The majestic scenes John recalls in Revelation can overwhelm even the thoughtful reader.¹This essay is the result of research presented in the New Testament Greek Language and Exegesis Section at the 2023 ETS Annual Meeting in San Antonio on 14 November, and a series of blog entries titled “Roles in Revelation,” For the Church, 22–28 January 2024, https://ftc.co/blog/resource-library/series-index/roles-in-revelation/ How should overwhelmed believers respond? Many will say, “Trust God. That’s the point.” To some degree, yes. Craig Blomberg reflects that the shortest summary of Revelation he has heard is that Jesus wins: “Here is the climax of any truly Christian theodicy. God will make all things right, it is crucial for us to be with him on the winning side.”²Craig Blomberg, A New Testament Theology (Waco, TX: Baylor University Press, 2018), 683. God is faithful and will see that he is glorified through his faithful ones. So trust God and be faithful. That is the point.

But how? Analyzing John’s lexical and grammatical choices provides a concrete path for how believers might faithfully respond to God and participate in the drama John sketches in Revelation. The Gospel of John, 1–3 John, and Revelation offer readers a coherent portrait of theology through variegated literary styles. John presents Jesus’s life, death, and resurrection as decisive events in world history, establishing a movement that has implications for all humanity. John’s worldview and doctrinal framework exhibit great consistency.

Even John’s linguistic choices remain stable across his vast literary output. One of these grammatical pillars is John’s use of the articular substantival participle. John employs this grammatical form predominantly for human agency. Often, beneath the English translation, “the one who…” in John’s texts lies an articular substantival participle. Important theological phrases in John’s language, like the one who believes, the one who loves, and the one who conquers, are verbs whose adjectival sense is so strong they are substantivized and replace what would typically be a noun. This kind of participle concretizes the verbal action, portraying a role.³In Ronald D. Peters, The Greek Article: A Functional Grammar of ὁ-Items in the Greek New Testament with Special Emphasis on the Greek Article, Linguistic Biblical Studies 9 (Leiden; Boston: Brill, 2014), 67, Peters states that an author can use the article to effectively move a nominal to various positions on a stage. Peters writes, “In the case of the article, when a Greek speaker wishes to move a participant to the background of the stage, he or she may do so in part by characterizing the participant as abstract. Conversely, when a speaker wishes to bring a participant to the foreground of the stage, the participant will be characterized as concrete. Thus, even in a single episode, participants will move in and out, to the front and to the back, based on their immediate role” (p. 190).

In this essay, I employ five headings to summarize John’s use of the articular substantival participle regarding roles humans might embrace or reject in Revelation:

1. The One Who Reads and Hears God’s Word (1:3; 22:17, 18)
2. The One Who Conquers (2:7, 11, 17, 26; 3:5, 12, 21; 15:2; 21:7)
3. The One Who Is Oriented Toward God and not the World (2:7, 11, 17, 2:29; 3:6, 13, 22; 13:18; 17:9; 18:19; 20:6)
4. The One Who Is Slaughtered for The Testimony of Jesus (6:9; 18:24; 20:4)
5. The One Who Thirsts for God (21:6; 22:17)

1. The One Who Reads and Hears God’s Word

John uses participles to establish the formal roles of reading and hearing Revelation, the final book of Scripture, so the word of God will forever guide the church. John thus begins Revelation by noting two streams of communication.

1.1. The One Who Reads God’s Word⁴ἀναγινώσκω (33.68: Communication in Trust in Johannes P. Louw and Eugene Albert Nida, Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament: Based on Semantic Domains, 2nd ed. [New York: United Bible Societies, 1989], 396) in Revelation 1:3.

Μακάριος ὁ ἀναγινώσκων καὶ οἱ ἀκούοντες τοὺς λόγους τῆς προφητείας καὶ τηροῦντες τὰ ἐν αὐτῇ γεγραμμένα, ὁ γὰρ καιρὸς ἐγγύς. (Rev 1:3)

Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear, and who keep what is written in it, for the time is near. (Rev 1:3)

The first communication stream in Revelation 1:1–2 could be labeled spatially as a descending communication stream. The second stream is horizontal, described in Revelation 1:3. John’s grammatical choices portray reading, hearing, and following (what was heard in the reading) like roles believers should embrace as a part of their Christian life: “Blessed is the one who reads aloud (ὁ ἀναγινώσκων) the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear, and who keep what is written in it.”

The link between Revelation 1:2 and 3 is a text, words in some material form. John envisions believers embracing the role of a public reader. The public reading of Scripture that John expects pre-dates the synagogue communities and churches of his day, finding its early precedent in Moses’s reading of the law to Israel as the nation prepares to cross the Jordan River in Deuteronomy 27–32. After the exiles return to Jerusalem, they gather to hear the law read publicly (see Neh 8). When the synagogue communities in Palestine and throughout the Mediterranean region gather for worship, reading Scripture is a part of their agenda (Luke 4:16–21; Acts 13:13–15, 27, 42–44; 15:21). Paul exhorts Timothy to devote himself to the public reading of Scripture (1 Tim 4:13) and instructs the Colossians to exchange letters with the Laodiceans so that both letters could be read in both churches (Col 4:16).⁵“Although the ‘scripturalization’ of Christian worship certainly became more formalized and regularized across time, both the importance and the impact of corporate reading of scripture writings are evident from the outset of the Jesus-movement” (Larry W. Hurtado, Destroyer of the Gods: Early Christian Distinctiveness in the Roman World [Waco, TX: Baylor University Press, 2016], 108).

The one taking up the role of reading Scripture is not only blessed; he is a blessing. Since most of the ancient world could not read, the one reading Scripture was not simply a blessing; he was necessary.⁶See especially Harry J. Gamble, Books and Readers in the Early Church: A History of Early Christian Texts (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1995). Therefore, those who read Scripture to the community enabled God’s people to hear his word and be blessed by what they heard.

