Revelation 20 - In Depth Bible Commentaries

2317 2318 2319
released from his prison, 20.8 and he will go out to lead astray the nations, those in the
2315
(...continued)
punishment is (indeed) not in vain. In those days, Sheol [the grave] shall open her mouth, and
they shall be swallowed up into it and perish. (Thus) Sheol shall swallow up the sinners in the
presence of the elect ones. (Charlesworth, ibid., p. 39)
4 Ezra 13:5-11, 33-30, ...Behold, an innumerable multitude of men were gathered
together from the four winds of heaven to make war against the man who came up out of the
sea [that is, the Messiah]. And I looked, and behold, he carved out for himself a great
mountain, and flew up upon it...And behold, all who had gathered together against him, to
wage war with him, were much afraid, yet dared to fight. And behold, when he saw the onrush
of the approaching multitude, he neither lifted his hand nor held a spear or any weapon of war;
but I saw only how he sent forth from his mouth as it were a stream of fire...and (it) fell on the
onrushing multitude which was prepared to fight, and burned them all up, so that suddenly
nothing was seen of the innumerable multitude but only the dust of ashes and the smell of
smoke...
And when all the nations hear his voice [God’s Son, the Messiah], every man shall
leave his own land and the warfare that they have against one another; and an innumerable
multitude shall be gathered together...desiring to come and conquer Him. But He will stand on
the top of Mount Zion. And Zion will come and be made manifest to all people, prepared and
built, as you saw the mountain carved out without hands. And He, My Son, will reprove the
assembled nations for their ungodliness...and He will destroy them without effort by the law.
(Charlesworth, ibid., pp. 551-52)
It is the common theme that God is going to win the eternal victory over all His opponents,
and that the Messiah will be confronted with multitudes of opponents, over which He will
win the final battle, and the kingdom of God will reign forever.
2316
The phrase ôáí ôåëåóè, hotan telesthe, “when it should be finished,” is changed
to the one word meta, meta, “after,” i.e., after the thousand years, by Minuscule 2030 and the
“Majority Text” (K). This change does not change the meaning of Revelation, but does make
the text a little less definite.
2317
Compare verses 2 and 3, with their footnotes. In those verses, John has described
the place where the dragon is bound and kept as an "abyss," a great deep hole or “pit” in the
earth, with a shaft-like opening, which has been locked shut and sealed over. Now, John calls
that abyss a "prison," a "place of guarding." Compare 1 Peter 3:18b-20, where Peter states
that Jesus, "having been put to death in flesh, was still made alive in spirit--in which, even to
the spirits in prison, having gone, he proclaimed..." Compare footnote 2273 for similar statements
from 2 Peter and Jude.
The question must be raised concerning what John conceives as the divine reason for
allowing the accuser and adversary to be released following the thousand-year period of the
reign of Christ and those sharing in His thousand-year reign.
1025
(continued...)