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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadBob Utley You Can Understand the Bible - Revelation 22:14 - 22:15
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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Rev_22:14-15
14Blessed are those who wash their robes, so that they may have the right to the tree of life, and may enter by the gates into the city. 15Outside are the dogs and the sorcerers and the immoral persons and the murderers and the idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices lying.
Rev_22:14 "Blessed" This is the last of the seven blessings for believers found in Revelation (cf. Rev_1:3; Rev_14:13; Rev_16:15; Rev_19:9; Rev_20:6; Rev_22:7; Rev_22:14).
▣ "those who wash their robes" This is a metaphor for trusting in the atonement of Christ (cf. Rev_7:14). Believers are accepted because He was accepted (cf. Eph_1:6). Believers live because He died. Believers have resurrection life because He lives!
There is a Greek manuscript variant in this phrase.
1. "wash their robes" is in MSS à (fourth century) and A (fifth century), as well as the Vulgate. The UBS4 gives it an "A" rating, meaning "certain."
2. "keep the commandments" is in 046, an uncial MS from the tenth century, minuscule MSS (1 and 94) from the twelfth century, and the Peshitta (Syrian) version.
▣ "they may have the right to the tree of life; and may enter by the gates into the city" These are two metaphors for eternal salvation through Christ. One goes back to Gen_2:9; Gen_3:22 (cf. Rev_2:7; Rev_22:2; Rev_22:14; Rev_22:19) and the other to Rev_21:2; Rev_21:9 to Rev_22:5.
Rev_22:15 "Outside are" This is very difficult to interpret unless it is a metaphor for the lake of fire (cf. Rev_21:8).
▣ "the dogs" This is another strange allusion because there should be no evil people left at this point in the book. In Deu_23:18 this term refers to male prostitutes of the Canaanite fertility cult. In other parts of the Old and New Testaments it refers to wicked people (cf. Psa_22:16; Psa_22:20; Mat_7:6; and Php_3:2). Let me quote Robert H. Mounce at this point from his commentary on Revelation in the New International Series:
"The verse does not intend to teach that in the eternal state all manner of wicked men will be living just outside the heavenly city. It simply describes the future with the imagery of the present. The contrast is between the blessedness of the faithful and the fate of the wicked" (p. 394).