1.2. The One Who Hears God’s Word⁷ἀκούω (24.52: Sensory Events and States in L&N 1.281–82) in Revelation 1:3; 22:17, 18.

Μακάριος ὁ ἀναγινώσκων καὶ οἱ ἀκούοντες τοὺς λόγους τῆς προφητείας καὶ τηροῦντες τὰ ἐν αὐτῇ γεγραμμένα, ὁ γὰρ καιρὸς ἐγγύς. (Rev 1:3)	Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear, and who keep what is written in it, for the time is near. (Rev 1:3)
Καὶ τὸ πνεῦμα καὶ ἡ νύμφη λέγουσιν· ἔρχου. καὶ ὁ ἀκούων εἰπάτω· ἔρχου. (Rev 22:17)	The Spirit and the Bride say, “Come.” And let the one who hears say, “Come.” (Rev 22:17)
Μαρτυρῶ ἐγὼ παντὶ τῷ ἀκούοντι τοὺς λόγους τῆς προφητείας τοῦ βιβλίου τούτου· ἐάν τις ἐπιθῇ ἐπ’ αὐτά, ἐπιθήσει ὁ θεὸς ἐπ’ αὐτὸν τὰς πληγὰς τὰς γεγραμμένας ἐν τῷ βιβλίῳ τούτῳ. (Rev 22:18)	I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: if anyone adds to them, God will add to him the plagues described in this book, (Rev 22:18)

Those faithful in the role of hearing God’s word read to them, John notes in Revelation 1:3, are indeed blessed. The gnomic predicate nominative “blessed” (μακάριος)⁸This is the first of seven beatitudes that John writes in Revelation (see also 14:13; 16:15; 19:9; 20:6; 22:7, 14). recalls many points in the storyline of Scripture, including Psalm 1 and Jesus’s Beatitudes at the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount (Matt 5:3–12) and Sermon on the Plain (Luke 6:20–22). The faithful enjoy God’s blessing because of many activities—including hearing Scripture.

The role of hearing John’s prophecy—the culmination of Scripture—is not to be a one-off endeavor. Those who hear God’s word and enjoy its blessing stand on the stage not once but repeatedly—with the company of hearers. The axiomatic portrait of hearing and blessing in Revelation 1:3 is carried not only by the use of μακάριος as the predicate nominative but also through the present tense form of ἀκούω in the articular substantival participle οἱ ἀκούοντες—those who hear, and hear, and hear.⁹If, as David E. Aune states, “ancient authors not only chose words to convey the meanings they intended but also chose words whose sounds effectively communicated those meanings” (David E. Aune, Revelation 1–5, WBC 52A [Dallas: Word, 1997], 21, italics original), we would expect no less concerning the final installment of Holy Scripture. Ancient rhetoricians arranged words to communicate ideas through sounds. This practice was referred to as elocutio or style. See Book 3 of Aristotle’s Rhetorica and Books 8–9 of Quintilian’s Institutio Oratoria. For the analysis of the auditory character of the New Testament and especially Revelation, see Margaret Ellen Lee and Bernard Brandon Scott eds., Sound Mapping the New Testament (Salem, OR: Polebridge, 2009); Kayle B. de Waal, An Aural-Performance Analysis of Revelation 1 and 11, StBibLit 163 (New York: Lang, 2015); Kayle B. de Waal, “A Sound Map of Revelation 8:7–12 and the Implications for Ancient Hearers,” in Sound Matters, ed. Margaret Ellen Lee (Eugene, OR: Cascade, 2018), 179–92; and John D. Harvey, Listening to the Text: Oral Patterning in Paul’s Letters, ETS Studies 1 (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1998). “Play it again!” John envisions hearers of Revelation exclaiming. John describes a crowded stage of actors that includes a reader and many hearers who respond to what they have heard by keeping their testimony of Christ to the end. This testimony they will keep despite danger and opposition that may come upon them precisely because they are hearing and heeding John’s prophetic message.

And at the end of Revelation, John returns to the role of hearing God’s word. In Revelation 22:17, he writes, “The Spirit and the bride say, ‘Come.’ And let the who hears [ὁ ἀκούων] say, ‘Come.’ And let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who desires take the water of life without price.” The one who hears is the first of three roles that John would have his readers embrace. The placement of the role of hearing in Revelation 22:17 is noteworthy for two reasons. First, at the broader discourse level of Revelation, the hearing role returns us to Revelation 1:3 and further accentuates the communicative string John describes in Revelation 1:1–3. Anyone who has heard the Apocalypse has heard God’s message through Jesus, an angel, and John.¹⁰Though Aune offers that the singular articular participle ὁ ἀκούων in Revelation 22:17 may have an implicitly distributive perspective that places an emphasis on each individual hearer in the larger group portrayed via οἱ ἀκούοντες in Revelation 1:3 (David E. Aune, Revelation 17–22, WBC 52C [Dallas: Word, 1998], 1228). Second, at the micro discourse level of Revelation 22:17, the one who hears is the first of three roles, including desiring and thirsting. That hearing is listed first in this string of roles implies that hearing what John has written stimulates the hearer’s senses to seek God.

John portrays the role of hearing such that those embracing God’s word as it is read undertake two specific tasks. First, they long for John’s message to be actualized. The hearer is to say, “Come!” John likely has in mind that those hearing his prophecy of Jesus’s victorious return in Revelation 19:11–21 long to see the rider on the white horse arrive to conquer evil and consummate his kingdom. Second, they act as stewards of God’s word. In Revelation 22:18, John admonishes those hearing his prophecy and states, “I warn everyone who hears [παντὶ τῷ ἀκούοντι] the words of the prophecy of this book: if anyone adds to them, God will add to him the plagues described in this book.” Because John has truthfully written what the angelic messengers revealed to him from Jesus from God (recalling the authoritative communicative string outlined in Rev 1:1–3), those in the role of hearing John’s prophecy must maintain God’s word to the next generation unchanged. They must heed it faithfully, adding or subtracting nothing.

