Paragraph 10:11
10:11a
they told me:
The Greek clause is literally “they said to me.” It is not clear who the pronoun they refers to. It probably refers generally to angels who told John God’s message. For example:
they said to me (New Revised Standard Version)
-or-
some voices said (Contemporary English Version)
-or-
⌊Others⌋ told me
Some English versions translate this clause as a passive because it is not clear to whom the pronoun “they” refers.
You must prophesy: The Greek clause is literally “It is necessary for you to prophesy.” God required John to write more prophecies for him.
prophesy: The word prophesy refers to speaking to people a message that God gives to him. These messages are called “prophecies” and reveal things that God wants people to know at that time. Other ways to translate this word are:
speak God’s message
-or-
proclaim God’s revelation
10:11b
about: There are several ways to interpret the Greek word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as about. The main interpretations are:
(1) It means concerning. The word refers to talking about the many peoples and nations. For example:
about (Revised Standard Version)
(2) It means against. The prophecy is about the bad things that the many peoples and nations are doing. For example:
against (New Jerusalem Bible)
(3) It means before. The prophecy is for the many peoples and nations to hear. For example:
in front of (God’s Word)
It is recommended that you follow interpretation (1).
peoples and nations: See how you translated these words in 5:9 or 7:9.
kings: This word refers to the highest ruler of a country. He usually has authority to make all decisions concerning the country. In some languages people are not familiar with kings. If that is true in your language, you may want to use a word or phrase that means leaders of countries. For example:
leaders of nations
© 2020 by SIL International®
Made available under the terms of a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License (CC BY-SA) creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0.
All Scripture quotations in this publication, unless otherwise indicated, are from The Holy Bible, Berean Standard Bible.
BSB is produced in cooperation with Bible Hub, Discovery Bible, OpenBible.com, and the Berean Bible Translation Committee.