel (Ex. 10:21–29). It is appropriate that a regime founded on deceit (Rev. 13:5, 13–14) should be plunged into darkness. Although reaping the anguish they have sown in rebellion, hardened people will react by cursing their just Judge rather than forsaking their self-destroying deeds. The refusal to repent (cf. 9:20–21; 16:9, 21) shows the total depravity of those who dwell in the earth, and it shows the justice of eternal punishment (20:3–15).

REVELATION—NOTE ON 16:12–14 The sixth bowl prepares for the battle on the great day of God the Almighty. The drying up of the great river Euphrates, on which ancient Babylon foolishly relied for defense (Isa. 44:27–28; Jer. 50:38; 51:36), symbolizes God’s removal of restraint on Satan’s capacity to assemble a global conspiracy against the church (see Rev. 20:7–9). The Euphrates was also the eastern boundary of the Roman Empire, and it kept the Parthians out (see note on 6:1–2). Unclean spirits emerge as frogs (cf. Ex. 8:2–11) from the mouths of the dragon, the beast, and the false prophet in order to deceive world rulers with delusions of victory over “the LORD and … his Anointed” (Ps. 2:1–2) and to assemble them for their final defeat and destruction.

REVELATION—NOTE ON 16:15 Blessed. This is Revelation’s third of seven benedictions (see chart). Jesus interjects a summons to spiritual vigilance, echoing his rebukes to the complacent churches of Sardis and Laodicea. Because he is coming like a thief at an unexpected moment (cf. 3:3), his soldiers must stay awake and dressed lest they be caught naked, to their shame (cf. 3:18).

REVELATION—NOTE ON 16:16 Armageddon means “Mount Megiddo” in Hebrew. In ancient Israel, Megiddo was a plain, not a mountain; but it was also the site of some key battles (Judg. 5:19; 2 Kings 23:29), so in the symbolic geography of John’s visions it aptly represents the global combat zone (see Rev. 20:9) in which the final conflict between Christ and Satan will be fought.

REVELATION—NOTE ON 16:17–21 The seventh bowl evokes a pronouncement from God’s throne: “It is done!” This declaration, repeated in 21:6, affirms that God’s plan has reached completion (10:7), his wrath against evil is finished (15:1, 8), and his kingdom is fully come (11:15). A great earthquake of unprecedented severity will shatter the great city, the site of Jesus’ crucifixion and the murder of his martyrs (11:7–10). It is Babylon the great, which rules the “kings of the earth” (17:18). Human civilization will disintegrate when the Lord comes with lightning, rumblings, and peals of thunder (11:19). This is the earthquake foreseen in the sixth seal (6:12–17), which darkens sun and moon, shakes stars from their places, rolls up the sky like a scroll, and displaces the mountains and every island (cf. 6:14 with 16:20). This is the flight of the first heaven and earth before God’s terrible presence, giving way to a new heaven and earth, unstained by human sin (20:11; 21:1; 22:3).

REVELATION—NOTE ON 17:1–19:10 Babylon the Prostitute. An extended vision elaborates on the fall of Babylon, previously announced by an angel (14:8) and portrayed in the seventh bowl (16:18–19). The city appears as a woman, a prostitute (17:1–6); then an angel explains the meaning of the woman and the beast on which she sits (17:7–18). Finally, a series of voices comment on her fall—from the perspective of heaven (18:1–8), through earthly laments (18:9–19), and again from heaven’s viewpoint (18:20–19:10). The “great prostitute” and “Babylon the great” (chs. 17 and 18) are synonymous, both depicting the empire of the beast. Many futurists think that Babylon represents a great religious entity (not identified more specifically) that will follow and support the Antichrist in the end times. Historically, many Protestants identified Babylon with the Roman Catholic Church, but that view is not widely held today. Others foresee an actual restoration of ancient Babylon, while still others think this represents some kind of revived Roman Empire or similar political entity (see note on 17:9–11).

REVELATION—NOTE ON 17:1–15 Babylon’s Power and Luxury. Babylon’s sumptuous clothing and jewelry signify the allure of prosperity. Her name, “mother of prostitutes and of earth’s abominations” (v. 5), represents the lust of godless societies for sensual pleasure and their rejection of all restraints. Her becoming drunk on the blood of the saints, and the beast on which she sits, reveals that, in cultures that defy God, an insidious conspiracy unites the relentless pursuit of wealth and pleasure and the ruthless exercise of political and coercive power.

REVELATION—NOTE ON 17:1 Many waters symbolizes the many peoples and nations over which Babylon rules (vv. 15, 18). The contrast between the prostitute and the Lamb’s bride is emphasized by similarities in the way they are introduced. In both cases, one of the angels with the seven bowls tells John, “Come, I will show you,” and then carries him away in the Spirit (cf. 21:9–10).

REVELATION—NOTE ON 17:2 Sexual immorality and spiritual infidelity are interlinked; in Scripture the former often symbolizes the latter (2:20–23; Ezek. 16:15–43). Babylon’s wanton beauty seduces and intoxicates both heart and body.

REVELATION—NOTE ON 17:3 carried me away in the Spirit. John was transported by the Holy Spirit in a prophetic vision, as was Ezekiel (Ezek. 3:12; 11:24; cf. 2 Pet. 1:21; Rev. 19:10). wilderness. A place of spiritual protection (cf. 12:6, 14) but also physical deprivation, where John could see through Babylon’s surface beauty to her underlying ugliness. The beast of ch. 13 is now a scarlet beast on which the woman sits. Some understand this to be the Antichrist, who supports Babylon.

REVELATION—NOTE ON 17:4 Both prostitute and bride are adorned in gold, jewels, pearls, and fine linen (cf. 18:16; 19:8; 21:18–21). Babylon’s apparel is opulent purple and scarlet, while the bride’s is bright, pure white. As the beast portrays the state’s power to coerce religious conformity through violence, so the prostitute symbolizes the seductive appeal of a worldly economic system driven by the quest of affluence and pleasure (18:11–19). The disgusting brew that brims from her golden cup drives her lovers insane (cf. Jer. 51:7).

