What Does Revelation 22:18 Mean in the King James?
For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book:
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 same Greek verb names both the human addition and God’s answering addition of the book’s plagues.
THE MEANING
This warning speaks to each person who hears these words now: adding to the prophecy brings the plagues written in the book upon that person. The same verb names the human addition and God’s answer, making the consequence a mirror of the act.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that a sacred message can be enlarged without consequence: this verse binds adding to the prophecy to the plagues written in the book.
THE ROOT
ἐπιθῇ
epithē
GROWS FROM
τίθημι
tithēmi
To put, set, or place; with ἐπί (epi), “upon,” the compound can mean to place upon or add.
“add” in this verse is epithē. The Greek verb pictures adding as placing something upon the prophecy. The same compound returns for what God adds to the person who does it, so the consequence mirrors the act in the verse’s own language.
ALSO GROWS
epitithēmi: To put upon; to add.
ἐπιτίθημι
This is the verb used for both the person’s addition and God’s response in this verse.
prostithēmi: To add or put to.
προστίθημι
This related form also describes adding, showing how the root’s basic image of placing becomes the language of addition.
THE PATTERN
Adding to a received divine word is treated as an alteration with consequences.
Ye shall not add unto the word which I command you, neither shall ye diminish ought from it, that ye may keep the commandments of the LORD your God which I command you.Add thou not unto his words, lest he reprove thee, and thou be found a liar.But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed.THE THREAD
And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book.The next verse completes the boundary by naming removal as a matching violation. Together, the warnings account for adding to the prophecy and taking words away from it.
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