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Revelation 22 · a question people ask

"if anyone adds to them" (22:18). What are the words that no one is to add to or take away from?

In the text

The two verses say what words they mean. The first speaks "to everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book" (22:18), and its them are those words. The second speaks of anyone who "takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy" (22:19). Both end with the same four words, "written in this book" (22:18) and "written in this book" (22:19). These notes read the two verses of "the words of the prophecy of this book" (22:18), as they say, and of nothing else; they say nothing from them about any other book. Asked elsewhere in Favor names a question in another chapter that quotes them.

The verses

“I testify to everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: if anyone adds to them, God will add to him the plagues which are written in this book. If anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God will take away his part from the tree of life, and out of the holy city, which are written in this book.”
Revelation 22:18-19 · World English Bible

From Favor's study of Revelation 22

Revelation 22: A river of water of life

The chapter opens with "a river of water of life, clear as crystal" (22:1), and near its close it calls, "He who desires, let him take the water of life freely." (22:17) Its last verse is a blessing: "The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with all the saints. Amen." (22:21)

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Last reviewed October 12, 2026. Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible, which is in the public domain. Every answer cites the verses it rests on. What we believe · All Bible questions