¹tn Here kaiv (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence within the narrative.
²tn Grk “he”; the referent (the angel mentioned in 21:9, 15) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
³tn Grk “proceeding.” Water is more naturally thought to pour out or flow out in English idiom.
⁴tn Grk “its”; the referent (the city, the new Jerusalem) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
⁵tn The Greek word platei'a (plateia) refers to a major (broad) street (L&N 1.103).
⁶tn Grk “From here and from there.”
⁷tn Or “twelve crops” (one for each month of the year).
⁸tn The words “of the year” are implied.
⁹tn Or “be anything accursed” (L&N 33.474).
¹⁰tn Grk “in it”; the referent (the city, the new Jerusalem) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
¹¹tn Grk “city, and his.” Although this is a continuation of the previous sentence in Greek, a new sentence was started here in the translation because of the introduction of the Lamb’s followers.
¹²tn See the note on the word “servants” in 1:1.
¹³tn Or “will serve.”
¹⁴tn Here kaiv (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence within the narrative.
¹⁵tn Grk “he”; the referent (the angel mentioned in 21:9, 15; 22:1) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
¹⁶tn Grk “faithful.”
¹⁷tn See the note on the word “servants” in 1:1.
¹⁸sn These lines are parenthetical, forming an aside to the narrative. The speaker here is the Lord Jesus Christ himself rather than the narrator.
¹⁹tn Or “I am John, the one who heard and saw these things.”
²⁰tn The pronoun “them” is not in the Greek text, but is implied. Direct objects were frequently omitted in Greek when clear from the context.
²¹tn Grk “I fell down and worshiped at the feet.” BDAG 815 s.v. pivptw 1.b.a.b. has “fall down, throw oneself to the ground as a sign of devotion or humility, before high-ranking persons or divine beings.”
²²tn Here kaiv (kai) has been translated as “but” to indicate the contrast present here.
²³tn On the elliptical expression o{ra mhv ({ora mh) BDAG 720 s.v. oJravw B.2 states: “Elliptically…o{ra mhv (sc. poihvsh/") watch out! don’t do that! Rv 19:10; 22:9.”
²⁴tn Grk “fellow slave.” Though suvndoulo" (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.
²⁵tn Grk “keep” (an idiom for obedience).
²⁶tn Here kaiv (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence of events within the vision.
²⁷tn Grk “must do evil still.”
²⁸tn For this translation see L&N 88.258; the term refers to living in moral filth.
²⁹tn Grk “filthy, and the.” This is a continuation of the previous sentence in Greek, but because of the length and complexity of the construction a new sentence was started in the translation.
³⁰tn The Greek term may be translated either “pay” or “pay back” and has something of a double meaning here. However, because of the mention of “wages” (“reward,” another wordplay with two meanings) in the previous clause, the translation “pay” for ajpodou'nai (apodounai) was used here.
³¹sn These lines are parenthetical, forming an aside to the narrative. The speaker here is the Lord Jesus Christ himself rather than the narrator.
³²tn Grk “so that there will be to them authority over the tree of life.”
³³tn On the term favrmakoi (farmakoi) see L&N 53.101.
³⁴tn Or “lying,” “deceit.”
³⁵tn On this expression BDAG 892 s.v. prwi>nov" states, “early, belonging to the morning oJ ajsthVr oJ pr. the morning star, Venus Rv 2:28; 22:16.”
³⁶tn Grk “written.”
³⁷tc The Textus Receptus, on which the KJV rests, reads “the book” of life (ajpoV bivblou, 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.)
³⁸tc Most mss (Í Ï) read “amen” (ajmhvn, amhn) after “all” (pavntwn, pantwn). It is, however, not found in other important mss (A 1006 1841 pc). It is easier to account for its addition than its omission from the text if original. Such a conclusion is routinely added by scribes to NT books because a few of these books originally had such an ending (cf. Rom 16:27; Gal 6:18; Jude 25). A majority of Greek witnesses have the concluding ajmhvn in every NT book except Acts, James, and 3 John (and even in these books, ajmhvn is found in some witnesses). It is thus a predictable variant.