Wahyu 1:4

1:4 From John, ¹  to the seven churches that are in the province of Asia: ²  Grace and peace to you ³  from “he who is,” ⁴  and who was, and who is still to come, ⁵  and from the seven spirits who are before his throne,

Wahyu 3:1

To the Church in Sardis

3:1 “To ⁶  the angel of the church in Sardis write the following: ⁷ 

“This is the solemn pronouncement of ⁸  the one who holds ⁹  the seven spirits of God and the seven stars: ‘I know your deeds, that you have a reputation ¹⁰  that you are alive, but ¹¹  in reality ¹²  you are dead.

Wahyu 4:5

4:5 From ¹³  the throne came out flashes of lightning and roaring ¹⁴  and crashes of thunder. Seven flaming torches, which are the seven spirits of God, ¹⁵  were burning in front of the throne

[1:4]  ¹ tn Grk “John.” The word “From” is not in the Greek text, but has been supplied to indicate the sender of the letter.

[1:4]  ² tn Grk “Asia”; in the NT this always refers to the Roman province of Asia, made up of about one-third of the west and southwest end of modern Asia Minor. Asia lay to the west of the region of Phrygia and Galatia. The words “the province of” are supplied to indicate to the modern reader that this does not refer to the continent of Asia.

[1:4]  ³ tn It is probable that the ὑμῖν (Jumin) applies to both elements of the greeting, i.e., to both grace and peace.

[1:4]  ⁴ tc The earliest and best mss (Ì^18vid א A C P 2050 al lat sy co) lack the term “God” (θεοῦ, qeou) between “from” (ἀπό, apo) and “he who is” (ὁ ὤν, Jo wn). Its inclusion, as supported by the bulk of the Byzantine witnesses, is clearly secondary and a scribal attempt to achieve two things: (1) to make explicit the referent in the passage, namely, God, and (2) to smooth out the grammar. The preposition “from” in Greek required a noun in the genitive case. But here in Rev 1:4 the words following the preposition “from” (ἀπό) are in another case, i.e., the nominative. There are two principal ways in which to deal with this grammatical anomaly. First, it could be a mistake arising from someone who just did not know Greek very well, or as a Jew, was heavily influenced by a Semitic form of Greek. Both of these unintentional errors are unlikely here. Commenting on this ExSyn 63 argues: “Either of these is doubtful here because (1) such a flagrant misunderstanding of the rudiments of Greek would almost surely mean that the author could not compose in Greek, yet the Apocalypse itself argues against this; (2) nowhere else does the Seer [i.e., John] use a nom. immediately after a preposition (in fact, he uses ἀπό 32 times with the gen. immediately following).” The passage appears to be an allusion to Exod 3:14 (in the LXX) where God refers to himself as “he who is” (ὁ ὤν), the same wording in Greek as here in Rev 1:4. Thus, it appears that John is wanting to leave the divine name untouched (perhaps to allude to God’s immutability, or as a pointer to the Old Testament as the key to unlocking the meaning of this book), irrespective of what it “looks” like grammatically. The translation has placed the “he who is” in quotation marks to indicate to the reader that the syntactical awkwardness is intentional. (For further comments, see ExSyn 63).

[1:4]  ⁵ tn BDAG 106 s.v. ἀπό 5.d states: “The expr. εἰρήνη ἀπὸ ‘ὁ ὢν καὶ ὁ ἦν καὶ ὁ ἐρχόμενος’ Rv 1:4 is quite extraordinary. It may be an interpretation of the name Yahweh already current, or an attempt to show reverence for the divine name by preserving it unchanged, or simply one more of the grammatical peculiarities so frequent in Rv.”

[3:1]  ⁶ tn Here καί (kai) has not been translated due to differences between Greek and English style.

[3:1]  ⁷ tn The phrase “the following” after “write” is supplied to clarify that what follows is the content of what is to be written.

[3:1]  ⁸ tn Grk “These things says [the One]…” See the note on the phrase “this is the solemn pronouncement of” in 2:1.

[3:1]  sn The expression This is the solemn pronouncement of reflects an OT idiom. See the note on this phrase in 2:1.

[3:1]  ⁹ tn Grk “who has” (cf. 1:16).

[3:1]  ¹⁰ tn Grk “a name.”

[3:1]  ¹¹ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “but” to indicate the contrast present in this context.

[3:1]  ¹² tn The prepositional phrase “in reality” is supplied in the translation to make explicit the idea that their being alive was only an illusion.

[4:5]  ¹³ tn Here καί (kai) has not been translated because of differences between Greek and English style.

[4:5]  ¹⁴ tn Or “sounds,” “voices.” It is not entirely clear what this refers to. BDAG 1071 s.v. φωνή 1 states, “In Rv we have ἀστραπαὶ καὶ φωναὶ καὶ βρονταί (cp. Ex 19:16) 4:5; 8:5; 11:19; 16:18 (are certain other sounds in nature thought of here in addition to thunder, as e.g. the roar of the storm?…).”

[4:5]  ¹⁵ sn Some interpret the seven spirits of God as angelic beings, while others see them as a reference to the sevenfold ministry of the Holy Spirit.