SIL Translator’s Notes on Revelation 12:8

12:8a

the dragon was not strong enough: There is a textual issue here:

(1) Some Greek manuscripts have he. For example:

he was too weak (Revised English Bible)

(2) Some Greek manuscripts have they. For example:

they were defeated (Revised Standard Version)

It is recommended that you follow option (1). The clause here focuses on the dragon as the leader. But both the dragon and his angels lost the war.

the dragon: The Greek is literally “he.” The pronoun refers to the dragon, as the Berean Standard Bible makes explicit. In some languages people may think this pronoun refers to Michael. If that is true in your language, you may want to clearly refer to the dragon, as the Berean Standard Bible models.

was not strong enough: This phrase indicates that the dragon and his army lost the war. Other ways to translate this phrase are:

was too weak (Revised English Bible)
-or-
was defeated (Good News Translation)
-or-
lost the battle (New Living Translation (2004))

12:8b

no longer was any place found in heaven for him and his angels: This clause indicates that God no longer allowed them into heaven. Other ways to translate this clause are:

there was no longer any place for them in heaven (Revised Standard Version)
-or-
he and his angels were not allowed to stay in heaven any longer (Good News Translation)
-or-
God no longer permitted them to enter heaven
-or-
they were forced out of heaven

© 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.

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