SIL Translator’s Notes on Revelation 20:13

20:13a–c

This verse explains more about where the dead people came from. The events in this verse occur before God judged people in 20:12. See the General Comment on 20:12a–13c below.

20:13a

The sea gave up its dead: The Greek clause is literally “The sea gave the dead in it.” It symbolically represents the idea that the people who died in the sea came before God.

In some languages a literal translation would not have the correct meaning. If that is true in your language, you should translate the correct meaning. For example:

Those who died in the sea came
-or-
All of those who had died in the sea were there
-or-
All the dead from the sea came and stood ⌊before God

sea: The word sea refers to a large body of water. A sea is often so large that someone standing on one side cannot see the other side. Here the word sea refers to seas and oceans in general. See how you translated this word in 5:13 or 18:17.

20:13b

Death and Hades gave up their dead: The Greek clause is literally “death and Hades gave the dead in them.” It symbolically represents the idea that the dead people in Hades and anywhere else came before God.

In some languages a literal translation would not have the correct meaning. If that is true in your language, translate the correct meaning. For example:

Those held by death or who were in Hades came
-or-
All of those who were in the place of the dead and all the other dead people were there
-or-
All the dead in the afterworld and anywhere else came ⌊and stood before God

Hades: This word refers to the place where the souls of dead people live before God judges everyone. Some ways to translate Hades are:

Use the name in your language for the place where the souls of dead people live.

Use a descriptive phrase. For example:

the land/place of the dead people
-or-
the world of the dead (Good News Translation)

Use the Greek word and explain it in your translation. For example:

Hades, ⌊the place of the dead

See how you translated this word in 1:18 or 6:8.

20:13c

each one was judged according to his deeds: This clause is passive. Some languages must use an active clause. God judged each one. For example:

God⌋ judged each person

General Comment on 20:12a–13c

20:13c repeats most of what 20:12d says. Both verses refer to one event of judging. 20:13a–b says where the dead people came from. Your translation should clearly indicate that 20:12d–13c refers to one event and not two events. You may want to:

Indicate at the beginning of 20:13a that 20:13a–c explains more about the dead in 20:12a. For example:

13a
For⌋ the sea gave…
-or-

13a
Indeed,⌋ the sea gave…

Put 20:13a–c before 20:12a and do not repeat the event of judging. For example:

13a The sea gave up the dead that were in it, 13b and death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them. 12a I saw them all, great and small, standing before the throne, 12b and books were opened. 12c Another book was opened, which is the Book of Life. 12d,13c The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books.

You would then mark these words with the combined verse numbers “12–13.”

© 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.

Subscribe
Notify of
guest
0 Comments
Oldest
Newest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments