Wahyu 22:6

A Final Reminder

22:6 Then ¹  the angel ²  said to me, “These words are reliable ³  and true. The Lord, the God of the spirits of the prophets, has sent his angel to show his servants ⁴  what must happen soon.”

Wahyu 22:9

22:9 But ⁵  he said to me, “Do not do this! ⁶  I am a fellow servant ⁷  with you and with your brothers the prophets, and with those who obey ⁸  the words of this book. Worship God!”

Wahyu 22:19

22:19 And if anyone takes away from the words of this book of prophecy, God will take away his share in the tree of life ⁹  and in the holy city that are described in this book.

[22:6]  ¹ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence within the narrative.

[22:6]  ² tn Grk “he”; the referent (the angel mentioned in 21:9, 15; 22:1) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[22:6]  ³ tn Grk “faithful.”

[22:6]  ⁴ tn See the note on the word “servants” in 1:1.

[22:9]  ⁵ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “but” to indicate the contrast present here.

[22:9]  ⁶ tn On the elliptical expression ὅρα μή ({ora mh) BDAG 720 s.v. ὁράω B.2 states: “Elliptically…ὅρα μή (sc. ποιήσῃς) watch out! don’t do that! Rv 19:10; 22:9.”

[22:9]  ⁷ tn Grk “fellow slave.” Though σύνδουλος (sundoulos) is here translated “fellow servant,” the word does not bear the connotation of a free individual serving another. See the note on the word “servants” in 1:1.

[22:9]  ⁸ tn Grk “keep” (an idiom for obedience).

[22:19]  ⁹ tc The Textus Receptus, on which the KJV rests, reads “the book” of life (ἀπὸ βίβλου, apo biblou) instead of “the tree” of life. When the Dutch humanist Desiderius Erasmus translated the NT he had access to no Greek mss for the last six verses of Revelation. So he translated the Latin Vulgate back into Greek at this point. As a result he created seventeen textual variants which were not in any Greek mss. The most notorious of these is this reading. It is thus decidedly inauthentic, while “the tree” of life, found in the best and virtually all Greek mss, is clearly authentic. The confusion was most likely due to an intra-Latin switch: The form of the word for “tree” in Latin in this passage is ligno; the word for “book” is libro. The two-letter difference accounts for an accidental alteration in some Latin mss; that “book of life” as well as “tree of life” is a common expression in the Apocalypse probably accounts for why this was not noticed by Erasmus or the KJV translators. (This textual problem is not discussed in NA²⁷.)