What Does Revelation 4:7 Mean in the King James?
And the first beast was like a lion, and the second beast like a calf, and the third beast had a face as a man, and the fourth beast was like a flying eagle.
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 four figures differ in form, yet the word beneath “beast” gathers them as living beings before the throne.
THE MEANING
You encounter four distinct forms, a lion, a calf, a human face, and a flying eagle, held together in one scene. Their differences remain visible, while the shared word for living creature gathers them into one field of life.
THE ROOT
ζῷον
zōon
GROWS FROM
ζάω
zaō
To live, to be alive.
The word rendered “beast” grows from ζάω, “to live,” so the figures are held together by aliveness even as their forms stay distinct. The same seed appears in the words for “life” and “make alive,” placing the scene within a vocabulary of living presence.
ALSO GROWS
zōē: Life.
ζωή
This branch makes clear that the shared word for these figures belongs to the language of life itself.
zōopoieō: To make alive, to give life.
ζωοποιέω
The same seed also names life being made active, echoing the living presence of these varied forms.
THE PATTERN
Distinct forms of life appear together within the living order gathered around God.
As for the likeness of their faces, they four had the face of a man, and the face of a lion, on the right side: and they four had the face of an ox on the left side; they four also had the face of an eagle.Beasts, and all cattle; creeping things, and flying fowl:And every creature which is in heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, heard I saying, Blessing, and honour, and glory, and power, be unto him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb for ever and ever.THE THREAD
And the four beasts had each of them six wings about him; and they were full of eyes within: and they rest not day and night, saying, Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come.The same Greek word for living creature appears again, rendered “beasts” in both verses. Here those living figures speak without ceasing, so their shared life leads directly into their unbroken praise.
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