Judgment given

At the beginning of the millennium, the saints sit on thrones and “judgment is given to them” (Revelation 20:4). The phrase is ambiguous: Does this mean “the power to judge was given them” or “they received a favorable judgment from the court?” The context of Revelation doesn’t decide the issue, but the phrase comes from Daniel 7, and that source text provides an answer. The phrase occurs in Daniel 7:22, in the midst of the angel’s explanation of the vision that Daniel has just witnessed. He is explaining the “little horn” who “wages war with the saints and overpowers them” (v. 21). But at this point the Ancient of Days arrives, and “judgment was given to the saints of the Highest One,” with the result that the saints “took possession of the kingdom” (v. 22).

In context, “judgment given” means that the Ancient of Days gives the saints victory over the horn. That is an act of judgment insofar as the war between the horn and the saints is imagined as a judicial contest, a struggle over the right, which the Ancient of Days decides. Thus, “judgment is given” in the sense that the Ancient of Days decides in favor of the saints in their real-world struggle with the horn. This is the “deliverdict” declared by the Ancient of Days, His enacted justification of His holy ones.

But the text immediately goes on to say that the saints receive a kingdom and as the text proceeds it is clear that they are given power to rule (vv. 27-28). Revelation has the same sequence: The martyr-saints who are “given judgment” reign with Christ for a thousand hears. Justification by the Ancient of Days takes the form of victory in a historical struggle, but also results in the elevation of the justified to rule.