The nations raged: this reflects the language of the Greek Septuagint version of Psa 2.1. Here The nations are “the Gentiles” (or, “the heathen”), people who do not worship the God of Israel. The Greek verb translated raged means “became very angry (or, furious)” and appears only here in Revelation. In certain languages raged will be expressed idiomatically; for example, “have very hot heart (or, liver).”
But thy wrath came: the Greek conjunction used here usually means “and” (so New International Version); Good News Translation has “because” (a possible meaning), but most translations have But. The Greek noun translated wrath is related to the verb translated raged, and a translation that can use the two related words is urged to do so. Here the abstract wrath stands not only for the emotion but for the expression of that emotion, as the rest of the verse shows. So something like “the time has come for you to show (or, express) your anger” represents the meaning of the Greek. New Jerusalem Bible has “and now has come the time for your retribution.”
The time for the dead to be judged: it may be better to use the active voice, “the time has come for you to judge all who have died.” After the dead are raised to life, they will be judged by God (see 20.11-13). Here the word translated “time” can be represented by “the right time,” “the right occasion.” For judge see 6.10. An alternative translation model for the first part of this verse is as follows:
• Those who do not believe in you (or, the heathen) were having hot hearts; but the time for you to become angry has come; the right time has come for you to judge all people who have died.
For rewarding thy servants, the prophets and saints: the Revised Standard Version punctuation is somewhat odd; it seems to make the prophets and saints an apposition to thy servants, that is, the prophets and saints are the ones to whom thy servants refers (thus also New Revised Standard Version, in poetic form). This does not seem right. It seems more reasonable that the prophets defines those who are thy servants, that is, “your servants, the prophets” (see 10.7), and that saints goes with those who fear thy name. For saints see 5.8. Rewarding here means that God will “pay back,” “recompense,” “do good things to,” these people for what they have done. For the translation of servants see 1.1.
Those who fear thy name: the biblical expression “to fear God’s name” means to respect God, to honor God, to have reverence for God. Good News Translation places “all who have reverence for you” in apposition with “all your people” (also Moffatt and An American Translation); but it is possible that “all who have reverence for you” is another group, larger than “all your people.” But the Good News Bible rendering seems preferable: God’s people are further defined as those who honor and worship him in prayer and obedience to him.
Both small and great: this can be translated “the weak and the powerful,” “the lowly and the famous.” Most languages have terms that distinguish between the powerful and the powerless (see also 13.16; 19.5, 18; 20.12).
For destroying the destroyers of the earth: these are specifically the pagan rulers of the Roman Empire. Both the verb destroying and the noun destroyers may mean “for corrupting the corrupters” (see 19.2); but the sense of destroying fits the context here better (compare 8.9). A translation must not give the impression that the writer is talking about people who destroy the environment, making the earth unfit for human habitation; he is talking about those who mistreat and kill people. Destroying may be expressed as “killing,” “wiping out,” or even “wiping from the ground” (Yapese). So one may translate this final clause as “The time has come for you to wipe out (or, destroy) all those who kill people on earth.”
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 .
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.