The translator should try to present this verse as poetry (see Section F of the introduction, “Translating the Revelation to John,” pages 6 and following).

Worthy art thou, our Lord and God: New Revised Standard Version has “You are worthy.” The adjective Worthy means, in this context, “You deserve…,” “You have the right (to receive).” The phrase our Lord and God means “the Lord and God we worship (or, serve).”

To receive glory and honor and power: the implied actor and the receiver can be reversed, “for people to give you…,” or else the verb phrase can be made a simple passive, “to be given (by people).” For glory and honor see Rev. 4.9. To receive … power in this context means “to receive (or, be given) praise for your power”; it does not mean to be given power. An alternative translation model for this clause is “for people to tell you how great you are, honor you, and praise you for your power.”

Thou didst create all things: the verb translated create always has God or Christ as subject in the New Testament. The verb itself does not specify whether God created all things out of nothing (see Heb 11.3, where a different verb is used). Many languages will express this idea as “you caused all things to come into being,” while others will use the equivalent of “make” and will say “you made all things.”

By thy will they existed and were created: this is a compound sentence that repeats the thought of the previous line. The two verbs do not express two separate events but the one event expressed in two different ways. Translator’s New Testament translates “They owe their existence and their creation to your will”; Revised English Bible “by your will they were created and have their being,” and Traduction œcuménique de la Bible “You willed that they exist, and they were created.” Nova Tradução na Linguagem de Hoje reverses the two: “by your will they were created and exist.” In languages that do not use the passive, this sentence will need to be restructured; for example, “You willed that they exist and so created them.”

The final two lines of the poem may also be expressed as “you made all things, and you willed that they exist, and so they received life.”

Quoted with permission from Bratcher, Robert G. and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on The Revelation to John. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1993. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .