What Does Revelation 1:7 Mean?
Look, he comes with the clouds, and every eye will see him, and those who pierced him. All the tribes of the earth will beat their breasts over him. Yes, amen.
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
Behold, he cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him: and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him. Even so, Amen.THE KEY
The unveiling does not erase the wound: the one every eye sees coming is the one they pierced.
THE MEANING
The verse holds the reader within a world-wide unveiling: the one coming with clouds is the one who is pierced, and every eye sees him. The sight gathers recognition and lament together; even the earth’s families are drawn into the response. “Even so, Amen” gives the vision final assent.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The coming one can be separated from the pierced one; this verse holds them together and makes the wound part of the universal unveiling.
THE ROOT
ἐξεκέντησαν
exekentēsan
GROWS FROM
κεντέω
To prick or stab; with ἐκ-, to pierce through.
The Greek verb for “pierced” is built on κεντέω, “to prick, stab.” The same verb appears in John 19:37, so the coming figure remains identified by the wound as he is revealed.
ALSO GROWS
ként ron: Point, goad, sting
κέντρον
This word names the sharp point associated with the verb’s piercing, making the wound a concrete penetration.
ekkentéō: Pierce through
ἐκκεντέω
This is the verse’s verb in its dictionary form and the same word used in John 19:37.
κόψονται
kópsontai
GROWS FROM
κόπτω
To cut or strike; in mourning, to beat the breast.
“beat their breasts over him” in this verse is kópsontai. The verb rendered “wail” comes from a word for striking or cutting; its use in lament carries the body’s beating of the breast. The earth’s response is expressed as embodied, public grief.
ALSO GROWS
kopetós: Lamentation, beating of the breast
κοπετός
This related word makes the bodily action within mourning explicit.
ekkóptō: Cut out or cut off
ἐκκόπτω
This compound preserves the root’s concrete sense of cutting.
ὄψεται
ópsetai
GROWS FROM
ὁράω
To see, look upon, perceive.
The form translated “see” belongs to ὁράω, a word that can carry perception as well as sight. Every eye is brought into direct view of the unveiled one, rather than left with only a report about him.
ALSO GROWS
hórasis: Sight, vision
ὅρασις
This noun names the faculty or experience of seeing that the verse makes universal.
horatós: Visible, seen
ὁρατός
This related form describes what can be seen; here the pierced one is no longer hidden from view.
THE PATTERN
The pierced one is brought into view, and his unveiling draws recognition and mourning into the open.
And I will pour out upon the house of David, and upon those who settle in Jerusalem, the breath of favor and of pleas; and they will look upon me, the one they pierced, and they will wail for him as one wails for his only son, and will be bitter for him as one is bitter for his firstborn.And again another scripture says, They shall look upon him whom they struck through.And then the sign of the Son of Man appears in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth beat their chests, and they perceive the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the heavens with strength and great weight.THE THREAD
And again another scripture says, They shall look upon him whom they struck through.John uses the same Greek verb, ἐκκεντέω, for “pierced.” Revelation carries that very wound into the scene of universal sight: the one who comes is still identified by the piercing.
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