Verse Lens · Expanded explanation
Revelation 20:2 Explained in Context
Use this verse as a doorway into the larger passage—not as an isolated saying.
Verse 2. 2And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years,
King James Version — public domain in the United States · Bible text and permissions
Quick Meaning
This verse binds the dragon, explicitly identified as serpent, Devil, and Satan, for a thousand years.
Read It With
- Revelation 20:1-6
Read Revelation 20:2 with 20:1-6. This verse binds the dragon, explicitly identified as serpent, Devil, and Satan, for a thousand years. The complete unit's controlling movement is: An angel confines Satan from deceiving nations for a thousand years; faithful witnesses live and reign with Christ in the first resurrection, blessed as priests beyond the second death.
Why This Verse Appears Here
The preceding movement establishes: Revelation 19:17-21 established this prior movement: Birds are summoned to a battlefield feast; beast, false prophet, kings, and armies gather, the deceivers are captured for the fire lake, and the mouth-sword defeats the remainder. This unit then contributes: An angel confines Satan from deceiving nations for a thousand years; faithful witnesses live and reign with Christ in the first resurrection, blessed as priests beyond the second death. The following movement develops: Revelation 20:7-10 continues the book through this next movement: After the thousand years Satan deceives Gog and Magog into surrounding the saints, but fire from God ends the attack and the deceiver joins beast and false prophet in final punishment. At Revelation 20:2, this verse binds the dragon, explicitly identified as serpent, Devil, and Satan, for a thousand years.
Follow the Context
- The binding and thousand-year reign form one time-marked scene before Satan's release in verse 7.
- An angel confines Satan from deceiving nations for a thousand years; faithful witnesses live and reign with Christ in the first resurrection, blessed as priests beyond the second death.
- Premillennial readings place Christ's return before a future reign; amillennial readings see the present heavenly reign; postmillennial readings expect gospel-shaped historical transformation. First resurrection may be bodily, heavenly life, regeneration, or vindication; no view erases the passage's constraints.
What This Verse Is Not Saying
Revelation 20:2 does not turn the fact that it binds the dragon, explicitly identified as serpent, Devil, and Satan, for a thousand years into a standalone universal rule.
What Remains True
Revelation 20:2 shows that binds the dragon, explicitly identified as serpent, Devil, and Satan, for a thousand years; its faithful force remains governed by creator worship, the slain Lamb, truthful witness, patient endurance, justice, and new creation.
How It Can Shape Life
- Use Revelation 20:2 by attending to its actual contribution: it binds the dragon, explicitly identified as serpent, Devil, and Satan, for a thousand years. Before a modern analogy, explain this role inside Revelation 20:1-6, state the unit's uncertainty or first-century control, and refuse unsupported mapping or coercive imitation.
Teach It Back
Explain Revelation 20:2's specific contribution to Revelation 20:1-6: binds the dragon, explicitly identified as serpent, Devil, and Satan, for a thousand years. Include the surrounding movement, one material uncertainty, and what the verse does not authorize.
Your explanation stays in this browser. It is not sent or saved.
Continue in Context
The full thought-unit study remains the final contextual authority for this Verse Lens.
Read Revelation 20:1-6 — Satan Is Bound and the Faithful Reign for a Thousand YearsSources used for this Verse Lens
How certain is this explanation? probable
Where care is needed
The package keeps the leading alternatives visible and weights them by textual, historical, literary, and reception evidence rather than pretending every proposal is equally strong. Premillennial readings place Christ's return before a future reign; amillennial readings see the present heavenly reign; postmillennial readings expect gospel-shaped historical transformation. First resurrection may be bodily, heavenly life, regeneration, or vindication; no view erases the passage's constraints.
These are the sources used directly for this lens. Language, grammar, disagreements, and the complete source shelf remain attached to the full thought-unit research record.
Biblical text
King James (Authorized) Version — eng-kjv2006
eBible.org and CrossWire Bible Society
USFM archive eng-kjv2006_usfm.zip; source files dated 2026-08-19; downloaded 2026-08-24; archive SHA-256 aec1b3b26c622fd3d963d2bbac963016b9513246ffbfa20da00bb100372ea007; normalized corpus SHA-256 09aef51d90488aa7b9722b3fd9a93f4b25f6bf2064c5fd798fb39673c300ddf2.
Supports: Exact reader-facing KJV wording, paragraph markers, supplied-word markup, and complete coverage.
Exact location: Revelation 20:1-6, pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM corpus
Open source ↗Greek textual evidence
The Greek New Testament: SBL Edition
Michael W. Holmes, editor; Society of Biblical Literature and Logos
Society of Biblical Literature and Logos Bible Software, 2010
Supports: Greek wording and sentence relations checked independently of the KJV.
Exact location: Faithlife SBLGNT official repository, data/sblgnt/text/Revelation.txt, 20:1-6
Open the Revelation Greek text file ↗Translation and textual notes
NET Bible — Revelation with translators' and textual notes
Biblical Studies Press
Biblical Studies Press, 2005–2026 online edition
Supports: Verse-level translation, syntax, textual variants, imagery, cross-references, and stated alternatives.
Exact location: NET Bible Revelation PDF, printed pp. 2408–2447, 20:1-6 and attached translator/textual notes
Open the official NET Revelation PDF ↗