REVELATION—NOTE ON 17:6 drunk with the blood of the … martyrs of Jesus. Pleasure-addicted society conspires with the power-addicted state to silence the testimony of Jesus’ witnesses by putting them to death (13:15–17).

REVELATION—NOTE ON 17:7 In vv. 7–18, the angel interprets the mystery portrayed in the prostitute and the beast.

REVELATION—NOTE ON 17:8 The beast … was and is not and is to come; it had received a mortal wound yet came back to life (13:12–14). The prediction that the beast was about to rise from the bottomless pit (11:7) and go to destruction means that its present power to persecute Christians is inhibited, and that its future appearance in unprecedented violence will be short-lived (see 19:19–21; 20:7–10).

REVELATION—NOTE ON 17:9–11 Rome, which then had “dominion over the kings of the earth” (v. 18), rests on seven mountains (or seven hills; cf. Introduction to Romans: The Ancient City of Rome). In prophetic imagery, mountains symbolize the seat of power (Jer. 51:24–25; Dan. 2:35, 44–45). The beast’s seven heads, symbolizing both mountains and kings, show its power over earth-dwellers whose names are not in the book of life. Efforts to identify in history the five … fallen kings (or kingdoms), the sixth (current) king, a seventh (future) king who would reign briefly, and the eighth that belongs to the seven have yielded conflicting conclusions (proposals include several Roman emperors, several world empires, or simply numerical symbols standing for all worldly kingdoms that culminate in the beast). Even if they cannot be identified specifically, these details send the message that, although the dragon and beast’s final assault has not yet begun, their “time is short” (Rev. 12:12), for the beast goes to destruction.

REVELATION—NOTE ON 17:12–14 The beast’s ten horns symbolize ten kings not yet in power and destined to reign merely for one hour, under the beast’s control. These 10 probably represent all of the earth’s kings (not just 10 specific kings or nations), deceived and gathered by the dragon and the beast for a momentary, final, futile insurrection against the Lamb and an assault on his called and chosen and faithful followers (see 16:14; 19:19–21; 20:7–10). John will see the Lamb as the Word of God, Lord of lords and King of kings, riding into triumph over the beast and its coconspirators (19:11–21). Some dispensationalists identify these 10 horns with political entities represented by the 10 toes of the image in Nebuchadnezzar’s dream (Dan. 2:41–42) and the “ten horns” on the fourth beast that Daniel saw rising from the sea (Dan. 7:7, 20, 24).

REVELATION—NOTE ON 17:16–19:10 Babylon’s Fall Lamented and Celebrated. The depraved militant powers that now sustain Babylon’s pursuit of pleasure will dismantle and destroy its affluence and social order, to the distress of those who idolized and profited from its wealth—and to the delight of believers, who have suffered its violent attacks.

REVELATION—NOTE ON 17:16–17 The satanic alliance of prostitute and beast will disintegrate, and military power will ravage the economic system it once supported. When the beast and its allies strip the prostitute naked, and devour her flesh and burn her up with fire, they will imitate the judgment pronounced by God on Israel, his unfaithful bride (Ezek. 16:39–41). God sovereignly uses even his enemies to carry out his purpose and fulfill his words, both for the salvation of his own people (Acts 2:23; 4:24–28) and for the destruction of the enemies themselves.

REVELATION—NOTE ON 17:18 The great city is identified with Rome, which had dominion over the kings of the earth.

REVELATION—NOTE ON 18:1–19:10 As the ancient Greek chorus interpreted actions in a drama, so a succession of speakers explains the significance of the prostitute’s desolation as she is deserted by the beast that once supported her and the kings who once adored her.

REVELATION—NOTE ON 18:1–3 Another angel with authority and glory reaffirms the verdict pronounced in 14:8: Fallen, fallen (echoing Isa. 21:9). It is fitting that John views Babylon from a wilderness (see note on Rev. 17:3), for its fall will turn the great city into wilderness, inhabited by every unclean spirit, bird, and beast, full of defilement and danger (see Isa. 13:21–22). Laments for the destruction of the city with its power and luxurious living will soon be heard from earth’s kings (Rev. 18:9–10) and merchants (vv. 11–17). This next section (vv. 4–24) adds economic sins to the other kinds of sins specified in the rest of the book.

REVELATION—NOTE ON 18:4–8 Another voice from heaven first warns the church against aligning itself with Babylon and then asserts the equity of God’s justice in repaying Babylon’s arrogance and cruelty.

REVELATION—NOTE ON 18:4 The prophets’ appeals for the OT Israelites to come out of the cultures in which they sojourned as exiles (Isa. 52:11; Jer. 51:6–9, 45) are equally relevant to the NT church in the apostles’ day and today (2 Cor. 6:14–18; see 1 Pet. 2:11–12). Churches in Thyatira, Laodicea, and elsewhere failed to keep their distance from Babylon’s power-driven, pleasure-crazed value system.

REVELATION—NOTE ON 18:6 In perfect equity, God will pay (Babylon) back as she herself has paid back (see Ex. 21:23–25). The double portion (see Isa. 40:2; Jer. 16:18) from her own cup is the just retribution that duplicates the violence she inflicted on the saints, whose blood she wantonly shed (Rev. 19:2).

REVELATION—NOTE ON 18:7–8 Babylon’s boast, I sit as a queen, I am no widow, mimics her OT namesake and will be silenced in a single day (cf. Isa. 47:7–9). Her delusion of affluent security also finds a chilling parallel in the blind self-reliance of the Laodicean church (Rev. 3:17).

REVELATION—NOTE ON 18:9–10 Laments from kings, merchants, and mariners who profited from Babylon’s power and prosperity provide earthly commentary on the great city’s fall. When her fall comes, her lovers will stand far off, in fear and horror; but it will be too late to distance themselves from her fate. Kings will mourn Babylon as the mighty city that God judged in a single hour (see vv. 17, 19), suddenly and swiftly, when his patience had reached its limit.