2. The One Who Conquers

A second role John uses participles to advocate for in Revelation is that of a conqueror.¹¹νικάω (39.57 Hostility, Strife in L&N 1:500) in Revelation 2:7, 11, 17, 26; 3:5, 12, 21; 15:2; and 21:7. Grant R. Osborne notes, “One of the most important messages of the book is the challenge to be a ‘conqueror.’”¹²Grant R. Osborne, Revelation, BECNT (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2002), 122. John’s language should shape how we view God, our local churches, and ourselves.

2.1. Conquerors in Every Church

Τῷ νικῶντι δώσω αὐτῷ φαγεῖν ἐκ τοῦ ξύλου τῆς ζωῆς, ὅ ἐστιν ἐν τῷ παραδείσῳ τοῦ θεοῦ (Rev 2:7)	To the one who conquers I will grant to eat of the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God. (Rev 2:7)
Ὁ νικῶν οὐ μὴ ἀδικηθῇ ἐκ τοῦ θανάτου τοῦ δευτέρου. (Rev 2:11)	The one who conquers will not be hurt by the second death. (Rev 2:11)
Τῷ νικῶντι δώσω αὐτῷ τοῦ μάννα τοῦ κεκρυμμένου καὶ δώσω αὐτῷ ψῆφον λευκήν, καὶ ἐπὶ τὴν ψῆφον ὄνομα καινὸν γεγραμμένον ὃ οὐδεὶς οἶδεν εἰ μὴ ὁ λαμβάνων. (Rev 2:17)	To the one who conquers I will give some of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white stone, with a new name written on the stone that no one knows except the one who receives it. (Rev 2:17)
Καὶ ὁ νικῶν καὶ ὁ τηρῶν ἄχρι τέλους τὰ ἔργα μου, δώσω αὐτῷ ἐξουσίαν ἐπὶ τῶν ἐθνῶν (Rev 2:26)	The one who conquers and who keeps my works until the end, to him I will give authority over the nations (Rev 2:26)
Ὁ νικῶν οὕτως περιβαλεῖται ἐν ἱματίοις λευκοῖς καὶ οὐ μὴ ἐξαλείψω τὸ ὄνομα αὐτοῦ ἐκ τῆς βίβλου τῆς ζωῆς. (Rev 3:5)	The one who conquers will be clothed thus in white garments, and I will never blot his name out of the book of life. (Rev 3:5)
Ὁ νικῶν ποιήσω αὐτὸν στῦλον ἐν τῷ ναῷ τοῦ θεοῦ μου καὶ ἔξω οὐ μὴ ἐξέλθῃ ἔτι καὶ γράψω ἐπ’ αὐτὸν τὸ ὄνομα τοῦ θεοῦ μου καὶ τὸ ὄνομα τῆς πόλεως τοῦ θεοῦ μου, τῆς καινῆς Ἰερουσαλὴμ ἡ καταβαίνουσα ἐκ τοῦ οὐρανοῦ ἀπὸ τοῦ θεοῦ μου, καὶ τὸ ὄνομά μου τὸ καινόν (Rev 3:12)	The one who conquers, I will make him a pillar in the temple of my God. Never shall he go out of it, and I will write on him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem, which comes down from my God out of heaven, and my own new name. (Rev 3:12)
Ὁ νικῶν δώσω αὐτῷ καθίσαι μετ’ ἐμοῦ ἐν τῷ θρόνῳ μου, ὡς κἀγὼ ἐνίκησα καὶ ἐκάθισα μετὰ τοῦ πατρός μου ἐν τῷ θρόνῳ αὐτοῦ. (Rev 3:21)	The one who conquers, I will grant him to sit with me on my throne, as I also conquered and sat down with my Father on his throne. (Rev 3:21)

Jesus formulaically describes the role of the conqueror in his messages to the churches in Revelation 2–3. In the conclusion of each letter, Jesus uses articular substantival participles of νικάω either in the nominative (2:11, 26; 3:5, 12, 21) or dative (2:7, 17), followed by a first-person future indicative verb, via which Jesus promises a personal reward to the one conquering. The dative references signify the victors as those to whom Jesus promises some reward. The nominative references communicate a similar idea via the hanging nominative in which the participle is the antecedent of a subsequent pronoun to whom Jesus promises reward or blessing. These uses of νικάω shape the literary structure of their respective letters and cast an ideological frame for Revelation as a whole.¹³Matthijs den Dulk suggests that the sequence of Jesus’s promises presents a review and fulfillment of the storyline of the Old Testament (Matthijs den Dulk, “The Promises of the Conquerors in the Book of Revelation,” Bib 87 [2006]: 516). Jesus calls believers in every church to embrace the role of conqueror by remaining faithful to him despite earthly temptation and opposition.

Jesus calls for believers in local churches to take up the role of conqueror, and this should shape how we view ourselves and our brothers and sisters in our local churches. Our refusal to compromise doctrinal and moral integrity is an act of conquering the spiritual forces that oppose us.

2.2. The Conqueror and Eternal Rewards

Καὶ εἶδον ὡς θάλασσαν ὑαλίνην μεμιγμένην πυρὶ καὶ τοὺς νικῶντας ἐκ τοῦ θηρίου καὶ ἐκ τῆς εἰκόνος αὐτοῦ καὶ ἐκ τοῦ ἀριθμοῦ τοῦ ὀνόματος αὐτοῦ ἑστῶτας ἐπὶ τὴν θάλασσαν τὴν ὑαλίνην ἔχοντας κιθάρας τοῦ θεοῦ. (Rev 15:2)	And I saw what appeared to be a sea of glass mingled with fire—and also those who had conquered the beast and its image and the number of its name, standing beside the sea of glass with harps of God in their hands. (Rev 15:2)
ὁ νικῶν κληρονομήσει ταῦτα καὶ ἔσομαι αὐτῷ θεὸς καὶ αὐτὸς ἔσται μοι υἱός. (Rev 21:7)	The one who conquers will have this heritage, and I will be his God and he will be my son. (Rev 21:7)

What might motivate those taking up the dangerous role of a conqueror to be faithful to Jesus despite opposition and even the threat of death? Brian J. Tabb writes, “The Apocalypse presents the people of God ironically as conquered conquerors, who experience present suffering and defeat yet await ultimate victory.”¹⁴Brian J. Tabb, All Things New: Revelation as Canonical Capstone, NSBT 48 (Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic), 109.

