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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comRobertson Word Pictures - Revelation 12:10 - 12:10
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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
A great voice saying (phōnēn megalēn legousan). Accusative after ēkousa in this phrase as in Rev 5:11; Rev 10:4; Rev 14:2; Rev 18:4, but the genitive phōnēs legousēs in Rev 11:12; Rev 14:13. We are not told whence this voice or song comes, possibly from one of the twenty-four elders (Swete) or some other heavenly beings (Rev 11:15) who can sympathize with human beings (Rev 19:10), the martyrs in heaven (Charles).
Now is come (arti egeneto). Arti (Joh 13:33) shows how recent the downfall of Satan here proleptically pictured as behind us in time (aorist tense egeneto).
The salvation (hē sōtēria). Here “the victory” as in Rev 7:10; Rev 19:1.
The power (hē dunamis). Gods power over the dragon (cf. Rev 7:12; Rev 11:17; Rev 19:1).
The kingdom (hē basileia). “The empire of God” as in Rev 11:15.
The authority of his Christ (hē exousia tou Christou autou). Which Christ received from the Father (Mat 28:18; Joh 17:2). See Rev 11:15 (Psa 2:2) for “his Anointed.”
The accuser (ho katēgōr). The regular form, katēgoros, occurs in Joh 8:10; Act 23:30, Act 23:35; Act 25:16, Act 25:18 and in many MSS. here in Rev 12:10, but A reads katēgōr, which Westcott and Hort accept. It was once considered a Greek transliteration of a Hebrew word, but Deissmann (Light, etc., p. 93f.) quotes it from a vernacular magical papyrus of the fourth century a.d. with no sign of Jewish or Christian influence, just as diakōn appears as a vernacular form of diakonos. Only here is the word applied to Satan in the N.T. In late Judaism Satan is the accuser, and Michael the defender, of the faithful.
Of our brethren (tōn adelphōn hēmōn). The saints still on earth battling with Satan and his devices.
Which accuseth them (ho katēgorōn autous). Articular present active participle of katēgoreō, old verb, to accuse, usually with the genitive of the person (Joh 5:45), but here with the accusative. This is the devil’s constant occupation (Job 1:6.).
Day and night (hēmeras kai nuktos). Genitive of time. “By day and by night.”