---
title: Revelation 4:10
url: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/revelation-4-10/
markdown: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/revelation-4-10.md
type: verse
perspective: Protestant (historic Nicene) response to Jehovah's Witness teaching
reference: Revelation 4:10
testament: NT
section: Prophecy
index: https://jw-apologetics.app/llms.txt
---

# Revelation 4:10

## Text (Berean Standard Bible)

> the twenty-four elders fall down before the One seated on the throne, and they worship Him who lives forever and ever. They cast their crowns before the throne, saying:

## NWT Wording of the Key Phrase

- NWT (2013 revision): "the 24 elders fall down before the One seated on the throne and worship the One who lives forever and ever, and they cast their crowns before the throne"

## JW Usage

Watchtower commentary identifies the 24 elders as the 144,000 anointed Christians collectively or as a heavenly council. Their worship of "the One who lives forever and ever" is directed at Jehovah; their casting of crowns expresses the kingly authority delegated by the Father to the heavenly class. The elders' presence in the throne room is taken as confirmation of the heavenly hope reserved for 144,000.

## Protestant Usage

The 24 elders are clearly in heaven before Jehovah's throne. They worship — proskuneō, the worship-verb — and the NWT renders it "worship" here because the object is the Father. Compare with Revelation 5:14, where the same verb describes the same posture toward the One on the throne AND the Lamb jointly. The Watchtower's reading must explain why the worship of the Father here naturally pairs with the worship of the Lamb there. If worship of the One on the throne is real worship in 4:10, then worship of the One on the throne and the Lamb is real worship in 5:14 — and the Lamb receives it with the Father, not as a channel.

## Arguments Using This Verse

- [144,000 Literal or Symbolic — Revelation's Internal Consistency Test](https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/144000-literal-symbolic.md) — Revelation 7:4–8 / Revelation 14:1–5 / Revelation 19:1 [Salvation]