The great crowd worships with anointed Christians in the earthly courtyard of Jehovah’s great spiritual temple. (Revelation 7: 14, 15; 11:2) There is no reason to conclude that they are in a separate Court of the Gentiles. When Jesus was on earth, there was a Court of the Gentiles in the temple. However, in the divinely inspired plans of Solomon’s and Ezekiel’s temples, there was no provision for a Court of the Gentiles. In Solomon’s temple, there was an outer courtyard where Israelites and proselytes, men and women, worshiped together. This is the prophetic pattern of the earthly courtyard of the spiritual temple, where John saw the great crowd rendering sacred service. (Emphasis added)
What is particularly striking about this change in teaching, aside from stating the “great crowd” is not in “a separate Court of the Gentiles,” is the fact that the Society has very clearly made a definite link between Revelation 7:15 and 11:2. The “courtyard that is outside the temple [sanctuary] (naos)” described at Revelation 11:2 is now positively identified as the “earthly courtyard of Jehovah’s great spiritual temple” occupied by both the “great crowd” and anointed Christians. When Fred W. Franz was alive (and even during the intervening years since his death on December 22, 1992) the Society seemed to carefully avoid making this connection. This apparently was because of the evident distinction between the sanctuary (naos or “divine habitation”) and the outer courtyard mentioned in this text. Perhaps this can be seen most clearly in the way the first part of this verse is rendered in the word-for-word translation beneath the original Greek text in the Society’s Kingdom Interlinear Translation of the Greek Scriptures:
Now, however, the organization has placed the “great crowd” squarely inside of the courtyard depicted at Revelation 11:2 and clearly defined it as part of the same “spiritual temple” Jehovah’s Witnesses are taught that Revelation 7:15 refers to when it places the “great crowd” in God’s temple [naos].
Attempting to change the widely accepted prophetic type of the courtyard from the Court of the Gentiles to the outer courtyard of Solomon’s temple does not solve the Society’s interpretative problem however. Regardless of which temple one chooses to link to Revelation 11:2, be it Solomon’s, Ezekiel’s or Herod’s, the plain fact of the matter is that this earthly courtyard is “outside the temple [sanctuary] (naos)” while the “great crowd” of Revelation 7:15 is described as being inside the temple sanctuary or naos.
It is evident that throughout the book of Revelation the term naos is used repeatedly to refer exclusively to the innermost part of the temple, the heavenly sanctuary in its figurative application. As noted previously, the Watchtower Society publication Then is Finished the Mystery of God (1969) says on page 260 in its comments on Revelation 11:2:
The temple sanctuary or naos occupied only part of the temple area.
The 1986 edition of The New International Dictionary of New Testament Theology (Vol. 3, page 784) refers to other verses in the book of Revelation where the Greek word naos appears and comments:
The Apocalypse speaks often of the heavenly temple (Rev. 7:15; 11:19; 14:15ff; 15:5-8; 16:1,17), clearly on the basis of Ps. 11:4.
And the August 15, 1980 Watchtower correctly observed on page 15:
The Greek work naos refers often to the inner sanctuary representing heaven itself.
Proving the “great crowd” is not located in God’s heavenly sanctuary would therefore require somehow demonstrating that the term “naos” can also include the “courtyard that is outside the temple [sanctuary] (naos)” described at Revelation 11:2. But, as the Society’s own above-quoted publication has pointed out, this verse itself makes it plain that it does not since it makes a clear distinction between the courtyard and the temple sanctuary. John obviously uses the term naos in a limited sense as applying to God’s “divine habitation” only. — See these verses in The Kingdom Interlinear Translation of the Greek Scriptures.
Again it is a case of the Society reasoning, from their traditional beliefs and interpretations and endeavoring to make the Bible align with these, instead of starting with the Scriptures and then changing its teaching to conform to the Bible. (Compare Matthew 15:1-9 and Mark 7:6-9 where Jesus condemned the scribes and Pharisees for allowing tradition to take precedence over God’s Word.)
