The Gift of Prophecy

“The Testimony of Jesus”

Since the expressions “the testimony of Jesus” and “the spirit of prophecy” are equated in the book, it appears that a clue to an understanding of the latter is found in the former. The difficulty with the phrase “the testimony of Jesus” (hē marturia Iēsou) is that it may be interpreted as a subjective or an objective genitive. The former would refer to the testimony borne by Jesus (i.e., His testimony) during His life on earth and later through Christian prophets, while the latter refers to the believers bearing witness about or regarding Jesus. ³ By way of illustration, while the New International Version translates the phrase of Revelation 12:17 subjectively as “[they] hold firmly to what Jesus has said,” the editors of Today’s New International Version have changed its meaning, and translate it objectively: “[those who] hold fast their testimony about Jesus.” So also the Revised Standard Version, which translates the verse as “[who] bear witness to Jesus.” The latter represents many commentators’ understanding of the book of Revelation. ⁴ This would make all the believers in the church prophets who, inspired by the Spirit, bear their testimony concerning Jesus. GOP 190.3

The phrase “the testimony of Jesus” (hē marturia Iēsou) occurs six times in Revelation (1:2, 9; 12:17; 19:10; 20:4). ⁵ While in Revelation 1:9 and 20:4 the expression could be understood as the objective genitive ⁶—the testimony that John and the faithful Christians bore concerning Jesus— the contextual evidence strongly points to the subjective genitive of the phrase in Revelation 1:2, 12:17, and 19:10. This is the conclusion of many scholars. ⁷ Such an assertion is supported by several arguments: GOP 191.1

1. In the Johannine writings the object of witnessing is regularly conveyed by the preposition peri (“about, concerning, with reference to, of”) as may be seen from the following text: dioti ou paradexontai sou marturian peri emou (“because they will not accept your testimony about Me”). ⁸ On the other hand, the subjective idea is regularly expressed by the syntactic combination of the noun “testimony” (marturia) with a genitive noun or pronoun (“testimony/witness of . . .”). First John 5:9 may be taken as an example: “If we receive the testimony of men [tēn marturian tōn anthrōpōn], the testimony of God [hē marturia tou theou] is greater; for the testimony of God [hē marturia tou theou] is this, that He has testified concerning His Son [hoti memarturēken peri tou huiou autou].” This is also the case in all other texts in the Johannine writings in which the construction, “the testimony of . . .” occurs. ⁹ This leads to the conclusion that the phrase “the testimony of Jesus” (hē marturia Iēsou) in Revelation 12:17 and 19:10 must be understood subjectively (“the testimony borne by Jesus”); the objective idea would be expressed with hē marturia peri Iēsou/ (“the testimony about/regarding Jesus”). GOP 191.2

2. In both Revelation 12:17 and 19:10 the end-time saints are identified as the ones “who have [echontōn] the testimony of Jesus”—not as those “who hold the testimony of Jesus” as translators have commonly (incorrectly) translated. The use of the verb “have” (echō) with the phrase “the testimony of Jesus” (tēn marturian Iēsou) points to the subjective meaning of the genitive noun: the end-time saints are in possession of “the testimony of Jesus.” The force of this verb joined with “the testimony of Jesus” is generally overlooked by expositors that opt for the objective genitive, which causes the phrase to mean “they bear the testimony.” ¹⁰ GOP 192.1

While the verb echo in Greek has different shades of meaning, its basic lexical meaning is “possession.” ¹¹ This is the predominant meaning of the word in the New Testament. ¹² This is especially true when echo takes marturia as its object. To have a testimony refers to somebody else’s rather than a person’s own testimony, as in the case of Jesus’ statement: “But the witness which I have . . . the very works that I do, bear witness of Me” [ego de echo ten marturian . . . ta erga ha poio marturei peri emou] (John 5:36). Also, in the words of Paul, an elder in the church must “have a good testimony from those outside” [dei de kai marturian kalen echein apo ton exothen] (1 Tim. 3:7). In these two cases the construction: “to have a testimony of . . .” is followed by the subjective genitive case. The objective idea of the believers bearing their witness concerning Jesus would be expressed with the verb martureo (“to witness”) and the preposition peri (“about, concerning”) rather than with the verb echo (“to have).” ¹³ GOP 192.2

Both of these cases suggest that the expression “having the testimony of Jesus” (echontōn tēn marturian Iēsou) in Revelation 12:17 and 19:10 does not refer to the testimony that the end-time believers bear about Jesus. It rather denotes that the end-time believers are in possession of the testimony that Jesus Himself bore during His earthly life and ministry, which prophets who had the spirit of prophecy preached after His ascension. GOP 193.1