REVELATION—NOTE ON 18:11–17 The merchants, who gained wealth from the great prostitute (v. 15) issue a lengthy lament, since the great prostitute especially represents the lust for materialistic acquisition and luxury.

REVELATION—NOTE ON 18:12–13 The list of cargo for which no market will remain after Babylon’s fall resembles the goods transported by the Phoenician merchants of ancient Tyre, which arrogantly boasted of its beauty (Ezekiel 27). As Revelation’s beast incorporates every expression of corrupt government (see note on Rev. 13:1–2), so its prostitute includes every corrupt economic system. Even human souls are reduced to cargo, traded as slaves to drive the engines of production and prosperity.

REVELATION—NOTE ON 18:16–19 The merchants’ lament echoes that of the kings (v. 10) but focuses on the prostitute’s costly apparel and accessories—fine linen, purple, scarlet, gold, jewels, pearls (cf. 17:4). They grieve that such wealth is laid waste (cf. “desolate,” 17:16) in a single hour. God quickly destroys all human wealth that is not used in obedience and devotion to him. Finally, shipmasters and other seamen, who grew rich by transporting the treasures of the world to feed Babylon’s voracious appetite for luxury, will add their lament to that of kings and merchants. Their cry, “What city was like the great city?” no longer ascribes incomparable excellence (13:4) but mourns incomparable destruction (Ezek. 27:32).

REVELATION—NOTE ON 18:20 When all in heaven, including its saints and apostles and prophets, are invited to rejoice in God’s judgment of Babylon (cf. 12:12), a transition is made from earthly lament to the heavenly celebration.

REVELATION—NOTE ON 18:21 As Jeremiah cast a stone and scroll into the Euphrates to show that ancient Babylon would “sink, to rise no more” (Jer. 51:63–64), so a mighty angel threw a great millstone into the sea to illustrate Babylon’s fall, to be found no more (see also Ezek. 26:21).

REVELATION—NOTE ON 18:22–23 The pleasant sights and sounds of everyday life—music, labor, food preparation, lamplight, marital love—will be seen and heard no more in Babylon (cf. Jer. 7:34; 25:10). Ordinary cultural activities and artifacts, though proper in themselves, become unsustainable when human civilization, having defied the Creator, receives his judgment. Babylon’s sorcery (Rev. 21:8) has deceived … all nations, as the false prophet’s signs tricked earth dwellers, small and great, into worshiping the beast (13:13–16; 17:8).

REVELATION—NOTE ON 18:24 In Babylon’s fall and the beast’s impending defeat, God will at last avenge the blood of his martyrs—i.e., of prophets and saints (6:10; 11:8; 17:6)—and of all who have suffered undeserved violence on earth (11:18).

REVELATION—NOTE ON 19:1–2 John had seen a great multitude, representing every nation, standing before God’s throne in heaven and extolling his salvation (see 7:9–10). Now that countless choir, redeemed by the Lamb (7:14), praises God also for his just vengeance on the prostitute who murdered the saints. Hallelujah, which occurs only here in the NT (19:1, 3, 4, 6), comes from a Hebrew term for “praise Yahweh,” seen often in the Psalms (esp. Psalms 113–118). true and just. God’s judgments will expose every lie and right every wrong (Rev. 15:3; 16:7). As in 18:23–24, the great prostitute is condemned for twin crimes: she corrupted the earth (11:18) through beguiling pleasure, and she shed the blood of God’s servants (17:6), which he has finally avenged (6:10).

REVELATION—NOTE ON 19:3 Babylon’s smoke … goes up forever and ever, symbolizing irreversible judgment (like the millstone in the sea, 18:21). The heavenly praise of God (Hallelujah!) for this judgment can be understood only in light of the pervasive evil of “the great prostitute” (19:2) and the infinite worthiness of the God whom she repeatedly blasphemed.

REVELATION—NOTE ON 19:4 The worship offered by the elders and living creatures links this consummation celebration with the earlier vision of God and the Lamb (5:8–10). Amen (the English transliteration of the Gk. word amēn, which was itself taken from a word with the same sound in Hebrew, ’amen) expresses confident certainty (John 10:7) or strong agreement (1 Cor. 14:16).

REVELATION—NOTE ON 19:5 A voice from the throne transposes the Hebrew expression “Hallelujah” (see note on vv. 1–2) into the Greek language of John’s hearers, with the command, “Praise our God.” As God’s servants include both small and great, so also, sadly, does the army that follows the beast (v. 18).

REVELATION—NOTE ON 19:6 The next voice is like that of a great multitude, many waters, and mighty peals of thunder, and it comes from a great worshiping multitude in heaven (cf. 14:2). The Almighty reigns throughout history, but here (as in 11:15–17) he is praised for establishing his reign without rival or resistance at Christ’s return (see 1 Cor. 15:24).

REVELATION—NOTE ON 19:7–8 With the prostitute destroyed, the Lamb’s pure Bride is announced, arrayed in purity. it was granted. Her gown of righteous deeds is her groom’s gift of grace (cf. Isa. 61:10; Rev. 6:11; 7:14). On the church as bride of Christ, see 21:2, 9; 22:17; 2 Cor. 11:2; Eph. 5:25–27.

REVELATION—NOTE ON 19:9–10 Blessed. Revelation’s fourth of seven benedictions (see note on 1:3). Those invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb are believers who belong to his beloved bride, the church, who have been called through the gospel of grace (Isa. 25:6–9; Luke 14:15–24). This “marriage supper of the Lamb” was anticipated in the predictions of a messianic banquet in Isa. 25:6–8; Matt. 22:1–14; 25:10; 26:29. John is twice reprimanded (“You must not do that!”) for attempting to worship the angel (cf. Rev. 22:8–9). Instead, John is commanded to worship God alone, in dramatic confirmation of the deity of Jesus, the Lamb who is rightly worshiped (cf. 5:8–14).

