Through the middle of the street of the city: as the RSV footnote shows, it is possible to end verse 1 with a full stop and begin verse 2 with “Through the middle…” joined to the following “was the tree of life.” So Biblia Dios Habla Hoy translates “In the middle of the main street of the city, and on each side of the river, grew the tree of life.” Most translations, however, divide and punctuate as Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation do. Good News Translation has used the two verbs “coming (from)” and “flowing (down),” instead of the one verb flowing of the Greek text in verse 1. For the street of the city see 21.21.
On either side of the river, the tree of life: both Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation (and other translations as well) translate quite literally the tree of life, and so portray one single tree that grows in two different places, that is, on both sides of the river. This is an impossible statement, but the language may be explained by the fact that in the Old Testament there is the one tree of life-giving fruit (Gen 2.9; 3.22; see also Rev 2.7; 22.14, 19), and the writer wants to preserve this figure. But it is possible to take the singular the tree to be a collective term, “the trees of life” (see Ezek 47.12). Beckwith, who favors this interpretation, comments “there are multitudes of trees.” It is recommended that translators choose the plural form.
Tree of life: “life-giving trees,” or “trees that bear life-giving fruit,” or “trees that bear fruit that causes people to live.”
Its twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month: it is most improbable that the Greek text means that the tree bears a different fruit each month; rather it means, as Good News Translation and others have it, “which bears fruit twelve times a year, once each month” (so New Jerusalem Bible, New American Bible, Revised, Revised English Bible, Biblia Dios Habla Hoy, Bible en français courant).
The leaves … were for the healing of the nations: “the leaves … are used to heal the wounds of all peoples” or “all peoples of the world use the leaves to heal their wounds (or, to cure their diseases).”
An alternative translation model for verses 1 and 2 is:
• After the angel showed me the new city, he showed me the river full of water that gives life. It sparkled with a beautiful green and red light, like the clear transparent glass named “crystal.” The river flowed out from under the throne of God and the Lamb, and went through the wide road (or, big street) of the city. On each side of the river stood life-giving trees that bear fruit twelve times a year, once each month. The people of the world use their leaves for healing wounds (or, curing disease).
Quoted with permission from Bratcher, Robert G. and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on The Revelation to John. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1993. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .