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Revelation 20:12-14
New Catholic Bible
Revelation 20:12-14
New Catholic Bible
12 The Resurrection and Judgment.[a] And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and the scrolls were opened. Then another scroll was opened, the book of life, and the dead were judged according to their deeds, as were recorded in the scrolls.
13 The sea gave up all the dead who were in it, and Death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them. The dead were judged according to their deeds. 14 Then Death and Hades were hurled into the fiery lake. This fiery lake is the second death.[b]
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- Revelation 20:12 This is a grandiose final sequence. As in Daniel (12:1-7) and Matthew (25:31-36), all human beings appear before the tribunal of God and are judged according to their choices and life commitments. (This principle of judgment according to one’s works is also found in Ps 62:12; Jer 17:10; Rom 2:6; 1 Pet 1:17 and elsewhere.) Everything is laid bare before the Lord—the same idea expressed in the symbol of books in Daniel (7:10). There is another book—that of Life; it contains the names of those who have resolutely chosen Christ in the face of idolatry and are now destined for glory (see Rev 13:8; 17:8). When one knows all that is represented by the concept of the netherworld, the sojourn of death and the power of death personified in the Bible, verse 14 announces the end of the anguish and fear that have weighed heavily on humankind throughout history.
- Revelation 20:14 The second death, in which death itself is swallowed up, is the definitive failure, the condemnation from which no resurrection can rescue (Rev 2:11; 20:6; 21:8).
