What Does Revelation 17:6 Mean in the King James?
And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus: and when I saw her, I wondered with great admiration.
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 verse’s “martyrs” are witnesses in Greek, making the blood she drinks the blood of testimony.
THE MEANING
The woman’s drunkenness is fed by the blood of those set apart and those who bear witness to Jesus. The seer’s great wonder stands beside that violence, holding astonishment and bloodshed in the same frame.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the assumption that what overwhelms the eye must be admirable: here, wonder sits beside the blood feeding the spectacle.
THE ROOT
μαρτύρων
martyrōn
GROWS FROM
μάρτυς
martys
witness; one who gives testimony
English “martyrs” foregrounds death, while μάρτυς (martys, witness) keeps testimony inside the word. The woman’s violence is directed at witnesses of Jesus, and the blood does not make their witness disappear.
ALSO GROWS
martyria: testimony, witness
μαρτυρία
The same word-family names the testimony borne by witnesses, keeping their message present in the image of their blood.
martyreō: to bear witness, testify
μαρτυρέω
This verb makes the root active: the people named here are identified by the witness they bear.
ἁγίων
hagiōn
GROWS FROM
ἅγιος
hagios
set apart, distinct
English “saints” can sound like a religious rank; ἅγιος (hagios) means set apart. The verse names those set apart among the people whose blood the woman consumes.
ALSO GROWS
hagiazō: to set apart, consecrate
ἁγιάζω
The verb shows the action held within the word-family: to mark something as set apart.
hagiasmos: consecration, set-apartness
ἁγιασμός
This noun names the state of being set apart, the quality carried by “saints” in the verse.
ἐθαύμασα
ethaúmasa
GROWS FROM
θαυμα-
thauma-
wonder, astonishment; being struck by what is seen
“wondered with great admiration” in this verse is ethaúmasa. The Greek uses a form of θαυμάζω (thaumazō, marvel) alongside θαῦμα μέγα (thauma mega, great wonder). It names astonishment, which can stand beside the scene without meaning approval of it.
ALSO GROWS
thaumazō: to marvel, be astonished
θαυμάζω
This verb names the seer’s response as being struck with wonder.
thaumastos: astonishing, marvelous
θαυμαστός
This related word describes something that provokes wonder, echoing the seer’s reaction to the woman.
THE PATTERN
The blood of the slain remains visible and speaks against the power that spills it.
And he said, What hast thou done? the voice of thy brother’s blood crieth unto me from the ground.And when he had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held:And in her was found the blood of prophets, and of saints, and of all that were slain upon the earth.THE THREAD
And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death.“Testimony” here is μαρτυρία (martyria), from the same word-family as μαρτύρων (martyrōn, “martyrs” or witnesses) in Revelation 17:6. This verse shows that witness remains in the story even through death, opening the woman’s blood-drinking as violence against testimony that continues.
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