Saturday, July 3, 2010

Revelation 22:18, what is it talking about?

I have heard many an objection regarding this scripture. I had a discussion with a Catholic Apologist on this, and he was more than willing to state that when the word used for book is used in Revelation, that it is referring only to the book of Revelation, and nothing more. This interpretation would have made Muhammad and Joseph Smith, and Joseph Fletcher, as well as Jim Jones very pleased. However, when in doubt, go to the Greek. What is Revelation 22:18 saying?
"For I say to every man to whose ears have come the words of this prophet's book, If any man makes an addition to them, God will put on him the punishments which are in this book: And if any man takes away from the words of this book, God will take away from him his part in the tree of life and the holy town, even the things which are in this book." Now at first glance, when we see the words "of this prophet's book" one is quick to incline that this is MERELY referring to John's book, and nothing else. Lets see why this is wrong. What is John referring to? Those who are listening to his book. The problem comes into play when we look at the Greek translation for the word "book" here. Whats the problem? It is plural. Had John wanted to make this specifically to his book of Revelation, the word "Biblos" would have been translated here. A weird turn of events for those who have ever discussed this topic and agree with the former translation. The translation for one of these "books" is βιβλίου. The Greek form of the majority of the texts looks like "Μαρτυρῶ ἐγὼ παντὶ τῷ ἀκούοντι τοὺς λόγους τῆς προφητείας τοῦ βιβλίου τούτου· ἐάν τις ἐπιθῇ ἐπ’ αὐτά, ἐπιθήσει ὁ θεὸς ἐπ’ αὐτὸν τὰς πληγὰς τὰς γεγραμμένας ἐν τῷ βιβλίῳ τούτῳ,. The Greek form of the Diacritis translation of Revelation 22:18 looks like this "μαρτυρέω ἐγώ πᾶς ὁ ἀκούω ὁ λόγος ὁ προφητεία ὁ βιβλίον οὗτος ἐάν τὶς ἐπιτίθημι ἐπί αὐτός ἐπιτίθημι ἐπί αὐτός ὁ θεός ὁ πληγή ὁ γράφω ἐν ὁ βιβλίον οὗτος" The other book is "βιβλίῳ." Biblio or Bibliou (both translations utilized in this case mean the same thing) refers to a group of books, not a single book. So what group of books does John talk about here? We call it today, the Bible. Even Catholics would not be willing to concede that the Bible is only composed of Revelation (that is complete nonsense). And this is how we know that this would be the final book of the Bible based off of John's writings. It is that simple. He is sealing up the words of the entire Bible here. No one may add to these written words.

2 Timothy 3:16-17 states "
"All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine , for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness. So that the man of God may be complete, trained and made ready for every good work." 2 Timothy 3:16,17.

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