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Great White Throne Judgment

Dead small and great stand before the throne; books opened; Book of Life opened; any not found in it cast into the lake of fire.

Key Hebrew Terms

כִּסֵּא (kisse, H3678); סֵפֶר (sefer, H5612)

Key Greek Terms

θρόνος (thronos, G2362); βίβλος (biblos, G975); θάνατος (thanatos, G2288)

Linked Verses (6)

Daniel 12:2 source
KJV

And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.

Revelation 20:11 source
KJV

And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them.

Revelation 20:12 source
KJV

And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works.

Revelation 20:13 source
KJV

And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works.

Revelation 20:14 source
KJV

And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death.

Revelation 20:15 source
KJV

And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.

Church Fathers

Augustine (City of God XX.14-16) treats the Great White Throne as the final universal judgment in which all the dead are raised and judged by their works, with the Book of Life determining who escapes the second death. Lactantius (Divine Institutes VII.20) and Cyril of Jerusalem (Catechetical Lectures 15) affirm a literal bodily resurrection of both just and unjust for this judgment. Jerome (on Daniel 12:2) reads 'some to everlasting life, some to everlasting shame' as the same bifurcated outcome John records in Revelation 20:12-15.

Ancient Text Cross-References

1 Enoch 2
1 Enoch 62:1-5
Thus the Lord commanded the kings and the mighty and the exalted, and said: Open your eyes and lift up your horns if ye are able to recognize the Elect One. And the Lord of Spirits seated him on the throne of His glory.
The enthronement of the Son of Man over the kings of the earth; parallels Revelation 20's Great White Throne and Matthew 25's judgment of the nations.
1 Enoch 62:5-8
One portion of them shall look on the other, and they shall be terrified, and they shall be downcast of countenance, and pain shall seize them, when they see that Son of Man sitting on the throne of his glory.
Universal resurrection to stand before the Son of Man on his throne; BibleFacts.org identifies this as a pre-Christian parallel to Revelation 20:5 (the resurrection of the dead).
Gad the Seer 1
Gad the Seer ch. 10
And the books shall be opened, and the deeds of men shall be read before Him that sitteth upon the throne. And every man shall receive according to the works he hath done, whether good or evil.
Opened-books judgment scene paralleling Daniel 7:10 and Revelation 20:12.
Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs 1
Testament of Benjamin 10:7-9
Then shall we also rise, each one over our tribe, worshipping the King of heaven, who appeared upon earth in the form of a man in humility. And as many as believed on Him on the earth shall rejoice with Him.
Explicit resurrection of the patriarchs to honor the earthly-incarnate messianic king; one of the clearest pre-Christian texts on the two-stage resurrection of the righteous.