book of Revelation 19:1–21 Catholic Bible study lesson 20

The Revelation of Jesus Christ:
The Faithful Witness

Lesson 20 The Mighty Voice of a Great Multitude
the book of Revelation 19:1–21

Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition (RSVCE)*
New American Bible Revised Edition (NABRE)*
Catechism of the Catholic Church
ex libris (in our library)
Dei Verbum (Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation)
glossary for the book of Revelation
cross references in the book of Revelation
chapter-by-chapter review
next lesson: This Is the First Resurrection

This material coordinates with Lesson 20 on pages 121–126 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 18:1–24
In Lesson 19 Fallen, Fallen Is Babylon the Great! another angel appears from heaven announcing that Babylon—representative of unrighteousness in the world—has fallen. A voice from heaven urges all people to come out of that city. Kings of the earth stand afar off and weep and wail when they see Babylon burning. Merchants of the earth stand afar off and weep and mourn aloud. Ships’ masters, sailors, and seafaring men stand afar off and weep and mourn. A mighty angel throws a great stone into the sea and announces that Babylon shall be no more.

the rider on the white horse is back
In the sixth chapter in the book of Revelation, when all this heavenly action was getting underway, we saw a rider on a white horse come forth at the opening of the first seal. In yet another example of the chiastic structure of this apocalyptic vision, now that all seven of the series of sevens have been completed, the rider on the white horse reappears. It seems he’s still conquering, and there’s little doubt at this juncture in the story that this rider is Jesus Christ. This time, however, he’s bringing with him a different kind of posse. Who followed him on horses in his previous appearance? Who’s riding with him now? What do these differences suggest has occurred? Click on the image (above right) to enlarge Turning to God’s Word co-founder Tami Palladino’s illustration, which is on page 123 of The Revelation of Jesus Christ: The Faithful Witness . The map locating the seven churches that receive dictated letters from Jesus appears on page 125 and elsewhere in the study book; the image can be enlarged by clicking on it.

a wedding is about to take place (54:16)
The nineteenth chapter in the book of Revelation begins with Hallel, an Old Testament liturgical practice that the author adapts to Christianity to indicate that what’s being described in this portion of the vision is heavily liturgical. In the video for this lesson, Turning to God’s Word author Matthew Phelps explains that God is being joined to humanity, and the marriage of human and divine is the eighth substantive thing that fills in the seventh thing—the sabbath. Marriage moves beyond and fulfills the sabbath by bringing about perfect communion with God. Before Jesus, that was unobtainable for humanity. After Jesus, we’re only united with Christ in the Body of Christ, the Church. We’re awaiting bodily resurrection. We need to be corporeal in eternity to participate as the Bride of Christ. Prophecy points ahead. Jesus’ Incarnation, death, and Resurrection occurs at the middle of salvation history, not at the end.

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 20, “The Mighty Voice of a Great Multitude,” on pages 121–126 in the study book.

hallelujah—praise God for liturgy
A lot has happened since the opening of the first seal, and most of what’s going on now in the book of Revelation can be summed up by the word “Hallelujah.” To overlook its liturgical significance in this context would be to miss one of the main points the author is making. Refer to “Hallelujah” on page 123 of The Revelation of Jesus Christ: The Faithful Witness for information about how the word “Hallelujah” is connected with Hebrew liturgical feasts.

? In what ways is Catholic liturgy effecting positive change in the Church?
? In the world?
? In your own life?
? What can you do to make your own participation in liturgy and worship of God more fruitful?

word of God—you could look it up in our archives
In this lesson, the rider on the white horse is called the Word of God. To learn how the Gospels According to Matthew and John use the term “word of God” differently, 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.

Q&A—regarding authorship
A participant in this Catholic Bible study wants clarification about Question 9 in this lesson, which includes the following: “What might explain why the author neglects to provide detailed accounts of any battle action anywhere in the book of Revelation?”

Q: Question 9 seems to imply that the author is making literary decisions, and my understanding is that he’s merely recounting what he’s seen in his vision. What gives?

A: We’re running into a common problem here. In raising this issue, the participant is making an assumption that “the author” referred to in Question 9 is “the human author.” In fact, the reader has no way of determining from the language used whether the writer of this question is referring to the human author or the divine author of the book of Revelation. Since I wrote the question, I can settle the issue fairly quickly: It doesn’t matter in the least.

