The Revelation of Jesus Christ:
The Faithful Witness
Lesson 15 On Mount Zion Stood the Lamb
the book of Revelation 14:1–20
Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition (RSVCE)*
New American Bible Revised Edition (NABRE)*
Catechism of the Catholic Church
ex libris (in our library)
glossary for the book of Revelation
cross references in the book of Revelation
chapter-by-chapter review
next lesson: Seven Angels with Seven Plagues
This material coordinates with Lesson 15 on pages 91–97 in The Revelation of Jesus Christ: The Faithful Witness.
“Great and wonderful are your deeds, O Lord God the Almighty! Just and true are your ways,
O King of the ages! Who shall not fear and glorify your name, O Lord? For you alone are holy.
All nations shall come and worship you, for your judgments have been revealed.”
—the book of Revelation 15:3–4
welcome to our in-depth study of the book of Revelation
We invite interested groups and individuals to check out the sample first lesson and video from this 23-lesson Turning to God’s Word Catholic Bible study. Our online pages
link 
to the free lesson videos, a glossary, cross references in the biblical text, and a chapter-by-chapter review page—and they include as well illustrations, maps, additional commentary, and prayers based on the primary Scripture in each lesson. The Revelation of Jesus Christ: The Faithful Witness has been granted an imprimatur. It may be purchased from our website shop. If you have a Bible-study question or comment, click on the “ask us your question” or “what do you think” button on any study page.
open with prayer
It’s always wise to begin any Bible study with prayer, whether reading the Scriptures alone or meeting with others in a discussion study group. You can pray using your own words or use one of the opening prayers on our website. We especially like the following:
Lord Jesus, you promised to send your Holy Spirit
to teach us all things.
As we read and study your word today,
allow it to touch our hearts and change our lives. Amen.
let’s review—the book of Revelation 13:1–18
In Lesson 14 Men Worshiped the Dragon, a beast rises from the sea with 10 horns and seven heads, 10 diadems on its horns and a blasphemous name on its heads. One head appears to have a mortal wound that is healed. Men worship the beast, who is allowed to exercise authority for 42 months. Another beast rises from the earth, with two horns like a lamb. This beast speaks like a dragon and has the authority of the first beast. It bids humanity to make an image of the beast that was wounded by the sword and yet lived. The beast from the earth is allowed to give breath to the image of the beast from the sea. Much of humanity worships the image of the beast from the sea and is marked with the name of the beast or the number of its name, 666. Interpreting the number, which is called a human number, calls for wisdom and understanding.
a new series of seven
There’s a lot going on in this section of the book of Revelation. A new series of seven gets underway, the 144,000 reappear, three angels in mid-heaven make proclamations, one like a son of man begins to harvest the earth, and the author introduces the grapes of wrath. In the study book, the introduction to Lesson 15 on page 91 looks at two significant and important ways that the symbolism of the grapes of wrath has influenced North American culture, and the lesson explains how this symbol borrowed from the book of Revelation is tied to slavery issues centuries later. Click on the image (above right) to enlarge Turning to God’s Word co-founder Tami Palladino’s illustration, which appears on page 93 of The Revelation of Jesus Christ: The Faithful Witness. The map shows the location of Babylon, described as a source of evil in 
the book of Revelation 14:8, which records the second angel in mid-heaven announcing: “Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great, she who made all nations drink the wine of her impure passion.” The map appears on page 95 and elsewhere in the study book; the image (right) can be enlarged by clicking on it. The original map accompanies Lesson 18 Daniel: A Model Jew in Thus 
Says the LORD: God Speaks Through His Servants the Prophets: Volume II: Restoration & Redemption, the second of two volumes in our study of the biblical prophets, which totals 51 lessons.
