OET interlinear REV 1:5

uW Translation Notes:

Note 1 topic: figures-of-speech / explicit

καὶ ἀπὸ Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ

and from Jesus Christ

The first half of this verse continues the sentence from the previous verse. It may be helpful to indicate this by repeating some of the information from the previous verse. It may also be helpful to begin a new sentence here. Alternate translation: “And may grace and peace also be to you from Jesus Christ”

Note 2 topic: figures-of-speech / quotemarks

ὁ μάρτυς ὁ πιστός, ὁ πρωτότοκος τῶν νεκρῶν, καὶ ὁ ἄρχων τῶν βασιλέων τῆς γῆς

the witness ¬the faithful the firstborn ˱of˲_the dead and the ruler ˱of˲_the kings ˱of˲_the earth

In this verse, John is alluding several times to Psalm 89. In that psalm, God speaks of King David as his “firstborn” and says that he will make him “the most exalted of the kings of the earth.” God also says that he will establish David’s throne forever like the moon, “the faithful witness” in the sky. Psalm 89 as a whole is a meditation on the promises that God gave to David in 2 Samuel 7. So all of these allusions indicate that Jesus Christ is the one who fulfills God’s promises to David. You may want to explain this in a footnote. You may also want to mark the phrases that are Old Testament allusions by putting them in quotation marks, as the ULT does.

Note 3 topic: figures-of-speech / metaphor

ὁ πρωτότοκος τῶν νεκρῶν

the ¬the the firstborn ˱of˲_the dead

John is speaking as if Jesus was literally “born” when he became alive again after he died. Since Jesus was the first person to do this, John says that he is the firstborn. If it would be helpful in your language, you could express this meaning plainly. Alternate translation: “the first person to become alive again after dying”

Note 4 topic: figures-of-speech / nominaladj

τῶν νεκρῶν

˱of˲_the dead

John is using the adjective dead as a noun to mean a certain kind of person. Your language may use adjectives in the same way. If not, you could translate this word with an equivalent phrase. Alternate translation: “from among people who have died”

Note 5 topic: translate-versebridge

A new sentence begins here that continues through the rest of the next verse. This sentence praises Jesus. To make this clear for your readers, you could create a verse bridge for verses 5–6 and begin with John’s wish that would Jesus receive glory and power. A verse bridge might say something like this: “May the glory and the power forever be to Jesus because he is the one who loves us and who has released us from our sins by his blood and who has made us a kingdom, priests for his God and Father. Amen.”

Note 6 topic: writing-pronouns

τῷ ἀγαπῶντι ἡμᾶς

˱to˲_the_‹one› loving us

Here, the one refers to Jesus Christ. If this is not clear to your readers, you can say this explicitly. Alternate translation: “To Jesus Christ, who loves us”

Note 7 topic: figures-of-speech / exclusive

ἡμᾶς & ἡμᾶς & ἡμῶν

us & us & ˱of˲_us

By us and our, John means both himself and his readers. So use the inclusive form of those words in your translation if your language marks that distinction.

Note 8 topic: figures-of-speech / metaphor

λύσαντι ἡμᾶς ἐκ τῶν ἁμαρτιῶν ἡμῶν

/having/_released us from the sins ˱of˲_us

John is speaking of sins as if they were something that had held him and his readers captive and from which they needed to be released. He means that Jesus obtained forgiveness from God for people’s sins. If it would be clearer in your language, you could state the meaning plainly. Alternate translation: “the one having obtained forgiveness for us for our sins”

Note 9 topic: figures-of-speech / explicit

ἐν τῷ αἵματι αὐτοῦ

in the blood ˱of˲_him

John is using the word blood to refer by association to the sacrificial death of Jesus, since Jesus shed his blood when he died for our sins. Alternate translation: “by his sacrificial death”