Listen to Chapter 22
Chapter 22
The River and the Tree of Life
The KJV/TR reads "a pure river"; the critical text reads ποταμὸν ὕδατος ζωῆς λαμπρὸν ὡς κρύσταλλον — "a river of water of life, bright as crystal" — without "pure."
Greek ἀποδιδοῦν, from ἀποδίδωμι — to give back, repay what is due. The treeˣ of life renders its fruit as something due, month by month: the same verb by which Babylon is repaidᵈ according to her works (18:6) and every man is repaidᵈ as his work is (22:12).
Ezekiel 47:12 — The trees described in Ezekiel 47 are not identical in setting or scope to the tree of life in Revelation 22:2. However, we clearly see a prophetic escalation from Ezekiel's temple vision to John's final vision. In Ezekiel 47, life flows from a temple structure within a restored land, and trees bear continual fruit with leaves for healing. In Revelation 22, that imagery reaches its fullest expression: the river flows not from a temple building, but from the throne of God and of the Lamb, and the tree of life stands in the midst of the city where the curse is no more. What Ezekiel presents in shadowed, restoration language, Revelation unveils in consummated clarity.
Genesis 3:14-19 — In Genesis 3:14-19, the curse enters through Adam's fall — the serpent is cursed, the ground is cursed, and death begins its reign. In Revelation 22:3, that same curse is explicitly removed, showing that the final state reverses what began in Eden, restoring and surpassing the original creation.
All Saints See God's Face and Have His Seal
Important Note: Throughout Revelation, faces are associated with fear and concealment. In Revelation 6:16, men call on the mountains to hide them "from the face of him who sits on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb." Likewise, in Revelation 12:14, the woman is given wings to flee into the wilderness, hidden from the face of the serpent. Earlier in the book, faces drive men into hiding; but in Revelation 22:4 the pattern is gloriously reversed: "And they shall see his face." What once was a face of flight or concealment is now the eternal privilege of the bought — no more hiding, only unhindered sight of God.
The Brethren Prophet Messenger: Holder of a Vial Judgement
Important Note: After John sees the new Jerusalem, he starts to worship the angel. John seems to have a pattern of this after seeing the bride and wife of the Lamb. This pattern seems to serve as bookends to the Bride's vision and understanding. What is also interesting is that, under this study's understanding of Revelation, the first time John falls to worship would mark the start of the tribulation, and the second time would mark the very end of all old things and the beginning of the new. Thus, it could be seen to encapsulate the entire book's story. From the bride's first arrival to her final appearance as New Jerusalem.
The KJV/TR reads "the Lord God of the holy prophets"; the critical text reads ὁ κύριος ὁ θεὸς τῶν πνευμάτων τῶν προφητῶν — "the Lord, the God of the spirits of the prophets" — the God who governs and inspires the prophetic spirits. Compare 1 Corinthians 14:32, "the spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets," and Revelation 19:10, "the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy."
Re 1:1, Re 1:3, Re 1:19, Re 4:1, Re 22:6, Re 22:10 — The primary direction of the word of Revelation is toward the future. However, it is set in the context of the current time. Notably, the past is not the concern of the book of Revelation, so we will not see anything here from John's time into the past.
The KJV/TR includes γάρ — "for I am thy fellowservant"; the critical text reads σύνδουλός σού εἰμι — "I am thy fellowservant" — without it.
Re 1:1, Re 22:9
The Final Message
Linear Scene 1.7: The words of this prophecy are open. The time is near. Closing remarks.
In Daniel 12 the words are sealed, here they are not.
Re 1:3, Re 22:10 — Bookending — "the time is near."
Re 1:1, Re 1:3, Re 1:19, Re 4:1, Re 22:6, Re 22:10 — The primary direction of the word of Revelation is toward the future. However, it is set in the context of the current time. Notably, the past is not the concern of the book of Revelation, so we will not see anything here from John's time into the past.
The verb in Revelation 22:11 is ἀδικέω, the same lemma used in Revelation 2:11, where the overcomer “shall in no way be hurt by the second death.” The word can carry the sense of doing wrong, acting unjustly, wronging, harming, or injuring, depending on context. In Revelation 2:11, the passive verb is tied to “the second death,” so “hurt” is a natural English rendering. In Revelation 22:11, however, the verb describes ongoing moral conduct: “the one doing wrong, let him do wrong still.” This is why many English translations render it as “do wrong” or “be unjust” rather than “harm.” The same lemma is present, but the sense is governed by the immediate contrast between the wrongdoer, the filthy, the righteous, and the holy.
The KJV/TR opens with καί — "And, behold"; the critical text reads Ἰδοὺ ἔρχομαι ταχύ — "Behold, I come quickly" — without the conjunction.