this ‘week’ in Revelation is themed around the harvest (01:05:08)
The fourteenth chapter in the book of Revelation looks at a sixth “week,” the time 
of the harvest. In the video for this lesson, Turning to God’s Word author Matthew Phelps suggests that now is a good time to review the themes of the previous five “weeks” (the chapter-by-chapter review page may be helpful), and he reminds readers not to view these prophetic “weeks” as occurring consecutively. Although there are interpretations of the book of Revelation that attempt to view the biblical text as 
a sequential narrative, that approach fails to take into account many confusing details. By looking at “weeks” depicted in the book of Revelation, we can condense a tremendous amount of material regarding events into archetypes that we can track in relation to eachother. The sixth “week” of the harvest begins to focus on humanity, looking at the fate of the people who are alive and saved—while the remainder of people are thrown into the wine press of God’s wrath. Matthew 
also suggests that readers need to be on the lookout for repetitive themes that occurred in the first half of the book of Revelation. In this section, the 144,000 are significant, and we learn more about them. A key question is whether these people under the Old 
Covenant can be saved, and the answer is “yes, but only through Jesus Christ.” Learn more in the Turning to God’s Word Catholic Bible study, You Shall Have No Other Gods: The Book of Exodus, to clarify how this works.
The Scripture ranges for the videos that accompany this Catholic Bible study match the Scripture ranges for the sets of questions in The Revelation of Jesus Christ: The Faithful Witness. You can follow along with the video overview as Turning to God’s Word author Matthew Phelps discusses Lesson 15, “On Mount Zion Stood the Lamb,” on pages 91–97 in the study book.
so what is God saying?
The fourteenth chapter in the book of Revelation is more difficult than most when it comes to the big questions we all should be asking as we read the Scriptures: “What is God saying to me right now through this passage?” and “What effect does this have in my life?”
It’s hard to make a realistic assessment about where we’re likely to land when God harvests the earth. No one wants to wind up in the press with the grapes of wrath, but it might be dangerously presumptive to assume we’re automatically going to be included in the 144,000 or any of the other groups that the book of Revelation suggests eventually are going to make it into the ultimate Promised Land of heaven. Making some sense of the various divisions of souls in the book of Revelation is challenging enough. Trying to consider what these verses are saying to us that we can apply to our lives is complicated by our confusion about where we as individuals might stand in terms of Final Judgment. If thinking about your personal prospects frightens you, you’re in good company. In his Letter to the Philippians 2:12, Paul explained to early Christians that he was working out his own salvation with “fear and trembling.”
the popes inspire us—a favorite theme of Pope St. John Paul II
Religious mystery can be approached in terms of the hidden plan God 
has for each of us. This personal plan for our lives begins to unfold when we experience an authentic encounter with the risen Christ. This is the big payoff of Christianity, and one of the favorite themes of Pope St. John Paul II. In learning who Christ is, we learn who we are as well. Thinking about what the Scriptures mean to us increases our understanding of Jesus and his role in our salvation. Praying about what the Scriptures mean in our lives can open the door for us to enter into a more intimate relationship with Jesus. Such religious encounters provide us with valuable insight about who we are and about what purpose God has intended for each of us to fulfill in our lives.
WHAT DO YOU THINK about the mystery of your life?
Everyone’s life is a mystery waiting to be solved. The fourteenth chapter in the book of Revelation leads us to consider how much effort we’ve been putting into discovering God’s purpose in our lives. The following series of questions also might be used as a starting point to preparing for the sacrament of Reconciliation.
? What is the mystery of your own life that God is waiting to reveal to you?
? For what specific purpose were you created?
? What have you been doing to advance that purpose?
? What’s one thing that you can do today to draw nearer to God?
? What’s one step that you can take today to move closer to fulfilling your life’s purpose?
? If you want to tie these questions to the biblical text, consider them in light of the messages proclaimed by the three angels flying in mid-heaven. Do you fear God?
? How do you give God glory?
? In what ways have you been tempted to align yourself with the secular culture that ignores God?
? Whom or what might you be guilty of worshiping instead of God?
? Is there anything you place on equal footing with God by worshiping it “in addition to” God?
? What does Jesus say about attempting to worship both God and things in the secular culture? (If you don’t already know, check out the Gospel According to Matthew 6:24.)
? For what purpose might these angels be making these proclamations, and to whom?
