αὐτοῦ (autou) in Revelation 22:3: Genitive Singular Masculine
αὐτοῦ (autou) in Revelation 22:3
Textual Witness
The witness reads αὐτοῦ in Revelation 22:3 within the phrase καὶ οἱ δοῦλοι αὐτοῦ λατρεύσουσιν αὐτῷ.
How The Form Affects Interpretation
The form helps the reader hear continuity in the verse: the servants belong to the same referent who is already central to the scene, and their worshipful service is directed accordingly.
How To Communicate It
For readers, the genitive makes the ownership or association explicit enough to keep the verse coherent and to support a smooth, context-sensitive translation.
What Not To Say
- Grammatical form should serve context, not override it.
- Masculine gender here is a grammatical feature, not a theological claim about gender.
- A genitive pronoun shows relationship, but the exact relation must be read from the clause and verse, not from morphology alone.
What Does The Label Mean?
Pronoun: the word points to an already identified person or referent rather than naming it directly.
Genitive: the form usually marks a relationship such as possession, source, association, or belonging in context.
Singular: the form is grammatically singular in this occurrence and points to one referent in the clause.
Masculine: the form is marked masculine, but that grammatical class by itself does not create a theological gender claim.
What The Form Does In This Verse
It follows the noun δοῦλοι and sits before λατρεύσουσιν in the clause.
The genitive is best read as linked to the nearby slave language, identifying whose servants are in view in the sentence.
It functions as a possessive or relational reference, pointing back to the one already mentioned in the verse context.
It is not the subject of λατρεύσουσιν, and it does not by itself introduce a new referent or new action.
How Much The Form Matters Here
High: The genitive pronoun identifies whose servants are serving, which keeps belonging and worship aligned in the verse.
Genitive pronoun modifying servants. marks the servants as belonging to or associated with the same referent in the throne scene. Attached to the his servants phrase. Governed by the noun phrase naming the servants. The genitive clarifies relationship; the following dative marks the recipient of their service.
Whose servants are in view? They are the servants of the referent already central to the throne scene.
Direct: The form directly supports his servants.
The genitive shows relation to the servants but does not by itself settle every referential question in the verse. Read this pronoun together with the nearby dative pronoun rather than treating either form in isolation.
Genitive relation alone proves a doctrinal formula: The pronoun marks whose servants are named; doctrine must rest on the full throne-scene statement.
How The Interpretation Is Derived
The witness reads αὐτοῦ in Revelation 22:3 within the phrase καὶ οἱ δοῦλοι αὐτοῦ λατρεύσουσιν αὐτῷ.
The lemma αὐτός is a common pronoun that can refer back to a previously identified person or thing, here in a genitive singular masculine form.
In this clause the genitive naturally ties the slaves to the referent already present in the verse, while the later dative αὐτῷ marks the one they serve.
The sentence portrays God's servants as belonging to and serving the same divine referent associated with the throne and the Lamb.
This fits the chapter's vision of restored order, where God's presence is direct and service is exclusive to the one enthroned.
In translation or teaching, this form supports a clear relational reading such as 'his servants' rather than leaving the relationship vague.
Do not infer more from the masculine genitive than the grammar allows, and do not treat the form as changing the lemma or overriding the immediate context.