Wahyu 18:3

18:3 For all the nations ¹  have fallen ²  from

the wine of her immoral passion, ³ 

and the kings of the earth have committed sexual immorality with her,

and the merchants of the earth have gotten rich from the power of her sensual behavior.” ⁴ 

Wahyu 18:13

18:13 cinnamon, spice, ⁵  incense, perfumed ointment, ⁶  frankincense, ⁷  wine, olive oil and costly flour, ⁸  wheat, cattle and sheep, horses and four-wheeled carriages, ⁹  slaves and human lives. ¹⁰ 

Wahyu 14:10

14:10 that person ¹¹  will also drink of the wine of God’s anger ¹²  that has been mixed undiluted in the cup of his wrath, and he will be tortured with fire and sulfur ¹³  in front of the holy angels and in front of the Lamb.

Wahyu 16:19

16:19 The ¹⁴  great city was split into three parts and the cities of the nations ¹⁵  collapsed. ¹⁶  So ¹⁷  Babylon the great was remembered before God, and was given the cup ¹⁸  filled with the wine made of God’s furious wrath. ¹⁹ 

[18:3]  ¹ tn Or “all the Gentiles” (the same Greek word may be translated “Gentiles” or “nations”).

[18:3]  ² tc ‡ Several mss (א A C 1006* 1611 1841 2030 Ï^K), including the best witnesses, read “have fallen” (πεπτώκασιν or πέπτωκαν [peptwkasin or peptwkan]). The singular πέπτωκεν (peptwken), which is better grammatically with the neuter plural subject πάντα τὰ ἔθνη (panta ta eqnh, “all the nations”), is read by 1854 2062 pc; 2042 pc read πεπότικεν (pepotiken). A few mss (1006^c 2329 pc latt sy^h) read “have drunk” (πέπωκαν/πεπώκασιν, pepwkan/pepwkasin); the singular πέπωκεν (pepwken) is read by P 051 1 2053* al. The more difficult reading and that which has the best ms support is “have fallen.” That it is not too difficult is evidenced by the fact that the great majority of Byzantine minuscules, which have a tendency to smooth out problems, left it stand as is. Nonetheless, it is somewhat difficult (TCGNT 683 says that this reading is “scarcely suitable in the context”), and for that reason certain mss seem to have changed it to “have drunk” to agree with the idea of “wine” (οἴνου, oinou). One can understand how this could happen: A scribe coming to the text and seeing the term “wine” expects a verb of drinking. When he sees “have fallen” and knows that in Greek the verbs “have fallen” and “have drunk” are spelled similarly, he concludes that there has been a slip of the pen in the ms he is using, which he then seeks to correct back to the “have drunk” reading. This appears to be more reasonable than to conclude that three early uncials (i.e., א A C) as well as a great number of other witnesses all felt the need to change “have drunk” (πέπωκαν) to “have fallen” (πέπτωκαν), even if “fallen” occurs in the immediate context (“fallen, fallen, [ἔπεσεν ἔπεσεν, epesen epesen] Babylon the great” in the preceding verse). The preferred reading, on both external and internal grounds, is “have fallen,” and thus the Seer intends to focus on the effects of wine, namely, a drunken stupor.

[18:3]  ³ tn See the notes on the words “passion” in Rev 14:8 and “wrath” in 16:19.

[18:3]  ⁴ tn According to BDAG 949 s.v. στρῆνος and στρηνιάω, these terms can refer either to luxury or sensuality. In the context of Rev 18, however (as L&N 88.254 indicate) the stress is on gratification of the senses by sexual immorality, so that meaning was emphasized in the translation here.

[18:13]  ⁵ tn On the term ἄμωμον (amwmon) L&N 5.23 states, “a generic term for any kind of spice, though often a specific reference to amomum, an Indian type of spice – ‘spice, amomum.’ κιννάμωμον καὶ ἄμωμον καὶ θυμιάματα ‘cinnamon and spice and incense’ Re 18:13. In most translations ἄμωμον is interpreted as spice in general.”

[18:13]  ⁶ tn Or “myrrh,” a strong aromatic ointment often used to prepare a body for burial (L&N 6.205).

[18:13]  ⁷ tn The Greek term λίβανος (libano") refers to the aromatic resin of a certain type of tree (L&N 6.212).

[18:13]  ⁸ tn On σεμίδαλις (semidali") L&N 5.10 states, “a fine grade of wheat flour – ‘fine flour.’ οἶνον καὶ ἔλαιον καὶ σεμίδαλιν καὶ σῖτον ‘wine and oil and fine flour and wheat’ Re 18:13. In some languages ‘fine flour’ may be best expressed as ‘expensive flour.’ Such a rendering fits well the context of Re 18:13.”

[18:13]  ⁹ tn Or “and wagons.” On the term ῥέδη (rJedh) see L&N 6.53: “a four-wheeled carriage or wagon used for travel or the transportation of loads – ‘carriage, wagon.’ The term ῥέδη occurs only in Re 18:13 in a list of products bought and sold by merchants.”

[18:13]  ¹⁰ tn Grk “and bodies and souls of men.” This could be understood (1) as a hendiadys (two things mentioned = one thing meant), referring only to slave trade; (2) it could be referring to two somewhat different concepts: slavery (bodies) and the cheapness of human life – some of the items earlier in the list of merchandise were to be obtained only at great cost of human life; or (3) a somewhat related idea, that the trade is in not just physical bodies (slavery) but human souls (people whose lives are destroyed through this trade).

[14:10]  ¹¹ tn Grk “he himself.”

[14:10]  ¹² tn The Greek word for “anger” here is θυμός (qumos), a wordplay on the “passion” (θυμός) of the personified city of Babylon in 14:8.

[14:10]  ¹³ tn Traditionally, “brimstone.”

[16:19]  ¹⁴ tn Here καί (kai) has not been translated because of differences between Greek and English style.

[16:19]  ¹⁵ tn Or “of the Gentiles” (the same Greek word may be translated “Gentiles” or “nations”).

[16:19]  ¹⁶ tn Grk “fell.”

[16:19]  ¹⁷ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “so” to indicate the implied result of Babylon’s misdeeds (see Rev 14:8).

[16:19]  ¹⁸ tn Grk “the cup of the wine of the anger of the wrath of him.” The concatenation of four genitives has been rendered somewhat differently by various translations (see the note on the word “wrath”).

[16:19]  ¹⁹ tn Following BDAG 461 s.v. θυμός 2, the combination of the genitives of θυμός (qumo") and ὀργή (orgh) in Rev 16:19 and 19:15 are taken to be a strengthening of the thought as in the OT and Qumran literature (Exod 32:12; Jer 32:37; Lam 2:3; CD 10:9). Thus in Rev 14:8 (to which the present passage alludes) and 18:3 there is irony: The wine of immoral behavior with which Babylon makes the nations drunk becomes the wine of God’s wrath for her.