Revelation 1:14

Murdock Translation

And his head and his hair were white, like white wool, like snow; and his eyes, like a flame of fire:

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
The hair of his head was white as wool—white as snow—and his eyes like a fiery flame.

King James Version (1611)
His head, and his haires were white like wooll as white as snow, and his eyes were as a flame of fire,

King James Version
His head and his hairs were white like wool, as white as snow; and his eyes were as a flame of fire;

English Standard Version
The hairs of his head were white, like white wool, like snow. His eyes were like a flame of fire,

New American Standard Bible
His head and His hair were white like white wool, like snow; and His eyes were like a flame of fire.

New Century Version
His head and hair were white like wool, as white as snow, and his eyes were like flames of fire.

New American Standard Bible (1995)
His head and His hair were white like white wool, like snow; and His eyes were like a flame of fire.

Berean Standard Bible
The hair of His head was white like wool, as white as snow, and His eyes were like a blazing fire.

Contemporary English Version
His head and his hair were white as wool or snow, and his eyes looked like flames of fire.

Complete Jewish Bible
His head and hair were as white as snow-white wool, his eyes like a fiery flame ,

Darby Translation
his head and hair white like white wool, as snow; and his eyes as a flame of fire;

Easy-to-Read Version
His head and hair were white like wool—wool that is white as snow. His eyes were like flames of fire.

Geneva Bible (1587)
His head, & heares were white as white wooll, and as snowe, and his eyes were as a flame of fire,

George Lamsa Translation
His head and his hair were white like wool, as white as snow; and his eyes were as a flame of fire;

Good News Translation
His hair was white as wool, or as snow, and his eyes blazed like fire;

Lexham English Bible
and his head and hair were white like wool, white as snow, and his eyes were like a fiery flame,

Literal Translation
And the hairs of His head were white as white wool, as snow, and His eyes as a flame of fire;

Amplified Bible
His head and His hair were white like white wool, [glistening white] like snow; and His [all-seeing] eyes were [flashing] like a flame of fire [piercing into my being].

American Standard Version
And his head and his hair were white as white wool, white as snow; and his eyes were as a flame of fire;

Bible in Basic English
And his head and his hair were white like wool, as white as snow; and his eyes were as a flame of fire;

Hebrew Names Version
His head and his hair were white as white wool, like snow. His eyes were like a flame of fire.

International Standard Version
His head and his hair were white like wool, in fact, as white as snow. His eyes were like flames of fire,[xr]

Etheridge Translation
But his head and hair were white as wool, white as snow; and his eyes (were) as a flame of fire,

Bishop's Bible (1568)
His head, and his heeres were whyte as whyte wooll, and as snowe, and his eyes were as a flambe of fyre.

English Revised Version
And his head and his hair were white as white wool, white as snow; and his eyes were as a flame of fire;

World English Bible
His head and his hair were white as white wool, like snow. His eyes were like a flame of fire.

Wesley's New Testament (1755)
His head and hair were white as white wool, as snow,

Weymouth's New Testament
His head and His hair were white, like white wool--as white as snow; and His eyes resembled a flame of fire.

Wycliffe Bible (1395)
And the heed of hym and his heeris weren whijt, as whijt wolle, and as snow; and the iyen of hym as flawme of fier,

Update Bible Version
And his head and his hair were white as white wool, [white] as snow; and his eyes were as a flame of fire;

Webster's Bible Translation
His head and [his] hairs [were] white like wool, as white as snow; and his eyes [were] as a flame of fire;

New English Translation
His head and hair were as white as wool, even as white as snow, and his eyes were like a fiery flame.

New King James Version
His head and hair were white like wool, as white as snow, and His eyes like a flame of fire;

New Living Translation
His head and his hair were white like wool, as white as snow. And his eyes were like flames of fire.

New Life Bible
His head and His hair were white like white wool. They were as white as snow. His eyes were like fire.