REVELATION—NOTE ON 19:11–20:15 The Defeat and Destruction of the Beasts, the Dragon, and Death. An opening of heaven (cf. 4:1; 11:19; 15:5) introduces a vision sequence that signifies the last battle between Christ and the forces of evil, resulting in their defeat and destruction. This passage shows the fulfillment of the single greatest promise of history: the return of Christ to reign on earth.

REVELATION—NOTE ON 19:11–21 Christ Defeats and Destroys the Beast, the False Prophet, and Their Gathered Armies. The climactic battle for which the dragon, the beast, and the false prophet gathered the earth’s kings (16:13–16) is introduced with a description of Christ the victor (19:11–16), then with a grim “dinner invitation” forecasting the battle’s outcome (vv. 17–18). Finally, the conflict occurs (vv. 19–21).

REVELATION—NOTE ON 19:11 The rider of the white horse is already victorious, and white is the color of victory (see note on 2:17). The rider’s titles, Faithful and True, identify him as Jesus, the faithful and true witness (1:5; 3:14).

REVELATION—NOTE ON 19:12–16 The horse’s rider (v. 11) is the Son of Man, with eyes … like a flame of fire and a sharp sword, whom John saw on the Lord’s Day (see notes on 1:14; 1:16). His many diadems (crowns signifying royalty) show his supremacy as King of kings and Lord of lords. Although he is named the Word of God as the greatest revelation of the Father (John 1:1, 14; Heb. 1:1–2), he also has a name written that no one knows but himself, since the infinite being of the Son of God can never be fully known (on “name,” see note on John 1:12–13). Divine mystery veils part of the nature of the Son in whom God speaks most fully (Luke 10:22).

REVELATION—NOTE ON 19:14 Fine linen, white and pure, identifies the armies of heaven as the bride of the Lamb (v. 8; 6:11; 7:14). They ride white horses, sharing his victory (see note on 2:17; also 12:11; 15:2).

REVELATION—NOTE ON 19:15 Jesus is the Messiah who will rule the nations with a rod of iron (see note on 12:5; also Ps. 2:9), judging justly and striking down the wicked. As the Divine Warrior who treads the winepress of God’s wrath, his robe is dipped in his foes’ blood (cf. Isa. 63:1–6).

REVELATION—NOTE ON 19:17–18 The angel’s invitation for birds to pick corpses clean at the great supper of God reflects an OT covenant curse (Deut. 28:26) and echoes God’s prophetic word against Gog and Magog, who oppressed his people (Ezek. 39:17–20; see Rev. 20:8). The beast’s army, to be consumed as carrion, includes not only kings (16:14) and warriors, but also all who serve the beast, both free and slave, both small and great (13:16).

REVELATION—NOTE ON 19:19 gathered to make war. Literally, to make “the battle” (Gk. ton polemon), probably referring back to the “battle on the great day of God the Almighty” (16:14). “Assembled” (16:14) and “gathered” here translate Greek synagō.

REVELATION—NOTE ON 19:20 As in 12:5–8, the forces of evil cannot resist Christ’s power. The beast and false prophet are thrown alive into the lake of fire, whereas their followers suffer physical death (19:21). The beast and the false prophet, like the great prostitute, represent not merely individuals but corrupt human institutions.

REVELATION—NOTE ON 19:21 The rest are “the kings of the earth and their armies” (v. 19), including all categories of people (v. 18). Only the Lamb and his army will survive this battle.

REVELATION—NOTE ON 20:1–6 Interlude: The Thousand Years of the Dragon’s Binding and the Martyrs’ Reign. These verses are among the most controversial in Revelation. Responsible scholars disagree regarding the meaning of the “thousand years” in vv. 2–7 (see Introduction: Millennial Views). The three main views are represented by: (1) Premillennialists (those who believe Christ will return “pre” [before] the millennium) think that this thousand years (Latin, millennium) is a future time of great peace and justice, which is usually thought to be a literal 1,000-year period that will begin when Christ returns to reign on earth as a physically present King, and which will include resurrected believers reigning with him. (2) Postmillennialists (those who believe that Christ will return “post” [after] the millennial period) think that before Christ returns to earth the gospel will spread and triumph so powerfully that societies will be transformed and peace and justice will reign on earth for a thousand years (or for a long period of time), after which Christ will return for the final judgment. (3) Amillennialists (those who hold an “a” [non-literal] millennial view) think this thousand years is the same period as this present church age, and that there will be no future “millennium” before Christ returns for the final judgment. Related to this is the question of whether the thousand years are to be interpreted literally (most premillennialists hold this view) or symbolically (most postmillennialists and amillennialists and some premillennialists hold this view). Those holding each view read John’s millennial vision in terms of their understanding of other biblical texts and their approach to prophetic literature as a whole. Likewise, each of these views falls within the framework of historic Christian orthodoxy.

REVELATION—NOTE ON 20:1–3 The dragon is identified as the ancient serpent … the devil and Satan, as in 12:9–17, which portrayed its expulsion from God’s heavenly court and the thwarting of its efforts to destroy the church. The dragon’s being bound with a great chain and thrown into the bottomless pit, which is shut and sealed, symbolizes God’s restriction of Satan’s ability to inflict harm for a long but limited era. God’s purpose is that Satan might not deceive the nations any longer, until the thousand years were ended. The nature of this binding of Satan is important to the three millennial views. Premillennialists read this as predicting a complete removal of Satan from the earth during a future golden age (a “millennium”) of social righteousness, international peace, and physical well-being, with Christ reigning on earth. They argue that the phrases “shut it” and “sealed it over him” picture a removal of Satan from the earth too complete to represent the current age. Postmillennialists also think this will be a future golden age, but that Christ will not return until the end of that time. Amillennialists note that the NT affirms that Jesus’ first coming has already bound Satan (Matt. 12:29) and brought God’s light to the nations (Matt. 4:14–16; Luke 2:32; Acts 14:15–17; 17:30–31). Therefore they argue that this binding of Satan for “a thousand years” refers to the gospel’s spread among all nations during the present age, and to the present restraint of the church’s persecutors until an outbreak of rebellion before Christ’s return (see 2 Thess. 2:3–8).

