What Does Revelation 1:15 Mean?
And his feet are like burnished bronze, as though they have been fired in a furnace, and his voice is like the sound of many waters.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
And his feet like unto fine brass, as if they burned in a furnace; and his voice as the sound of many waters.THE KEY
The “sound” of many waters is the same Greek word as his “voice”: what English separates, the verse makes one.
THE MEANING
His feet are like fine brass glowing in a furnace, and his voice is as vast as many waters. The image holds solidity and overwhelming sound together: the waters are not background to the voice but its very likeness.
THE ROOT
φωνή
phōnē
GROWS FROM
φων-
phon-
voice, sound
“voice / sound” in this verse is phōnē. The KJV renders the first φωνή as “voice” and repeats it as “sound,” but the Greek uses the same noun twice: literally, “his voice like the voice of many waters.” The verse makes the gathered roar of the waters the shape of his voice.
ALSO GROWS
phoneō: to sound, speak, or call aloud
φωνέω
This related verb carries voice into the act of sounding or calling; the verse’s force is already present in the word for voice.
aphōnos: voiceless, mute
ἄφωνος
This branch names the absence of voice, while the verse presents voice at overwhelming fullness.
THE PATTERN
The divine voice is pictured through waters and thunder, heard as a sound larger than a single speaker.
The voice of the LORD is upon the waters. The God of weight thunders. The LORD is upon many waters.And behold, the weight of the God of Israel came from the way of the east. His voice was like the voice of many waters, and the earth was lit from his weight.And I hear the voice of a great crowd, as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of mighty thunders, saying, Hallelujah! For the LORD God who holds all governs.THE THREAD
And I hear a voice from heaven, like the voice of many waters, and like the voice of a great thunder. And the voice I hear is like harpers striking their harps.The same Greek word, φωνή (phōnē, “voice” or “sound”), repeats through the verse, including in “the voice of many waters.” Here that sound also opens into the music of harps, extending the image beyond a single voice.
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