Chapter 9 — The “Spirit of Prophecy” in the Revelation of John

Ranko Stefanovic

Revelation 12:17 identifies the end-time faithful remnant as those who “keep the commandments of God and hold to the testimony of Jesus.” The second of these identifying marks is restated in Revelation 19:10, which portrays John the revelator as prostrating himself before the feet of the interpreting angel to worship him. However, the angel immediately warned him: “Do not do that; I am a fellow servant of you and your brothers who have the testimony of Jesus; worship God!” ^{1My translation; in the rest of the chapter, if not stated otherwise, all Scripture quotations are from the New American Standard Bible.} The angel further explained that “the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.” ^{2Some scholars argue that this explanatory clause was supplied by John as his comment to the angel’s statement (as, for instance, found in the Revised Standard Version). The contextual evidence shows, however, that the interpreting angel stated this explanation.}GOP 190.1

Expositors throughout history have struggled with these two expressions, but no consensus has been reached regarding their meaning. The purpose of this study is to determine the meaning of the expressions “the testimony of Jesus” and “the spirit of prophecy” in relation to each other and their significance for an understanding of the meaning and function of prophets and prophecy in Revelation.GOP 190.2