What Does Revelation 14:4 Mean?
These are the ones who have not been stained with women, for they are virgins. These are the ones who follow the Lamb wherever he goes. These are bought from among humankind, the firstfruits to God and to the Lamb.
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
These are they which were not defiled with women; for they are virgins. These are they which follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth. These were redeemed from among men, being the firstfruits unto God and to the Lamb.THE KEY
The virgins are named as a first yield bought from humanity and belonging to God and the Lamb.
THE MEANING
The verse describes this company as not defiled with women and calls them virgins; its language is explicitly sexual. They follow the Lamb wherever he goes, and they are bought from among humanity as a first yield to God and the Lamb. Sexual abstinence, movement, and belonging stand together as their identifying marks.
THE ROOT
ἠγοράσθησαν
ēgorasthēsan
GROWS FROM
ἀγορά
agora
Marketplace; a place of exchange.
The verb rendered “redeemed” uses marketplace language: this company is bought from among humanity. The phrase “unto God, and to the Lamb” names those to whom they belong.
ALSO GROWS
agora: Marketplace
ἀγορά
This noun supplies the concrete marketplace image beneath the word for buying.
agorazō: Buy, purchase
ἀγοράζω
This is the verb used here: the company is described as bought.
exagorazō: Buy out; redeem
ἐξαγοράζω
This related form carries the same purchase language, with the added sense of buying out.
ἀπαρχή
aparchē
GROWS FROM
ἀρχή
archē
Beginning, first portion, source.
The word names them as the first yield, drawing on a word family for beginning and source. Firstfruits are the opening portion of a harvest, so the image marks this company as an initial share set toward God and the Lamb.
ALSO GROWS
archē: Beginning, source, first principle
ἀρχή
This related noun carries the sense of what comes first or stands at the source.
archō: Begin; rule or lead
ἄρχω
This related verb links beginning with taking precedence or leading.
ἐμολύνθησαν
emolynthēsan
GROWS FROM
μολυν-
molyn-
Stain, soil, pollute.
“stained” in this verse is emolynthēsan. The verb can mean to stain or soil, so “defiled” carries an image of marking by contact. Here the verse applies that image to sex with women and calls the group virgins; the sexual boundary remains part of what the text says.
ALSO GROWS
molynō: Stain, soil, defile
μολύνω
This is the verb’s dictionary form and preserves the image of pollution as a stain.
molysma: Defilement, pollution
μόλυσμα
This related noun names the resulting pollution, showing the same stain image as a condition.
THE PATTERN
The first yield belongs to God and signals the larger harvest that follows.
The first of the first-ripened of your ground you shall bring into the house of the LORD your God. You shall not boil a kid in his mother's milk.But now the Anointed One has been awakened from the dead, and has become the first portion of those who have lain down to sleep.By his own will he bore us forth through the word of truth, so that we might be a kind of firstfruit of his created things.THE THREAD
But now the Anointed One has been awakened from the dead, and has become the first portion of those who have lain down to sleep.The same Greek word translated “firstfruits” appears in both verses. Here the company is the first yield belonging to God and the Lamb; in Corinthians, the first yield is the risen Christ, whose rising points toward those who follow.
This reading is from Selah Verse.
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