Whether a human author has made a decision not to include a lot of details about battle action or whether the primary author of Scripture, the Holy Spirit, has made that decision makes no difference at all in answering the question, which remains the same either way. The question could just as well have been written this way: “What reason can you suggest for why the book of Revelation includes so few detailed accounts of battle action?” The participant’s underlying concern, while not valid in terms of the wording of the actual question, does call attention to a somewhat serious misunderstanding about Church teaching regarding the authorship of Scripture. It’s not uncommon for people to think that since God is the primary author of Sacred Scripture, the human authors of the books of the Bible function more or less as stenographers taking dictation. That’s contrary to what the Church teaches.

The question remains: Why doesn’t the nineteenth chapter in the book of Revelation provide a more detailed account of the decisive battle between Jesus and the beast?

let’s look at what the Church says about authorship of Scripture
Dei Verbum (the Second Vatican Council’s Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation) teaches: “In composing the sacred books, God chose men and while employed by him they made use of their powers and abilities, so that with him acting in them and through them, they, as true authors, consigned to writing everything and only those things which he wanted.” This clearly indicates that the human authors of the books of the Bible—under the influence of the Holy Spirit—engaged their own faculties when putting stylus to parchment. Church documents about the nature of divine inspiration agree that the inspiring grace of the Holy Spirit didn’t suppress the freedom or consciousness of the sacred writers at any stage of the composition. So it’s perfectly valid for Catholics to consider what the human author of a particular passage may have had in mind, and such questions can shed light on the meaning of the passage.

That said, Dei Verbum reminds us that all interpretation of Scripture “is subject finally to the judgment of the Church, which carries out the divine commission and ministry of guarding and interpreting the word of God.” This, by the way, is why all Turning to God’s Word Catholic Bible studies are submitted to the authority of the Church before publication. The imprimatur and nihil obstat provide an assurance that the material “is free of doctrinal and moral error.” Readers who wish to rely only on materials that are in line with Church teaching should look for the imprimatur on all other commentaries, Bible studies, and books about Catholic theology. It’s absence is not an indicator that the content of a particular book is problematic—it may or may not be—but the presence of an imprimatur is an indicator that the author made no assumptions regarding his or her work but instead took the step of submitting a final manuscript to Church authority to ensure that the content indeed is in line with Catholic teaching. Dei Verbum isn’t a long document, and it makes good reading for anyone interested in learning more about the Church’s guidelines to Catholic Bible study.

a favorite thought from Dei Verbum
One of our favorite sections of Dei Verbum emphasizes the magnanimity of God when contrasted with the lowly weakness of human thought and ideas: “In Sacred Scripture, therefore, while the truth and holiness of God always remains intact, the marvelous ‘condescension’ of eternal wisdom is clearly shown, ‘that we may learn the gentle kindness of God, which words cannot express, and how far he has gone in adapting his language with thoughtful concern for our weak human nature.’ For the words of God, expressed in human language, have been made like human discourse, just as the word of the eternal Father, when he took to himself the flesh of human weakness, was in every way made like men.” You can find links to other magisterial documents referred to in Turning to God’s Word Catholic Bible studies at ex libris—magisterial documents.

Q&A—the voice from heaven
A participant in this Bible study asks about the identity of the voice that speaks from the throne in the book of Revelation 19:5.

Q: Who’s doing the talking from the throne?

A: The author of the book of Revelation doesn’t identify the source of the voice other than to say it’s coming from the throne, so he probably thinks it’s obvious to readers. Let’s take a look at the text and see why he might think that. What’s the one thing that we know about this voice? It’s coming from the throne in heaven. That might be enough to give us a very good guess as to who’s talking, but we have more information than that if we look at the context. For this particular verse, all we have to do is read the preceding verse to learn who’s currently seated on throne. With these two verses in such close proximity, there can be little doubt that the person seated on the throne in the book of Revelation 19:4 is the same person speaking from the throne in the book of Revelation 19:5. The moral of the story: It never hurts to take another look at the biblical text in context.

WHAT DO YOU THINK about rereading the mail?
This is a good time to go back and review letters to the seven churches found in the second and third chapters in the book of Revelation—Lesson 3 What the Spirit Says to the Churches and Lesson 4 He Who Has an Ear, Let Him Hear. As we near the end of this book in the Bible, many of the themes we saw in those letters have been expanded by the author and should start to make more sense.