? What can you do to remedy any problems in your life that these proclamations might bring to light?
purity—you could look it up in our archives
This section of the book of Revelation leads readers to think about purity as a prerequisite for entering heaven. To learn how Jesus viewed purity (based on the Gospel According to Mark), read Lost in Translation, an online column in which Turning to God’s Word author Matthew Phelps helps readers connect with ideas expressed in the original languages of the Scriptures. New Lost in Translation entries are posted on Mondays, and past entries are archived on our website. Contact us if you’d like to receive Lost in Translation by email every week.
categories of souls
We’re a little more than halfway through our study of the book of Revelation, and we’ve run into a wide variety of souls in differing circumstances. As Matthew likes to explain: “Dead doesn’t always mean dead in the book of Revelation.” We have souls of people who’ve died and no longer are alive on the earth. Some of these are in heaven (the great multitude described in the book of Revelation 7:9–10). Some are under the altar of the earth. Based on the description of Hades provided by Jesus in the Gospel According to Luke 16:19–31, it’s fair to assume that some are in another section of Hades less pleasant than the location immediately under the altar. And we have the 144,000, who appear to be people still alive and living on the earth, but in contrast to these people we also have a number of people living on earth who haven’t yet thrown in their lot with Jesus.
The fourteenth chapter in the book of Revelation introduces the harvest of the earth, which is of two types of souls—those destined for the great wine press and those reaped by the one like a son of man. It’s reasonable to assume these souls are of people living on the earth at the time of harvest. It’s also reasonable to assume, based on other passages from the Scriptures, that being harvested isn’t necessarily all bad. After all, in the book of Revelation 1:18 Jesus calms John’s fears by saying: “I died, and behold I am alive for evermore.” Death clearly is no big deal for Jesus. In the same verse, Jesus makes another useful distinction to keep in mind when he says that he holds the keys to Death and Hades. God considers these to be two separate things.
what’s happening with time & space?
One thing that makes the fourteenth chapter in the book of Revelation so difficult to grasp is the confusion related to time and space. No matter how often we’re warned that these constructs are shifting around in the final book of the New Testament, we continue to be surprised when details fail to line up in the ways with which we’re familiar. Even once we establish who we think some of the souls are in these various categories, it’s much more challenging to determine where they are (a spatial problem) and when the events are occurring (a temporal problem).
Some of this will become clearer as we move forward, but at this point the biblical text hasn’t yet given us enough information to figure out exactly what’s happening with time and space. We know that time and space are changing, collapsing and expanding at a rather alarming rate. We’re focusing on details in the study that will help make the pattern more apparent, but until the biblical text gives us more clues we have to be content with meditating and praying about what we have in front of us.
WHAT DO YOU THINK about what is God thinking?
Recently one of our study groups spent some time talking about the nature of God’s plan for salvation. Two big questions came up:
? If God could create the Blessed Virgin Mary without the stain of original sin, why didn’t he just make all of us that way?
? Are all these cataclysmic events and death and destruction really necessary?
a simple answer
There’s a simple answer to both of those questions, and here it is: We just don’t know.
That doesn’t mean we should dismiss the questions. They’re exactly the kind of thing we should be asking ourselves when we read the book of Revelation. These questions fall into the category of “What is God thinking?” The problem, of course, is that we never can really know what’s in the mind of God. What we do know as Catholics is that this book is part of the canon of Sacred Scripture. The Church has determined that it contains truths about our faith. In his apocalyptic vision, the author of the book of Revelation is telling us important information, although the message is given to us in images. It’s up to us to think about these words and to try to figure out what they mean in our lives as Christians. A good place to start is to think about the reason that God created human beings with free will.
read the Catechism—don’t veer away from Church teaching
When reading the book of Revelation, it’s more important than ever that we hold to the Church’s basic rule for interpreting the Scriptures. We can think anything we want as long as our interpretations meet two criteria: 1) They must be consistent with the rest of the Scriptures, which means they can’t be taken out of their biblical context, and 2) they can’t contradict Church teaching. In order to meet these criteria, we have to have a strong working familiarity with two things—everything that’s in the Bible, and all that the Church teaches.
