δοῦλοι (douloi) in Revelation 22:3: Noun Nominative Plural Masculine
δοῦλοι (douloi) in Revelation 22:3
Textual Witness
The witness reads οἱ δοῦλοι αὐτοῦ in Revelation 22:3, with the plural noun standing inside the final promise sentence.
How The Form Affects Interpretation
The grammar sharpens the subject of the promise without changing the basic meaning of the lemma, and it highlights collective belonging and service.
How To Communicate It
In teaching and translation, this form supports a rendering like 'his servants' and helps the reader hear the clause as a promise about devoted people, not merely about an abstract status.
What Not To Say
- Grammatical form should serve context, not override it.
- Masculine grammatical gender here is a form feature, not a theological claim about persons.
- If syntax is uncertain, keep the interpretation conservative and tied to the immediate clause.
What Does The Label Mean?
Noun: this form names persons who belong to someone in a relationship of service or subjection, and here the word points to a group rather than a thing.
Nominative: this form usually marks the subject or a predicate role, and in this clause it identifies who will do the action that follows.
Plural: the form is grammatically plural here, so it presents the servants as a group rather than as a single individual.
Masculine: this is the masculine grammatical class in this form, but that feature by itself does not make a theological claim about sex or status.
What The Form Does In This Verse
οἱ δοῦλοι αὐτοῦ
The noun is framed by the article and the possessive pronoun, and the following verb shows that this noun phrase is the subject of the service described in the clause.
It functions as the named subject of the sentence: the ones who belong to him are the ones who will serve him.
It is not the direct object of the verb, and the form alone does not decide whether the phrase carries a special title, office, or theological rank.
How Much The Form Matters Here
High: The nominative plural names the servants who will serve, clarifying the subject of a promise in Revelation 22.
Collective subject. identifies the people who perform the service described by the clause. Attached to the article and possessive phrase his servants. Governed by the following verbal statement about service. The plural form marks the group, while the possessive phrase anchors their identity in belonging.
Who is said to serve? His servants are the collective subject of the clause, the ones who belong to him and will serve him.
Direct: The nominative plural directly supports an English subject phrase such as his servants.
The subject role is clear enough in context, but the form alone should not decide office, rank, or every identity implication.
Nominative plural creates a special rank by itself: The form identifies the subject group, but the surrounding promise decides what is being said about them. masculine plural excludes all but males: Masculine plural is a grammatical form here and should not be turned into an exclusionary claim without textual warrant.
How The Interpretation Is Derived
The witness reads οἱ δοῦλοι αὐτοῦ in Revelation 22:3, with the plural noun standing inside the final promise sentence.
The lemma δοῦλος normally means slave or servant, so the word carries the sense of one who belongs to and serves another.
The nominative plural, with the article and possessive pronoun, marks a group already in relation to him and prepares for the plural verb λατρεύσουσιν.
In this setting, the grammar supports the picture of loyal servants in the renewed order who render worshipful service to God and the Lamb.
This fits the book's larger theme of faithful allegiance, where service to God replaces all rival claims and the saints are marked by devotion.
For readers, the form helps the sentence sound corporate and relational: it is about a people who belong to him and actively serve him.
Do not derive from the masculine plural alone that the verse excludes women, assigns office, or makes a statement about biological sex.