Translation commentary on Revelation 11:16

The twenty-four elders who sit on their thrones before God: see 4.4.

Fell on their faces and worshiped God: they prostrated themselves (thus Revised English Bible, New Jerusalem Bible, Translator’s New Testament); for worshiped see 4.10.

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 .

SIL Translator’s Notes on Revelation 11:16

Paragraph 11:16–18

11:16a

elders: Here the word elders refers to those who have authority. These elders are the same ones as in 4:4. These twenty-four people (or angels) were leaders. They had God as their leader. For example:

leaders (God’s Word)

These verses do not say whether the elders were people or angels. So use a word like “elder” or “leader” that could refer to either people or angels. See how you translated this word in 4:4 or 7:11.

thrones: A throne usually refers to the official chair of a king. Here the word thrones refers to special chairs for the elders. These thrones show that the elders have authority or a special place before God.

See how you translated this word in 1:4 or 4:4.

11:16b

fell on their faces: Here this phrase refers to kneeling and putting faces to the ground with arms outstretched toward God. This position showed complete humility before God and honored him. Other ways to translate this phrase are:

prostrated themselves and touched the ground with their foreheads (New Jerusalem Bible)
-or-
threw themselves down with their faces to the ground (NET Bible)

Many languages have a different way to show complete humility and honor to God. If that is true in your language, you may want to use that saying instead. See how you translated this phrase in 7:11, where the Berean Standard Bible translates it as “fell facedown.”

worshiped: This word refers to honoring someone or something as sacred/divine. Other ways to translate this word are:

venerated
-or-
revered

See how you translated this phrase in 4:10 or 9:20.

© 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.