Revelation 2:13-15

New English Translation

Footnotes

1. Revelation 2:13 tc The shorter reading adopted here has superior ms support (א A C P 2053 al latt co), while the inclusion of “your works and” (τὰ ἔργα σου καί, ta erga sou kai) before “where you reside” is supported by the Byzantine witnesses and is evidently a secondary attempt to harmonize the passage with 2:2, 19; 3:1, 8, 15.
2. Revelation 2:13 tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “Yet” to indicate the contrast between their location and their faithful behavior.
3. Revelation 2:13 tn The present indicative verb κρατεῖς (krateis) has been translated as a progressive present.
4. Revelation 2:13 tn Grk “the faith”; here the Greek article is used as a possessive pronoun (ExSyn 215).
5. Revelation 2:13 tn Grk “the faith of me” (τὴν πίστιν μου, tēn pistin mou) with the genitive “of me” (μου) functioning objectively.
6. Revelation 2:13 tn Or “martyr.” The Greek word μάρτυς can mean either “witness” or “martyr.”
7. Revelation 2:13 tn Grk “killed among you.” The term “city” does not occur in the Greek text of course, but the expression παρ᾿ ὑμῖν, ὅπου ὁ σατανᾶς κατοικεῖ (par’ humin, hopou ho satanas katoikei) seems to indicate that this is what is meant. See G. B. Caird, Revelation (HNTC), 36-38.
8. Revelation 2:14 sn See Num 22-24; 31:16.
9. Revelation 2:14 tn That is, a cause for sinning. An alternate translation is “who instructed Balak to cause the people of Israel to sin by eating food sacrificed to idols…”
10. Revelation 2:14 tn Grk “sons,” but the expression υἱοὶ ᾿Ισραήλ (huioi Israēl) is an idiom for the people of Israel as an ethnic entity (see L&N 11.58).
11. Revelation 2:14 tn Due to the actual events in the OT (Num 22-24; 31:16), πορνεῦσαι (porneusai) is taken to mean “sexual immorality.” BDAG 854 s.v. πορνεύω 1 states, “engage in illicit sex, to fornicate, to whore…W. φαγεῖν εἰδωλόθυτα ‘eat meat offered to idols’ Rv 2:14, 20.”
12. Revelation 2:15 tn The term ὁμοίως (homoiōs, “likewise”) is left untranslated because it is quite redundant.sn See the note on the term Nicolaitans in 2:6.