Why are Rev 1:8, Rev 1:17 and Rev 22:13 red letter whilst Rev 21:6 is not? Surely they should be in the same colour?

Question

I know this is splitting hairs, and that the assignment of red lettering is not an exact science.

I have read Red-Letter King James Version: Who is speaking in Revelation 21:5–6?

and Why would the speaker in Rev 21 not be considered Jesus?

Rev1:8 in particular refers to the speaker as "The Lord God". (Yes, I know it does not refer to "LORD GOD", how sure are we of this?).

To hard line attribute one utterance of this phrase to Jesus and the other to The Father would surely break the very fibre of the Holy Trinity, or introduce an inconsistency or contradiction. If we treat them as separate beings, one is surely a liar! If we treat them as a Trinity (single entity), there is no problem.

Is there an accepted difference of opinion on these interpretations?

Can we honestly, as humans, distinguish the members of the Holy Trinity in this way unless the Bible gives us an exact word?

I accept that the original Greek may differ from my NIV translation. To me, this simply and strongly confirms the closeness of the Trinity that I, as human, cannot fully comprehend. I would see no reason to have these texts either in red, black or any other color.

Answer 1

Red-letter Bibles are the interpretation of whoever edited the Bible. Some authors differ as to which words to mark as spoken by Jesus and thus to print in red.

For example, there is no debate that Jesus spoke the words recorded in John 3:10-15. However, there is a sharp debate as whether Jesus spoke V16-21. Some Bibles have them in red and other do not.

So, who spoke Rev 21:6? This is actually not entirely clear. Let us note Rev 22:3 -

The throne of God and of the Lamb will be within the city, and His servants will worship Him.

Note that the two pronouns, "His" and "Him" are singular with the antecedent, "God and the Lamb" which is plural! Thus, back in Rev 21:5&6 we have:

And the One seated on the throne said, “Behold, I make all things new.” Then He said, “Write this down, for these words are faithful and true.” And He told me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To the thirsty I will give freely from the spring of the water of life.

Note that both Jesus and the Father are each described as "the first and the last" (Rev 2213, 1:17, 18, Isa 41:4, 44:6, 48:12, etc); and given that "He who sits on the throne" is both the Father and the Son as shown above, it remains debatable who utters the words in Rev 21:6.

Answer 2

The original Greek/Hebrew/Aramaic texts do not have any capitalization, so any capitalization you see is a product of the translators' interpretation and not the author's true intentions. Also, the use of "LORD" in some translations (e.g. [N]KJV) is due to a somewhat superstitious avoidance of using real name "Yahweh" in the Hebrew writings. The ASV is one of the most accurate translations out there, and it faithfully translates the real name (at that time scholars thought it was "Jehovah"), as well as explaining "the American Revisers...were brought to the unanimous conviction that a Jewish superstition, which regarded the Divine Name as too sacred to be uttered, ought no longer to dominate in the English or any other version of the Old Testament.".

Jesus explicitly said he is not the Father. The author of 1 Cor 15:24-28 also made clear that the Christ is distinct from God. Compare with Gen 41:39-44, where Joseph is distinct from the Pharaoh but was given full authority over all the land except over Pharaoh. By the way, nothing that is written in any writing (ancient or modern) can "break the very fibre" of anything; God and Jesus remain exactly as they are regardless of what is written about them in the Protestant canon.

Neither the word "trinity" nor the concept can be found in the original texts of the Protestant canon. You should read up on the history of the early church including the politics involved in the Nicene councils.