Revelation 20 - In Depth Bible Commentaries

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20.12 And I saw the dead people, the great ones and the little ones, having stood before
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the throne. And scrolls were opened, and another scroll was opened, which is of the
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them as precise, photographically exact depictions of future events, and seek to build doctrine
upon them. But John’s visions lack the clarity and exactness to enable such conclusions.
Newport comments that "Heaven and earth flee from the God who sits on the majestic
white throne. The language of poetic imagery captures the fading character of everything that
is of the world." (P. 303) Newport aptly refers to 1 John 2:17, which states that "The world
and its desires pass away, but the person who does the will of God lives forever."
Beasley-Murray comments that "The throne of God was the first object which had
caught John's attention in his opening vision of heaven (4:2). Now it is portrayed as not alone
the dominating feature of heaven, but as the sole, awful [‘awe-inspiring’] reality in the universe,
from which all else flees away in terror." (Pp. 299-300)
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Aune comments that “The living are not mentioned, probably because of the destruction
of virtually all the enemies of God narrated in 19:17-21. The author seems to presuppose
the resurrection of the dead who appear before the great white throne of God, but he
does not explicitly mention it.” (P. 1101) Again, we insist, such lack of precision, or inconsistency,
is only to be expected in biblical prophecies of the future, which are by their very nature
enigmatic and puzzling–see Numbers 12:7-8; 1 Corinthians 13:9-12.
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The phrase ôïò ìåãÜëïõò êá ôïò ìéêñïýò, tous megalous kai tous mikrous,
“the great ones and the little ones,” which Aune translates by “”both important and unimportant”
(pp. 1071-72), is omitted by Minuscule 2030 and the “Majority Text” (K). We suspect that
this omission may have been caused by the eye of the copyist skipping from the ending of the
word nekrou,j, nekrous, “dead ones,” to the ending of mikrou,j, mikrous, “little ones,” and as
a result leaving out the intervening phrase.
John includes all humanity within these two groups, the great ones and the little ones.
Newport rightly comments that "No one is so important as to be immune from judgment, and
no one is so unimportant as to make judgment inappropriate." (P. 303) For other mentions of
these two groups, see Revelation 11:18; 13:16; 19:5, 18.
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While in this life upon earth, people may curse, deny, and belittle the divine reality;
all human beings are ultimately responsible to God, and, following their death, will give
account to the great Judge of all peoples and nations!
Hendricksen insists that "Here is the one, general resurrection of all the dead. The
entire Bible teaches but one, general resurrection (read John 5:28-29)...Nowhere in the entire
Bible do we read of a resurrection of the bodies of believers, followed, after a thousand years,
by a resurrection of the bodies of the unbelievers. All arise at the same time. Death, the
separation of soul and body, and hades, the state of separation, now cease." (P. 196)
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