REVELATION—NOTE ON 20:4–5 I saw thrones, and seated on them were those to whom the authority to judge was committed. Premillennialists argue that “coming down from heaven” (v. 1) and the reference to “the nations” (v. 3) show that these “thrones” are on earth (during Christ’s millennial reign). Amillennialists argue that the echoes in these verses from Daniel’s vision (cf. Dan. 7:9, 22) signal that the thrones are in heaven. Whatever view one takes of the millennium, the souls of those who had been beheaded probably represents just a few of all the people represented by the words and those who had not worshiped the beast (“and those” represents Gk. kai hoitines, “and whoever, and everyone who”). These faithful believers came to life. Premillennialists think this means that deceased believers will experience bodily resurrection at the beginning of the millennium, and that is what is meant by this is the first resurrection (they say this is the clear meaning of the aorist indicative of zaō, “live, come to life”). Amillennialists think “they came to life” and “the first resurrection” means their souls entered into the presence of God in heaven after they died, and their deaths were in fact their victory over the dragon and beast (Rev. 12:11; 15:2), imparting to them a foretaste of the final resurrection (20:12–15). Some postmillennialists agree with the amillennial view of “the first resurrection,” while other postmillennialists think it refers to the future victory of Christianity in the world after its earlier persecution. and reigned with Christ for a thousand years. Premillennialists think this means that these resurrected believers will assist with Christ’s thousand-year reign as righteous King over the whole earth. Amillennialists think this means deceased believers now (and during the entire “thousand years,” which means the time from Pentecost to the second coming) are “reigning” with Christ from heaven. Postmillennialists see it as a future triumph of Christianity in the world.

REVELATION—NOTE ON 20:6 Blessed. Revelation’s fifth of seven benedictions (see chart). second death. When the wicked are returned to bodily existence and condemned for evil deeds, they will be cast eternally into the lake of fire (vv. 12–15). The victors, who maintain their testimony of Jesus and resist the beast, worship as priests and reign as kings with Christ throughout the era of Satan’s binding.

REVELATION—NOTE ON 20:7–10 God Defeats and Destroys the Dragon and Its Gathered Armies. Satan’s release after the thousand years will free him to deceive the nations and to gather them for the last battle. Amillennialists see this as the same battle as the one described in 16:13–16 and 19:17–21. Premillennialists see this as a separate, later battle. The gathered armies are called Gog and Magog, titles of Israel’s pagan oppressors, who would be destroyed by fire … from heaven (Ezek. 38:22; 39:6) and consumed as carrion (Ezek. 39:1–6, 17–20; Rev. 19:17–18, 21). Although the saints are exposed as a camp and, as inhabitants of God’s beloved city (11:2; 21:2), are besieged by foes as countless as the sand of the sea (see 12:17), their enemies will be consumed by God’s fiery judgment. The deceiver will be thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur.

REVELATION—NOTE ON 20:11–15 The Last Judgment and the Destruction of Death, the Last Enemy. All the dead will be raised from the grave and the sea, to be judged either by their deeds recorded in “the books” (v. 12) or by God’s gracious registration of their names in the Lamb’s “book of life” (v. 12; see note on v. 13). This judgment was announced in 11:18.

REVELATION—NOTE ON 20:12 The dead, great and small, include both God’s saints (11:18; 19:5) and the beast’s worshipers (13:16; 19:18). Books recording their deeds will be opened (Dan. 7:10), providing the grounds on which each is judged (Rom. 2:6–11). God keeps an accurate record of every human deed, and will reward and punish with perfect justice. another book, the book of life. See note on Rev. 20:13; cf. 3:5; 13:8; 17:8; 20:15; 21:27.

REVELATION—NOTE ON 20:13 The sea, Death, and Hades (the realm of the dead, cf. 6:8) will give up their dead as all people return to bodily existence to be judged (2 Cor. 5:10) by Jesus (Matt. 16:27; John 5:28–29; Acts 17:31). they were judged … according to what they had done. Unbelievers will be rightly condemned for their sins (cf. Rom. 3:23; Rev. 20:15). Believers, whose names are in the “book of life” (vv. 12, 15), will enter into “a new heaven and a new earth” (21:1) because the names in that book are of those who have been redeemed by “the Lamb who was slain” (13:8; cf. 21:27) for their sins (1:5). Their recorded deeds attest to their trust in Christ and are also the basis for determining their rewards (cf. notes on 1 Cor. 3:14–15; 2 Cor. 5:10; Rev. 22:12–16).

REVELATION—NOTE ON 20:14 Death, the last enemy, will be destroyed when Christ returns and raises believers (1 Cor. 15:23–26). Therefore Death and Hades will be the last to be thrown into the lake of fire, the second death, where they will join the beast and the false prophet (Rev. 19:20) and the devil (20:10).

REVELATION—NOTE ON 20:15 All whose names are not found written in the book of life will be condemned for the record of their deeds (cf. note on 20:11–15) and thrown into the lake of fire. Those enrolled in the Lamb’s book of life enter the new Jerusalem (21:27).

REVELATION—NOTE ON 21:1–22:5 “All Things New.” The destruction of the last enemy, death, and the last judgment will finally lead to the renewal of the entire created order, heaven and earth, to be the perfect home in which the Lamb will live forever with his bride, the people whom he has redeemed out of all the nations through his atoning death.

The “Bookends” of Biblical Theology

God’s ultimate purpose in redemptive history is to create a people to dwell in his presence, glorifying him through numerous varied activities and enjoying him forever. The story begins with God in eternal glory, and it ends with God and his people in eternal glory. At the center stands the cross, where God revealed his glory through his Son.