? One of the most obvious of those themes is that of false worship connected to a synagogue of Satan. Lesson 19 Fallen, Fallen Is Babylon the Great! dealt at some length with false worship practices. What might be the liturgical practices of the synagogue of Satan mentioned in the letter to the church in Philadelphia in the book of Revelation 3:7–13?
? What evidence of false worship practices can be seen in the other letters found in the second and third chapters in the book of Revelation?
? This lesson adds clarity to the role of names, which are emphasized in the letters to Pergamum, Philadelphia, and Sardis. Refer to “What Is In a Name” on page 29 of The Revelation of Jesus Christ: The Faithful Witness to learn specifically how new names figure into new identities.
? The book of Revelation 19:13 records that the rider on the white horse is called The Word of God, and the book of Revelation 19:16 records that on his robe and his thigh he has a name inscribed, King of kings and Lord of lords. Consider what the language used in the book of Revelation 19:13 might be suggesting.
? Why might the rider’s name in the book of Revelation 19:13 appear both on his robe and on his thigh?
? Consider why this rider has so many names.

there’s change & then there’s ontological change
Awareness of ontological change provides an important key to understanding the images in the book of Revelation. The nineteenth chapter in the final book of the New Testament offers biblical evidence of such a change, and you can learn more about that and the meaning of the word ontological by referring to “Ontological Change” on page 126 of The Revelation of Jesus Christ: The Faithful Witness.

waiting for the wedding to take place
Although the nineteenth chapter in the book of Revelation introduces the idea of the marriage of the Lamb, and we see the bridegroom arrive amid great pomp and fanfare, we haven’t yet witnessed the union between humanity and divinity. What things still are standing in the way? As we move forward to the end of the book of Revelation, watch for evidence that the wedding has taken place.

previous prophecy concerning time & space
Where Jesus comes from is a key concern of many who encounter him in the Gospel According to John. Jesus’ origin is crucial to whether he’s the long-awaited Messiah. The Old Testament Book of Isaiah 9:1–7 contains a prophetic passage that’s often read at Christmas. It can be interpreted to suggest that the mention of Galilee of the Nations in the first verse indicates the Messiah would come from Galilee. You can learn more about the prophet known as Proto- (First) Isaiah or Isaiah of Jerusalem in Lesson 20 Isaiah Foresees Immanuel’s Birth in the Turning to God’s Word Catholic Bible study Thus Says the LORD: God Speaks Through His Servants the Prophets—Volume I: A Kingdom Divided.

At issue is what is meant by the phrase “come from.” If it means the Messiah’s most recent mailing address, then Galilee is a valid contender, although a good case can be made that Jesus himself doesn’t seem to claim any geographical location as home. In the Gospel According to Mark 2:1 (and elsewhere in that Gospel) it’s strongly suggested that Jesus made his home in Capernaum in Galilee. In the Gospel According to Matthew 8:20 and the Gospel According to Luke 9:28, however, Jesus says that the Son of man has nowhere to lay his head. In the Gospel According to John, the Evangelist repeatedly points out that people think they know Jesus comes from Galilee, a location that functions as the equivalent of a present-day mailing address.

If the phrase “comes from” means where the Messiah was born, however, both the Old Testament and the New Testament are clear about that. In the Book of Micah 5:2, the Messiah is prophesied to be born in Bethlehem: “But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, who are little to be among the clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel, whose origin is from of old, from ancient days.” Not only does this prophecy spell out that the Messiah will “come forth” from Bethlehem in Judah (the region of Judea and not Galilee), it also includes some even more critical information about theMessiah’s origin—that he’s “from of old, from ancient days.” This directly ties the Messiah to the prologue in the Gospel According to John (1:1–18), in which the Evangelist explains that the Word was in the beginning with God. You can learn more about the prophet Micah in Lesson 22 What Does the LORD Require? in the Turning to God’s Word Catholic Bible study Thus Says the LORD: God Speaks Through His Servants the Prophets—Volume I: A Kingdom Divided. You can learn more about the prologue to the Fourth Gospel in Lesson 1 In the Beginning Was the Word in The Gospel According to John: An Encounter with Grace & Truth.

read the Catechism—a look at the marriage from another angle
It’s fairly easy to understand a wedding used as an image to describe the union with God as a marriage between humanity and divinity. Paragraph 1601 in the Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches that there are two goods toward which the sacrament of Marriage is ordered—the unitive and the procreative. We’re used to thinking of the unitive aspect in regard to heaven, but perhaps the procreative aspect shouldn’t be overlooked. The primary way that sacramental union between a man and a woman demonstrates the procreative aspect of marriage is through the birth of children, but this isn’t the only way in which humanity can follow God’s instructions to be fruitful and multiply.