In the letters to the churches, Revelation 15:2, and Revelation 21:7, John promises rewards for those who conquer. In John’s vision of the heavenly throne room in Revelation 15, he sees the souls of those who were victorious (τοὺς νικῶντας) over the beast standing on the sea of glass gathered around the throne to praise God. Language and imagery from Revelation 4–5 and 6:9–11 (the fifth seal) punctuate John’s vision in Revelation 15 and contribute to the narrative framework of the book. Those who conquer the beast and his image (15:2) do so because the slain Lamb also stands to show that he has been victorious over death and redeemed them (5:6–10). In Revelation 15:2, John portrays how the followers of the conquering Lamb themselves conquer the beast and his image. John writes parallel prepositional phrases (ἐκ τοῦ θηρίου καὶ ἐκ τῆς εἰκόνος αὐτοῦ), emphasizing the spatial separation between the conquerors and the demonic forces opposing them. The conquerors are those who have separated themselves from demonic influence through Jesus’s victory for them. The conqueror is free because of his flight from Satan’s domain.¹⁵BDF notes the peculiar use of ἐκ here, placing it under the general category of extension (Friedrich Wilhelm Blass, Albert Debrunner, and Robert W. Funk, A Greek Grammar of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature [Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1986], §212). G. K. Beale comments, “The phrase τοὺς νικῶντας ἐκ may be a compressed expression for ‘the ones coming off victorious [by separating themselves] from’” (G. K Beale, The Book of Revelation: A Commentary on the Greek Text, NIGTC [Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1999], 790). The reference to the conquerors in Revelation 15:2 recalls the repeated reference to the victorious ones in the concluding lines of the letters to the seven churches.¹⁶Buist Fanning notes, “Such victory or ‘overcoming’ is what John has summoned Christians to do throughout the messages to the churches (cf. 2:7, 11, etc.; also 12:11; 21:7)” (Buist Fanning, Revelation, ZECNT [Grand Rapids: Zondervan Academic, 2020], 406). Having been presented with the costly role of the conqueror, John’s readers may have been asking, Will victory be worth the sacrifice (sometimes unto death) required to resist Satan and earthly forces? John’s vision of heavenly community and reward reported in Revelation 15 answers in the affirmative.

In Revelation 21, John describes the new creation. John uses apocalyptic imagery to build his narrative to this point. Along the way, he tells his visions and sets out God’s promises of reward to those who remain faithful. Throughout Revelation, John frames the promise of reward in relational terms as God comes to dwell with his people in the new creation. In Revelation 21:7–8, John contrasts all of humanity, placing them into one of two categories. He uses the term conqueror as the heading for the faithful ones, stating that the one who conquers (ὁ νικῶν) will have a heritage and enjoy intimacy with God as God’s son (21:7). The one in the role of the conqueror is the one who has remained faithful, participating in the victory of the One on the throne and the Lamb. The human victor referenced in Revelation 21:7 has been victorious over Satan and the worldly forces under Satan’s delegated authority.

3. The One Who Is Oriented Toward God and not the World

John’s audience in Revelation faces seasons of danger and deception. Therefore, John uses the articular substantival participle of ἔχω to portray the role of one who is oriented toward God.¹⁷ἔχω (13.2: Be, Become, Exist, Happen in L&N 1:149) in Revelation 2:7, 11, 17, 29; 3:6, 13, 22; 13:18; 17:9; 18:19; 20:6. John explains that such a one is protected from Satan’s lies and assured of rule with Christ in the age to come.

3.1. Spiritual Ears in Every Church

Ὁ ἔχων οὖς ἀκουσάτω τί τὸ πνεῦμα λέγει ταῖς ἐκκλησίαις. (Rev 2:7, 11, 17, 2:29; 3:6, 3:13, 22)

He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. (Rev 2:7, 11, 17, 2:29; 3:6, 3:13, 22)

In the letters to the churches in Revelation 2–3, Jesus describes the role of being oriented toward God. The letters differ in length and use of metaphors and literary features, but they all display a general introduction-body-conclusion framework. The repeated phrase, “he who has [Ὁ ἔχων] an ear, let him hear,” calls the recipients of the letters to orient themselves toward God. Jesus’s formulaic expression effectively establishes a concrete role he expects believers to embrace so they might fulfill his instructions. In the broader discourse of Revelation, those oriented toward God have rejected the false teaching propagated by the beast, the false prophet, and Satan (see Rev 13).¹⁸Tabb writes, “Those with ‘an ear’ rightly grasp that the Spirit of God and the exalted Christ address the churches in and through this book of prophecy. They also test the spirits and resist the siren song of the false prophet and its emissaries such as Balaam and Jezebel (2:14, 20; 16:13–14)” (Tabb, All Things New, 223–24).