The biblical story of redemption must be understood within the larger story of creation. First Adam, and later Israel, was placed in God’s sanctuary (the garden and the Promised Land, respectively), but both Adam and Israel failed to be a faithful, obedient steward, and both were expelled from the sanctuary God had created for them. But Jesus Christ—the second Adam, the son of Abraham, the son of David—was faithful and obedient to God. Though the world killed him, God raised him to life, which meant that death was defeated. Through his Spirit, God pours into sinners the resurrection life of his Son, creating a new humanity “in Christ.” Those who are “in Christ” move through death into new life and exaltation in God’s sanctuary, there to enjoy his presence forever.

The “bookends” concept of biblical theology illustrates that in the third-to-last chapter of the Bible (Revelation 20) God removes his enemies—Satan, death, and evil—that entered the story line in the third chapter of the Bible (Genesis 3), thus completing the story of redemption. The last two chapters (Revelation 21–22) don’t simply restore the first two chapters (Genesis 1–2); they go beyond them to a world that is fully ordered and holy, in which God is fully present with his people, completing the story of creation. (Chapter divisions in the Bible are, of course, human contributions, not divinely inspired.)

The “Bookends” of Biblical Theology

REVELATION—NOTE ON 21:1–8 The New Heaven and Earth, Home of the Lamb’s Bride. Having seen Christ’s enemies destroyed, John finally sees “a new heaven and a new earth,” the eternal home of the Lamb with his bride. After the new cosmos is described, the bride herself is introduced (21:9–22:5). Scholars differ as to whether this “new earth” is entirely new (newly created) or is the old earth transformed in a way analogous to the transformation of believers’ resurrection bodies (1 Cor. 15:35–49; Phil. 3:21; see note on 2 Pet. 3:10).

REVELATION—NOTE ON 21:1 Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth. The removal of the first heaven and earth eliminates the fatal infection of evil in the cosmic order and gives way to God’s creation of a new cosmic order where sin and suffering and death are forever banished. The old order was in “bondage to decay” (Rom. 8:21) and “groaning … in pains of childbirth until now” (Rom. 8:22), awaiting the day when “the heavens … will be dissolved” and “new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness will dwell” will be established to forever replace the old (2 Pet. 3:12–13). This represents the specific fulfillment of the prophecy given to Isaiah: “Thus says the Lord GOD … ‘I create new heavens and a new earth …’” (Isa. 65:13, 17; cf. 66:22). Scholars differ, however, as to the extent and way in which the “first heaven and the first earth” will pass away and be transformed into something new—especially as to whether this represents an entirely new creation, or whether (and to what extent) this represents a “renewed” creation that retains some degree of continuity with the old order. As seen in the example of 1 Cor. 15:35–44, it is clear, with respect to the believer’s resurrection body, that although there is some kind of continuity between the old and the new order, the new reality will also be qualitatively different—for example, as different as a kernel or a seed is from a full-grown wheat plant (1 Cor. 15:35–39). Thus “new” (Gk. kainos) is best understood here in terms of something that has been qualitatively transformed in a fundamental way, rather than as an outright new creation ex nihilo (Latin, “out of nothing”), as in the case of God’s original creation in Genesis 1. By comparison to the old order that is coming to an end, the new cosmic order is radically different—a place where “righteousness will dwell” (2 Pet. 3:13), where God “will wipe away every tear from their eyes” (Rev. 21:4; cf. Isa. 25:8 and Rev. 7:17), where “death shall be no more” (Rev. 21:4; cf. Isa. 25:8 and 1 Cor. 15:26), where “the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay” (Rom. 8:21), and where all that is “perishable” will be raised and transformed into a glorious new “imperishable” reality (1 Cor. 15:42–43), where the redeemed will rejoice in the eternal presence of “God and the Lamb” (Rev. 14:4; cf. 22:1–5). The sea was no more does not mean there will be no bodies of water in the new earth (cf. 21:6; 22:1–2) but refers to the source of earthly rebellion, chaos, and danger—the sea from which the beast emerged (13:1; Dan. 7:3). This symbolic (or literal) source of rebellion will no longer threaten creation’s perfection.

REVELATION—NOTE ON 21:2 The holy city, new Jerusalem (cf. Gal. 4:26; Heb. 12:22–24), the church redeemed by Jesus Christ, will no longer be trampled by nations (Rev. 11:2) but rather, will be adorned as a bride.

REVELATION—NOTE ON 21:3 He will dwell with them. The greatest blessing of heaven will be unhindered fellowship with God himself. The goal of God’s covenant, “God with us” (Isa. 7:14, esv footnote; Matt. 1:23), foreshadowed in the OT tabernacle and temple, will be achieved. his people … their God. See Lev. 26:11–12; Ezek. 37:27.

REVELATION—NOTE ON 21:4 By wiping away every tear and eliminating death, mourning, and pain (Isa. 25:8; 65:19–20), God will reverse the curse that entered the world through human sin.

REVELATION—NOTE ON 21:6 It is done! The destruction of God’s enemies (16:17) and the salvation of his saints are both completed. the Alpha and the Omega. First and last letters of the Greek alphabet (cf. 1:8; 22:13). The Lord stands beyond the universe’s beginning and its end as Sovereign Creator and Consummator, the first and the last (Isa. 41:4; 44:6; 48:12). The spring of the water of life is the throne of God and the Lamb (Rev. 22:1), a throne of grace (Heb. 4:16) because here the thirsty drink without payment, by God’s free gift (Isa. 55:1).

God and Jesus Are Alpha and Omega

View this chart online at http://kindle.esvsb.org/c237

God is the Alpha and the Omega (1:8; 21:6)	God is the beginning and the end (21:6)
Jesus is the Alpha and the Omega (22:13; cf. 2:8; 22:13)	Jesus is the beginning and the end (22:13; cf. 2:8; 22:13)

REVELATION—NOTE ON 21:7 The one who conquers. The promises to conquerors (2:7, 11, 17; etc.) are summed up in this assurance that the new heaven and earth are their heritage as God’s children. he will be my son. This promise to David’s descendants (2 Sam. 7:14), fulfilled preeminently in Jesus (Heb. 1:5), also includes those who belong to him (Gal. 3:26). On “son,” see note on Gal. 3:26.