Re 11:18, Re 22:12 — μισθός — Reward — these are the only two places this word is used: the 7th trumpet and when Jesus comes quickly. This word is connected to the coming of Jesus, not the white throne judgment. Further, we see that this is not connected to that judgment because this moment is placed when "the temple of God which is in heaven was opened, and there was seen in his temple the ark of his testament," which is connected to the time before the vials are poured out.
Re 9:20, Re 14:13, Re 18:6, Re 20:12-13, Re 22:12 — The "works" mentions in 9:20, 14:13, 18:6, 20:12-13, and 22:12 seem related to those of the seven churches in 2:2, 2:9, 2:13, 2:19, 3:1, 3:8, and 3:15.
The Father Speaks
Codex Sinaiticus reads both articles—“ὁ πρῶτος καὶ ὁ ἔσχατος”—whereas Codex Alexandrinus omits both, reading “πρῶτος καὶ ἔσχατος.” Every printed edition retains them. They are therefore kept here but bracketed because Alexandrinus, the witness given particular weight in this edition, lacks them. The following pair, “ἡ ἀρχὴ καὶ τὸ τέλος,” is secure in both codices. The omission cannot be attributed to any general scarcity of articles in Alexandrinus, whose article density in Revelation is slightly higher than that of Sinaiticus (~18.98 versus ~18.68 per 100 words). Together with Alexandrinus’s distinctive πρωτότοκος, “firstborn,” in place of πρῶτος, “first,” in the Christological title at 1:17 and 2:8, this may reflect an intentional differentiation between that title and the anarthrous “πρῶτος καὶ ἔσχατος” in the threefold declaration here; the evidence, however, cannot establish the scribe’s motive.
Re 1:17, Re 2:8, Re 22:13 — At Revelation 1:17 and 2:8, NA28 prints “the First and the Last” (ὁ πρῶτος καὶ ὁ ἔσχατος), a reading directly preserved in Codices Sinaiticus and Ephraemi. Codex Alexandrinus instead reads “the Firstborn and the Last” (ὁ πρωτότοκος καὶ ὁ ἔσχατος); hence [Firstborn/First]. P98 is missing this portion, so we cannot decide between the readings. At 22:13, NA28 prints ὁ πρῶτος καὶ ὁ ἔσχατος, “the First and the Last,” as preserved in Sinaiticus, whereas Alexandrinus omits both articles and reads πρῶτος καὶ ἔσχατος, “First and Last”; hence the draft’s [the] first and [the] last.
Re 21:6, Re 22:13 — The title "the beginning and the end" in Revelation 3:14 refers to Jesus as the "beginning" of creation, but is not titled as "the beginning and the end".
"may have 'right'" for "right" here is the Greek word ουσια, which is in English commonly translated as "power" or "authority". However, in English it would seem odd to say "may have 'authority' to the tree of life", so we use "right" instead.
Re 7:14, Re 22:14
Re 3:19, Re 22:15 — The only two uses of φιλέω — "hold dear" — in Revelation: the Lord holds dear those he rebukes and chastens (3:19), and outside the city is whosoever holds dear and makes a lie (22:15). A different Greek word from ἀγαπάω, "love."
Jesus Speaks
Codex Alexandrinus reads ἐν ταῖς ἐκκλησίαις, “in the churches”; Sinaiticus and every printed edition read ἐπὶ ταῖς ἐκκλησίαις. The brackets carry both, Alexandrinus first.
The two prepositions place the testimony differently. ἐν puts it inside the assemblies — the messenger testifies in the churches, among them. ἐπί with the dative is looser and points outward: for, to, concerning. The King James translators worked from the Received Text, which reads ἐπί here exactly as the printed editions do; they rendered that ἐπί “in the churches” (KJV) rather than following Alexandrinus’s ἐν, which they never saw. The same construction stands at 10:11, where prophesying ἐπί peoples and nations and tongues and kings is rendered “concerning.”
Re 1:1, Re 22:16 — Bookend — "sent my messenger"
Re 2:28, Re 22:16
The Spirit and Bride Speak
The KJV/TR joins with καί — "And whosoever will"; the critical text reads ὁ θέλων λαβέτω — "let him who wills take" — without it.
If the bride is speaking, it may imply that the bride is in heaven speaking to the tribulation saints.
The Integrity of the Prophetic Word
Important Note: While easy to miss, when Revelation 22:18–19 warns, "If any man shall add unto them, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this scroll," the wording itself raises a serious interpretive question. Why speak of plagues being "added" to someone unless those plagues are not automatically their default portion? This is an issue for anyone who interprets the "coming out of the tribulation, the great" (7:14) occurring after any of the plagues (the first mention of a plague is the 200,000,000 army). The warning assumes a reader who is not, by nature of reading the prophecy faithfully, already destined to receive the judgments described within it. The plagues are presented as judicially imposed upon the one who corrupts the book, not indiscriminately poured upon every hearer. That implication presses us to ask: by what means are the faithful kept from "the plagues that are written in this book"?
