What Does Revelation 16:2 Mean in the King James?
And the first went, and poured out his vial upon the earth; and there fell a noisome and grievous sore upon the men which had the mark of the beast, and upon them which worshipped his image.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
The mark and the bow make allegiance visible, and the judgment lands on the bodies identified by that allegiance.
THE MEANING
This verse presents allegiance as something that reaches the body: a mark is borne, and an image is met with a bow. The sore makes the judgment visible on the bodies identified with that allegiance.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that allegiance is merely symbolic or consequence-free: here the mark and the bow identify those on whom the sore falls.
THE ROOT
χάραγμα
charagma
GROWS FROM
χαράσσω
charassō
To incise or engrave; to cut a mark into a surface.
The Greek word for “mark” belongs to the family of engraving and impressions. The image of allegiance is therefore an impressed identity, and the same verse shows judgment becoming visible on the bodies that bear it.
ALSO GROWS
charax: A pointed stake or palisade.
χάραξ
This branch carries the sense of a mark cut or driven into a surface, giving the mark a material edge.
charaktēr: An engraved impression or exact representation.
χαρακτήρ
An impression bears the form of what made it; the mark here identifies the allegiance impressed upon its bearer.
προσκυνοῦσιν
proskynousin
GROWS FROM
προσκυνέω
proskyneō
To bow down in homage.
The word translated “worshipped” names a bodily bow, not only an inward conviction. Beside the engraved mark, that posture makes allegiance visible as both an inscription and an act.
ALSO GROWS
proskynēsis: A bowing down or act of homage.
προσκύνησις
This noun preserves the bodily posture that the English word “worship” can leave implicit.
proskynētēs: One who bows down in homage.
προσκυνητής
The branch names a person by the posture of allegiance, echoing the people identified here by their bow before the image.
THE PATTERN
Scripture can make judgment legible on the body through sores, wounds, and torment.
And they took ashes of the furnace, and stood before Pharaoh; and Moses sprinkled it up toward heaven; and it became a boil breaking forth with blains upon man, and upon beast.The LORD shall smite thee in the knees, and in the legs, with a sore botch that cannot be healed, from the sole of thy foot unto the top of thy head.The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb:THE THREAD
And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads:This verse uses the same Greek word for “mark,” χάραγμα, and places it on the hand or forehead. That makes the mark in Revelation 16:2 an impressed sign of allegiance, identifying the people on whom the sore falls.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us