ris3n's Apologetics Codex
Revelation 5.13
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Passage

Revelation 5.13

Book: Revelation · ASV / WEB / KJV / YLT

Immediate context (±2 verses)

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ASV

11. And I saw, and I heard a voice of many angels round about the throne and the living creatures and the elders; and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands; 12. saying with a great voice, Worthy is the Lamb that hath been slain to receive the power, and riches, and wisdom, and might, and honor, and glory, and blessing.

13. And every created thing which is in the heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, and on the sea, and all things that are in them, heard I saying, Unto him that sitteth on the throne, and unto the Lamb, be the blessing, and the honor, and the glory, and the dominion, for ever and ever.

  1. And the four living creatures said, Amen. And the elders fell down and worshipped. (Revelation 5:11-14, ASV)
WEB

11. I saw, and I heard something like a voice of many angels around the throne, the living creatures, and the elders; and the number of them was ten thousands of ten thousands, and thousands of thousands; 12. saying with a loud voice, “Worthy is the Lamb who has been killed to receive the power, wealth, wisdom, strength, honor, glory, and blessing!”

13. I heard every created thing which is in heaven, on the earth, under the earth, on the sea, and everything in them, saying, “To him who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb be the blessing, the honor, the glory, and the dominion, forever and ever! Amen!”

  1. The four living creatures said, “Amen!” The elders fell down and worshiped. (Revelation 5:11-14, WEB)
KJV

11. And I beheld, and I heard the voice of many angels round about the throne and the beasts and the elders: and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands; 12. Saying with a loud voice, Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing.

13. And every creature which is in heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, heard I saying, Blessing, and honour, and glory, and power, be unto him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb for ever and ever.

  1. And the four beasts said, Amen. And the four and twenty elders fell down and worshipped him that liveth for ever and ever. (Revelation 5:11-14, KJV)
YLT

11. And I saw, and I heard the voice of many messengers round the throne, and the living creatures, and the elders, and the number of them was myriads of myriads, and thousands of thousands 12. saying with a great voice, 'Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive the power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing!'

13. and every creature that is in the heaven, and in the earth, and under the earth, and the things that are upon the sea, and the all things in them, heard I saying, 'To Him who is sitting upon the throne, and to the Lamb, [is] the blessing, and the honour, and the glory, and the might, to the ages of the ages!'

  1. and the four living creatures said, 'Amen!' and the twenty-four elders fell down and they bow before Him who is living to the ages of the ages. (Revelation 5:11-14, YLT)

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Setting

  • Speaker: John, narrating what he "heard"; the words are spoken by "every created thing" in heaven, on earth, under the earth and on the sea
  • Audience: the seven churches of Asia who will read the book (1:4, 11)
  • Location: in the vision, the throne room of heaven (4:1-2); John himself was on Patmos (1:9)
  • Time period: most commonly c. AD 95, late in the reign of Domitian, following Irenaeus (Against Heresies 5.30.3); some scholars date the book before AD 70

Theological reading

"And every created thing which is in the heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, and on the sea, and all things that are in them, heard I saying, Unto him that sitteth on the throne, and unto the Lamb, be the blessing, and the honor, and the glory, and the dominion, for ever and ever." This is the climax of the vision that began in chapter 4.

Two scenes of worship. Chapter 4 ends with worship of the Creator: "Worthy art thou, our Lord and our God, to receive the glory and the honor and the power: for thou didst create all things" (4:11). Chapter 5 brings in the Lamb who "hath been slain" (5:12), and the praise widens until it reaches every creature. In this verse the two are named together and receive one list: blessing (Strong's G2129), honor (G5092), glory (G1391) and dominion (G2904), "for ever and ever."

Who is doing the praising. The verse says "every created thing" (G2938). The Lamb is not one of the voices. He is on the receiving side with the one on the throne, while everything that was made is on the giving side. The response follows: the living creatures say "Amen," and the elders "fell down and worshipped" (5:14). In the ASV the verb has no object; the KJV's "him that liveth for ever and ever" follows a later form of the text. Either way, the worship answers a doxology addressed to both.

The Witness reading and the reply. Witnesses hold that the Lamb is honoured as the one through whom Jehovah saves, and that this honour is not the worship due to Jehovah alone. The Christian reply, as set out in Jehovah's Witnesses vs the Christian God, is that the text gives no second, lesser category here. Isaiah has Jehovah say, "my glory will I not give to another" (Isaiah 42:8), and here glory is given to the Lamb in the same sentence and the same words as to the one on the throne. See Argument from the Universal Worship Convergence.

Key words

Theologically-loaded Greek or Hebrew words in this verse may have entries in the lexicon. Curated to roughly 100 contested terms across the corpus, not every word; see Lexicon Roadmap.

Quoted in

Arguments and defeaters:

Concepts:

Guides:

Why these four translations

ris3n chose ASV, WEB, KJV, and YLT for two reasons together. They are the most literal English translations available (formal-equivalence: word-for-word renderings that preserve the Hebrew and Greek grammar rather than smoothing it into modern dynamic-equivalence idiom). And they are in the public domain in the United States, which means fair-use quotation at any length requires no publisher license. Modern licensed translations (NASB95, ESV, NIV) restrict volume of quotation under their copyright terms, so they are not used at stub-level coverage here. NASB95 appears only on hand-curated rich passage hubs under Lockman Foundation's fair-use allowance.

The four:

  • ASV (American Standard Version, 1901). The basis of the modern critical-text English tradition.
  • WEB (World English Bible, contemporary). Public-domain revision in the ASV line, in current English.
  • KJV (King James Version, 1611). Reformation-era, Textus Receptus base.
  • YLT (Young's Literal Translation, Robert Young, 1862). Hyper-literal preservation of Hebrew and Greek grammar; useful for word-study work even where English reads stiff.

See Bibles for the full per-translation history, translators, textual basis, strengths, and weaknesses.