Jesus’s statements in the conclusion of these letters echo his point in the parable of the soils (Matt 13:1–15; Mark 4:1–12; Luke 8:4–10). There, Jesus cites Isaiah 6:9–10 to explain that God has enabled those who hear and accept the kingdom’s message while he has hardened others who hear the same message and reject it.¹⁹Beale suggests that the parallels between the conclusion of the seven letters and the parable of the soils imply a mixed congregation in the churches with the result that each hearer’s spiritual state will be made public by how they respond to Jesus’s message (Beale, Revelation, 234). Yet, as George Beasely-Murray states, Jesus has in view the one who reacts faithfully, overcomes, and receives God’s blessing (George Beasely-Murray, “Revelation,” in New Bible Commentary: 21st Century Edition, ed. D. A. Carson et al., 4th ed. [Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1994], 1428). Regardless of the specific imagery Jesus uses to introduce himself at the beginning of each letter or the various metaphors and Old Testament themes Jesus employs in the body of the letters, Jesus concludes his address to each church by identifying the role of the recipient. Those in the recipient’s role are called to heed the message and respond faithfully. They are to embrace the role of being oriented toward God.

3.2. Protection of the Mind

Ὧδε ἡ σοφία ἐστίν. ὁ ἔχων νοῦν ψηφισάτω τὸν ἀριθμὸν τοῦ θηρίου, ἀριθμὸς γὰρ ἀνθρώπου ἐστίν, (Rev 13:18)	This calls for wisdom: let the one who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, (Rev 13:18)
ὧδε ὁ νοῦς ὁ ἔχων σοφίαν. Αἱ ἑπτὰ κεφαλαὶ ἑπτὰ ὄρη εἰσίν, ὅπου ἡ γυνὴ κάθηται ἐπ’ αὐτῶν. καὶ βασιλεῖς ἑπτά εἰσιν· (Rev 17:9)	This calls for a mind with wisdom: the seven heads are seven mountains on which the woman is seated (Rev 17:9)
καὶ ἔβαλον χοῦν ἐπὶ τὰς κεφαλὰς αὐτῶν καὶ ἔκραζον κλαίοντες καὶ πενθοῦντες λέγοντες· οὐαὶ οὐαί, ἡ πόλις ἡ μεγάλη, ἐν ᾗ ἐπλούτησαν πάντες οἱ ἔχοντες τὰ πλοῖα ἐν τῇ θαλάσσῃ ἐκ τῆς τιμιότητος αὐτῆς, ὅτι μιᾷ ὥρᾳ ἠρημώθη (Rev 18:19)	And they threw dust on their heads as they wept and mourned, crying out, “Alas, alas, for the great city where all who had ships at sea grew rich by her wealth! For in a single hour she has been laid waste.” (Rev 18:19)

The role of being oriented toward God includes having ears that hear spiritual truth and a mindset that filters spiritual propaganda. In Revelation 12–13, John records his visions of the spiritual forces that oppose God and his people on earth. The dragon, the beast from the sea, and the beast from the earth described in Revelation 13 employ their delegated authority against believers, taking some captive and killing others (13:10). They arrange the structures of the world to intimidate and coerce humanity to worship them, establishing an earthly kingdom. Everything about the nature and activity of the dragon, the beast from the sea, and the beast from the earth in Revelation 13 mimics and mocks the triune God of heaven and his rule over the cosmos. Satan and his forces establish a system for the members of their kingdom—captive by fear and force—to receive a branding mark visible on the right hand or forehead (13:16–17). In Revelation 13:17, John writes about the role of earthly identification, stating that no one can buy or sell unless he has (ὁ ἔχων) the beast’s mark, his name visibly displayed. This mark, the symbol of power for the beast and Satan’s earthly kingdom, ironically portrays weakness because it identifies the deceived and beguiled with Satan and his impending doom. Then, in Revelation 13:18, John urges “the one who has [ὁ ἔχων] understanding” to resist Satan’s lies.

In the letters to the churches in Revelation 2–3, ears (οὖς) are the object of ἔχων and signify that one’s faculties are sensitive to God. Ears convey spiritual discernment that one’s entire body will carry out. The same idea is communicated via mind (νοῦς) in Revelation 13:18 (cf. Rev 17:9). The one oriented toward God heeds Jesus’s instructions in Revelation 2–3 and realizes Satan’s limited capacity in Revelation 13. The actor in this role is oriented toward God, responding faithfully to God’s revelation about his activity and the finite domain he has entrusted to Satan.²⁰Robert Mounce notes the cognitive labor believers must expend to orient themselves toward God amid spiritual battle, stating, “What is crucial at this point is to recognize the true nature of the struggle. While the Lamb was victorious on the cross, the full and public acknowledgment of that victory awaits a final moment. Believers live in the already/not yet tension of a battle won but not quite over” (Robert Mounce, The Book of Revelation, rev. ed. NICNT [Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1997], 263).

In Revelation 13:17, the one having the mark of the beast is allowed free flow of commerce. It is that free flow of economic activity that roots Satan’s followers in his earthly kingdom. John resurfaces terms of economy and spiritual rooting in Revelation 18:19b. While describing the fall of Babylon, John sees the seafaring men and shipmasters, “all who had [οἱ ἔχοντες] ships at sea,” weeping because Babylon, the anchor of their economic prosperity, was no more. Their mindset is of this world, and when its economic system falls, they fall with it.

3.3. Living in Light of Eternity

μακάριος καὶ ἅγιος ὁ ἔχων μέρος ἐν τῇ ἀναστάσει τῇ πρώτῃ· ἐπὶ τούτων ὁ δεύτερος θάνατος οὐκ ἔχει ἐξουσίαν, ἀλλ’ ἔσονται ἱερεῖς τοῦ θεοῦ καὶ τοῦ Χριστοῦ καὶ βασιλεύσουσιν μετ’ αὐτοῦ [τὰ] χίλια ἔτη. (Rev 20:6)

Blessed and holy is the one who shares in the first resurrection! Over such the second death has no power, but they will be priests of God and of Christ, and they will reign with him for a thousand years. (Rev 20:6)

