Revelation 4

After this I looked, and there was a door standing open in the sky. The voice I had heard before, sounding like a trumpet speaking to me, said, "Come up here, and I will show you what must happen after this."

1After this I looked, and, behold, a door was opened in heaven: and the first voice which I heard was as it were of a trumpet talking with me; which said, Come up hither, and I will shew thee things which must be hereafter.

NoteThe Greek word behind "heaven" here, ouranos, means both the physical sky and the dwelling place of God; the vision begins with a door in the sky overhead. "Shew" is simply the older spelling of show, and "hereafter" means after these things, not at some vague later date.

2At once I was in the Spirit. There in the sky stood a throne, and someone was sitting on it.

2And immediately I was in the spirit: and, behold, a throne was set in heaven, and one sat on the throne.

Note"In the spirit" describes a visionary state rather than travel: the writer says the same thing at 1:10, 17:3 and 21:10, each time marking the start of a new scene he is shown. Whether the phrase means his own spirit or the Spirit of God is left open by the Greek, and translators differ. "A throne was set" in 1611 English means a throne stood there, not that someone set it up.

3The one sitting there looked like jasper and carnelian, two precious stones. A rainbow circled the throne, and it shone like an emerald.

3And he that sat was to look upon like a jasper and a sardine stone: and there was a rainbow round about the throne, in sight like unto an emerald.

NoteThe KJV "sardine stone" is the stone now usually called carnelian or sard, a deep blood-red gem. Ancient jasper was not the opaque stone sold under that name today; the word covered translucent quartzes, and some ancient writers describe it as clear or green. The verse gives colors and light, not a face: nothing is said about what the figure on the throne looked like.

4Around that throne were twenty-four other thrones, and on them sat twenty-four elders. They were dressed in white clothing and wore gold crowns on their heads.

4And round about the throne were four and twenty seats: and upon the seats I saw four and twenty elders sitting, clothed in white raiment; and they had on their heads crowns of gold.

Note"Elders," Greek presbyteroi, was the ordinary word for the senior men who governed a synagogue or a congregation, so the image is of a ruling council seated around a king. The crowns are stephanoi, the wreath awarded to a victor or worn at a feast, not the diadem that marks a reigning monarch; Greek has a separate word for that, used later in this book. "Raiment" is clothing, and "four and twenty" is the older way of saying twenty-four.

5Out of the throne came flashes of lightning, rumbling sounds, and peals of thunder. In front of the throne seven torches of fire were burning. These are the seven Spirits of God.

5And out of the throne proceeded lightnings and thunderings and voices: and there were seven lamps of fire burning before the throne, which are the seven Spirits of God.

6In front of the throne was something like a sea of glass, as clear as crystal. In the center, around the throne, were four living creatures, covered with eyes in front and behind.

6And before the throne there was a sea of glass like unto crystal: and in the midst of the throne, and round about the throne, were four beasts full of eyes before and behind.

7The first living creature was like a lion. The second was like an ox. The third had a face like a man's face. The fourth was like an eagle in flight.

7And the first beast was like a lion, and the second beast like a calf, and the third beast had a face as a man, and the fourth beast was like a flying eagle.

8Each of the four living creatures had six wings, and each was covered with eyes all over, inside as well as out. Day and night they never stop saying, "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was, and is, and is coming."

8And the four beasts had each of them six wings about him; and they were full of eyes within: and they rest not day and night, saying, Holy, holy, holy, LORD God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come.

9Whenever those living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to the one sitting on the throne, the one who lives forever and ever,

9And when those beasts give glory and honour and thanks to him that sat on the throne, who liveth for ever and ever,

10the twenty-four elders fall down in front of the one sitting on the throne. They worship him who lives forever and ever, and they throw their crowns down before the throne, saying,

10The four and twenty elders fall down before him that sat on the throne, and worship him that liveth for ever and ever, and cast their crowns before the throne, saying,

11"You are worthy, our Lord, to receive glory and honor and power, because you created everything. It was by your will that everything exists and was created."

11Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created.