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“For then there will be a great tribulation, such as has not occurred since the beginning of the world until now, nor ever will. (Matthew 24:21 NASB)
I said to him, “My lord, you know.” And he said to me, “These are the ones who come out of the great tribulation, and they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. (Revelation 7:14 NASB)
Are these expressions the same?
In Matthew 24:21, the Greek is: θλῖψις μεγάλη (thlipsis megalē)
Literally: “tribulation great” or “great tribulation.”
In Revelation 7:14, the Greek is: τῆς θλίψεως τῆς μεγάλης (tēs thlipseōs tēs megalēs)
Literally: “the tribulation, the great” or “the great tribulation.”
The difference is purely grammatical. Matthew 24:21 uses the phrase without the definite article (“great tribulation”). Revelation 7:14 uses the definite article twice (“the great tribulation”).
Revelation is referring to a specific tribulation, so it says “the great tribulation.”
The same noun (θλῖψις, “tribulation”) and the same adjective (μεγάλη, “great”) are used in both passages. The only real difference is that Revelation makes the phrase definite (“the”), while Matthew introduces it as a coming event.
Many scholars see this as evidence that John in Revelation is referring back to the “great tribulation” Jesus spoke of in Matthew 24, though whether they describe the exact same historical event is still a matter of interpretation. The Greek wording itself is certainly closely connected.
Why it matters
Your interpretation of the great tribulation can significantly affect how you identify the 144,000. In practice, the meaning of “the great tribulation” in Revelation 7:14 often acts like a control point: once you decide what that tribulation is, the identity of both the great multitude and the 144,000 becomes more constrained.
In Revelation 7, the 144,000 are sealed before judgment, while the great multitude are described as those who “come out of the great tribulation.” That contrast means your view of the tribulation helps determine whether these are two different groups, two stages of one group, or two symbolic presentations of the same people.
If the tribulation is taken as the Roman war culminating in Jerusalem’s fall in A.D. 70, then a preterist reading can identify the 144,000 as a preserved Jewish-Christian remnant and the great multitude as believers from the nations who endured or emerged from that crisis. The preterists argue that the 144,000 were Jewish Christians sealed to avoid that tribulation, while the great multitude are those of all nations, both Jews and Gentiles, who came out of it.