Biblion Bible Commentary
Read the introduction to Revelation · About this commentary
They Reigned with Christ
Revelation 20:4-6
4 I saw thrones, and they sat on them, and judgment was given to them. I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for the testimony of Jesus and for the word of God, and such as didn’t worship the beast nor his image, and didn’t receive the mark on their forehead and on their hand. They lived and reigned with Christ for a thousand years. · WEB
The saints spend the millennium enthroned in judgment, the two resurrections divide mankind, and the fifth beatitude cancels the second death.
I saw thrones, and they sat on them, and judgment was given to them.
The millennium's occupation is stated first: thrones, and judgment given — Daniel's scene, where judgment was given to the saints of the Most High Daniel 7:22, and Paul's astonishing aside made program: don't you know that the saints will judge the world?... we will judge angels 1 Corinthians 6:2–3. The thousand years are a court in session: the redeemed reviewing the records of the ages, every question about God's verdicts — why this one and not that one, whether the judge of all the earth did right — answered with the books open, before the final sentence falls Revelation 20:12–15. The overcomers seated with Christ on his throne is the last letter's promise kept to the syllable Revelation 3:21.
I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for the testimony of Jesus and for the word of God, and such as didn't worship the beast nor his image... They lived and reigned with Christ for a thousand years Revelation 20:4.
The enthroned company is described by its costliest members — the martyrs of the whole era, under-the-altar's souls Revelation 6:9 standing at last — and by the final crisis's refusers: no worship of the beast, no mark on forehead or hand Revelation 13:15–17. They lived — the verb of resurrection: the dead in Christ raised at his coming 1 Thessalonians 4:16, reigning with him through the years the earth lies waste below Revelation 20:1–3.
The rest of the dead didn't live until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection Revelation 20:5.
Two resurrections, a millennium apart — the Lord's own division: the resurrection of life and the resurrection of judgment John 5:28–29. The rest of the dead — the world slain at the coming Revelation 19:21 and all the unreconciled dead of the ages — sleep through the thousand years; their rising at its end supplies the final scene both its defendants and Gog's army Revelation 20:8 Revelation 20:12.
Blessed and holy is he who has part in the first resurrection. Over these, the second death has no power, but they will be priests of God and of Christ, and will reign with him one thousand years Revelation 20:6.
The fifth beatitude, and its logic is the book's arithmetic of deaths and risings: whoever rises in the first resurrection is immune to the second death Revelation 2:11 Revelation 20:14 — one resurrection cancels the only death that matters. And the offices are Sinai's commission at last unabridged Exodus 19:6 Revelation 1:6 Revelation 5:10: priests and kings, with him, for the years — and then, the book will add, forever Revelation 22:5.
held with reason What this mark means