And what does John envision for those who are oriented toward God, who walk in spiritual wisdom and resist the beast’s efforts to expand Satan’s kingdom? In Revelation 20:6a, John uses the articular substantival participle of ἔχω for the final time, writing, “Blessed and holy is the one who shares [ὁ ἔχων] in the first resurrection!” John notes that this holy and blessed role of sharing in the first resurrection is consistent with a life of spiritual fidelity. The role of sharing in the first resurrection befits those who have resisted the mark of the beast and maintained their witness of Christ even unto death (20:4). Those who enjoy a share in the first resurrection offer spiritual service to God and reign with Christ (20:6b). The concept of participation in resurrection life rests upon the spatial dualism between heaven and earth that surfaces throughout Revelation. The believer’s share in eternal life anticipates the New Jerusalem coming down from heaven in Revelation 21. In that domain, every creature is oriented toward God and the Lamb, the source of light itself (21:22–23).²¹Ian Paul writes, “Spatial references function as an extended metaphor for humanity’s spiritual state, and the descriptions of the heavenly realm suggest a spiritual, prophetic perspective on the mundane realities of the earthly realm. The consummation of John’s vision report is the coming of the New Jerusalem down from heaven to earth, where the two realities finally converge” (Ian Paul, “Introduction to the Book of Revelation” in The Cambridge Companion to Apocalyptic Literature, ed. Colin McAllister [Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2020], 43).

4. The One Who Is Slaughtered for The Testimony of Jesus

Some of the roles John sets forth in Revelation lack appeal for modern readers, just as they would have for John’s original audience. As creatures, humans tend to avoid pain—not embrace roles that might lead to suffering or death. John exhibits pastoral concern in Revelation, compelling him to esteem those taking up the role of being slaughtered for Christ. The general hue of Revelation places believers in the crosshairs of spiritual war. In Revelation 6:9, 18:24, and 20:4, John uses articular substantival participles to laud those who have embraced the role of suffering for their faith, even to the point of death.²²σφάζω (29.72: Violence, Harm, Destroy, Kill in L&N 1:235) in Revelation 6:9; 18:24; πελεκίζω (20.80: Violence, Harm, Destroy, Kill in L&N 1:236–37) in Revelation 20:4.

4.1. The Slaughtered Ones Heard in Heaven

Καὶ ὅτε ἤνοιξεν τὴν πέμπτην σφραγῖδα, εἶδον ὑποκάτω τοῦ θυσιαστηρίου τὰς ψυχὰς τῶν ἐσφαγμένων διὰ τὸν λόγον τοῦ θεοῦ καὶ διὰ τὴν μαρτυρίαν ἣν εἶχον. (Rev 6:9)

When he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God and for the witness they had borne. (Rev 6:9)

Revelation can be seen as a protracted answer to the saints’ question John hears when the fifth seal is broken, “O Sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before you will judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?” (6:10).²³Beale, Revelation, 28, 392. John notes that the ones crying out to God for justice are those who had been slaughtered because of God’s word and their testimony of Christ (“those who had been slain [τῶν ἐσφαγμένων] for the word of God and [καὶ] for the witness they had borne [ἥν εἶχον],” 6:9b). The role of being slaughtered or martyred (σφάζω) in Revelation 6:9 (and in 18:24) expresses the highest degree of faithfulness to Christ. Beale states it clearly: “Since the symbol of identity for all Christians is the slain Lamb, they all also can be referred to by the same metaphor.”²⁴Beale, Revelation, 391.

Two grammatical features in Revelation 6:9b underscore the saints’ devotion to God as they cry out for justice. First, John’s choice of the perfect tense form of σφάζω, “those who had been slaughtered [τῶν ἐσφαγμένων]” accords with the linguistic nuance of the verb²⁵Of the ten occurrences of σφάζω in the New Testament, six are participles—all in the perfect tense form. Because the act of being slain or slaughtered moves the object from one state to another, the perfect aspectual frame of stativity matches the lexical designation of σφάζω. For analysis of grammatical forms in relation to lexical nuance, see Matthew Brooke O’Donnell’s discussion of lexicogrammar in Corpus Linguistics and the Greek of the New Testament, NTM 6 (Sheffield: Sheffield Phoenix, 2005), 30–33. Regarding the perfect tense form, see D. A. Carson, ed., The Perfect Storm: Critical Discussion of the Semantics of the Greek Perfect Tense Under Aspect Theory, SBG 21 (New York: Lang, 2021); Todd R. Chipman, “What Is the Perfect State? Investigating the Greek Perfect Tense-Form in the Epistle to the Hebrews,” Midwestern Journal of Theology 15.2 (2016): 1–25; Francis G. H. Pang, Revisiting Aspect and Aktionsart: A Corpus Approach to Koine Greek Event Typology, LBS 14 (Leiden; Boston: Brill, 2016); and David L. Mathewson, Verbal Aspect in the Book of Revelation: The Function of Greek Verb Tenses in John’s Apocalypse, LBS 4 (Leiden: Brill, 2010). and portrays the violent means of the martyrs’ deaths as yet vivid and in full color. Even if their deaths were decades before, the effects and violent frame of those deaths would cast a shadow extending to the very moment when they cry out for God to avenge their blood. The slaughter they endured was thus an antecedent action that placed the saints in the resulting state implied by their slaughter. They are there as worshippers of God, having submitted life and death to him. In this position, they can rightly cry out to God for justice.

Further, the nearness and proximity of the violent death of the martyrs anticipates John’s description of why the saints were slaughtered. At the end of Revelation 6:9, John employs the imperfect tense form of ἔχω (εἶχον) to note that the saints had been martyred because of their continuous, consistent testimony of Christ. Those who acted faithfully, even to the point of being slaughtered, did so after fulfilling the role of testifying to the life, death, and resurrection of Christ. The saints were not one-offs or kamikaze-like actors; instead, regularly as believers, they were holding fast in the role of witness.²⁶Fanning, Revelation, 246–47.

