This is the first resurrection. (The rest of the dead did not come back to life until the thousand years had ended.)
Parallel translations
- WEB The rest of the dead didn’t live until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection.
- KJV But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection.
- BSB The rest of the dead did not come back to life until the thousand years were complete. This is the first resurrection.
- NKJV But the rest of the dead did not live again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection.
- NASB The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were completed. This is the first resurrection.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
The rest of the dead do not live until the thousand years end; this is the first resurrection. A distinction is drawn between two resurrections.
Overview
The verse contrasts those who share the first resurrection with the rest of the dead who await the end of the millennium. Interpreters differ on whether the 'first resurrection' is spiritual regeneration, the believer's entrance into heaven at death, or a bodily raising. Despite the debate, the passage assures that those in Christ are blessed beyond the reach of final death.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 8
- Phil 3:11if by any means I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.
- Rev 11:15The seventh angel sounded, and great voices in heaven followed, saying, “The kingdom of the world has become the Kingdom of our Lord, and of his Christ. He will reign forever and ever!”
- Ezek 37:2–14He caused me to pass by them all around: and behold, there were very many in the open valley; and behold, they were very dry.
- Luke 14:14and you will be blessed, because they don’t have the resources to repay you. For you will be repaid in the resurrection of the righteous.”
- Rev 11:11After the three and a half days, the breath of life from God entered into them, and they stood on their feet. Great fear fell on those who saw them.
- Rom 11:15For if the rejection of them is the reconciling of the world, what would their acceptance be, but life from the dead?
- Rev 20:8–9and he will come out to deceive the nations which are in the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to the war; the number of whom is as the sand of the sea.
- Rev 19:20–21The beast was taken, and with him the false prophet who worked the signs in his sight, with which he deceived those who had received the mark of the beast and those who worshiped his image. These two were thrown alive into the lake of fire that burns with sulfur.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
Revelation ends the story with the slain-yet-standing Lamb who is worthy, the Lion of Judah, the Alpha and Omega, the returning King who makes all things new and dwells with his people forever.
How Revelation 20:5 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Greek word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.