Revelation 20 - In Depth Bible Commentaries

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the beloved one. And fire came down out of the heaven, and devoured them. 20.10
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(...continued)
eloped in the Divine Warrior motif in biblical literature. The Rider on the white horse in chapter
19 has those on horseback who follow as He goes forth to the wine-press to destroy His
enemies (see 19:14). Here the people of God are gathered together in a "fortified camp," prepared
for battle with the countless multitudes of enemy soldiers who have gathered against
them for battle. Aune notes several possibilities for the meaning the phrase, “the army (or
‘encampment’) of the holy ones”:
1. The heavenly city...
2. The encampment of the people of God, which is identical to “the beloved city”...
3. The encampment of the people of God stationed outside the city in expectation of
the impending attack...
4. The martyrs with Christ in Jerusalem (Revelation 14:1-5)...
5. An army of angels (perhaps the force mentioned in 19:14) now bivouacked in the
vicinity of Jerusalem for the protection of the city. (P. 1097)
It is obvious that John does not have the idea of a world filled with peace for a thousand
years, when the people of Christ are triumphant, and there is no opposition--rather, he still pictures
the people of God as gathered together to do battle (in a "fortified camp") at the close of
that thousand year period.
Hendricksen holds that “The entire wicked world is going to persecute the church. The
opposition will be world-wide. There is not the least ground, therefore, for regarding our passage
as referring to a final attack by certain "peripheral" nations--for example, China, Japan,
and India--upon the nations of western Europe and America...
“The New Testament simply does not contain any predictions which apply to certain
specific present-day nations or states...The meaning, then, is this: the era during which the
church as a mighty missionary organization shall be able to spread the gospel everywhere is
not going to last for ever...” (P. 194)
We think that biblical theology as a whole makes it very clear that in spite of great victories
the people of God will experience, their existence as the people of God is always one of
militancy, of constantly having to be prepared for battle, and of having to fight to the finish with
the constantly reappearing hosts of evil. John’s puzzling visions reiterate this insistence.
What do you think?
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Before the conjunction kai, kai, “and,” the phrase kai. th.n po,lin tw/n a` ,giwn, kai
ten polin ton hagion, “even the city of the set-apart people,” is interpolated into the text by
Uncial Manuscript 046, a few other Greek manuscripts and the Philoxenian Syriac (see). This
interpolation does not change the meaning of Revelation, but reads like an early commentary
on the original text.
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Or, should we translate, "...even the beloved city," thereby identifying the "camp" and
the "beloved city" as synonyms? Aune states that it is a problem “whether the phrase...’the
(continued...)
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