Second, the slaughtered ones’ testimony was related to the word of God. The conjunction καί (and) can have several nuances, and in the syntax of Revelation 6:9b it links God’s word and the testimony of the slaughtered ones in a coordinated, explanatory sense.²⁷See καί in BDF §§442, 449. This is not an equative use of the epexegetical καὶ, but one that notes that the word of God was the source and framework for the martyrs’ testimonies: no word of God, then no testimony worth one’s life. Commentators vary on the nature of testimony in view here. I agree with Osborne (Revelation, 285) that it is the martyr’s testimony, contra Leon Morris (The Gospel According to John, NICNT [Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1995], 108), Beale (Revelation, 390), and Mounce (Revelation, 147), who understand the word of God as Jesus’s testimony transmitted to John and held by John’s audience. God’s word and the testimony of the martyrs, in this context, must be understood not only as two sides of one coin but the latter as the expression of the former. The martyrs personally testified God’s word as revealed in Christ, and they, not God’s word, shed blood for that testimony.²⁸J. Scott Duvall writes, “These Christian martyrs suffered and died specifically because of their witness” (J. Scott Duvall, The Heart of Revelation [Grand Rapids: Baker, 2016], 109). God’s word guided their lives and was worth their lives.

4.2. The Slaughtered Ones Rejected on Earth

καὶ ἐν αὐτῇ αἷμα προφητῶν καὶ ἁγίων εὑρέθη καὶ πάντων τῶν ἐσφαγμένων ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς. (Rev 18:24)

And in her was found the blood of prophets and of saints, and of all who have been slain on earth. (Rev 18:24)

John’s descriptio of the fall of Babylon underscores God’s just wrath. In Revelation 18:21–23, John employs a series of emphatic negations to note that Babylon’s attractive characteristics would cease at the moment of God’s judgment.²⁹The aorist passive subjunctive is proceeded by οὐ μή to note that Babylon will never be found again (Rev 18:21), the sounds of musicians will never be heard again (18:22a), craftsmen will never be found again (18:22b), the sound of a mill will never be heard again (18:22c), lamp light will never be seen again (18:23a), and the voice of bride and bridegroom will never be found again (18:23b). Everything earthly in her would be condemned. Why? Babylon is portrayed not only as the city of neon and glitz but also of blood and gore—of God’s people. “In her was found the blood of prophets and saints, and [καὶ] of all those slaughtered [πάντων τῶν ἐσφαγμένων] on the earth” (18:24).

Just as in Revelation 6:9, here in Revelation 18:24 the interpretation of the conjunction καί plays a formative role in the exegesis of the verse. Does it coordinate three separate groups of humanity or three labels/functional roles for one group of humanity? The flexibility of descriptors like saints, prophets, and slaves, with not only martyrdom but also general suffering in Revelation (11:18; 12:11; 16:6; 17:6; 19:2), portrays a broad spectrum of persecution that the single people of God have endured across the ages (à la Heb 11). Thus, Revelation 18:24 refers to one group, and God’s people, the saints, are faithful in their prophetic calling; they fulfill the role of suffering for their testimony, sometimes unto death.³⁰“Throughout Revelation, God’s people are not simply called to avoid evil and endure suffering, they are pictured as faithful witnesses and called to faithfully bear testimony to Jesus Christ, conquering by being faithful even to the point of death” (Andreas J. Köstenberger and Gregory Goswell, Biblical Theology: A Canonical, Thematic, and Ethical Approach [Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2023], 681).

4.3. The Beheaded Raised to Reign

Καὶ εἶδον θρόνους καὶ ἐκάθισαν ἐπ’ αὐτοὺς καὶ κρίμα ἐδόθη αὐτοῖς, καὶ τὰς ψυχὰς τῶν πεπελεκισμένων διὰ τὴν μαρτυρίαν Ἰησοῦ καὶ διὰ τὸν λόγον τοῦ θεοῦ. (Rev 20:4)

Then I saw thrones, and seated on them were those to whom the authority to judge was committed. Also I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for the testimony of Jesus and for the word of God. (Rev 20:4)

In John’s vision of the fifth seal (Rev 6:9–11), I noted that the slaughtered ones suffered because of God’s word and their testimony. In Revelation 20:4, John writes that the testimony of believers and God’s word are why believers are beheaded. On the spectrum of suffering, slaughter (σφάζω) and beheading (πελεκίζω) rank on the high extreme.³¹Aune notes that in the ancient world, beheadings were a public affair signaled by a trumpet so that the crowd could observe the punishment for the crime (Aune, Revelation, 1086–87). And in Revelation 6:9 and 20:4, those faithful in the role of suffering even unto death are rewarded, in the former with white robes and in the latter with thrones upon which they will rule and reign with Christ.

5. The One Who Thirsts for God

Thirst for God is an acquired taste. Perhaps that is why John uses participles of διψάω and θέλω to emphasize this characteristic of the believer in the last two chapters of the Bible.³²διψάω (23.39: Physiological Processes and States in L&N 1:253) in Revelation 21:6; 22:17; θέλω (25.1: Attitudes and Emotions in L&N 1:287) in Revelation 22:17. We acquire a taste for God’s satisfying presence as we encounter him. Do you see the logic? God satisfies our thirst so that we thirst for him. It is a cycle of satisfaction that, in eternity, will find no interruption.

5.1. God’s Desire to Satisfy

καὶ εἶπέν μοι· γέγοναν. ἐγώ [εἰμι] τὸ ἄλφα καὶ τὸ ὦ, ἡ ἀρχὴ καὶ τὸ τέλος. ἐγὼ τῷ διψῶντι δώσω ἐκ τῆς πηγῆς τοῦ ὕδατος τῆς ζωῆς δωρεάν. (Rev 21:6)

And he said to me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment. (Rev 21:6)

Revelation does not become less theological as John writes. The initial scenes of the book’s drama in Revelation 1–5 portray God’s centrality in history and the cosmos. In the final two chapters, John describes God’s eternal dwelling among his people in the new creation. The vision John enjoys in Revelation 21:5–8 recalls Revelation 4. The one seated on the throne in Revelation 4 still is in Revelation 21. Though the universe has changed, God has not.