This is a tremendous responsibility, and one that cannot be ignored without disastrous results. We might not like reading about all of the drastic events portrayed in the book of Revelation. They aren’t very pleasant to consider, but we can’t discard them just because they make us uncomfortable. The question about why God has chosen to arrange our salvation in the way described in the Scriptures is extremely important, and it hinges on the gift of human freedom. The Scriptures tell us that we’re created with the gift of free will. Throughout the pages of the Catechism of the Catholic Church we can read the Church’s explanation about why.
a perfectly good world
The destruction described in the book of Revelation is hard for us to understand. Why unmake a perfectly good world? Therein lies part of the answer. Our world is not yet perfectly good—though that’s the goal toward which the Church and history are leading us. It’s an early, all-encompassing, primary petition in the Our Father: “Thy kingdom come.” The book of Revelation uses images to describe what the coming of the kingdom will look like. Before Creation can be remade, it first must be unmade. The things that aren’t quite right must be discarded. It’s much less scary to think about Jesus arriving on a cloud and then everyone climbing on board and floating up into heaven with him. The author of the book of Revelation envisions it a different way. Jesus still arrives on a cloud. But instead of humanity floating up to heaven, heaven comes down to the earth. That’s an important distinction. For God to move his dwelling from heaven to earth, the earth needs to be purified.
Lenten considerations
The questions raised by the book of Revelation also come up during Lent, which is the liturgical season of repentance. During Lent, these questions usually focus on why it’s necessary for Jesus to undergo suffering and death. Couldn’t God have arranged some other way for our salvation? Surely God could have done so, which leads us to meditate on why God chose to link our salvation to Jesus’ sacrifice. What does this mean to us? What does it suggest about the way in which we are to live our lives as Christians? How does the sacrifice of Jesus show up in the images we’ve seen so far in our study of the book of Revelation? When considering and meditating on these
questions, it can be helpful to remember that the author of the book of Revelation places Jesus’ life, death, and Resurrection at the midpoint of his vision. During the Lenten season, you also can check out Jesus’ Passion: The Story of Redemptive Suffering, which is not available at other times of the year.
Q&A—three more questions about what’s going on
This time it’s the trial and harvest themes that are causing confusion.
Q: Our leaders’ group got stuck on Question 4. What does the book of Revelation 14:6–7 suggest about the trial that seems to be taking place and who is about to be judged?
A: It’s interesting that this is the first mention of judgment in the one book of the Bible that’s widely considered to be all about judgment. There are several things worth thinking about here. 1) Judgment in this instance clearly is linked to an eternal gospel, so we know this angel is talking about eternal judgment. 2) The angel is telling everyone still alive on earth what it is that they need to do in preparation for this judgment. 3) The placement of the angel in this series of seven probably is significant, since everything else to do with numbers seems to be. This is the first angel in this particular series, and he’s announcing that the time of judgment has arrived, so the first thing that happens at Final Judgment seems to be an angel making a very practical announcement to all of humanity about how to survive this judgment. This seems to suggest that the trial period is over, and now it’s time for the judge to pronounce sentence (judgment). Because the message of the angel is to all humanity, all humanity is about to be judged. At this stage in our study, it might be useful to review the difference between Final Judgment and particular judgment. This angel is talking about Final Judgment.
Q: We also were confused about Question 8, which covers the book of Revelation 14:12–13. Our general consensus is that God is speaking, but we’re uncertain about what might be indicated by John’s role shifting back to that of a scribe.
A: That God is speaking is a safe guess. What’s more interesting, and tied to what else is going on now, is why John’s being told to write again. This question isn’t as hard as some people might be tempted to make it. If John was pulled away from his role as scribe to act as an accuser of humanity during the trial, and now he’s being told to function again as a scribe, what does that mean about the need for him to be an accuser? Apparently, the trial now is over, and it’s time for sentencing. Judgment is about to be issued. This is in keeping with what’s going on with the answer to question 4.
Q: And what might the Temple and altar in the book of Revelation 14:17–20 suggest about the purpose of the harvest? Our group had some discussion about this, and we wondered if one coming from the altar instead of the Temple this time has some significance. This Bible study is teaching us to watch for the smallest details!
