Revelation 14:1-5

Revelation 14:1. After the horror and tragedy of the last two Chapter s, we have another pause in the movement of the drama, a new vision of heaven and the bliss of the redeemed.

Revelation 14:1. the Lamb: this chapter recalls the vision in ch. 5 (cf. Revelation 5:6). mount Zion: Zion is the Christian Acropolis, but whether the reference here is to the earthly or heavenly Zion cannot be determined. For the 144, 000, cf. Revelation 7:4, where possibly the number covers only Jewish Christians. Here there is no suggestion of any such limitation, for in Revelation 14:3 they are described as they that had been purchased out of the earth. name. on their foreheads: cf. Revelation 7:3 f. and contrast the mark on the foreheads of the worshippers of the beast (Revelation 13:16).

Revelation 14:2. many waters: cf. Revelation 1:15.

Revelation 14:3. a new song: cf. Revelation 5:9. four. elders: Revelation 4:4; Revelation 4:6 *.

Revelation 14:4. they are virgins: the term virgin is in the masculine, and should be translated celibates. Whether it is to be taken literally here is disputed. As Swete says, No condemnation of marriage, no exclusion of the married from the highest blessings of the Christian life, finds a place in the NT. And if we were to press the meaning of the word virgin or celibate here, this passage is an exception to the general teaching of the NT. Moreover, the imagery used in chs. 21 f. throws a halo of sanctity over marriage. The probability is therefore that the words here describe not celibates but men who had kept the marriage-bond inviolate.