---
title: Revelation 20:2
url: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/revelation-20-2/
markdown: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/revelation-20-2.md
type: verse
perspective: Protestant (historic Nicene) response to Jehovah's Witness teaching
reference: Revelation 20:2
testament: NT
section: Prophecy
index: https://jw-apologetics.app/llms.txt
---

# Revelation 20:2

## Text (Berean Standard Bible)

> He seized the dragon, that ancient serpent who is the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years.

## NWT Wording of the Key Phrase

- NWT (2013 revision): "He seized the dragon, the original serpent, who is the Devil and Satan, and bound him for 1,000 years"

## JW Usage

Watchtower commentary takes Revelation 20:2 as describing a literal future binding of Satan for exactly 1,000 years. The "original serpent" identification refers back to Genesis 3 and confirms that Satan is the same being who deceived Eve in Eden — providing the foundation for the Watchtower's broader doctrine of Satan as a created spirit being who rebelled.

## Protestant Usage

The binding is real, but Reformed readings hold it began at Christ's first coming. Jesus said in Matthew 12:29: "How can anyone invade the house of a strong man and seize his movable goods, unless first he binds the strong man? And then he will plunder his house." The Greek "bind" (deo) shares its root with "bound" in Revelation 20:2. Jesus is arguing the binding has already begun — the casting out of demons is the evidence. The thousand years are the church age — symbolic of the indefinite period between Christ's resurrection and his bodily return — during which the gospel reaches the nations precisely because Satan can no longer keep them in darkness.

## NWT Issue

The NWT renders ho ophis ho archaios as "the original serpent" rather than "the ancient serpent" (consensus ESV/ NASB/NIV; KJV "old serpent"). Defensible but unusual — archaios in Greek means "from the beginning, long-existing," which "ancient" captures more naturally than "original." The choice reads as etymological rather than semantic.

## Arguments Using This Verse

- [Armageddon, the Millennium, and the Assurance Watchtower Cannot Give](https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/jw-armageddon-millennium-doctrine.md) — Revelation 19-20 / 2 Peter 3:9 / 1 John 5:13 [Eschatology]