complete verse (Revelation 17:3)

Following are a number of back-translations of Revelation 17:3:

  • Uma: “[So] the Holy Spirit controlled me and the angel took me going to an empty field. There I saw a woman who was riding an animal. The animal that she rode was bright red, all over its body were written words disparaging to God; it had seven heads and ten horns.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Yakan: “After this, I was entered by the Spirit of God and was taken by the angel to a lonely-place/desert. Then I saw there a woman riding on a red creature. That creature had seven heads and ten horns. His body was covered with writing of bad names as far as God is concerned.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “And by means of the power of the Holy Spirit, I was led by the angel to a place where no people live. There I saw the woman, She is riding upon a red beast, and written on the body of that beast are many titles which transgress God. The beast has seven heads and ten horns.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “Then God’s Spirit again caused-me-to-dream, and the angel took me to a place with no inhabitants. I saw there a woman riding on a terrible/fearsome red animal with seven heads and ten horns. Its body also, it was written-on with names of God which it had no authority to use.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Tagbanwa: “And then through the control of the Espiritu Santo who is indwelling me, I was taken by an angel to a wilderness place. There I saw a woman riding a red monster/man-eating-animal which had seven heads branching out and ten horns. The body of that animal was covered with writing. What were written were words which were far-from-ordinary insults to God.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
  • Tenango Otomi: “The Holy Spirit changed my seeing. Then the angel took me to a wild place. There I saw the woman seated on the terrible animal which was red and had come out of the sea. On the body of the terrible animal it was covered with names which displease God. This terrible animal had seven heads and ten horns.” (Source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)

Translation commentary on Revelation 17:3

He carried me away in the Spirit: in 1.10 and 4.2 John says “I was in the Spirit”; here and in 21.10 he describes how one of the seven angels who had the bowls carried him away in the Spirit (or, “spirit”). John is describing an ecstatic experience (like the one Paul talks about in 2 Cor 12.1-3). An American Translation and Barclay use the expression “in a trance.” Biblia Dios Habla Hoy has “Then, in the vision that the Spirit made me see, the angel took me to the desert.” This is better than “in a trance.” Or a translation may choose to follow Good News Translation and Translator’s New Testament and say “The Spirit possessed me, and the angel carried me off.” If a translation prefers to say “in the spirit” (as New Revised Standard Version, Revised English Bible have it), care must be taken not to say that the angel carried John’s spirit off. John is talking about a vision. See 1.4, 10 for comments on the translation of Spirit. In many languages translators may say “God’s Spirit” if readers are likely to misunderstand.

A wilderness: in 12.6, 14 the word is used of the desert to which the woman fled from the dragon; here it is not the same desert but some deserted place, not identified.

A scarlet beast: this beast, with seven heads and ten horns, is the first beast, the one that came up out of the sea (13.1). Only here is it said to be scarlet (in 12.3 the dragon is said to be red). Some languages distinguish between scarlet, which is a vivid red color, and ordinary red; others may not have such distinctions.

Full of blasphemous names: as in 13.1, these are words and titles that should be used only of God. Here it is not said that these names are on the beast’s heads. The translation can say “it had all over it (or, over its body) names that are insulting to God.”

Quoted with permission from Bratcher, Robert G. and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on The Revelation to John. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1993. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .