Revelation 1:9 in the New World Translation
The New World Translation reads: "I John, your brother and a sharer with you in the tribulation and kingdom and endurance in company with Jesus, came to be in the isle that is called Patmos for speaking about God and bearing witness[martyrian] to Jesus."
Criticism: "Rev 1:9 should be "for the testimony of Jesus" Jesus being in the genitive case (of) not the dative case (to). Thus the New International Version renders the verse "...for the word of God, and for the testimony of Jesus Christ."
It is true that "Jesus" in this place
is in the genitive case. But there are a number of different
genitives. The 'Handbook to the Grammar of the Greek Testament,'
by the Samuel G. Green lists 7 modifications under the heads,
"Origin, Separation, Possession, Partition, Object, Relation
and The Genitive Absolute." He says "The Genitive Case
primarily signifies motion from, answering our question, Whence?
From this general meaning arise many modifications, including the
several notions expressed in English by the prepositions of or
from."
Under "Objective" he writes: "The Genitive case is
often objectively employed, that is, it expresses the object of
some feeling or action, and may be rendered by various[English]prepositions."
He then cites examples of this type of genitive. One example is
Luke 6:12 where the Greek reads: "...en te proseuche tou
theou." and literally translated into English is
"...in the prayer of-the God." See Kingdom
Interlinear Translation. We see here that "God" is
in the genitive case. Here it is God who is the object
of the prayer of Jesus. Hence, the New International Version
reads here: "...and spent the night praying to God."
Other examples of the objective genitive Green cites are John 2:17;
17:2; Acts 4:9 and 2 Cor.10:5.
In all of these places translators often recognise that the
genitive is objective and will use various English
prepositions to express it.
Two other translations that express clearly the
same sense as the New World Translation has at Revelation
1:9 are the New American Bible(1989) "...I proclaimed
God's word and gave testimony to Jesus." Also, the
Contemporary English Version(1995) reads here: "...I had
preached God's message and had told about Jesus."
Yes, it was because of what John had been doing and
saying, (" preached God's word and borne my testimony to
Jesus,"-Revised English Bible , 1990)that he "came
to be," as punshment, on the isle of Patmos.(Rev.W. H.
Simcox wrote "dia ton...Iesou. Cf vi.9 and xx.4. Apart from
these references[in verse 9]the words might mean (a) that [John]
had gone to the island to preach the Gospel, (b) that(by special
revelation or otherwise) he had withdrawn there to await this
vision. As it is, the traditional view that he was banished
there for being a Christian is clearly right.-Cambridge
Greek New Testament, The Revelation of St John, 1906 reprint)
So we can see that the New World Translation at Revelation
1:9 is in accord with the underlying Greek and better expresses
that the "witness of Jesus" was John's witness
to or about Jesus rather than the witness of
or by Jesus himself.
There is nothing wrong with the New International Version's
rendering at this place but one could understand the English
preposition "of" a number of different ways so that one
could 'interpret' the NIV's rendering as translated by Weymouth
"..and the truth told us by Jesus,"(The New
Testament in Modern Speech, 2nd edition, 1903. Cp. A Greek-English
Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature
by W. F. Arndt and F Wilbur Gingrich; "Jesus also tesifies
concerning himself in Rev 1: 2, 9...".(italics
ours) or, and in agreement with the NWT again, Goodspeed's
"..and testifying to Jesus."(The Bible-An
American Translation, 1935)
Interestingly, the New Iinternational Version at Revelation 20:4 reads: "....And I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded because of their testimony for Jesus..." Gk: "dia ten martyrian Iesou." The Greek here is the same as at Rev.1:9. "dia ....ten martyrian Iesou." In both cases "Iesou" is in the genitive case. So the NIV could have rendered Rev.1:9 as "I John,...was on the island of Patmos because of the word of God and my testimony for Jesus," understanding this also in the objective genitive. Please compare this with the Revised English Bible quoted above at this place. This rendering would convey the same sense as does the NWT's.
Lastly, we may quote from "A Grammatical Analysis of the Greek New Testament" regarding "martyrian Iesous," literally "witness of-Jesus," here at Revelation 1:9: "....m[artyrian] Iesous(gen[itive] obj[ective]) testimony *to* Jesus." (Max Zerwick and Mary Grosvener, Unabridged, Revised Edition in One Volume, Rome, Biblical Institute Press, 1981,p.743.asterisks ours- See also this work for Revelation 20:4.)
Considering the whole of verse 9 the NWTTC has
obviously viewed "Iesou" in the objective
genitive, as has the other English translations cited herein.
There really is then no warrant for anyone to criticise
the New World Translation here.
(last updated 9/30/2000)