Central to the message John receives in Revelation 21:3–4 is the statement that God will now dwell with his people. Death and tears will no longer have a place in the human experience. All this is personal for God. In Revelation 21:5–6, John writes that he hears the voice of God speaking from his throne and announcing, “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty [τῷ διψῶντι] I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment” (21:6b).³³“Scripture often employs the figure of thirst to depict the desire of the soul for God. ‘As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God,’ sang the Psalmist (Ps 42:1; cf. 36:9; 63:1; Isa 55:1). God is a spring of living water (Jer 2:13; cf. Ps 36:9) that assuages thirst and wells up into eternal life (John 4:14)” (Mounce, Revelation, 385).

The concept of thirst in Revelation 21:6 is a physical metaphor that expresses a desperate spiritual need. In light of the throne room imagery of Revelation 21:1–5, John’s readers would likely recall scenes from the throne room visions recorded in Revelation 4–5 and the content of the fifth seal in Revelation 6:9–11. At the breaking of the fifth seal, the martyred saints cry out for justice. Their cries speak in heaven what their contemporaries in John’s audience on earth cry in their hearts as they long for God to vindicate them. Thirst in Revelation 21:6 portrays God’s people longing for him to vindicate himself and his people. The one who thirsts in Revelation 21:6 enjoys fellowship with the martyred saints described in Revelation 6:9–11—those who received a white robe as a temporary token of what would come. In Revelation 21:6, the thirsts of God’s people longing to be vindicated are finally satiated because God will now dwell with his people in the new creation. Beale writes, “This fellowship is reserved for those who have maintained their faith in the Lamb’s atoning death and their testimony to his redemptive work.”³⁴Beale, Revelation, 1056.

5.2. Satisfaction for All

Καὶ τὸ πνεῦμα καὶ ἡ νύμφη λέγουσιν· ἔρχου. καὶ ὁ ἀκούων εἰπάτω· ἔρχου. καὶ ὁ διψῶν ἐρχέσθω, ὁ θέλων λαβέτω ὕδωρ ζωῆς δωρεάν. (Rev 22:17)

The Spirit and the Bride say, “Come.” And let the one who hears say, “Come.” And let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who desires take the water of life without price. (Rev 22:17)

In the drama of Revelation 22, John receives first a vision of the river flowing from the throne of God (22:1–5), then a message from an angel instructing John to seal the prophecy (22:6–11), and finally a message from Jesus himself (22:12–16). Jesus promises his presence and eternal satisfaction to his followers. Then, in Revelation 22:17, John records responses to this narrative progression: the Spirit, the Bride, and those who hear invite those thirsty and desiring to come and partake freely of the water of life.

My concern is with the breadth of the offer to find satisfaction in God. John portrays his readers as the special recipients of this final revelatory sequence in Revelation 22:1–16. Anyone who hears—and therefore understands the satisfaction God provides his people in his word—is to exhort all others who would hear to come and be satisfied as well. In the last clause of Revelation 22:17, John collocates thirst (διψάω) and desire (θέλω). These two verbs have a high degree of semantic overlap when διψάω is used as a metaphor. John ensures that his readers catch his symbolic use of thirst by describing “the water of life” (ὕδωρ ζωῆς) as the object of θέλω. The one who thirsts is to come as one who desires to satisfy his thirst in a specific way: by drinking from the water of life. John’s vision in Revelation 22:1–5 begins with the river flowing with the water of life and transitions to the end of the chapter in Revelation 22:17 by bidding those thirsty and desiring drink to come to Jesus. The role of thirsting and desiring satisfaction in God is one John would have his readers embrace.

6. Conclusion

We must remember that for the biblical authors, grammatical choices were the way they got things done with words. I have argued that Revelation is a practical book. John uses the articular substantival participle to establish roles he would have his readers embrace to participate faithfully in the eschatological drama begun in Jesus.

John intends for the recipients of Revelation to read and hear the text he wrote repeatedly. John’s use of ἀναγινώσκω and ἀκούω in Revelation 1:3; 22:17, 18 are all in the present tense form. Those who embrace the role of reading and hearing position themselves to embrace other roles in Jesus’s drama.

In Revelation, John esteems the role of the conqueror. John’s formulaic use of νικάω as an articular substantival participle at the conclusion of each of his letters to the churches (2:7, 11, 17, 26; 3:5, 12, 21) and in Revelation 15:2 and 21:7, portray the conqueror as an actor who, despite opposition, overcomes the temptation to compromise fidelity to God and is rewarded. The conqueror’s victory and reward derive from standing with the Lamb who was slain and who redeems men from every nation for God. The hortatory effect of this role is that believers stand firm, resist the devil, and cling to the Lamb, who will return and reward the faithful.

Reading Revelation compels believers to consider whether we are oriented toward God. Is our compass fixed on the due north of the New Jerusalem and life with God and the Lamb? We who have (ἔχω) ears (2:7, 11, 17, 2:29; 3:6, 13, 22) must respond faithfully to the message we have received. We who have (ἔχω) spiritual minds (13:18; 17:9) must recognize Satan’s lies and help God’s people guard God’s truth. John has no hesitancy to divide humanity into two groups: those who have (ἔχω) their heart’s share in the economic structures of the present world system (18:19) or the first resurrection (20:6).

The degree of the believer’s commitment to God is displayed in their willingness to suffer, even unto death. John portrays the role of the martyr as the one who is slain (σφάζω, Rev 6:9; 18:24) or beheaded (πελεκίζω, 20:4). What gives believers the courage to embrace extreme, life-ending suffering? Those who embrace the role of the martyr have already embraced the role of finding satisfaction in God, recognizing that what he offers is of more excellent value than any pleasure we could enjoy by human experience apart from him. The one who drinks of God (διψάω, 21:6; 22:17) and desires to receive from him (θέλω, 22:17) will find all they need to finish the fight.

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