Cambridge Greek Testament Commentary

Revelation 5:11

καὶ εἶδον. Here we might almost translate “in my vision,” though it is no doubt implied that he saw the Angels whose voice he heard.

κύκλῳ. We cannot tell if they formed a complete circle round the Throne, or a semicircle between it and the Seer, or a semicircle on the side away from him. But though we cannot answer these questions, it is worth while to ask them: for it is plain that St John did see a definite picture.

μυριάδες μυριάδων. Lit. “myriads of myriads,” the Greek (and Hebrew) language having a single word for the number 10,000: so that the effect is as if we should say “millions of millions and thousands of thousands” (in Genesis 24:60 words equivalent to these are translated “thousands of millions”). In Daniel 7:10 the order is the reverse, “thousand thousands … and ten thousand times ten thousand,” with the obvious motive of a climax: here the effect is, “there were hundreds of millions massed together, and if you counted those in the mass, the numbers you would leave over would be millions still.” The passage in Daniel is also imitated in Enoch xiv. 24, xl. 1.

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Cambridge Greek Testament Commentary

Revelation 5:11

Old Testament

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