SIL Translator’s Notes on Revelation 1:11

1:11a

saying:
This word introduces what the loud voice said. Translate it in a way that introduces what the voice said. For example:

and it said
-or-
It said
-or-
The voice said

Write on a scroll: The Greek word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as scroll refers to any kind of document. John probably wrote on a scroll. A scroll is a long piece of writing material. After writing on it, it is rolled into a cylinder shape. To reach somewhere in the middle of the scroll, the loose end is also rolled, as in the drawing below. A scroll of perhaps five meters (sixteen feet) in length would be needed to write the Revelation.

Whether John used a scroll or a book is not important here. Some languages do not have a word for scroll. If that is true in your language, you may want to use the more general word “book” in this verse.

1:11b

send it to the seven churches: The voice told John to send what he wrote to the seven churches.

to the seven churches: The word churches refers to groups of believers in different towns. See how you translated this phrase in 1:4.

1:11c

Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea: Each of these names is the name of a city. At that time there was probably only one gathering of believers in each of these cities.

© 2020 by SIL International®
Made available under the terms of a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License (CC BY-SA) creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0.
All Scripture quotations in this publication, unless otherwise indicated, are from The Holy Bible, Berean Standard Bible.
BSB is produced in cooperation with Bible Hub, Discovery Bible, OpenBible.com, and the Berean Bible Translation Committee.

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