The only way, therefore, to resolve this problem would be by acknowledging that the book of Revelation applies naos strictly to the sanctuary of the temple in the verses under consideration, and then to accept the obvious conclusions, which would result therefrom.
Appendix
On page 882 of the Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, (Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, Grand Rapids, Michigan, Vol. IV, edited by Gerhard Kittel; Geoffrey W. Bromiley, D. Litt., D.D., translator and editor), Dr. O. Michel writes: “In the N[ew] T[estament], in addition to [hieron, hagion] … we also find [naos] … with no real distinction between the terms in either meaning or range.” He further states on page 884 in support of this view: “If [naos] is taken to mean the temple in the narrower sense, one may ask how Judas could bring the money into it, since only priests were allowed access. We may thus assume that it is used in a broader sense, as in Jn.”
However, as already demonstrated in footnotes number 7 and 8, there is more than one way to explain this text without having to conclude that Matthew was using naos in a broader sense to include the entire temple area. The Expositor’s Bible Commentary (Frank E. Gaebele in and J.D. Douglas, editors; copyright 1984 by the Zondervan Publishing House, Grand Rapids, Michigan), specifically addresses the comments found in the Theological Dictionary of the New Testament and states on page 566 of Volume 8:
O. Michel (TDNT, 4:882-5) and G. Schrenk (TDNT, 3:235) argue that there is no necessary difference between … (naos, “temple [sanctuary]”) and … (hieron, “temple [and its precincts]”). If so, then the use of the former in this verse means no more than that Judas threw the money somewhere in the temple area. But a fairly strong case can be made for maintaining a distinction between the words in Matthew’s usage: naos is used only of the temple proper, the sanctuary, in 23:16-17, 21; 27:51, and, metaphorically, in 26:61; 27:40; whereas hieron is used of the temple and its precincts in 4:5; 21:12, 14-15, 23; 24:1; 26:55 (cf. Garland, p. 199, n.117). It is possible that hieron is a trifle forced in 12:5; but since it is the encompassing term and not all the priests’ functions took place in the temple proper, the use still admits the traditional distinction between the terms. That leaves only 27:5; but in the narrow sense of naos, Judas would normally not have been allowed to enter. That may be just the point: feeling damned already, he has nothing more to lose; and in desperation he runs into the temple proper and flings down his money before he can be stopped. Thus he deeply incriminates the priests, a further example of 23:35.
* Note — The following correspondence was exchanged with the Watchtower Society regarding the August 15, 1980 issue of The Watchtower.
How the Bible Uses “Before” (enopion) in the Book of Revelation
Page 123 of the book Revelation—It’s Grand Climax At Hand! points out that “the Greek word here translated [at Revelation 7:9] ‘before’ (enopion) literally means ‘in [the] sight [of)’ and is used several times of humans on earth who are ‘before’ or ‘in the sight of’ Jehovah. (1 Timothy 5:21; 2 Timothy 2:14; Romans 14:22; Galatians 1:20)” When considered in context in the book of Revelation, however, the sense in which this word is used becomes more plain:
Revelation 1:4
“seven spirits that are before (enopion) his [God’s] throne, …”
Revelation 4:5
“seven lamps of fire burning before (enopion) the throne [of God], …”
Revelation 4:6
“And before (enopion) the throne [of God] there is, as it were, a glassy sea like crystal.”
Revelation 4:10
“the twenty-four elders fall down before (enopion) the One seated upon the throne … and they cast their crowns before (enopion) the throne, …”
Revelatio
n 7:9
“a great crowd, … standing before (enopion) the throne and before (enopion) the Lamb. …”
Revelation 7:11
“And all the angels were standing around the throne and the elders and the four living creatures, and they fell upon their faces before (enopion) the throne and worshiped God, …”
Revelation 7:15
“That is why they [the great crowd] are before (enopion) the throne of God; and they are rendering him sacred service. …”
Revelation 8:3
“And another angel arrived and stood at the altar, having … incense … to offer … with the prayers of all the holy ones upon the golden altar that was before (enopion) the throne.”
Revelation 9:13
“And I heard one voice out of the horns of the golden altar that is before (enopion) God”
Revelation 11:16
“And the twenty-four elders who were seated before (enopion) God …”
Revelation 14:3
“And they [the 144,000] are singing as if a new song before (enopion) the throne and before (enopion) the four living creatures and the elders …”
Clearly, when considered within the entirety of the book of Revelation there seems little reason to doubt that the “great crowd” is “before the throne” in the same manner as the seven lamps of fire, the glassy sea like crystal, the crowns of the 24 elders, the angels, the elders themselves, the four living creatures, the golden altar, and the 144,000.13
1Revised in a two-volume work published in 1988 entitled Insight On The Scriptures.
2Jackson apparently had been assigned to sit in on hearings involving Spanish-speaking members. Though cautious with us, it seems he had been less discreet in his dealings with the Governing Body members under whose direction he had been acting, and he later felt it advisable to apologize to them in a letter. In correspondence which happened to pass through my hands in the Executive Offices, he said he felt horrified by some of the remarks he had made to members of the Governing Body and that, although his appreciation of their way of handling things had not been there at first, by the time of now writing, that appreciation had “blossomed” out to the full measure it should have been all along. In retrospect, however, it would appear from remarks I overheard him make to his stenographer at that time (Lee Waters) that he was mainly concerned with protecting himself. Jackson told Waters that he felt the serious judicial problems which had arisen could be attributed, at least in part, to the failure of the Governing Body to truly ‘devote themselves to the Word’ as the Scriptures say the apostles did at Acts 6:4. (Most Governing Body members have no direct involvement in the research and writing of published Biblical materials.)
3Bullet points in this chart are referenced in this treatise, in order to offer another Biblical interpretation to these arguments.
4Third bullet point. Ibid footnote 3.
5Second bullet point. Ibid footnote 3.
6Fourth bullet point. Ibid footnote 3.
7While Judas, in tossing his coins, may have entered into the courtyard of the priests (which was not normally accessible to non-priests), it seems unlikely that he actually went into the sanctuary or naos itself. The Greek word eis (“into”) would seem to preclude that possibility. If Judas “threw the silver pieces into (eis) the temple,” this Greek word presupposes that he himself was outside of the building. Hence, Judas may have gone into the portion of the courtyard immediately in front of the door to the Holy Place and, from this position, thrown his coins into the open door of the sanctuary. (Please see comments by R.C.H. Lenski.)
The word eis may also be rendered “toward” as shown in The Anchor Bible, translated by W.F. Albright and C.S. Mann (copyright 1971 by Doubleday & Co.). In this translation, Matthew 27:5 reads: “… Throwing down the silver pieces toward the Most Holy Place, he withdrew and went away and hanged himself.” (Emphasis added.) If Matthew merely intended to say that Judas cast the money “toward” the sanctuary, then, of course, he would not necessarily have had to have entered any restricted areas of the temple. Simply throwing the coins in the direction of the sanctuary from one of the temple precincts would have been sufficient for Matthew’s description of the incident to have been accurate. (Examples of eis being translated by the word “toward” may be found at Acts 24:15 and 2 Corinthians 9:8 in the New World Translation.)
8According to page 1081 of the extensive work Der Tempel Von Jerusalem by Th. A. Busink (Leiden, E.J. Brill, 1980), Josephus uses the word “neõs (=naos)” to indicate the “whole inner sanctuary,” including the courtyard of the priests with its walls, but excluding the outer courtyards like the courtyard of the Gentiles. He cites Josephus’ Wars of the Jews, Book V, Chapter 5, section 3, clause number 201 as an example of this usage. If Matthew 27:5 uses naos in this same sense, then Judas may have cast the silver pieces “into” the naos without having to have gone into a restricted area. Simply tossing the coins into the courtyard of the priests from a location he would normally have been permitted to enter would have been sufficient for Matthew’s account to have been accurate.
9First bullet point. Ibid footnote 3.
