What Does Revelation 7:9 Mean in the King James?
After this I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands;
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 multitude defeats counting without losing its distinctions: the vision still names the nations, tribes, peoples, and languages that stand together.
THE MEANING
The scene opens before you as a multitude no human can total, drawn from every nation, tribe, people, and language, standing before the throne and the Lamb. Their origins remain named in the very words that describe the crowd, even as they share one place before the throne and the Lamb.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the assumption that nearness to God requires one people or language: the multitude remains drawn from all of them.
THE ROOT
ἀριθμῆσαι
arithmēsai
GROWS FROM
ἀριθμέω
arithmeō
To count or enumerate; to reckon a total.
The Greek verb means to count or enumerate, from the word family behind ἀριθμός (arithmos), “number.” The limit is a human tally, not the seer’s sight: he beholds the multitude and names its nations, tribes, peoples, and languages.
ALSO GROWS
arithmos: Number; a count or total.
ἀριθμός
This noun shares the counting stem with the verb in the verse, making the human attempt to total the crowd explicit.
anarithmētos: Countless; innumerable.
ἀναρίθμητος
This related word names the crowd’s condition directly: it exceeds enumeration.
λευκάς
leukas
GROWS FROM
λευκ-
leuk-
White, bright.
The word for the robes’ whiteness belongs to a family that also names the act of making white. Revelation 7:14 uses that same word family for robes made white in the Lamb’s blood, so the color here carries the sense of a change brought about.
ALSO GROWS
leukainō: To whiten; to make white.
λευκαίνω
Revelation 7:14 uses a form of this verb to describe the robes as made white, opening the color in this verse into a process.
leukotēs: Whiteness; brightness.
λευκότης
This related noun names whiteness as a quality shared across the multitude, even as their origins differ.
ἑστῶτες
hestōtes
GROWS FROM
ἵστημι
histēmi
To stand, set, or place.
The form translated “stood” presents the multitude as standing there in an established state. The same word family appears in ἀνάστασις (anastasis), “rising” or “resurrection,” literally a standing up.
ALSO GROWS
stasis: Standing; position or stance.
στάσις
It names a standing position, echoing the crowd’s posture before the throne and the Lamb.
anastasis: Rising; resurrection, literally a standing up.
ἀνάστασις
The word for resurrection grows from the same standing-root, linking this multitude’s posture with the language of rising.
THE PATTERN
The gathering before God includes many peoples and languages without reducing them to one origin.
For I know their works and their thoughts: it shall come, that I will gather all nations and tongues; and they shall come, and see my glory.And there was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages, should serve him: his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed.And they sung a new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof: for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation;THE THREAD
And I said unto him, Sir, thou knowest. And he said to me, These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.The word family behind “white” in both verses links the robes’ appearance with the act of making them white. The next verse names the startling means: the Lamb’s blood.
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