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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comJamieson Fausset Brown Commentary - Revelation 5:10 - 5:10
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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
made us - A, B, Aleph, Vulgate, Syriac, and Coptic read, “them.” The Hebrew construction of the third person for the first, has a graphic relation to the redeemed, and also has a more modest sound than us, priests [Bengel].
unto our God - So B and Aleph read. But A omits the clause.
kings - So B reads. But A, Aleph, Vulgate, Coptic, and Cyprian, read, “A kingdom.” Aleph reads also “a priesthood” for priests. They who cast their crowns before the throne, do not call themselves kings in the sight of the great King (Rev 4:10, Rev 4:11); though their priestly access has such dignity that their reigning on earth cannot exceed it. So in Rev 20:6 they are not called “kings” [Bengel].
we shall reign on the earth - This is a new feature added to Rev 1:6. Aleph, Vulgate, and Coptic read, “They shall reign.” A and B read, “They reign.” Alford takes this reading and explains it of the Church EVEN NOW, in Christ her Head, reigning on the earth: “all things are being put under her feet, as under His; her kingly office and rank are asserted, even in the midst of persecution.” But even if we read (I think the weightiest authority is against it), “They reign,” still it is the prophetical present for the future: the seer being transported into the future when the full number of the redeemed (represented by the four living creatures) shall be complete and the visible kingdom begins. The saints do spiritually reign now; but certainly not as they shall when the prince of this world shall be bound (see on Rev 20:2-6). So far from reigning on the earth now, they are “made as the filth of the world and the offscouring of all things.” In Rev 11:15, Rev 11:18, the locality and time of the kingdom are marked. Kelly translates, “reign over the earth” (Greek, “epi tees gees”), which is justified by the Greek (Septuagint, Jdg 9:8; Mat 2:22). The elders, though ruling over the earth, shall not necessarily (according to this passage) remain on the earth. But English Version is justified by Rev 3:10. “The elders were meek, but the flock of the meek independently is much larger” [Bengel].