OET interlinear REV 14:1

14:1a

Then I looked: John had just finished talking about the second beast. This clause indicates that he saw a new part of the vision. Other ways to translate this clause are:

I looked again (JBP)

Next in my vision I saw (NJB)

and saw the Lamb: The Greek words are literally “and look, the Lamb.” The word “look” emphasizes or calls attention to the words that follow. The word is not a command to look at something. Other ways to translate these words are:

and indeed/hey, the Lamb

and suddenly/unexpectedly I saw the Lamb

the Lamb: This is a title for Jesus. Jewish people killed a lamb at the Passover as a sacrifice to God. The lamb has symbolic meaning as a special sacrifice and is a symbol for the Christ. See how you translated this title in 5:6 or 13:8.

Mount Zion: Zion is the name of the hill in Jerusalem southwest of the temple. In the Old Testament, Mount Zion was symbolic of God’s holy city, Jerusalem. Here also, the name Mount Zion probably represents Jerusalem.

In some languages people do not know where Mount Zion is. If that is true in your language, you may want to:

• Explain it in a footnote. For example:

  Mount Zion is a hill in the city of Jerusalem. It is a symbol for God’s holy city, Jerusalem.

• Explain it in your translation. For example:

  Mount Zion in God’s holy city

  Mount Zion in Jerusalem

Zion: This name is Greek is spelled Siōn.

14:1b

144,000: The Greek phrase uses number words: “one hundred forty-four thousands.” Some languages do not have large number words such as “thousand.” If that is true in your language, you may want to use the number from the major language. This may be numerals such as 144,000 or number words such as “one hundred forty-four thousand.” See how you translated this number in 7:4.

This number may refer to the number of men that John saw (14:4a). In some languages it is more natural to include the noun “men” with the number. For example:

144,000 men

However, some scholars think that the 144,000 refers to both men and women. They interpret 14:4a as referring to both men and women sincerely following Jesus. For example:

144,000 people (GW)

14:1c

who had His name and His Father’s name written on their foreheads: There is a textual issue in 14:1c: (1) The earliest Greek manuscripts have the text his name and his father’s name (BSB, RSV, NIV, GNT, NJB, NASB, NLT, GW, CEV, NET, NABRE, REB, ESV, NCV). (2) Some later Greek manuscripts have the text his father’s name (KJV only). It is recommended that you follow option (1), because the UBS Greek NT supports it. This clause tells the reader more about the 144,000 men/believers. In some languages a literal translation would wrongly indicate that there are other groups of 144,000 men/believers, and only this group had these names written on their foreheads. If that is true in your language, translate this clause so that it tells more about the 144,000. One way to do that is to start a new sentence here. For example:

They had his name and his Father’s name written on their foreheads.

who had His name and His Father’s name written: The clause is passive. Some languages must use an active or intransitive clause. For example:

who had his name and his Father’s name which angels/someone wrote

upon whose foreheads was his name and his Father’s name

If you translate this second example, it should imply that someone wrote the name.