μακάριοι (makarioi) in Revelation 22:14: Adjective Nominative Plural Masculine
μακάριοι (makarioi) in Revelation 22:14
Textual Witness
The witness reads μακάριοι at the opening of Revelation 22:14, and the nearby phrase οἱ ποιοῦντες τὰς ἐντολὰς αὐτοῦ identifies the people being described.
How The Form Affects Interpretation
The form adds a blessing claim to the obedient group already named, so the verse reads as a statement of favored standing rather than mere description.
How To Communicate It
In translation and teaching, this form can be rendered as a blessing statement, keeping the focus on the people described by their obedience.
What Not To Say
- Grammatical form should serve context, not override it.
- Masculine grammatical gender here is a form feature, not a theological gender claim.
- The adjective describes the people in the verse; it does not by itself create a new meaning beyond the surrounding clause.
What Does The Label Mean?
Adjective: the word describes the people in view by attributing a quality to them, rather than naming them as a noun would.
Nominative: the form is used in a clause-level role here, marking the blessed ones as the group being described.
Plural: the form refers to more than one person, fitting the collective group described in the verse.
Masculine: the grammatical class is masculine plural here, which fits the surrounding phrase and does not by itself make a theological gender claim.
What The Form Does In This Verse
οἱ ποιοῦντες τὰς ἐντολὰς αὐτοῦ
It stands with the article and participial phrase to describe the same people who are doing his commandments.
It functions as a predicate-style description: those people are called blessed or happy in relation to their obedient action.
It does not introduce a new subject or change the referent into a different group; it characterizes the group already in view.
How Much The Form Matters Here
High: The nominative adjective carries the blessing pronounced over those doing his commandments.
Predicate-style adjective in a blessing statement. describes the command-keeping group as blessed. Attached to οἱ ποιοῦντες τὰς ἐντολὰς αὐτοῦ. Governed by the beatitude-style clause. The adjective characterizes the group already named by the participial phrase and does not create a separate subject.
How are those doing his commandments described? The nominative adjective describes them as blessed.
Direct: The adjective directly affects the rendering of the clause as a blessing statement.
The adjective describes the group in view and should not be detached from the participial phrase. The masculine plural agrees with the group grammatically and should not be overread as a separate gender claim.
Adjective alone defines the whole doctrine of blessing: The adjective states blessedness in this clause; the passage context explains the obedient response. masculine agreement limits the blessing by gender: The masculine plural is grammatical agreement with the phrase and does not narrow the blessing apart from context.
How The Interpretation Is Derived
The witness reads μακάριοι at the opening of Revelation 22:14, and the nearby phrase οἱ ποιοῦντες τὰς ἐντολὰς αὐτοῦ identifies the people being described.
The lemma μακάριος commonly expresses blessedness, happiness, or favored standing, so the word points to a condition of being blessed rather than to a different lexical idea.
The nominative plural form works with the article and participle to describe a group in the verse. The grammar supports a declarative blessing over those who do what he commands.
In this verse, the form helps communicate that obedience and blessed standing are linked in the final promise of access and entry.
The use of blessed language fits biblical patterns where divine favor is tied to covenant life and faithful response.
For readers, the form signals a public declaration about a class of people, not an isolated label or abstract quality.
Do not derive a full theology from the case or number alone, and do not treat grammatical masculine gender as a direct statement about male persons only.