1Then I saw the Lamb standing on Mount Zion, and with him were 144,000 who had his name and his Father’s name written on their foreheads. 2And I heard a sound from heaven like the roar of mighty ocean waves or the rolling of loud thunder. It was like the sound of many harpists playing together. 3This great choir sang a wonderful new song in front of the throne of God and before the four living beings and the twenty-four elders. No one could learn this song except the 144,000 who had been redeemed from the earth. 4They have kept themselves as pure as virgins, following the Lamb wherever he goes. They have been purchased from among the people on the earth as a special offering to God and to the Lamb. 5They have told no lies; they are without blame. 6And I saw another angel flying through the sky, carrying the eternal Good News to proclaim to the people who belong to this world—to every nation, tribe, language, and people. 7“Fear God,” he shouted. “Give glory to him. For the time has come when he will sit as judge. Worship him who made the heavens, the earth, the sea, and all the springs of water.” 8Then another angel followed him through the sky, shouting, “Babylon is fallen—that great city is fallen—because she made all the nations of the world drink the wine of her passionate immorality.” 9Then a third angel followed them, shouting, “Anyone who worships the beast and his statue or who accepts his mark on the forehead or on the hand 10must drink the wine of God’s anger. It has been poured full strength into God’s cup of wrath. And they will be tormented with fire and burning sulfur in the presence of the holy angels and the Lamb. 11The smoke of their torment will rise forever and ever, and they will have no relief day or night, for they have worshiped the beast and his statue and have accepted the mark of his name.” 12This means that God’s holy people must endure persecution patiently, obeying his commands and maintaining their faith in Jesus. 13And I heard a voice from heaven saying, “Write this down: Blessed are those who die in the Lord from now on. Yes, says the Spirit, they are blessed indeed, for they will rest from their hard work; for their good deeds follow them!” 14Then I saw a white cloud, and seated on the cloud was someone like the Son of Man. He had a gold crown on his head and a sharp sickle in his hand. 15Then another angel came from the Temple and shouted to the one sitting on the cloud, “Swing the sickle, for the time of harvest has come; the crop on earth is ripe.” 16So the one sitting on the cloud swung his sickle over the earth, and the whole earth was harvested. 17After that, another angel came from the Temple in heaven, and he also had a sharp sickle. 18Then another angel, who had power to destroy with fire, came from the altar. He shouted to the angel with the sharp sickle, “Swing your sickle now to gather the clusters of grapes from the vines of the earth, for they are ripe for judgment.” 19So the angel swung his sickle over the earth and loaded the grapes into the great winepress of God’s wrath. 20The grapes were trampled in the winepress outside the city, and blood flowed from the winepress in a stream about 180 miles long and as high as a horse’s bridle.
Revelation 14:1-20
I am sure you are aware that we are crossing the chapter boundary into Revelation 14. The title of this Gem will tell you that much. Those of you who have been following Bible Gems for a good length of time know what we ought to do now. I have given you the text as though it was in the original format, however I have been kind to you. It is not run together without breaks between words or verses. The original uncial text [ALLCAPSTEXT] would have had no word breaks and no verse numbers. Robert Estienne added the verse numbers in 1550. It would have just been a block of text with all the words run together. I have been kind to you and left the verse numbers intact so you can find your way around the text. When Eugene Peterson published the first Message version it was without verse numbers. He was doing us a favour but many complained and the verse numbers were reinstated in subsequent editions.
Do you notice what else the text above lacks?
There are no paragraph sections and no titles to the pericope, a fancy name for the titled units of text in your Bible. My suggestion is that you read this text John wrote without the titled paragraphs telling you what each section is about and decide for yourself where you would break the text into paragraphs. After sectioning the text, give your sections titles. We make the mistake of thinking the titles given to each pericope are sacrosanct, but they are not. The text divisions in your Bible are often set by the publisher and not the translator. The same is true of the titles given to each section. I will show you the end result using the Eight Translation New Testament (Tyndale: 1985) in the next Gem. I imagine that will surprise some of you to see the differences.
Your task in the meantime is to read this block of text through a number of times. Then divide the text into the natural paragraph breaks you feel appropriate. Once you have chosen the paragraph division, give each paragraph a title. Congratulations, you will have then made your own decision over the paragraphing and titling in your “Bible”. Well at the very least you will have done some thinking about Revelation 14 before we dare to try to understand it. Simply copy and paste the text of Revelation 14 from this Gem into your text editor Word (?) or even into an email and then make your choice of where to break the text into paragraphs or sections. When you have finished, give each section a title.
If you want something else to do, consider how this block of text fits together with what went before it and what follows after it in the wider context of John’s letter. That step is essential to how we interpret the whole of Revelation 14 and how it fits into the flow of John’s complete letter. Remember John is sharing the Revelation he received from Jesus the Christ, the Lamb of God and sharing it with the churches in the Roman Province of Asia.
Another option you have is to do nothing and wait for the next Gem to be posted. Leave it to me to tell you what you need to know. I think you would agree that is NOT the wisest thing to do. At least doing what I have suggested above will help you learn more about your Bible than you knew before. Doing this simple task will throw up questions which demand answers. Your answers will serve you well as we interpret this particular this portion of Revelation. Once again feel free to ask questions of the text as you work your way through it. As you grapple with this chapter on another level, deciding where paragraph breaks should go and what title to give each section, it forces you to interact with the text in new ways.
The choice is yours.
I have learned over the years that there is often treasure buried in a Bible verse with which I conclude I am familiar and consider nothing else could be mined from it.
Ian
Punctuation and text division is very important.
Ian
There was no redemptive plan for the fallen angels. There did not have to be one for us either. Tremble with thankfulness.
John Piper
Being certain of Scripture’s authority is humility. Being certain that my interpretation is always right is arrogance.
Rick Warren
That was an enlightening exercise.
My attempt at “pericoping” Rev 14 follows. After doing this I checked with NIV, ESV, BSB etc and they seem to say pretty much the same, but not exactly.
Revelation 14
The Lamb and the 144,000. 1-5
The Proclamation of the Angels. 6-11
The Call for Endurance. 12-13
The Harvest of the Earth. 14-20
Well done David. Firstly to be the only person out of 700 who dared to take on the task of subdividing the text for yourself. In doing so you picked up some enlightenment! But not only did you dare to attempt it for yourself and for that you oughta be congratulated. But you also did a good job in your choice of pericope and picked up the anomaly of verses 12-13 which the TEV, NIV and Jerusalem Bible didn’t do. When is the New Improved Holmes Study Bible being released?