Revelation 22:15

But outside are the dogs, the sorcerers, the sexually immoral, the murderers, the idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices falsehood.

Berean Standard Bible

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Study note

Setting — The speaker identifies himself in the immediate context as Jesus (Revelation 22:16), addressing the churches through the angel who delivered this testimony. This declaration follows the description of the holy city and contrasts with the blessing for those who enter it (Revelation 22:14).

The words — The opening term Ἔξω (Exō) literally means "outside," establishing a spatial boundary. The term κύνες (kunes) translates to "dogs," a contemporary metaphor for those considered ritually unclean or morally contemptible.

The thread — This exclusion list parallels the catalog of the unrepentant in Revelation 21:8 and echoes Paul’s warning against "dogs" in Philippians 3:2. The text presents these categories as a fixed boundary rather than a developing theological argument.

Why it lands — The passage demands a clear distinction between those who practice falsehood and those who have washed their robes. It requires the reader to examine their own alignment with the city’s standards rather than seeking comfort in ambiguous categories.

Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.

The Greek words

King James Version

For without are dogs, and sorcerers, and whoremongers, and murderers, and idolaters, and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie.

Cross-references

Revelation 21:8 But to the cowardly and unbelieving and abominable and murderers and sexually immoral and sorcerers and idolaters and all liars, their place will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur. This is the second death.”
Galatians 5:19 The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity, and debauchery;
Philippians 3:2 Watch out for those dogs, those workers of evil, those mutilators of the flesh!
1 Corinthians 6:9 Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who submit to or perform homosexual acts,
Revelation 21:27 But nothing unclean will ever enter it, nor anyone who practices an abomination or a lie, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life.
Revelation 9:20 Now the rest of mankind who were not killed by these plagues still did not repent of the works of their hands. They did not stop worshiping demons and idols of gold, silver, bronze, stone, and wood, which cannot see or hear or walk.
Colossians 3:6 Because of these, the wrath of God is coming on the sons of disobedience.
Malachi 3:5 “Then I will draw near to you for judgment. And I will be a swift witness against sorcerers and adulterers and perjurers, against oppressors of the widowed and fatherless, and against those who defraud laborers of their wages and deny justice to the foreigner but do not fear Me,” says the LORD of Hosts.
John 3:18 Whoever believes in Him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe has already been condemned, because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.
Ephesians 5:3 But among you, as is proper among the saints, there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality, or of any kind of impurity, or of greed.