Revelation 12:17–18

Footnotes

1. 47 Here καί (kai) has been translated as “so” to indicate the implied result of the woman’s escape.
2. 48 Grk “her seed” (an idiom for offspring, children, or descendants).
3. 49 Or “who obey.”
4. 50 Grk “and having.”
5. 51 Grk “the testimony of Jesus,” which may involve a subjective genitive (“Jesus’ testimony”) or, more likely, an objective genitive (“testimony about Jesus”).
6. 52 Grk “he”; the referent (the dragon) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
7. 53 Grk ἐστάθη (estathē, “he stood”). The reading followed by the translation is attested by the better (𝔓47 א A C 1854 2344 2351 lat syh) while the majority of (051 𝔐 vgmss syph co) have the reading ἐστάθην (estathēn, “I stood”). Thus, the majority of make the narrator, rather than the dragon of 12:17, the subject of the verb. The first person reading is most likely an assimilation to the following verb in 13:1, “I saw.” The reading “I stood” was introduced either by accident or to produce a smoother flow, giving the narrator a vantage point on the sea’s edge from which to observe the beast rising out of the sea in 13:1. But almost everywhere else in the book, the phrase καὶ εἶδον (kai eidon, “and I saw”) marks a transition to a new vision, without reference to the narrator’s activity. On both external and internal grounds, it is best to adopt the third person reading, “he stood.”
8. 54 Or “sandy beach” (L&N 1.64).
9. 55 The standard critical texts of the Greek NT, and , both include this sentence as 12:18, as do the and . Other modern translations like the and include the sentence at the beginning of 13:1; in these versions chap. 12 has only 17 verses.