What Does Revelation 20:10 Mean?
And the Slanderer, who led them off the path, is thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur, where the beast and the false prophet are. They are tormented day and night for the ages of ages.
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 the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever.THE KEY
The Slanderer’s name and sentence share one Greek root: the one who throws accusation across is himself cast.
THE MEANING
The deceiver is not beyond judgment: he is cast into the lake of fire alongside the beast and the false prophet. His torment continues day and night through the ages of the ages, and the verse leaves the suffering starkly stated.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that the deceiver stands beyond judgment: the devil himself is cast into the lake of fire and tormented.
THE ROOT
διάβολος
diabolos
GROWS FROM
βάλλω
ballō
To throw or cast; in the compound διαβάλλω (diaballō), the sense develops into throwing a charge across, hence slandering or accusing.
“the Slanderer” in this verse is diabolos. The name διάβολος (diabolos) means “slanderer,” from διαβάλλω (diaballō), “to slander or accuse,” built on βάλλω (ballō), “to throw.” The verb used for “was cast” comes from that same seed, so the name and its sentence echo one another.
ALSO GROWS
ballō: To throw, cast.
βάλλω
It is the verb behind “was cast” here, echoing the seed inside διάβολος.
diaballō: To slander, accuse.
διαβάλλω
It shows the action beneath the name: throwing a charge across at someone.
diabolē: Slander, accusation.
διαβολή
This noun makes the accusation sense of the Slanderer’s name audible.
εἰς τοὺς αἰῶνας τῶν αἰώνων
eis tous aiōnas
GROWS FROM
αἰών
aiōn
An age or span of time.
“the ages of ages” in this verse is eis tous aiōnas. The phrase εἰς τοὺς αἰῶνας τῶν αἰώνων (eis tous aiōnas tōn aiōnōn) means “unto the ages of the ages,” giving the verse’s duration an age-upon-age shape. The doubled age-word intensifies the duration while the verse states the torment plainly.
ALSO GROWS
aiōn: An age, an era.
αἰών
This is the time-word repeated in the verse’s phrase about the torment’s duration.
aiōnios: Age-related; belonging to an age.
αἰώνιος
This related form keeps the root’s age-language present across descriptions of duration.
THE PATTERN
The lying accuser is named by his speech and brought under judgment.
Whoever tongue-lashes his neighbor in hiding, him I will cut off; the one with lifted eyes and a broad heart, him I cannot bear.You are from your father, the Slanderer, and you will do the cravings of your father. He was a manslayer from the beginning, and has not stood in the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own, for he is a liar and the father of it.And I heard a great voice in heaven, saying, "Now has come the deliverance, and the strength, and the governance of our God, and the authority of his Anointed One. For the one who speaks against our brothers is thrown down, he who speaks against them before our God day and night."THE THREAD
And I heard a great voice in heaven, saying, "Now has come the deliverance, and the strength, and the governance of our God, and the authority of his Anointed One. For the one who speaks against our brothers is thrown down, he who speaks against them before our God day and night."Here the accuser is cast down after accusing day and night; in Revelation 20:10, the devil is tormented day and night. The shared verb-family for casting and the repeated time phrase make the movement from accusation to judgment visible.
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