New Revised Standard
His head and his hair were white as white wool, white as snow; his eyes were like a flame of fire,

J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
And his head and hair, white, like white wool - like snow, and, his eyes, like a flame of fire,

Douay-Rheims Bible
And his head and his hairs were white as white wool and as snow. And his eyes were as a flame of fire:

Revised Standard Version
his head and his hair were white as white wool, white as snow; his eyes were like a flame of fire,

Tyndale New Testament (1525)
His heed and his heares were whyte as whyte woll and as snowe: and his eyes were as a flame of fyre:

Young's Literal Translation
and his head and hairs white, as if white wool -- as snow, and his eyes as a flame of fire;

Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
His heed, and his heares were whyte, as whyte woll, & as snowe: and his eyes were as a flamme of fyre:

Mace New Testament (1729)
his head and his hairs were white like wool, as white as snow; and his eyes were as a flame of fire; his feet were like fine brass,

Simplified Cowboy Version
His hair was exquisitely white and his eyes blazed brighter than the sun.

Contextual Overview

⁹ I John, your brother, and partaker with you in the affliction and suffering that are in Jesus the Messiah, was in the island called Patmos, because of the word of God, and because of the testimony of Jesus the Messiah. ¹⁰ I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day; and I heard behind me a great voice, as of a trumpet, which said: ¹¹ That which thou seest, write in a book, and send to the seven churches, to Ephesus, and to Smyrna, and to Pergamos, and to Thyatira, and to Sardis, and to Philadelphia, and to Laodicea. ¹² And I turned myself to look at the voice that talked with me; and when I had turned, I saw seven candlesticks of gold; ¹³ and, in the midst of the candlesticks, one like the Son of man, clothed to the feet, and girded about his paps with a girdle of gold. ¹⁴ And his head and his hair were white, like white wool, like snow; and his eyes, like a flame of fire: ¹⁵ and his feet were like fine brass, flaming in a furnace: and his voice, like the sound of many waters. ¹⁶ And he had in his right hand seven stars; and from his mouth issued a sharp twoedged sword; and his visage was like the sun shining in its strength. ¹⁷ And when I saw him, I fell at his feet like one dead. And he laid his right hand upon me, and said, Fear not: I am the First and the Last; ¹⁸ and who liveth and was dead; and behold, I am alive for ever and ever. Amen. And I have the keys of death and of the unseen world.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

and his hairs: Daniel 7:9, Matthew 28:3

and his eyes: Revelation 2:18, Revelation 19:12, Daniel 10:6

Reciprocal: Job 10:4 - seest thou Job 41:18 - the eyelids Song of Solomon 5:11 - his locks Song of Solomon 7:5 - the hair Ezekiel 1:27 - the appearance of fire Ezekiel 8:2 - I beheld

Cross-References

Matthew 2:2
saying: Where is the king of the Jews that is born? For we have seen his star in the east, and have come to worship him.

Matthew 24:29
And immediately after the distress of those days, the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not show her light, and the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of heaven will be agitated.

Mark 13:24
And in those days, after that affliction, the sun will be darkened; and the moon will not give her light;

Luke 23:45
And the sun was darkened, and the curtain of the door of the temple was rent through its middle.

Revelation 6:12
And I looked, when he had opened the sixth seal, and there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black, like sackcloth of hair; and the whole moon became like blood.

Revelation 8:12
And the fourth angel sounded, and a third part of the sun was smitten, and the third part of the moon, and the third part of the stars; so that the third part of them were dark, and they became dark; and the day did not give light for the third part of it, and the night in like manner.

Revelation 9:2
And he opened the pit of the abyss; and smoke issued from the pit, like the smoke of a furnace that is in blast; and the sun and the air were darkened by the smoke of the pit.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

His head and [his] hairs [were] white like wool, as white as snow,.... In allusion to the white head and hairs of old men, said to be hoary, or like the hoar frost, and compared to an almond tree in bloom, Ecclesiastes 12:5; and here to wool and snow for whiteness; see

