What Does Revelation 11:17 Mean?
Saying, We give you thanks, Lord God, the All-Strong, you who are and who were, because you have taken hold of your great power and have reigned.
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
Saying, We give thee thanks, O Lord God Almighty, which art, and wast, and art to come; because thou hast taken to thee thy great power, and hast reigned.THE KEY
The coming One is already the reigning One: divine power arrives as active rule.
THE MEANING
You hear the Lord named across what is, what was, and what is coming, while the song declares that he has taken up his great power and reigned. The verse holds expectation and enactment together: the One still coming is already named as ruler.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It dissolves the belief that God’s reign is only a future event still waiting to begin.
THE ROOT
ἐβασίλευσας
ebasileusas
GROWS FROM
βασιλευ-
basileu-
to rule as king
“have reigned” in this verse is ebasileusas. The Greek word family holds king, kingship, and reigning together. The verse presents power as enacted rule: the Lord’s authority is not only named but exercised.
ALSO GROWS
basileus: king
βασιλεύς
The ruler and the act of reigning belong to one word family.
basileia: kingship, kingdom, royal rule
βασιλεία
The same root names the rule itself and the realm it governs.
παντοκράτωρ
pantokratōr
GROWS FROM
παντο- + κρατ- (panto- + krat-)
all + hold sway or rule
“the All-Strong” in this verse is pantokratōr. The title carries the scope of rule over all. Beside the Lord taking up his great power and reigning, it presents that reign as extending across everything.
ALSO GROWS
kratos: might, dominion
κράτος
This branch shows the ruling force carried in the title.
krateō: to hold, rule over, or prevail
κρατέω
It gives the image of mastery in action, echoing the verse’s declaration of reign.
δύναμις
dynamis
GROWS FROM
δυνα-
dyna-
to be able; capacity or might
This word names capacity and might, while the verse’s word for reigning names what that capacity does. The sequence joins great power to active rule.
ALSO GROWS
dynamai: to be able, to have power
δύναμαι
It reveals the capacity-to-act sense within the word for power.
dynatos: able, powerful
δυνατός
This branch describes one who possesses the capacity the verse says is taken up.
dynamoō: to strengthen
δυναμόω
It carries the same root into the act of making strong.
THE PATTERN
Scripture joins the declaration of God’s kingship to power actively ruling.
The LORD reigns, he is clothed in height; the LORD is clothed in strength, and he girds himself with it. The inhabited world is also set firm, and it will not totter.How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of the one who brings good news, who makes wholeness heard, who brings good news of good, who makes deliverance heard, who says to Zion, Your God governs.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
I am the Alpha and the Omega, says the LORD God, who is, and who was, and who is coming, the one who holds all.This verse repeats the same names for the Lord: the one who is, was, and is coming, and the Almighty. Revelation 11:17 joins that identity to the taking up of great power and the declaration of reign.
This reading is from Selah Verse.
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