REVELATION—NOTE ON 21:8 The conqueror’s blessedness contrasts with the second death awaiting those who renounced faith because of cowardice or compromise with idolatry and sensuality. Sorcerers is also used of Egyptian and Babylonian magicians in the OT (e.g., Ex. 7:11; Dan. 2:2); on ancient magic, see note on Acts 13:6.

REVELATION—NOTE ON 21:9–22:5 The New Jerusalem, the Lamb’s Pure Bride. As in the disclosure of the prostitute Babylon (17:1–3), an angel with one of the seven bowls helps John see the bride, the wife of the Lamb. She is the holy city Jerusalem. Some take this as a literal description of this new city; others understand it as a complex symbol for the life in heaven of the Lamb’s redeemed people.

REVELATION—NOTE ON 21:10 a great, high mountain. After Gog and Magog’s destruction (Ezekiel 38–39), Ezekiel was transported to “a very high mountain” (Ezek. 40:2–3) to view God’s future temple. Although believers are exposed to suffering on earth (Rev. 11:2), their true life in the holy city has been secured in heaven, from which it will suddenly be revealed (Col. 3:3–4).

REVELATION—NOTE ON 21:11 The glory of God, resembling jasper (cf. 4:3), radiates from the transparent city, which is clear as crystal and “glass” (21:18).

REVELATION—NOTE ON 21:12–14 The city’s high wall and twelve gates guarded by angels (see Gen. 3:24) signify invulnerability to attack. The gates bear the names of Israel’s twelve tribes, and the Lamb’s twelve apostles are named on the wall’s foundations (Eph. 2:20), signifying the unity of OT and NT believers.

REVELATION—NOTE ON 21:15–17 The measuring rod of gold is more glorious than the reed in Ezekiel’s vision (Ezek. 40:3). The city’s length and width and height are equal, having a cubic shape like the Most Holy Place in the OT sanctuary (1 Kings 6:20; Ezek. 41:4). Since the entire city is the Most Holy Place (the place of God’s presence), John saw no temple in it (Rev. 21:22). The length, width, and height of the city (12,000 stadia, or 1,380 miles [2,221 km]) and the width (144 cubits) of the city wall are multiples of 12. This may indicate the literal dimensions of the city or may symbolize the perfect life of the people of God (see 7:4–8).

REVELATION—NOTE ON 21:18 Pure gold may be literal gold that is appropriate to the bride’s priceless value and transparent purity, or the expression may simply be symbolic of those things.

REVELATION—NOTE ON 21:19–21 The 12 jewels adorning the city’s apostolic foundations correspond to those engraved with the names of Israelite tribes on the high priest’s breastplate (Ex. 28:17–20). They also resemble stones associated with Eden (Ezek. 28:13–14). The pure beauty of the bride in Paradise Restored puts to shame the prostitute’s tawdry ornaments (Rev. 17:4; 18:12).

REVELATION—NOTE ON 21:22 its temple is the Lord God … and the Lamb. Jesus himself is the tent and temple in which God lives among his people (John 1:14; 2:19–21). Because the Lamb is in her midst, the church is “a dwelling place for God by the Spirit” (Eph. 2:22).

REVELATION—NOTE ON 21:23 Language echoing Isa. 60:19–20 identifies God the Father as the source, and Christ as the mediator, of the bride’s radiant light (her truth and purity).

REVELATION—NOTE ON 21:24–27 When the Lamb, who is King of kings (17:14; 19:16), has destroyed rebellious kings and nations, then the kings of the earth and their nations, whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life, will enter his city-sanctuary, bringing their glory (cf. Isa. 60:3–5). The city’s gates will never be shut because there will be neither foe nor night to assist hostile invaders.

REVELATION—NOTE ON 22:1–2 The river of the water of life and the tree of life recall Eden before the fall into sin (Gen. 2:8–10) and Ezekiel’s vision of a future glorious temple (Ezek. 47:1–12; see Zech. 14:8). Refreshment and life flow from the throne of God and of the Lamb, carried by the Holy Spirit, as Jesus promised (John 4:10–14; 7:38–39; see also Isa. 44:3; Ezek. 36:25–27). Living believers and martyrs taste this life-giving water even now in this present age (Rev. 7:17; 22:17), but its fullness awaits the new heaven and earth. This ever-flowing river gives a picture of an unending stream of abundant blessings and joy. The tree of life, once banned to guilty humanity (Gen. 3:22–24), will satisfy the city’s residents year-round (Rev. 2:7). The healing of the nations will have been completed in the destruction of death (20:14; see Ezek. 47:12).

REVELATION—NOTE ON 22:3 anything accursed. Earth was cursed for Adam’s sin (Gen. 3:17). Guilt, strife, struggle for survival, sickness, sorrow, and death resulted. In the consummated new creation no such woes will remain (Rev. 21:4). God’s throne will make the entire city a temple (21:22) in which his servants will worship him as his priests.

REVELATION—NOTE ON 22:4 Moses could not see the Lord’s face and live (Ex. 33:20–23; 34:29–35), but when the Spirit has completed their sanctification, God’s redeemed people will see his face. It will be the greatest blessing of the age to come, as God looks upon his people with favor and delight. His name … on their foreheads had sealed them as his protected property through history’s turmoil and trials (Rev. 3:11–12; 7:2–8; 14:1).

REVELATION—NOTE ON 22:5 Since night has been banished (cf. 21:25), God’s servants will bask in light from the God of radiant glory and truth, who dwells in “unapproachable light” (1 Tim. 6:16; Rev. 21:23–24). In union with Jesus their king, believers will not only worship as priests but also reign as kings over the new earth forever and ever (5:10).

REVELATION—NOTE ON 22:6–21 Epilogue. John’s epilogue repeats themes of his prologue, reaffirming the transmission and trustworthiness of the book, pronouncing blessing on those who keep its words, and promising the imminent coming of Jesus.

