Revelation says the Lamb was slain from the foundation of the world

Revelation 13:8 ends with the phrase "from the foundation of the world," and Greek word order lets that phrase attach to either of two things earlier in the sentence: "the Lamb who was slain," or "written… in the book of life." Older translations, the KJV and NKJV, along with the NIV and REB, read it as the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world, which gives you the striking image of Christ's sacrifice as somehow eternally decreed. Newer translations, the CSB, NASB, NRSV, and ESV among them, read it as names written from the foundation of the world instead, which is a claim about eternal election rather than about the timing of the cross.

The strongest argument for the "written" reading is Revelation's own usage elsewhere. Revelation 17:8 uses nearly identical language, "whose names have not been written in the book of life from the foundation of the world," and there the connection to "written" is unambiguous since there's no slain Lamb anywhere in that sentence to compete for the phrase. Translators leaning toward "written" in 13:8, including the ESV and the NET, are leaning on that parallel, and the NET's translator notes lay out the reasoning explicitly.

But the Greek in 13:8 itself doesn't force a verdict, and that's the actual point of the entry rather than a flaw in it. This is a real case where a translation committee had to make a call the original language left genuinely open, and most people reciting Revelation 13:8 in whichever Bible they own have no idea a judgment call was made on their behalf, let alone that it affects whether the verse is describing the eternal significance of the cross or the eternal nature of election. Preachers have built entire points on one reading without knowing the other was ever on the table.