SIL Translator’s Notes on Revelation 21:16

21:16a–b

The city lies foursquare: The Greek clause is literally “the city lies square.” The land that the city rested on was square in shape. For example:

The city was square. (God’s Word)

with its width the same as its length: This phrase could mean that the city was shaped as a cube or as a pyramid. The words only describe the base or foundation as a square. So, do not describe the shape of the city.

21:16c–d

12,000 stadia: A Roman distance unit of measure was the stadium (plural is stadia). It is about 185 meters (607 feet). So 12,000 stadia is about 2,220 kilometers (1,380 miles). You may want to:

Use the Roman measure, as the Berean Standard Bible does. You may then want to explain the distance in a footnote. For example:

This is about 2,200 kilometers.
-or-
About 1,400 miles.

Use the common measure in your area. For example:

2,200 kilometers
-or-
1,400 miles
-or-
2,900,000 paces
-or-
the distance of walking 560 hours

You may then want to explain the literal words in a footnote. For example:

Literally: “12,000 stadia.” The Roman measure of a stadium (plural is “stadia”) is about 185 meters.

See how you translated stadia in 14:20.

© 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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