1601 “The matrimonial covenant, by which a man and a woman establish between themselves a partnership of the whole of life, is by its nature ordered toward the good of the spouses and the procreation and education of offspring; this covenant between baptized persons has been raised by Christ the Lord to the dignity of a sacrament.”

another option for fruitfulness
In the Gospel According to John 15:7–8, Jesus suggests another option for Christians here on earth: “If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you will, and it shall be done for you. By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be my disciples.” In case his message is unclear, Jesus goes on to specify that abiding in Jesus means keeping his commandments. It’s obvious that Jesus isn’t talking about practicing horticulture or giving birth to large families. What are some spiritual fruits that one might expect as a result of being faithful to Jesus’ teachings? You can learn more about Jesus’ message in Lesson 18 I Am the True Vine in the Turning to God’s Word Catholic Bible study The Gospel According to John: An Encounter with Grace & Truth.

It seems extremely likely that the wedding between humanity and divinity will include fulfillment of both spiritual union with God and spiritual fruitfulness.

back to the Comforting Mysteries of the Rosary
We’ve covered quite a bit of Scripture since our last reference to the Comforting Mysteries of the Rosary, which is a set of Mysteries often used in private prayer by Catholics living in German-speaking countries. With Lesson 20 of The Revelation of Jesus Christ: The Faithful Witness we see evidence of a connection to the third Comforting Mystery, “Jesus will return in glory.” Glory is a primary theme associated with the announcement that the marriage of the Lamb has come. With this announcement, we see the bridegroom riding forth on a white horse. The long-awaited battle for control of the earth is barely mentioned before readers learn that it’s over and done, and the glorious bridegroom has been victorious. You can learn more about the traditional Mysteries of the Rosary in Scripture & the Rosary: New Testament Mysteries, Old Testament Parallels. Free digital lessons from that Bible study are available on our website on a rotating basis throughout the liturgical year.

pray the traditional mysteries of the Rosary
We invite you to pray the Rosary along with Turning to God’s Word founder Tami Palladino and her daughter Anne Marie. The prayers can be found at how to pray the Rosary, along with Tami and Anne Marie’s videos of each of the traditional Rosary Mysteries—the Joyful, Sorrowful, Glorious, and Luminous. Click on the diagram (right) to link to their how-to video and learn what’s important about praying the Rosary. Visit the study directory of our most popular Catholic Bible study, Scripture & the Rosary: New Testament Mysteries, Old Testament Parallels, for more information about the Rosary and access to free online lessons.

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 19:1–8—paragraph 2642
the book of Revelation 19:1–9—paragraph 677
the book of Revelation 19:6—paragraph 865
the book of Revelation 19:7—paragraphs 752, 1602, 1612
the book of Revelation 19:9—paragraphs 1329, 1602, 1612

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 19:1–21 (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 Almighty, you handily defeat evil in all of its forms.
Help us to trust in your love
so that we might be found worthy
of praising you in heaven.
We ask this in the name of your Son,
Jesus Christ, who encompasses in his Body the Church
a miraculous union between humanity and divinity. Amen.

Lesson 21 This Is the First Resurrection, the book of Revelation 20:1–15
Lesson 19 Fallen, Fallen Is Babylon the Great! the book of Revelation 18:1–24

you also may like our study of the book of Exodus
You Shall Have No Other Gods: The Book of Exodus, a 28-lesson Catholic Bible study with an imprimatur, provides an in-depth look at how significant events in biblical history that occurred thousands of years ago to descendants of Jacob remain relevant and even critical for present-day Christians to understand. The deliverance of the Hebrews from slavery in Egypt and the giving of Ten Commandments are examined along with the development of Moses’ relationship to God. 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.