Revelation presents two categories of divine protection that must be considered. First, there is the sealing of the servants of God (Revelation 7:3; 9:4), where those marked by the Father are explicitly distinguished from those upon whom the first woe falls. Second, there is the possibility of prior removal from the hour of trial (Revelation 3:10), which likely refers to the deliverance at the tribulation's opening through a "coming out of the tribulation, the great" event — an exit at the eve of the seven years, before the hour of plagues. Whether one sees protection as preservation within the judgments, removal before them, or a combination, depending on God's sovereign purposes, the text clearly implies a distinction: the faithful are not assumed to be recipients of plagues (not just wrath). Participation in the plagues is tied here to rebellion against the prophetic word; it is not a default mode. The default posture of the obedient reader appears to be protection — either by divine sealing, by gathering, or by both — in accordance with God's redemptive design.
This text, then, supports the framework for this study that has been exposited: there are distinct moments of coming out in Revelation — an early "coming out" at the tribulation's opening and a pre-vial reaping during it. Revelation consistently shows divine distinction — mercy extended, protection granted, and judgment poured out in stages. Within that pattern, these two gatherings cohere with the book's internal logic of separation and preservation before escalating wrath. Revelation is not merely a book of judgment, but of warning, profound mercy, and perfect justice.
When he speaks about "plagues" or "great suffering," he is not, by definition, scoping them to anything in particular. He is expecting us to know what plagues or distresses have been described. At times, Revelation is general in its application of terms, such as "holy city" of old and new Jerusalem (11:2, 21:2), and at other times very specific, as in "1260 days," which is always the first half of the 7 years (11:3, 12:6).
πληγῶν — plague, great suffering, or distress — The first time we see this word, it is with the army of 200,000,000 in 9:18. Thus, the text of Revelation does not explicitly assert that the first five trumpets or the seals are a part of the plagues (πληγῶν). Naming the seals and all the trumpets as plagues would be an interpretive decision based on pattern-driven inference, which the text does not resist, as we see inference in many places. As an example, during the 5th trumpet, only "the men who have not the seal of God on their foreheads" (9:4) are hurt by the locust, inferring the presence of the 144,000 at the time of the 5th trumpet without explicitly testifying to their presence at that time.
We also see this same type of inference in the 6th seal, when the nations say "the great day of [their/his] wrath has come" (6:16-17), yet the text never says that any seals or trumpets are the wrath of God; it is only that the nations are first to attribute that classification to the events they experience at the moment of the 6th seal. Further, in the 6th seal, the nations only say that this is "the great day" of wrath, not that the 6th seal is the only wrath to that point in time. Revelation only describes "God's wrath" explicitly in the vial plagues, in that those vials "finish" or "complete" the wrath of God, but it does not say it starts them. Thus, for the phrase "wrath of God," the text seems to ask us to infer that the wrath of God has another starting point, which need not correlate with the first vial or the time the nations notice "wrath". It would be fair to see all seals, trumpets, and vials as the wrath of God based on that inference. In the same way, as a form of interpretive inference, we could attribute "plague" to all the seals, trumpets, and vials, which indeed bring distress upon the whole world (stated explicitly or not).
The KJV/TR reads Συμμαρτυροῦμαι γάρ — "For I testify"; the critical text reads Μαρτυρῶ ἐγὼ — "I testify" — without the conjunction.
Other manuscripts, including the MT and CT, read this as the "tree of life" and not the "book of life". KJV's "book of life" in Revelation 22:19 is essentially unique to the TR and Latin Vulgate tradition. Almost no Greek manuscripts read "book of life" here. The TR inherited a Latin-based reconstruction, not a Greek majority reading.
The KJV/TR adds καί, making "the things written in this book" a third item taken away; the critical text reads τῶν γεγραμμένων without the conjunction — an apposition describing the tree and the city: the things written in this book.
I Come Quickly
The KJV/TR reads "Amen. Even so (ναί), come"; the critical text reads Ἀμήν, ἔρχου κύριε Ἰησοῦ — "Amen, come, Lord Jesus."
John's Closing Remark
The KJV/TR reads "our Lord Jesus Christ … with you all. Amen."; the critical text reads Ἡ χάρις τοῦ κυρίου Ἰησοῦ μετὰ πάντων — "The grace of the Lord Jesus be with all." The TR’s ἡμῶν, “our,” is carried in this note rather than by a redaction mark: English drops the article before the possessive, so marking it would set an article and a possessive side by side in a way neither text reads.
Important Note: After Revelation 3:21, we do not see the throne specifically defined as shared with the Lamb until here at the end. The shared throne is most emphasized at this point.