10Page 123 of Revelation—Its Grand Climax At Hand! states that “the Greek word here translated “before” (enopion) literally means “in [the] sight [of]” and is used several times of humans on earth who are “before” or “in the sight of” Jehovah. (1 Timothy 5:21; 2 Timothy 2:14; Romans 14:2; Galatians 1:20)” The implication is then made of Matthew 25:32, where it speaks of all the nations being gathered “before” the Son of Man, somehow supports this. However, the Greek word translated “before” in this text is emprosthen, not enopion. (This is indirectly acknowledged in the footnote at the bottom of page 123, which admits the Greek word used here means literally, “in front of him,” not “in [the] sight [of]”.) Rather than searching elsewhere for examples of how enopion (“before”) is used, it would seem far more logical and scholastically honest to see how this word is used in context—in the book of Revelation itself. As indicated in the above chart, enopion (“in [the] sight [of]”) is consistently and repeatedly used of things and persons in heaven (often times “before the throne”). — Revelation 1:4; 4:5-6, 10; 7:11; 8:3; 9:13; 11:16; 14:3; also see chart “How the Bible Uses “Before” (enopion) in the Book of Revelation” found on the page before the “References” at the end of this treatise.
11It would be far easier to argue for a literal application of the number 144,000 if the 12 tribes of 12,000 were understood in a literal sense as a reference to fleshly Israel. If this were done, the interpretation would at least be consistent with itself throughout this whole passage of scripture.
Regarding the symbolic nature of the number “144,000” The Interpreters One-Volume Commentary On The Bible notes on page 955: “The 2nd vision in this interlude [the “great crowd”] is not intended as a contrast to the first. The 144,000 symbolize the church as the true Israel while still militant on the earth. The great multitude which no man could number from all national, racial, and linguistic groups is the church triumphant in heaven. …” It is worth noting (as this commentary observes) the 144,000 are presented first as an earthly group in Revelation chapter 7. The “four angels standing upon the four corners of the earth” are instructed not to “harm the earth or the sea or the trees” until the 144,000 are “sealed … in their foreheads” while still on earth. It isn’t until Revelation 14 that the 144,000 are pictured in heaven, perhaps, (as pointed out by some commentators) to stress a note of fulfillment here. In the seventh chapter of Revelation, 144,000 were sealed on earth while they were confronted by their enemies. Now, in the fourteenth chapter, the complete number of 144,000 (representing the whole church) are saved and are in heaven, not one of them being lost.
12The other courts of the literal temple were accessible only to Jews and therefore would not appropriately picture those not considered to be “spiritual Jews.” Those of the “great crowd” are not really included among the 144,000 “spiritual Jews,” accord
ing to Watchtower Society teachings but only “hold … the skirt of a man who is a Jew” according to their figurative application of Zechariah 8:23. (See the April 15, 1986 issue of The Watchtower, Page 20, paragraph 21; also the January 1, 1988 edition of The Watchtower. pages 17 and 18, paragraph 18.) Hence, the 1972 publication Paradise Restored To Mankind—By Theocracy!, states on page 80: “[T]his ‘great crowd’ of ‘other sheep’ are already at the spiritual temple of Jehovah God. … … Not being the sealed spiritual Israelites, they are, as it were, in the Court of the Gentiles such as was a part of the temple at Jerusalem in the days of Jesus Christ and his apostles.” (See also Ephesians 2:14 which undoubtedly alludes to the wall in the outermost courtyard of the Jerusalem temple beyond which non-Jews were forbidden to pass.)
13Fifth bullet point. Ibid footnote 3.
References
1.John 4:24
2.Matthew 7:7
3.1Thessalonians 5:21
4.1 John 4:1
5.Acts 17:11
6.A New Dictionary of Quotations On Historical Principles From Ancient And Modem Sources (New York, Alfred A. Knopf, 1942). p. 378. (Third quotation on page.)
7.The Kingdom Interlinear Translation of the Greek Scriptures (1985 edition), p. 1080. (Note the expression “divine habitation” for the Greek word noas [naõ in this instance since it is in the dative case] in the literal translation under the Greek text in Revelation 7:15.)
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