13:8a–c

And all who dwell on the earth will worship the beast—all whose names have not been written…: All of 13:8b–c explains the meaning of the phrase all who dwell on the earth. Here it refers to all people except believers. The names of believers were written in the Book of Life. For example:

All people living on earth will worship it, except those whose names were written… (Good News Translation)

13:8a

who dwell on the earth: The word who dwell refers to people living somewhere. These people who dwell lived on the earth. So this phrase refers to all people alive, except believers (13:8b–c).

13:8b

all whose names have not been written: The clause whose names have not been written is passive. Some languages must use an active or intransitive clause. Probably Jesus wrote the names, because this book is his. For example:

all whose names that ⌊the Lamb⌋ has not written
-or-
all whose names were not

from the foundation of the world: This phrase refers to when God wrote some names but did not write these names.

from: In other occurrences of the phrase “from the creation” in the NT, the word from indicates that the event in those verses occurred at or before creation. So it is likely here that these names were written at or before creation. Therefore, some English versions use “before” to be more clear here. For example:

before the foundation of the world (Revised Standard Version)

the foundation of the world: This phrase uses the noun foundation to describe an event. Some ways to translate it are:

• Use a passive clause. For example:

the world was created

• Use an active clause. For example:

⌊God/he⌋ created the world

• Translate without using a verb. For example:

the founding/beginning of the world

world: The Greek word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as world here probably refers to all created things. For example:

universe
-or-
all that God created
-or-
creation (Contemporary English Version)

the Book of Life: This phrase refers to a Book that has the names of people to whom God will give eternal Life. Some languages need to explain the word of. For example:

the book ⌊in which are the names⌋ of ⌊those who have⌋ ⌊eternal⌋ life
-or-
the book ⌊with/having the names⌋ of ⌊those to whom God will give⌋ ⌊eternal⌋ life

See how you translated this phrase in 3:5.

13:8c

the Lamb who was slain: The clause who was slain tells the reader more about the Lamb. The phrase the Lamb here is the symbolic title for Jesus. In some languages a literal translation would wrongly indicate that there are other people with the symbolic title the Lamb. If that is true in your language, translate this clause so that it tells more about the Lamb. One way to do that is to start a new sentence here. For example:

the Lamb. He was slain.
-or-
the Lamb. He was killed ⌊on the cross⌋ .
-or-
the Lamb. He was killed ⌊but he lives again⌋ .

the Lamb: This is a title for Jesus. Jewish people killed a lamb at the Passover as a sacrifice to God. The lamb has symbolic meaning as a special sacrifice and is a symbol for the Christ. See how you translated this title in 5:6 or 7:14.

who was slain: This clause is passive. Some languages must use an active clause. Here it is not important to indicate who killed the Lamb. For example:

the Lamb whom ⌊people/they⌋ killed

General Comment on 13:8b–c

There are four things said here:

(a) Some people’s names were written in the Book of Life and some people’s names were not written in it.

(b) The names were written before God made the universe.

(c) That Book of Life belongs to the Lamb.

(d) The Lamb was slain.

In some languages it is more natural to use another sentence or several sentences for some of this information. For example:

all whose names have not been written in the Book of Life before the creation of the world. That book belongs to the Lamb that was slain.
-or-
all whose names have not been written in the Book of Life. That book is the Lamb’s book. He wrote the names in it before the creation of the world. He was slain ⌊but he lives again⌋ .

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