A: More good thinking. Both the Temple and altar are related to liturgy, so whatever these last two angels are up to, they certainly have a liturgical function. What’s going on is related to liturgy. It probably is significant that these two angels come from different places. The Temple is there for what purpose? On earth it’s for worship of God, but it’s also considered the dwelling place of God. An angel coming out of the Temple would be coming straight from the presence of God. This seems to suggest that what he does is directly endorsed by God. Also, he’s carrying a sickle, which we can presume he’s been given by God. The other angel is associated with the altar. What takes place on the altar? So what is it that this angel is involved with? Any answer has to be related to sacrifice, although the mention of fire is a reminder that sacrifice also is heavily tied to purification. So the purpose of this last harvest seems to be liturgical, tied to sacrifice and purification.
be on the lookout for these two things
Keep your eyes peeled for two things as we move forward: the recurrence of the theme of the grapes of wrath, and another series of seven events and where that might be leading us.
the best Catholic commentary about Scripture
To find out more about how Church teaching is supported by Scripture passages in The Revelation of Jesus Christ: The Faithful Witness, check out the Index of Citations in the Catechism of the Catholic Church. Links (Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition [RSVCE*]) to the primary Scripture passages in the lesson and relevant paragraphs in the Catechism are provided here. Not every passage in the biblical text for this Catholic Bible study is referenced in a Catechism paragraph, however.
the book of Revelation 14:1—paragraphs 1139, 2159
the book of Revelation 14:4—paragraphs 778, 1618
ways our glossary might prove helpful
In addition to providing extra information about geographical locations, our glossary also points out
persons and places mentioned in the biblical text under multiple names or spellings. If you can remember a name but aren’t sure in which lesson it shows up, you can find it in the glossary, which lists every proper noun in the primary biblical text for The Revelation of Jesus Christ: The Faithful Witness.
to learn more, read more Scripture
If you’re having difficulty with a passage of Scripture, it can be helpful to read the 
cross references pertaining to it—but looking these up can take time. To make that easier, we’ve compiled the cross references from the Revised Standard Version Second Catholic Edition (RSV2CE)—the translation that we reprint in our study books. That list can be found at the top of every online study page, and it includes links to cross references in the primary biblical text for The Revelation of Jesus Christ: The Faithful Witness.
review previous lessons
As we progress through the book of Revelation, the images become more complex, increasing the potential for confusion. To help participants in our study keep track of what’s happening in the Scripture, we’ve prepared a chapter-by-chapter review of key events and images in the book of Revelation. A link can be found at the top of every online study page that accompanies The Revelation of Jesus Christ: The Faithful Witness.
don’t forget about our indexes & extra online material
If you’re trying to locate information about a specific Scripture passage, you can look it up in the index at the back of the study book or sample lesson. If you want to find a particular commentary, you can look up its title in the topics index. To learn more about another book of the Bible for which there’s a Turning to God’s Word study, visit the online study directories to read the commentaries and watch any accompanying videos. Finally, if you have a question or would like to make a comment about any of our studies, you can use one of the “ask us your question” or “what do you think” buttons to email our authors.
ex libris—Church documents & books about religious topics
You can find links to magisterial documents referred to in Turning to God’s Word Catholic Bible studies 
at ex libris—magisterial documents. This page includes a listing of significant recent encyclicals as well as a number of historical Church documents. Recommended books related to Scripture study can be found at ex libris—main bookshelf.
wondering how to pronounce some of these words?
The following link is to a reading from the New International Version (NIV) Bible. To listen, click on the audio icon above the printed text. Although not taken from the translations used in our study materials, the NIV reading provides an audio guide to pronunciation of words in this lesson’s primary biblical text. A close online version of the translation of the Bible used in Catholic liturgy in the United States as well as an audio guide for daily Mass readings for the current month can be found on the website of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB).
the book of Revelation 14:1–20 (NIV)
close with Bible-based prayer related to this lesson
Many of our Catholic study groups like to conclude their discussions with a prayer based on the scriptural focus of their lesson, and some participants include Scripture-specific prayer in their individual study. If you’re uncomfortable composing your own Bible-based prayers, you can follow our four easy steps. If you prefer, you can use the following short prayer based on this lesson’s text from the book of Revelation.
