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Revelation 7:13
ESV Then one of the elders addressed me, saying, "Who are these, clothed in white robes, and from where have they come?"
NIV Then one of the elders asked me, "These in white robes—who are they, and where did they come from?"
NASB Then one of the elders responded, saying to me, 'These who are clothed in the white robes, who are they, and where have they come from?'
CSB Then one of the elders asked me, "Who are these people in white robes, and where did they come from?"
NLT Then one of the twenty-four elders asked me, 'Who are these who are clothed in white? Where did they come from?'
KJV And one of the elders answered, saying unto me, What are these which are arrayed in white robes? and whence came they?
NKJV Then one of the elders answered, saying to me, “Who are these arrayed in white robes, and where did they come from?”

What does Revelation 7:13 mean?

In this verse one of the elders in heaven asks the apostle John the identity of the innumerable multitude. The elder refers to their white robes and asks specifically where they came from. This is yet another scriptural example of a figure asking a question when they, in fact, already know the answer. The question is being asked for effect, or to prompt a response, not because the person speaking needs to be informed. It seems the elder who asks John about the white-robed tribulation believers wanted him to focus on them as overcomers and thereby be encouraged to endure his trial of banishment to the island of Patmos.

John and many other believers were suffering persecution in the first century but the Lord assured them, through Paul, that they were more than conquerors through Christ, and not even death could separate them from God (Romans 8:37–39). Also, in his second letter to Timothy, Paul said that those who endure will reign with Christ (2 Timothy 2:12). John himself encouraged his readers that "he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world" (1 John 4:4).
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