Paragraph 22:1–3a

22:1a

the angel: This is the same angel as in 21:9–17.

showed me a river of the water of life:
This clause indicates that the water in the river was the water of life. For example:

showed me a river filled with the water of life (God’s Word)

the water of life: This phrase indicates that the water is a source of eternal life. Other ways to translate this phrase are:

water that gives ⌊eternal⌋ life
-or-
life-giving water

See how you translated this phrase in 7:17 (“living water”) or 21:6.

as clear as crystal: There are two ways to interpret the Greek word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as clear :

(1) The word means bright or sparkling here. For example:

sparkling like crystal (Good News Translation)

(2) The word means clear here. For example:

crystal–clear (New Jerusalem Bible)

It is recommended that you follow interpretation (1), because that is the usual meaning of the Greek word.

crystal: The Greek word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as crystal refers to various substances that are bright, shiny, and have flat surfaces. (See drawing at 4:6.) The Greek word probably refers only to crystals that let light shine through them. Quartz, diamond, and sapphire are examples of crystals. Here the focus is on the fact that the crystal is shiny.

In some languages people are not familiar with crystal. If that is true in your language, you may want to:

• Use the characteristics of crystals that are important here. For example:

bright and sparkling

• Use the major language word. If people are not familiar with this word, you may want to explain it in a footnote. An example footnote is:

Crystals are hard substances that are see-through, shiny, and have flat surfaces. The water in this verse is shiny and sparkling like crystal.

See how you translated this word in 4:6 or 21:11.

22:1b

flowing from: The Greek word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as flowing from is literally “coming out of.” The phrase indicates that the river came out of the throne. Other ways to translate this phrase are:

coming from (Good News Translation)
-or-
pouring out from (NET Bible)

the throne of God and of the Lamb: The throne belongs to both God and the Lamb. It is where God and the Lamb rule.

© 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.