O God, you created all of the mysteries
that puzzle and confuse men and women,
including the mysteries in the book of Revelation.
Grant us perseverance to continue meditating and praying
about difficult religious concepts,
and help us to arrive at greater levels of understanding
about the glory of the coming of the Lord. Amen.
Lesson 16 Seven Angels with Seven Plagues, the book of Revelation 15:1–8
Lesson 14 Men Worshiped the Dragon, the book of Revelation 13:1–18
you also may like our study of the Gospel According to John
The Gospel According to John: An Encounter with Grace & Truth, a 25-lesson Catholic Bible study with an imprimatur, examines the Fourth Gospel’s view of Jesus Christ as the Son of God, with special emphasis on the institution of the sacraments of the Church as the means by which Christians are purified and made holy. This recently revised study includes maps and additional commentary, and takes a closer look at the way in which Jesus relates to individual men and women. Click on the book’s cover to view a sample lesson.
start a Turning to God’s Word Bible study
Thank you for your interest in The Revelation of Jesus Christ: The Faithful Witness. 
Information about beginning a Turning to God’s Word Bible study can be found at start a Bible study. Tami, Matthew, and I are available to answer questions and offer support. Contact us if you’d like to start one of our studies or have your schedule listed with other TtGW study groups on our website. —Jennifer
*There are seven deuterocanonical books in the Old Testament—the Books of Tobit, Judith, Wisdom, Sirach, Baruch, and First and Second Maccabees, as well as some passages in the Books of Esther and Daniel. Protestants usually refer to these works as “apocryphal,” a word that means “outside the (Protestant) canon” because they’re excluded from most Protestant Bibles. The word “deuterocanonical” means “second canon”; Catholics use that word to refer to any section of the Catholic Old Testament for which there are no extant, or existing, Hebrew manuscripts. All of the deuterocanonical books appear in the Septuagint, the earliest remaining versions of which date to the 1st century B.C. This Greek translation of the Old Testament was in common use by Jews at the time of Jesus—but the same books aren’t found in existing Hebrew manuscripts, which aren’t as old as the oldest version of the Septuagint. Learn more by reading How Do Catholic & Protestant Bibles Differ?
Turning to God’s Word printed Bible studies use the 2006 Revised Standard Version Second Catholic Edition (RSV2CE) translation for all Scripture references except those to the Psalms, which are taken from The Abbey Psalms and Canticles, prepared by the Benedictine monks of Conception Abbey and published in 2020 by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB). All Scripture links for the online pages of The Revelation of Jesus Christ: The Faithful Witness are to the 1966 Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition (RSVCE) translation. The New International Version (NIV) audio recordings follow the same chapter and verse numbering as the RSV Catholic translations, but the NIV translation doesn’t include the deuterocanonical books and passages.
The 1966 RSVCE uses archaic pronouns and verb forms such as “thee,” “thou,” “didst” in the Psalms and in direct quotations attributed to God. The 2006 RSV2CE replaces those with more accessible English. The few significant translation changes in the RSV2CE include rendering almah as “virgin” in the Book of Isaiah 7:14 and restoring the term “begotten” in the Gospel According to John 3:16.
Numbering varies for some passages in this Bible study. Turning to God’s Word studies (print and digital) follow the numbering in the Revised Standard Version Catholic translations (RSV2CE and RSVCE). Discrepancies in the New American Bible Revised Edition (NABRE) are noted in the Index of Scripture Citations in the study book and the online sample.
You can learn more about the Psalms by viewing a sample lesson from the Turning to God’s Word Catholic Bible study Sing a New Psalm: Communicating with God Through the Prayers of the Church—Volume I: Lauds & Vespers. The second part of that study, Sing a New Psalm: Communicating with God Through the Prayers of the Church—Volume II: Vigils, Day Prayer & Compline, is scheduled for publication in 2025. Some verse numbers may vary in different translations of the Psalms.