Grammatically Breaking Down Revelation 7:9 with a Side of Ad Sensum

Greek (WH): Μετὰ ταῦτα εἶδον, καὶ ἰδοὺ ὄχλος πολύς, ὃν ἀριθμῆσαι αὐτὸν οὐδεὶς ἐδύνατο, ἐκ παντὸς ἔθνους καὶ φυλῶν καὶ λαῶν καὶ γλωσσῶν, ἑστῶτες ἐνώπιον τοῦ θρόνου καὶ ἐνώπιον τοῦ ἀρνίου, περιβεβλημένους στολὰς λευκάς, καὶ φοίνικες ἐν ταῖς χερσὶν αὐτῶν·

Μετὰ ταῦτα εἶδον-see Revelation 4:1; 15:5; 18:1 and Smalley, The Revelation to John, page 476; James L. Resseguie, The Revelation to John: A Narrative Commentary, page 233. Contrast Rev. 19:1, but compare Rev. 7:1; 20:3. ταῦτα is accusative plural neuter going with the preposition Μετὰ; εἶδον is aorist active indicative first-person singular.

καὶ ἰδοὺ ὄχλος πολύς-in this sequence of words, we have a "demonstrative particle" (Grant Osborne) or interjection (Bill Mounce) followed by a nominative singular masculine noun and adjective. Stephen S. Smalley (The Revelation to John, pages 190-191) points out that ὄχλος πολύς should be accusative as the object of  ἰδοὺ. However, see Rev. 4:1-2; 14:14, et al.  ἰδοὺ "is often followed by a Nominative without verb" (T. Cowden Laughlin, The Solecisms of the Apocalypse, page 5). Compare Genesis 12:19; 19:2; Daniel 7:13; 1:7; 14:14; Revelation 21:3, 5.

αὐτὸν is evidently resumptive and pleonastic; grammatically, αὐτὸν modifies ὃν and further defines πολύς: David Aune suggests that the construction could be a "Semitism" (cf. Smalley, 190-191; Aune, Revelation 6-16, pages 549-550). Both sources state that the pronoun functions resumptively or pleonastically.

ὃν ἀριθμῆσαι αὐτὸν οὐδεὶς ἐδύνατο-"which to number it, no one was able." ἀριθμῆσαι is aorist active infinitive and occurs 1x in the GNT, but see Genesis 41:49; 2 Samuel 24:10; 1 Chronicles 21:1, 17. ἐδύνατο is imperfect passive indicative third-person singular of δύναμαι.

ἐκ παντὸς ἔθνους καὶ φυλῶν καὶ λαῶν καὶ γλωσσῶν-preposition + the genitive case. Aune contends that παντὸς is distributive rather than collective. In other words, we should understand the adjective to mean "every" rather than "all" since παντὸς ἔθνους is anarthous.

Aune: "The three nouns that follow are gen. pls., φυλῶν, λαῶν, and γλωσσῶν, and it is clear that the author intends the reader to extend the distributive sense of παντός to each of these nouns."

See Aune, Dr. David. Revelation 6-16, Volume 52B (Word Biblical Commentary) (pp. 549-550). Zondervan Academic. Kindle Edition.

ἑστῶτες ἐνώπιον τοῦ θρόνου καὶ ἐνώπιον τοῦ ἀρνίου-the masculine nominative plural participle used here modifies ὄχλος πολύς, which is nominative singular masculine. This brings up the issue of solecisms in Revelation or constructio ad sensum instances.

Daniel B. Wallace explains:

"Although there is a lack of concord in such constructions, they are not infrequent. Indeed, a neuter plural subject normally takes a singular verb. It is an example of constructio ad sensum (construction according to sense, rather than according to strict grammatical concord). Since the neuter usually refers to impersonal things (including animals), the singular verb regards the plural subject as a collective whole. It is appropriate to translate the subject as a plural as well as the verb, rather than translate both as singulars" (Greek Grammar Beyond the Basics, p. 399).

Examples of ad sensum constructions are:

Acts 2:43; 1 Corinthians 10:7; Revelation 8:9; 11:18.

περιβεβλημένους στολὰς λευκάς, καὶ φοίνικες ἐν ταῖς χερσὶν αὐτῶν:

Grant Osborne writes: "Περιβεβλημένους parallels ἑστῶτες in modifying ὄχλος, but it is accusative rather than nominative. However, this type of solecism is common in Revelation. As Thomas (1992: 488 n. 85, following Robertson and N. Turner) brings out, this is especially common following εἶδον and ἰδού in Revelation."