Revelation 11:19 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
Revelation 11:19
And the temple of God was opened in heaven, and there was seen in his temple the ark of his testament: and there were lightnings, and voices, and thunderings, and an earthquake, and great hail.
figuratively · noun — genitive singular masculine, a title
opened
ἠνοίγηēnoigē
G455
to open up (literally or figuratively · verb — second aorist passive indicative, 3rd person singular
in
ἐνen
G1722
"in · preposition
heaven
οὐρανῷ,ouranō
G3772
the sky · noun — dative singular masculine
and
καὶkai
G2532
and · conjunction
seen
ὤφθηōphthē
G3700
to gaze (i.e. with wide-open eyes · verb — aorist passive indicative, 3rd person singular
in
ἐνen
G1722
"in · preposition
his
αὐτοῦautou
G846
the reflexive pronoun self · personal pronoun — genitive singular masculine
temple
ναῷnaō
G3485
a fane · noun — dative singular masculine
ark
κιβωτὸςkibōtos
G2787
a box · noun — nominative singular feminine
his
αὐτοῦ,autou
G846
the reflexive pronoun self · personal pronoun — genitive singular masculine
testament
διαθήκηςdiathēkēs
G1242
properly · noun — genitive singular feminine
and
καὶkai
G2532
and · conjunction
were
ἐγένοντοegenonto
G1096
to cause to be ("gen"-erate) · verb — second aorist middle deponent indicative, 3rd person plural
lightnings
ἀστραπαὶastrapai
G796
lightning · noun — nominative plural feminine
and
καὶkai
G2532
and · conjunction
voices
φωναὶphōnai
G5456
a tone (articulate · noun — nominative plural feminine
and
καὶkai
G2532
and · conjunction
thunderings
βρονταὶbrontai
G1027
thunder · noun — nominative plural feminine
and
καὶkai
G2532
and · conjunction
earthquake
σεισμὸςseismos
G4578
a commotion · noun — nominative singular masculine
and
καὶkai
G2532
and · conjunction
great
μεγάλη.¶megalē
G3173
big (literally or figuratively · adjective — nominative singular feminine
hail
χάλαζαchalaza
G5464
hail · noun — nominative singular feminine
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Revelation 16:21 And there fell upon men a great hail out of heaven, every stone about the weight of a talent: and men blasphemed God because of the plague o…
Ezekiel 38:22 And I will plead against him with pestilence and with blood; and I will rain upon him, and upon his bands, and upon the many people that are…
Revelation 15:5-8 And after that I looked, and, behold, the temple of the tabernacle of the testimony in heaven was opened:
Revelation 4:5 And out of the throne proceeded lightnings and thunderings and voices: and there were seven lamps of fire burning before the throne, which a…
Isaiah 30:30 And the LORD shall cause his glorious voice to be heard, and shall shew the lighting down of his arm, with the indignation of his anger, and…
Revelation 8:5 And the angel took the censer, and filled it with fire of the altar, and cast it into the earth: and there were voices, and thunderings, and…
Revelation 11:15 And the seventh angel sounded; and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord…
Revelation 14:15-17 And another angel came out of the temple, crying with a loud voice to him that sat on the cloud, Thrust in thy sickle, and reap: for the tim…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Revelation 11:14–end
We have here the sounding of the seventh and last trumpet, which is ushered in by the usual warning and demand of attention: The second woe is past, and, behold, the third woe cometh quickly. Then the seventh angel sounded. This had been suspended for some time, till the apostle had been made acquainted with some intervening occurrences of very great moment, and worthy of his notice and observation. But what he before expected he now heard - the seventh angel sounding. Here observe the effects and consequences of this trumpet, thus sounded.
I. Here were loud and joyful acclamations of the saints and angels in heaven. Observe, 1. The manner of their adorations: they rose from their seats, and…
A similar solemn conclusion to that of the seventh seal, Rev 8:5, and to that of the seventh vial, Rev 16:18. Thus, it appears, the seven seals, the seven trumpets, and the seven vials, are not consecutive, but parallel, and ending in the same consummation. They present the unfolding of God's plans for bringing about the grand end under three different aspects, mutually complementing each other.
the temple--the sanctuary or Holy place (Greek, "naos"), not the whole temple (Greek, "hieron").
opened in heaven--A and C read the article, "the temple of God "which is" in heaven, was opened."
the ark of his testament--or ". . . His covenant." As in the first verse the earthly sanctuary was m…
The temple of God was opened in heaven - The true worship of God was established and performed in the Christian Church; this is the true temple, that at Jerusalem being destroyed.
And there were lightnings, and voices, and thunderings, and an earthquake, and great hail - These great commotions were intended to introduce the following vision; for the 12th chapter is properly a continuation of the 11th, and should be read in strict connection with it.
I Now come to a part of this book that is deemed of the greatest importance by the Protestant Church, but is peculiarly difficult and obscure. I have often acknowledged my own incapacity to illustrate these prophecies. I might have availed myself…
The Church Fathers
By the opening of heaven and the vision of the covenant is shown the revelation of those blessings that have been prepared for the saints. According to the apostle, these blessings are hidden in Christ in whom the fullness of deity dwells bodily. And these things will be revealed when the punishments of Gehenna rain down upon the lawless and impious like terrifying voices and lightnings and thunder and hail. The earthquake signifies the transposition of present things.
And there were lightnings, voices, etc. All these are the virtues of the Church's illumination, proclamation, and wars. He mentioned these as having occurred in the description of the preaching of the seven angels from the advent of the Lord, when He stood upon the altar, but generally from the beginning to the end. Then he described in parts how they were done: thus also now, saying that the temple of God in heaven was opened, and the battles followed, stating:
And the temple of God was opened in heaven, etc. The temple of the Lord, once situated on earth, covered the ark of the covenant under a mystical veil; but now in the Church, which is the temple of the living God, whose citizenship is in heaven (Philippians III), with the veil of the old temple and the middle wall of partition torn apart by the Lord's blood, the ark of His Incarnation is now revealed to the whole world. For just as heavenly manna in pure gold, so is divinity in the holy body.
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Hail — Frozen rain-drops; one of the plagues of Egypt (Ex. 9:23). It is mentioned by Haggai as a divine judgment (Hag. 2:17). A hail-storm destroyed the army of the Amorites when they fought against Joshua…
Ark Of The Covenant · A type of Christ — A type of Christ
Earthquakes · Prophecies of — Prophecies of
Hail · FIGURATIVE — FIGURATIVE
Lightning · General scriptures concerning — General scriptures concerning
Tabernacle · Illustrative: (The vail,) of the obscurity of the Mosaic age — Illustrative: (The vail,) of the obscurity of the Mosaic age
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
And the temple of God was opened in heaven,.... The temple at Jerusalem, to which the allusion is, was the place of public worship; this, in times of idolatry, was shut up, and fell to decay; and when there was a reformation its doors were opened, and that repaired; and to this the reference seems to be; and the sense is, that at this time the pure worship of God will be restored, and there will be a free and uninterrupted exercise of it; the temple will be open to all; here everyone may come, and sit, and worship without fear; churches will now be formed according to the original plan, and primitive order and institution of them; and the laws of Christ concerning the admission, regulation,…
This verse provides a dramatic conclusion to the first half of Revelation and a link to the second half. • In this scene, the Temple and the Ark are symbols of God’s presence; the earthly Ark was the copy of the design of the Ark in heaven (see Exod 25:40; Heb 8:5).
