---
title: Revelation 20:3
url: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/revelation-20-3/
markdown: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/revelation-20-3.md
type: verse
perspective: Protestant (historic Nicene) response to Jehovah's Witness teaching
reference: Revelation 20:3
testament: NT
section: Prophecy
index: https://jw-apologetics.app/llms.txt
---

# Revelation 20:3

## Text (Berean Standard Bible)

> And he threw him into the Abyss, shut it, and sealed it over him, so that he could not deceive the nations until the thousand years were complete. After that, he must be released for a brief period of time.

## NWT Wording of the Key Phrase

- NWT (2013 revision): "so that he would not mislead the nations anymore until the 1,000 years were ended"

## JW Usage

Watchtower commentary reads Revelation 20:3 as describing a total cessation of Satan's deceptive influence on humanity for a literal 1,000-year period after Armageddon. During the millennium, the resurrected and surviving humans live free of satanic deception under Christ's perfect rule. At the end of the thousand years, Satan is briefly released for a final testing of humanity (the "post-millennial test of all mankind").

## Protestant Usage

The verse provides the decisive clue to when the binding begins. Notice the purpose: "that he might not mislead the nations anymore until the 1,000 years were ended." Before Christ, the Gentile nations were under Satan's dominion (Acts 14:16; 17:30; Ephesians 2:1-3). After the resurrection and Pentecost, the gospel exploded out of Jerusalem to those very nations. That is exactly what Revelation 20:3 says the binding accomplishes — Satan can no longer keep the nations away from gospel truth. The change happened at Pentecost, not at a future date. The thousand years are the church age. The post-millennial release of Satan does not retest the resurrected saints; the New Testament teaches "it is appointed for men to die once, and after this the judgment" (Hebrews 9:27) — no triple-jeopardy salvation.

## NWT Issue

The NWT renders planaō as "mislead" rather than "deceive" (consensus ESV/NASB/NIV/KJV). Mild softening — planaō in classical and biblical Greek covers leading astray with the intent to deceive, and "deceive" is the standard rendering elsewhere in Revelation (12:9; 13:14; 19:20; 20:8, 10). Inconsistency with the NWT's own rendering of the same verb in surrounding context suggests stylistic variation rather than theological intent.

## 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]
- [Satan Is Not Omnipresent — Locomotion, Not Ubiquity](https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/satan-functional-omnipresence.md) — Job 1:7 — Going to and fro on the earth [Holy Spirit]