What Does Revelation 8:12 Mean in the King James?
And the fourth angel sounded, and the third part of the sun was smitten, and the third part of the moon, and the third part of the stars; so as the third part of them was darkened, and the day shone not for a third part of it, and the night likewise.
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 lights are struck, but the darkening is measured: one third is obscured, not the whole sky.
THE MEANING
The verse places you before a world where the familiar lights that orient day and night are struck and their visibility fails. The repeated third makes the darkening measured: the signs are impaired, while day and night continue.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Losing light means all light is gone. The repeated third describes an affliction with a limit: darkness falls over part, while the whole order is not extinguished.
THE ROOT
ἐπλήγη
eplḗgē
GROWS FROM
πλήσσω
plḗssō
to strike, smite
The Greek word for “smitten” belongs to the same family as πληγή (plēgḗ), meaning a blow or stroke, and sometimes a plague. The celestial lights are presented as struck; their darkening is the effect of an impact, not simply nightfall.
ALSO GROWS
plēgḗ: blow, stroke, plague
πληγή
Revelation uses this noun for plagues; it links the lights’ striking to the book’s language for affliction.
plḗktēs: a striker, one who strikes
πλήκτης
This related word carries the same family of striking into the one who delivers a blow.
ἐσκοτώθη
eskotṓthē
GROWS FROM
σκοτίζω
skotízō
to darken; to bring into darkness
“darkened” in this verse is eskotṓthē. The verb shares its base with Greek nouns for darkness: the lights are moved into the condition named by darkness itself. The verse distinguishes that obscuring from total extinction by repeatedly limiting it to a third.
ALSO GROWS
skótos: darkness
σκότος
This noun names the condition into which the struck portion of the lights is brought.
skotía: darkness, obscurity
σκοτία
This related noun shows the same root describing darkness as a state of obscured visibility.
skoteinós: dark, obscure
σκοτεινός
The adjective carries the root from the condition of darkness to what is characterized by it.
φάνῃ
phanḗ
GROWS FROM
φαίνω
phaínō
to shine, appear, become visible
The verb translated “shone” can also mean “appear.” The verse describes daylight failing to show itself for a third of its course: the pattern of day remains, while its visibility is diminished.
ALSO GROWS
epiphaínō: to appear, shine upon
ἐπιφαίνω
This related verb keeps shining and appearing together, echoing the loss of daylight’s visible presence.
phaneróō: to make visible, reveal
φανερόω
This branch extends the same family toward what comes into view, sharpening the verse’s contrast between light and obscurity.
THE PATTERN
When the lights that divide time are obscured, the disruption reaches the world’s ordering, not just its brightness.
And to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness: and God saw that it was good.The earth shall quake before them; the heavens shall tremble: the sun and the moon shall be dark, and the stars shall withdraw their shining:Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken:THE THREAD
Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken:Matthew uses the same Greek root, σκοτίζω (skotízō), for the sun being darkened. Revelation measures the darkening to a third; Matthew widens the image, showing the same root applied across different measures of obscured light.
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