REVELATION—NOTE ON 22:6–9 Transmission and Trustworthiness of the Revelation, Promise that Jesus Is Coming Soon, Promise of Blessing. As at the end of the vision of the prostitute (19:9–10), in concluding the revelation of the bride, the angel affirms that God’s words are trustworthy, pronounces one of Revelation’s seven benedictions (see chart), and rebukes John for starting to worship a creature rather than God alone. This exchange also echoes the prologue: God sent his angel to show his servants what must soon take place (cf. 1:1); the one who keeps the words of the prophecy is “blessed”; and Jesus affirms, “I am coming soon” (cf. 1:7).

REVELATION—NOTE ON 22:6–7 These words are trustworthy and true. The unique truth and trustworthiness of the revealed word (and words) of God are underscored seven times in the last two chapters of Revelation, as indicated first in 21:5, as repeated in 22:6, 7, 9, 10, and then in the solemn warning in vv. 18 and 19 to anyone who “takes away from the words of this book.” The centrality, authority, sufficiency, and eternality of the word (and words) of God are foundational to all of Scripture, from the first words of Genesis to the last words of Revelation, as seen, e.g., in: Gen. 1:3 (“And God said”); Ex. 20:1 (“God spoke all these words”); Deut. 6:6 (“these words … shall be on your heart”); Deut. 32:47 (“by this word you shall live”); Psalm 12:6 (“The words of the LORD are pure words”); Isa. 40:8 (“the word of our God will stand forever”); Matt. 4:4 (“Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word”); Matt. 24:35 (“Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away”); Luke 24:44 (“These are my words”); John 1:1 (“In the beginning was the Word”); John 6:68 (“You have the words of eternal life”); and 1 Pet. 1:25 (“the word of the Lord remains forever”). Blessed is the one who keeps the words of … this book. A timeless promise for believers in every age. “Blessed” here in Rev. 22:7 echoes the first “blessed” (see 1:3 and note) and is the sixth of seven benedictions throughout the book of Revelation.

REVELATION—NOTE ON 22:8–9 Human beings must not worship even the angels who inflict the last plagues (15:1; 21:9), for they are fellow servants. God alone must be worshiped. Since the Lamb is rightly worshiped (5:8–14), he is God.

REVELATION—NOTE ON 22:10–15 Prohibition of Sealing the Book, Promise that Jesus Is Coming Soon, Promise of Blessing. John must not “seal” his prophecy as Daniel did his, because the fulfillment of John’s visions was temporally “near” to his first-century readers, as it is to believers 20 centuries later. The assurance that, when Jesus comes “soon,” he will bring blessing to believers and judgment to rebels, should motivate believers to perseverance and purity.

REVELATION—NOTE ON 22:10 Do not seal up the words of the prophecy. John must not imitate Daniel, whose visions concerned events in a remote future (Dan. 12:4, 9). The time is near (cf. notes on 1 Thess. 5:2–3; 5:4) for the fulfillment of John’s visions because the dragon was already defeated at Christ’s cross. The end will consummate the spiritual conflict in which the first-century churches were engaged, as is the church today (see Mark 1:15; 1 Cor. 10:11).

REVELATION—NOTE ON 22:11 Let the evildoer still do evil … and the righteous still do right. Patterns of behavior, whether controlled by unbelief or by faith, will eventually be irreversible (cf. Dan. 12:10).

REVELATION—NOTE ON 22:12–16 Jesus speaks (v. 16), promising to come soon (see vv. 7, 20), affirming his divine eternity (v. 13) and messianic authority (v. 16), and pronouncing the book’s final of seven benedictions (v. 14; see note on 1:3). bringing my recompense. As the Divine Warrior of Isa. 62:10–63:6, Christ will come to repay each one for what he has done, rewarding faithful servants and punishing every evildoer. “Recompense” (Gk. misthos, “wages, reward”) indicates degrees of reward for believers and punishment for unbelievers (cf. Luke 12:47–48; and 1 Cor. 3:14–15 with note).

REVELATION—NOTE ON 22:13 the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last. See note on 21:6. Eternal life and lordship characterize God (1:8) and his Christ, who is coming soon (1:17; 2:8).

REVELATION—NOTE ON 22:14–15 Blessed. The final of the seven benedictions of Revelation (see chart) is for those who wash their robes in the conscience-cleansing blood of the Lamb (7:14; Heb. 9:14). They have access to the tree of life within God’s city. Outside the gates in eternal torment will be everyone who loves Satanic falsehood, sensuality, and murder (cf. Rev. 21:8, 27).

REVELATION—NOTE ON 22:16–17 Transmission of the Revelation. As promised in 1:1, Jesus has conveyed his revelation through his angel and through John to his churches, for their comfort and warning.

REVELATION—NOTE ON 22:16 the root and the descendant of David. Jesus is both David’s “son” and his Lord, the source of his royalty (5:5; Isa. 11:1, 10; Mark 12:35–37). bright morning star. This is the ruler whom Balaam foresaw arising from Israel to conquer the nations (Num. 24:17).

REVELATION—NOTE ON 22:17 In v. 20, “Come” is a prayer addressed to Jesus, who promises to come soon. Here it is an invitation to the spiritually thirsty, to take the water of life without price, for it is freely provided by God’s grace (21:6; Isa. 55:1).

REVELATION—NOTE ON 22:18–21 Prohibition of Altering the Book, Promise that Jesus Is Coming Soon, and Final Pronouncement of Blessing. I warn is the same verb as testifies in v. 20. Jesus bears witness that no mere human may add to or take away from God’s words without incurring the plagues described in this book and forfeiting its blessings. Moses had warned against adding to or subtracting from the Lord’s commands (Deut. 4:2; 12:32). A prophet who spoke without God’s authorization deserved death (Deut. 18:20–22). When Jesus testifies once more, Surely I am coming soon, his church responds, Come, Lord Jesus! echoing the early prayer of the Aramaic-speaking church, marana tha (“Our Lord, come!”; cf. 1 Cor. 16:22).