Revelation 20 is the twentieth chapter of the Book of Revelation or the Apocalypse of John in the New Testament of the Christian Bible. The book is traditionally attributed to John the Apostle,[1][2] but the precise identity of the author remains a point of academic debate.[3] This chapter contains the notable account of the "Millennium" and the judgment of the dead.[4]
Revelation 20 | |
---|---|
Book | Book of Revelation |
Category | Apocalypse |
Christian Bible part | New Testament |
Order in the Christian part | 27 |
The original text was written in Koine Greek. This chapter is divided into 15 verses.
Some early manuscripts containing the text of this chapter are among others:[5][a]
This passage is the basis for various tradition of Christian 'millenarianism'.[8]
Jesus Christ says in the writer's vision at Revelation 1:18, "I hold the keys of Hades and of Death", leading some interpreters to suggest that the angel observed here is actually Christ. The 17th-century theologian John Gill refers to a suggestion that the prophesied angel was fulfilled in Constantine the Great (272–337 AD).[10] The Ethiopic version reads "the key of the sun".[10]
It is not explicit or clear who was seated on the thrones. "The natural construction is that 'judges' sat on them.[15] The New International Version presents the text as:
American theologian Albert Barnes notes the "considerable resemblance, in many respects, between this [wording] and the statement in Daniel 7:9":
Daniel's vision continues:
and so the Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges argues that those seated on the thrones are these saints of the Most High.[18]
The reference to "judgment based on works" (Biblical Greek: κατὰ τὰ ἔργα αὐτῶν, romanized: kata ta erga auton) is repeated in verse 13. The phrase is κατά ὁ ἔργον αὐτός ("according to his work") in Tischendorf's critical edition. Biblical commentator Andrew Robert Fausset stresses that "we are justified by faith, judged according to (not by) our works".[26]
The "lake of fire" is referred to in Revelation 19:20, in verses 10 and 14-15 in this chapter and in Revelation 21:8.