What Does Revelation 21:6 Mean in the King James?
And he said unto me, It is done. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely.
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 end is not a sealed door: the thirsty meet life’s fountain as a gift.
THE MEANING
Completion and beginning meet in the voice speaking to you now, and that completion opens into life. Your thirst is met by a fountain given freely; receiving it is not a payment or an achievement.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This undoes the belief that life must be earned, or that being thirsty means you are shut out. Here, the thirsty are invited to receive.
THE ROOT
τέλος
telos
GROWS FROM
τελ-
tel-
goal, completion, outcome
The word rendered “end” can name a goal or completion, not only a stopping point. Omega is the full arrival of what begins, and that completion opens into freely given life.
ALSO GROWS
teleioō: To complete or bring something to its intended end.
τελειόω
It echoes the verse’s declaration of completion and makes the “end” sound like arrival.
teleios: Having reached completion or fullness.
τέλειος
It carries the same sense of reaching fullness rather than simply ceasing.
δωρεάν
dōrean
GROWS FROM
δωρ-
dōr-
gift
The word for “freely” belongs to the Greek gift-word family. The water is given as a gift, so the thirsty person receives life without purchasing access to it.
ALSO GROWS
dōrea: A freely given gift.
δωρεά
It makes explicit the gift sense carried by “freely.”
dōron: Something given or presented.
δῶρον
It keeps the image grounded in giving: the fountain’s water is received, not earned.
ζωῆς
zōēs
GROWS FROM
ζω-
zō-
live, life
The phrase names the fountain by the life it gives: this is more than water that briefly relieves thirst. The gift is life itself, flowing from the source to the one who receives it.
ALSO GROWS
zōē: Life, or the state of being alive.
ζωή
It is the base noun in “water of life.”
zaō: To live or be alive.
ζάω
The related verb shows the living quality carried by the water’s name.
THE PATTERN
The thirsty are welcomed to receive life from a source that gives without price.
Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, buy, and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.THE THREAD
And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.The closing invitation repeats “freely,” using the same Greek word δωρεάν (dōrean), meaning “as a gift,” alongside the same water of life. The vision’s final word keeps the fountain open to the thirsty.
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