Ezekiel 27:18; and according to the Jews p, צמר לבן, "white wool", is the wool of a lamb just born, about which a cloth is bound, that it may not be defiled; now these metaphors are expressive of the antiquity of Christ, who is the everlasting Father, and whose goings forth were of old, even from everlasting; and of his senile gravity and prudence, for with the Ancient is wisdom; he is the wisdom of God, in whom all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hid; and also of his glory and majesty, being the brightness of his Father's glory; and likewise of his true and proper deity, since this description is the same with that of the Ancient of days in Daniel 7:9; for by his head is not here meant either God the Father, who is sometimes called the head of Christ, 1 Corinthians 11:3, nor his divine nature, which is the chief and principal in him, nor his headship over the church; nor do his hairs intend his elect, which grow upon him, and are nourished by him, and are so called for their number, weakness, and purity:

and his eyes [were] as a flame of fire: see Daniel 10:6; which may design the omniscience of Christ, which reaches to all persons, and things, and is very searching and penetrating, and discovers and brings to light things the most dark and obscure; and also Christ's eyes of love upon his own people, which have both heat and light; Christ's love never waxes cold, and, being shed abroad in the hearts of his people, warms theirs; and in the light of his gracious countenance do they see light; and his love, like flames of fire, melts their souls into a true and genuine repentance for sin: or else, rather his eyes of wrath and vengeance, as set upon his enemies, are here meant: which will be fierce and furious, bring swift and sudden destruction on them, before which there is no standing, and from which there is no fleeing. It is said of Augustus Caesar, that he had fiery eyes q.

p T. Bab. Sabbat, fol. 54. 1. Maimon. & Bartenora in Misn. Sabbat, c. 5. sect. 2. q Servius in Virgil. Aeneid. l. 8. p. 13. 55.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

His head and his hairs were white like wool, as white as snow - Exceedingly or perfectly white - the first suggestion to the mind of the apostle being that of wool, and then the thought occurring of its extreme whiteness resembling snow - the purest white of which the mind conceives. The comparison with wool and snow to denote anything especially white is not uncommon. See Isaiah 1:18. Prof. Stuart supposes that this means, not that his hairs were literally white, as if with age, which he says would be incongruous to one just risen from the dead, clothed with immortal youth and vigor, but that it means radiant, bright, resplendent - similar to what occurred on the transfiguration of the Saviour, Matthew 17:2. But to this it may be replied:

1. That this would not accord well with that with which his hair is compared - snow and wool, particularly the latter.
2. The usual meaning of the word is more obvious here, and not at all inappropriate.

The representation was suited to signify majesty and authority; and this would be best accomplished by the image of one who was venerable in years. Thus, in the vision that appeared to Daniel Daniel 7:9, it is said of him who is there called the “Ancient of Days,” that “his garment was white as snow, and the hair of his head like the pure wool.” It is not improbable that John had that representation in his eye, and that therefore he would be impressed with the conviction that this was a manifestation of a divine person. We are not necessarily to suppose that this is the form in which the Saviour always appears now in heaven, anymore than we are to suppose that God appears always in the form in which he was manifested to Isaiah Isaiah 6:1, to Daniel Daniel 7:9, or to Moses and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu in the mount, Exodus 24:10-11. The representation is, that this form was assumed for the purpose of impressing the mind of the apostle with a sense of his majesty and glory.

And his eyes were as a flame of fire - Bright, sharp, penetrating; as if everything was light before them, or they would penetrate into the thoughts of people. Such a representation is not uncommon. We speak of a lightning glance, a fiery look, etc. In Daniel 10:6, it is said of the man who appeared to the prophet on the banks of the river Hiddekel, that his eyes were “as lamps of fire.” Numerous instances of this comparison from the Greek and Latin Classics may be seen in Wetstein, in loco.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Revelation 1:14. His head and his hairs were white like wool — This was not only an emblem of his antiquity, but it was the evidence of his glory; for the whiteness or splendour of his head and hair doubtless proceeded from the rays of light and glory which encircled his head, and darted from it in all directions. The splendour around the head was termed by the Romans nimbus, and by us a glory; and was represented round the heads of gods, deified persons, and saints. It is used in the same way through almost all the nations of the earth.

His eyes were as a flame of fire — To denote his omniscience, and the all-penetrating nature of the Divine knowledge.