What Does Revelation 1:2 Mean?
who bore witness to the word of God and to the witness of Jesus, the Anointed One, and to all that he saw.
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
Who bare record of the word of God, and of the testimony of Jesus Christ, and of all things that he saw.THE KEY
The Greek verb translated “bare record” and the noun “testimony” share the same witness-root, binding God’s word, Jesus’ testimony, and what is seen into one act of witness.
THE MEANING
God’s word, Jesus’ testimony, and what is seen belong together as one witness. The verse meets you now as a joined account: word, testimony, and sight held within a single act of bearing witness.
THE ROOT
ἐμαρτύρησεν
emartyrēsen
GROWS FROM
μαρτυρ-
The Greek stem μαρτυρ- (martyr-) means to bear witness or testify.
“bore witness” in this verse is emartyrēsen. English gives the act as “bare record” and the related noun as “testimony,” but Greek uses the same μαρτυρ- family for both. What is witnessed and the act of witnessing remain joined in the verse.
ALSO GROWS
martyria: testimony, witness
μαρτυρία
This is the noun translated “testimony” in the verse, from the same root as “bare record.”
martyreō: to bear witness, testify
μαρτυρέω
This verb shows the shared root directly: the witness’s act and the testimony belong to one word-family.
martyrion: testimony, evidence
μαρτύριον
This branch carries witness as something borne or presented, echoing the verse’s account of what is seen.
יֵשׁוּעַ
Yeshua
GROWS FROM
יָשַׁע
The Hebrew root יָשַׁע (yasha) means to deliver, bringing one out of distress toward spaciousness.
The name in the verse carries the nature of Yeshua: deliverance, a movement out of constriction into room. The testimony of Jesus bears the name-nature of the one who delivers.
ALSO GROWS
yeshuah: deliverance
יְשׁוּעָה
This noun from the same root names the deliverance carried in the name Yeshua.
moshia: deliverer
מוֹשִׁיעַ
This form names the one who brings deliverance, illuminating the nature compressed in Jesus’ name.
hoshia: he delivered
הוֹשִׁיעַ
This verb expresses the root as an act of bringing someone out.
εἶδεν
eiden
GROWS FROM
ἰδ-
The Greek stem ἰδ- (id-) means to see or perceive.
The verb means “saw,” and its irregular stem ἰδ- also appears in οἶδα (oida), “know,” a form whose sense is “to have seen.” The witness in this verse bears what he perceives, letting seeing touch knowing without reducing one to the other.
ALSO GROWS
oida: know, perceive
οἶδα
This related form carries the sense of knowing as having seen, linking the verse’s sight with knowledge.
eidos: form, what is seen
εἶδος
This word shares the ἰδ- family and names the shape or form that comes into view.
THE PATTERN
What is revealed becomes a witness through which another may know and believe.
You are my witnesses, says the LORD, and my servant, whom I have chosen, so that you may perceive and lean your weight on me, and understand that I AM. Before me no God was shaped, and behind me there shall be none.He came for a witness, to bear witness of the light, so that all might trust through him.THE THREAD
I, Jesus, send my messenger to bear witness to you of these things in the assemblies. I am the root and the offspring of David, the bright morning star.Jesus uses the same Greek μαρτυρ- family translated “testify” here that Revelation 1:2 uses for “bare record” and “testimony.” The opening verse presents a witness bearing what is seen; the closing verse sends that testimony outward to the assemblies.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us