---
title: Revelation 5:10
url: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/revelation-5-10/
markdown: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/revelation-5-10.md
type: verse
perspective: Protestant (historic Nicene) response to Jehovah's Witness teaching
reference: Revelation 5:10
testament: NT
section: Prophecy
index: https://jw-apologetics.app/llms.txt
---

# Revelation 5:10

## Text (Berean Standard Bible)

> You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to serve our God, and they will reign upon the earth.”

## NWT Wording of the Key Phrase

- NWT (2013 revision): "and you made them to be a kingdom and priests to our God, and they are to rule as kings over the earth"

## JW Usage

Watchtower commentary takes Revelation 5:10 as decisive proof of the heavenly hope reserved for the 144,000. The NWT renders the verse "they are to rule as kings over the earth" — the 144,000 reign from heaven over the great crowd who live on a paradise earth. The two-class system is grounded here: kings in heaven, subjects on earth.

## Protestant Usage

Read the verse together with v9. The redeemed are bought "from every tribe and tongue and people and nation" (v9) — the Watchtower's own definition of the great crowd in 7:9. Now v10 says the same group is made "a kingdom and priests" and will reign. The Watchtower cannot have both "great crowd = every tribe and tongue" in chapter 7 and "144,000 = every tribe and tongue" in chapter 5. Same phrase, three chapters apart, must refer to the same people. The priesthood and the kingship belong to every redeemed believer — universal priesthood, the doctrine of 1 Peter 2:9.

## NWT Issue

The NWT renders epi tēs gēs as "over the earth" rather than "on the earth" (consensus ESV/NASB/NIV). The Greek preposition epi with the genitive can mean either, but consensus translations read locative ("on") here, matching Matthew 5:35 ("the earth, it is God's footstool") and Revelation 20:6 ("they will reign with Christ for a thousand years"). The NWT's "over" is a translator's choice that supports the Watchtower's heavenly-class doctrine — the 144,000 ruling from heaven over an earthly subject class. Even granting "over," verse 9 has already named the rulers as "every tribe and tongue" — the great crowd themselves.

## Arguments Using This Verse

- [A Royal Priesthood — Every Believer is a Priest](https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/universal-priesthood-1peter29.md) — 1 Peter 2:9 / Revelation 1:6 / 5:10 — The end of mediating classes [Authority]