Revelation 20 — Greek text and reception
Each card preserves the Greek reading and its textual and reception notes. This source provides a Greek study edition; Hebrew counterparts and Hebrew–Greek classifications are not supplied.
Chapter 20
The binding and the reign
Verse 20:1
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
And I saw an angel coming down from heaven, having the key of the abyss and a great chain upon his hand.
Textual & Reception Notes
Textual [G]: The descending angel has the abyss's key and a great chain. He is not named or identified with the earlier key-bearing star.
Reception: R065 (Victorinus tradition; scope 20:1–6); R074 (Augustine; scope 20:1–6).
Verse 20:2
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
And he seized the dragon, the ancient serpent, who is the Devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years,
Textual & Reception Notes
Textual [G]: The dragon's serpent, Devil and Satan identifications repeat 12:9. A thousand years is the stated binding period, retained before its interpretation.
Reception: R065 (Victorinus tradition; scope 20:1–6); R074 (Augustine; scope 20:1–6).
Verse 20:3
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
and threw him into the abyss, and shut it and sealed it over him, so that he might no longer deceive the nations until the thousand years were completed. After these things he must be loosed for a little time.
Textual & Reception Notes
Textual [G]: The stated restraint concerns deceiving the nations. The abyss is shut and sealed, yet the subsequent brief release is also expressly required.
Reception: R065 (Victorinus tradition; scope 20:1–6); R074 (Augustine; scope 20:1–6).
Verse 20:4
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given to them; and the souls of those beheaded because of the testimony of Jesus and because of the word of God, and those who did not worship the beast or its image and did not receive the mark upon their forehead and upon their hand. And they lived and reigned with Christ for a thousand years.
Textual & Reception Notes
Textual [G]: The first they has no named subject in the Greek. The souls and the worship-refusers follow in the description; the rendering does not supply a separate list of judges. Lived, ezēsan, can mean came to life in the resurrection context.
Reception: R065 (Victorinus tradition; scope 20:1–6); R073 (Justin Martyr; scope 20:4–6); R074 (Augustine; scope 20:1–6).
Verse 20:5
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
The rest of the dead did not live until the thousand years were completed. This is the first resurrection.
Textual & Reception Notes
Textual [G]: First resurrection and the thousand years remain explicit. The translation does not replace them with an interpretive chronology or convert the number into a modern calendar.
Reception: R065 (Victorinus tradition; scope 20:1–6); R073 (Justin Martyr; scope 20:4–6); R074 (Augustine; scope 20:1–6).
Verse 20:6
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
Blessed and holy is the one who has a share in the first resurrection; over these the second death has no authority, but they will be priests of God and of Christ, and will reign with Him for a thousand years.
Textual & Reception Notes
Textual [G]: Participation in the first resurrection entails immunity from the second death, priesthood and reign. The future reign remains with Him after God and Christ are both named.
Reception: R065 (Victorinus tradition; scope 20:1–6); R073 (Justin Martyr; scope 20:4–6); R074 (Augustine; scope 20:1–6).
Textual [G]: NA28 reads [τὰ] χίλια ἔτη with the article in brackets (SBLGNT anarthrous); the rendering above follows SBLGNT, and NA28 would read "for the thousand years".
The final deception defeated
Verse 20:7
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
And when the thousand years are completed, Satan will be loosed from his prison,
Textual & Reception Notes
Textual [G]: Release follows completion of the thousand years. Prison recalls the abyss's confinement without making it identical to the later lake of fire.
Reception: R076 (Augustine; scope 20:7–9).
Verse 20:8
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
and will go out to deceive the nations at the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them for war, whose number is like the sand of the sea.
Textual & Reception Notes
Textual [G]: Gog and Magog are the source’s names for the gathered nations. No modern country is substituted.
Reception: R066 (Victorinus tradition; scope 20:8–10); R076 (Augustine; scope 20:7–9).
Verse 20:9
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
And they came up upon the breadth of the earth and surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved city. And fire came down from heaven and devoured them.
Textual & Reception Notes
Textual [G]: The gathered forces surround both the saints' camp and the beloved city. Fire descends from heaven; an added from God is absent from this selected clause.
Reception: R066 (Victorinus tradition; scope 20:8–10); R076 (Augustine; scope 20:7–9).
Verse 20:10
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
And the devil who deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur, where also are the beast and the false prophet, and they will be tormented day and night for the ages of the ages.
Textual & Reception Notes
Textual [G]: The devil joins the beast and false prophet in the lake. They will be tormented is plural, with day-and-night and ages-of-ages duration both explicit.
Reception: R066 (Victorinus tradition; scope 20:8–10); R077 (Augustine; scope 20:10–15).
The great white throne
Verse 20:11
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
And I saw a great white throne and the One sitting upon it, from whose face the earth and heaven fled, and no place was found for them.
Textual & Reception Notes
Textual [G]: Earth and heaven flee from the throne occupant's face and find no place. The great white throne introduces judgment before the new creation appears.
Reception: R072 (Irenaeus; scope 20:11–15,21:1–6); R077 (Augustine; scope 20:10–15); R082 (John Bunyan; scope 6:15–16,20:11–14).
Verse 20:12
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
And I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne, and scrolls were opened; and another scroll was opened, which is of life. And the dead were judged from the things written in the scrolls, according to their works.
Textual & Reception Notes
Textual [G]: Opened scrolls and another scroll of life are distinct. Judgment follows what is written and each person's works, not social greatness or smallness.
Reception: R072 (Irenaeus; scope 20:11–15,21:1–6); R077 (Augustine; scope 20:10–15); R082 (John Bunyan; scope 6:15–16,20:11–14).
Verse 20:13
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
And the sea gave the dead in it, and Death and Hades gave the dead in them, and they were judged, each according to their works.
Textual & Reception Notes
Textual [G]: Sea, Death and Hades yield their dead. The distributive each preserves individual judgment within the collective scene.
Reception: R072 (Irenaeus; scope 20:11–15,21:1–6); R077 (Augustine; scope 20:10–15); R082 (John Bunyan; scope 6:15–16,20:11–14).
Verse 20:14
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
And Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire.
Textual & Reception Notes
Textual [G]: The source explicitly identifies the lake of fire as the second death and places Death and Hades in it. These images are not collapsed into a single earlier term.
Reception: R072 (Irenaeus; scope 20:11–15,21:1–6); R077 (Augustine; scope 20:10–15); R082 (John Bunyan; scope 6:15–16,20:11–14).
Verse 20:15
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
And if anyone was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.
Textual & Reception Notes
Textual [G]: The condition concerns anyone not found written in the book of life. The destination is the same lake already called the second death.
Reception: R072 (Irenaeus; scope 20:11–15,21:1–6); R077 (Augustine; scope 20:10–15).