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OET (OET-LV) In the_middle of_the road of_it and of_the river, from_here and from_there, the_tree of_life producing twelve fruits, according_to month each to_be_giving_back the fruit of_it, and the leaves of_the tree are for the_healing of_the nations.
OET (OET-RV) In the middle of its path and in the middle of the river reaching from one side to the other was the tree of life that produces twelve fruits—a different one each month—and the leaves of the tree are for healing the nations
In this section, an angel showed the new Jerusalem to John. The angel again used a metaphor of a bride to describe new Jerusalem. The city was large and beautiful. God lived there with his people. His glory lighted the city. John described the city, the river that flowed through the city, and the tree that gave life. There were no bad things in the city at all.
Other examples for this section heading are:
The vision of the new Jerusalem
John saw/described the new Jerusalem as a bride for the Lamb
down the middle of the main street of the city.
down the middle of the city’s main street.
It flowed/went down the middle of the main street of the city.
down the middle of the main street of the city: The river splits this street down its length into two parts.
On either side of the river stood a tree of life,
On either side of the river the tree of life stood,
The tree that gives eternal life was on one side of the river and another one on the other side.
On either side of the river stood a tree of life: The Greek words are literally “on this (side) and on that (side) of the river (a/the) tree of life.” There are several ways to interpret the Greek words:
It refers to one tree that spans the river. For example, the RSV says:
on either side of the river, the tree of life (RSV, NIV, GNT, ESV, NASB, KJV, NABRE, ESV, NET, NCV)
It refers to two trees, one on each side of the river. For example, the NLT says:
On each side of the river grew a tree of life (NLT) (BSB, NLT, REB)
It refers to more than one tree on each side of the river. For example, the NJB says:
on either bank of the river were the trees of life (NJB, CEV)
It is recommended that you follow interpretation (1), because the Greek word for tree is singular.Lenski and Hughes support interpretation (1). Aune, Beale, Osbourne, Kistemaker, Smalley, Swete, Beckwith, and Charles support interpretation (3), usually looking to Ezekiel 47:12 and calling the singular Greek word that means “tree” a collective noun, which implies “trees” here.
a tree of life: This phrase indicates that this tree is a source of life. Those who eat the fruit will have eternal life. For example:
life-giving tree
See how you translated this phrase in 2:7.
bearing twelve kinds of fruit and yielding a fresh crop for each month.
producing twelve different crops of fruit, one crop each month.
The trees produce a different kind of fruit each month of the year.
bearing twelve kinds of fruit and yielding a fresh crop for each month: The Greek words are literally “producing twelve fruits according to each month yielding its fruit.” Here the Greek phrase “twelve fruits” refers to twelve crops of fruit. There are two ways to interpret this clause:
The tree produces a different kind of fruit each month. For example:
with its twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month (RSV) (BSB, RSV, NASB, GW, CEV, NET, ESV, KJV)
The tree produces the same fruit each month. For example:
which bears fruit twelve times a year, once each month (GNT) (NIV, GNT, NJB, NABRE, NLT, REB, NCV)
It is recommended that you follow interpretation (1), because of the phrase “according to each month” in the Greek probably indicates twelve kinds of fruit.Aune (page 1178) says “twelve different kinds of fruit” and Smalley (page 527) says “twelve types of fruit.”
And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations.
The leaves of the trees have the ability to heal the nations.
The leaves of the trees are like medicine that will make the nations healthy/well.
And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations: The leaves have the ability to heal all the peoples of the world. Other ways to translate this clause are:
The leaves were used for medicine to heal the nations (NLT)
The leaves of the tree will heal the nations (GW)
Note 1 topic: figures-of-speech / explicit
ἐν μέσῳ τῆς πλατείας αὐτῆς καὶ
(Some words not found in SR-GNT: Ἐν μέσῳ τῆς πλατείας αὐτῆς καί τοῦ ποταμοῦ ἐντεῦθεν καί ἐκεῖθεν ξύλον ζωῆς ποιοῦν καρπούς δώδεκα κατά μῆνα ἕκαστον ἀποδιδοῦν τόν καρπόν αὐτοῦ καί τά φύλλα τοῦ ξύλου εἰς θεραπείαν τῶν ἐθνῶν)
This phrase could refer implicitly to: (1) where the river flowed. That is the interpretation that ULT and UST follow. (2) where the tree of life was. In that case this would be the beginning of a new sentence. Alternate translation: [In the middle of its public square and]
OET (OET-LV) In the_middle of_the road of_it and of_the river, from_here and from_there, the_tree of_life producing twelve fruits, according_to month each to_be_giving_back the fruit of_it, and the leaves of_the tree are for the_healing of_the nations.
OET (OET-RV) In the middle of its path and in the middle of the river reaching from one side to the other was the tree of life that produces twelve fruits—a different one each month—and the leaves of the tree are for healing the nations
Note: The OET-RV is still only a first draft, and so far only a few words have been (mostly automatically) matched to the Hebrew or Greek words that they’re translated from.
Acknowledgements: The SR Greek text, lemmas, morphology, and VLT gloss are all thanks to the CNTR.
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