Chapter 20

1 Then I saw an angel descending from heaven, holding in his hand the key to the abyss and a huge chain.⁠ 2 He seized the dragon—the ancient serpent, who is the devil and Satan—and tied him up for a thousand years.⁠ 3 The angel then threw him into the abyss and locked and sealed it so that he could not deceive the nations until the one thousand years were finished. (After these things he must be released for a brief period of time.)⁠ 4 Then I saw thrones and seated on them were those who had been given authority to judge. I also saw the souls of those who had been beheaded because of the testimony about Jesus and because of the word of God. These had not worshiped the beast or his image and had refused to receive his mark on their forehead or hand. They came to life and reigned with Christ for a thousand years.⁠ 5 (The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were finished.) This is the first resurrection. 6 Blessed and holy is the one who takes part in the first resurrection. The second death has no power over them, but they will be priests of God and of Christ, and they will reign with him for a thousand years. 7 Now when the thousand years are finished, Satan will be released from his prison 8 and will go out to deceive the nations at the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to bring them together for the battle. They are as numerous as the grains of sand in the sea. 9 They went up on the broad plain of the earth and encircled the camp of the saints and the beloved city, but fire came down from heaven and devoured them completely.⁠ 10 And the devil who deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur, where the beast and the false prophet are too, and they will be tormented there day and night forever and ever. 11 Then I saw a large white throne and the one who was seated on it; the earth and the heaven fled from his presence, and no place was found for them.⁠ 12 And I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne. Then books were opened,⁠ and another book was opened—the book of life.⁠ So the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to their deeds.⁠ 13 The sea gave up the dead that were in it, and Death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them, and each one was judged according to his deeds.⁠ 14 Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death—the lake of fire.⁠ 15 If anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, that person was thrown into the lake of fire.

Texts in conversation

Compare Revelation 20:13 and Sanhedrin 92a

New Testament · Rabbinic

Summary

Revelation’s description of the dead rising from the sea, Death and Hades has similarities in Rabbinic tradition, such as tractate Sanhedrin, which describes how the dead are returned for final judgment.

Passages

Revelation 20:13

New Testament

11 Then I saw a large white throne and the one who was seated on it; the earth and the heaven fled from his presence, and no place was found for them. 12 And I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne. Then books were opened, and another book was opened—the book of life. So the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to their deeds. 13 The sea gave up the dead that were in it, and Death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them, and each one was judged according to his deeds. 14 Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death—the lake of fire. 15 If anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, that person was thrown into the lake of fire.

92–96 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in Revelation

Sanhedrin 92a

Rabbinic · Babylonian Talmud

§ The Gemara returns to the topic of the source for resurrection in the Torah. Rabbi Tavi says that Rabbi Yoshiya says: What is the meaning of that which is written: “There are three that are never satisfied…the grave, and the barren womb, and earth that does not receive sufficient water” (Proverbs 30:15–16)? And what does a grave have to do with a womb? Rather, they are juxtaposed to say to you: Just as a womb takes in and gives forth, so too a grave takes in and also gives forth, with the resurrection of the dead. And are these matters not inferred a fortiori: If with regard to a womb, into which one introduces the embryo in secret, one removes the baby from it accompanied by the loud sounds of the woman crying out during childbirth, then with regard to the grave, into which one introduces the corpse with sounds of wailing and mourning the dead, is it not right that one removes from it the resurrected dead accompanied by the loud sounds of the resurrected multitudes? From here there is a response to those who say: There is no resurrection of the dead derived from the Torah.

450–550 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in Sanhedrin

References

"... It will be useful to preface our consideration of the texts given in section II with a brief distinction between two basic ideas of resurrection in Jewish tradition, which we may call unitary and dualistic. The simplest and doubtless the earliest Jewish notion of resurrection was that the dead would return from the place of the dead to life on earth. It presupposed the existence of the dead as shades in Sheol and imagined these shades returning from Sheol to real life. Because ancient Israelite thought made no sharp distinctions between Sheol and the grave or between the dead person in Sheol and the body in the grave, such distinctions did not belong to the original notion of resurrection. The dead person was conceived as returning from Sheol and of course resuming a fully corporal existence, but this did not necessarily mean that the shade from Sheol was reunited with his or her corpse, resuscitated from the grave. Since death was not conceived as the separation of the person from her body, but as the death of the bodily person, so resurrection was not the reunion of person and body, but the resurrection of the bodily person ..."

Richard Bauckham, The Fate of the Dead: Studies on the Jewish and Christian Apocalypses, NovTSup 93 (Leiden: Brill, 1998), 269–289.

References are not endorsements of their contents. Read each reference in full to understand its author's intentions in using these texts.

Revelation22 chapters

Compare Revelation 20:13 and Sanhedrin 92a

Summary

Passages

Revelation 20:13

Sanhedrin 92a

References

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