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"but the remainder [G3062 loipoy] of the dead did not live again
until the thousand years were finished." (Revelation 20:5a).
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1. The above words are not found in the Bible’s oldest Greek manuscript of the Revelation, the Codex Sinaiticus. Nor are they found in the oldest Aramaic manuscript, the Khabouris Codex.
2. The words are listed as spurious in Tischendorf "List of spurious texts".
3. The words appear to contradict the scriptures that talk about a day when the dead are raised:
"God has set A DAY on which he is going to judge the world in righteousness, by a man whom he designated, having provided proof to everyone by raising him from the dead." (Acts 17:31).
Some scholars involved with translation of the Greek texts into English believe the words found in the first sentence in Revelation 20:5 were possibly added as a note at some point by someone - either in the margins, or in-between the lines (a common practice during the first few hundred years A.D), and later scribes who were copying the text were not sure whether or not the words were supposed to be there, and copied the text with those words, to be safe (a.k.a an interpolation).
4. Omitting the sentence does not affect the meaning of what is being said regarding the souls John saw, who had been beheaded and were now alive and reigning with Christ.
I wouldn't take the sentence out of scripture, though, because an accidental addition (if that's the case) is better than a deliberate omission (Rev 22:18-19)
- but I also won't base my interpretation of the Revelation upon that sentence - because scripture also says that
"God has set A DAY on which he is going to judge the world in righteousness, by a man whom he designated, having provided proof to everyone by raising him from the dead." (Acts 17:31).
For the rest
@Spiritual Israelite keeps trying to imply I say things I don't and have not said - this time by claiming (or at least implying) that I'm saying that those who will reign with Christ will reign with Christ on
the present earth, rather than reigning with Christ
over other saints for the first thousand years of what the Greek text calls "the ages of the ages"- in a new heavens and new earth.
I do not believe those who are seen rebelling at the close of that thousand years
are mortals, nor do I believe it's the present earth being spoken about, and Spiritual Israelite knows this perfectly well - I've said it enough times to him, explaining that it seems to me that
it's a repeat of what took place in the third chapter of Genesis in the Garden of Eden - EXCEPT THAT that the judgment of the human rebels seen in Rev 20:9
is FINAL (unlike
the death that came to Adam which was
undone by Christ - the last Adam and the Son of man):
"And fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them."
Unlike Premillennialists, I also do not believe Rev 20:1-10 is talking about things to occur BEFORE Rev 20:11-15, but
AFTER Rev 20:11-15
- to me it seems that Rev 20:1-10 are
parenthetic verses
(which is what most Amillennialists would also assert because it agrees with the Amillennial view)
- which is why Rev 20:1-10 stands out like a sore thumb
(if you take Rev 20:1-10 out, then Rev 20:11-15 FOLLOWS Rev 19:21, and Rev 21 & 22 tells us about the new heavens and new earth
that follows the Day of Judgment / Day of Christ).
JESUS said,
Matthew 19
28 And Jesus said unto them, Verily I say unto you, That ye which have followed me,
in the regeneration when the Son of man shall sit in the throne of his glory, ye also shall
sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.
29 And every one that hath forsaken houses, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my name’s sake, shall receive an hundredfold, and
shall inherit everlasting life.
1. When is
the regeneration Jesus was talking about?
2. What does the word
inherit mean?
Revelation
chapters 4 & 15 both speak about
twenty-four elders seated on thrones. Take a look at the following common symbols and themes found in both chapters:
- The four beasts are mentioned in both passages.
- The sea of glass is mentioned in both passages.
Chapter 4: The twenty-four elders
are clothed in white raiment & have crowns [stephanos] of gold on their heads (Revelation 4:4). They are
seated on thrones.
Chapter 15: Those
who had gotten the victory over the beast, and over his image, and over his mark, and over the number of his name, are seen standing on the sea of glass, having the harps of God (Revelation 15:2). *
* The same ones are seen
seated on thrones in Revelation 20:4, and they are alive [zao] and it is said that they
will reign with Christ for a thousand years (Revelation 20:4-6), where John is told that this is the first
resurrection of the body [anastasis].
Revelation 5 - same four beasts & twenty-four elders:
8 And when he had taken the book,
the four beasts and four and twenty elders fell down before the Lamb, having every one of them harps, and golden vials full of odours, which are the prayers of saints.
9 And they sung a new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof:
for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation;
10 And
hast made us unto our God kings and priests: and we
shall reign on the earth.
Note: It does not imply that it's talking about
the present earth.
IMO one has to be willfully blind not to see that
past tense (wast slain,
hast redeemed us and
hast made us kings & priests) is being juxtaposed with
future tense (we shall reign) in Rev 5:8-10.
It is not
every saint who ever died in Christ and has been resurrected from the dead who is promised in scripture that they will be given power over the nations and be sitting on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel
- it's those who were tested, and overcame.
Revelation 21
24 And the nations of
them which are saved shall walk in the light of it: and the kings of the earth
do bring their glory and honour into it.
25 And the gates of it shall not be shut at all by day: for there shall be no night there.
26 And
they shall bring the glory and honour of the nations into it.
27 And there shall in no wise enter into it any thing that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh a lie:
but they which are written in the Lamb’s book of life.
Unlike Amillennialists, I don't push the above statements in scripture into a
pre-return-of-Christ "millennium";
and
unlike Premillennialists, nor do I push the (one and only) Day of Christ / Day of judgment spoken of in scripture into another (a second) "Day of judgment following the first judgment" called "the Great White throne judgment".
As I said, to me it seems to be talking about
a repeat of what took place in the third chapter of Genesis in the Garden of Eden - EXCEPT THAT that the judgment of the human rebels seen in Rev 20:9
is FINAL (unlike
the death that came to Adam which was
undone by Christ - the last Adam and the Son of man):
"And fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them."
It rests on two questions:
1. Who prevented Adam and Eve from continuing to eat of the tree of life and live forever (immortal) in that sinful state?
Answer: It was God (Genesis 3:22-24).
2. Who will destroy the human rebels by fire coming down from heaven?
Answer: God (Revelation 20:9).
"Fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather
fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in gehennah." (Matthew 10:28).
God is able to destroy anything He created.
Immortality does not prevent God from being able to destroy or kill anything He created. Elsewhere Jesus calls gehennah, "the fire that shall never be quenched" (Mark 9:43). The beast and false prophet were both cast alive [zao] into a lake of fire (Rev 19:20).
