BIBLE STUDY MANUALS: REVELATION CHAPTER ONE

The Book of Revelation fascinates and also perplexes the modern reader. For the present generation, it is the most obscure and controversial book in the Bible. Yet those who study it with care agree that it is a unique source of Christian teaching and one of timeless relevance. Accordingly, Swete says, "The Apocalypse offers to the pastors of the church an unrivaled store of materials for Christian teaching, if only the book is approached with an assurance of its prophetic character, chastened by a frank acceptance of the light which the growth of knowledge has cast and will continue to cast upon it" (p. viii). Indeed, it may well be that with the exception of the Gospels the Apocalypse is the most profound and moving teaching on Christian doctrine and discipleship found anywhere in Holy Scripture.

Neither the fanaticism of some who have fixed their attention on prophecy but not on Christ, nor the diversity of interpretative viewpoints should discourage us from pursuing Christian truth in the marvelous book.

The title of the last book of the NT sheds light on its character. Revelation differs in kind from the other NT writings. The difference is not in doctrine but in literary genre and subject matter. It is a book of prophecy (1:3; 22:7, 18-19) that involves both warning and consolation—announcements of future judgment and blessing. For communicating its message, the Lord uses symbol and vision.

Why did the Lord use a method that seemingly makes his message so obscure? The answer is twofold. First, the language and imagery were not so strange to first-century readers as they are to many today. Faced with the apocalyptic style of the book, the modern reader who knows little about biblical literature and its parallels is like a person who, though unfamiliar with stocks and bonds, tries to understand the Dow-Jones reports. Therefore, familiarity with the prophetic books of the OT (especially Dan and Ezek), apocalyptic literature current during the first century, the DSS, and the Targums (paraphrases of the OT into Aram. and Gr.) will help the reader grasp the message of the Apocalypse. (See the commentary for references to these cognate materials.)

Second, the subject matter, with its glimpses into the future and even into heaven itself, required the kind of language John used. Only through symbolism and imagery can we gain some understanding of the things the Lord was unveiling through the writer John. Moreover, while the symbolic and visionary mode of presentation creates ambiguity and frustration for many of us, it actually conduces to evocative description of unseen realities with a poignancy and clarity unattainable by any other method. For example, "evil" is an abstract term, but a woman "drunk with the blood of the saints" graphically sets forth the concrete and more terrible aspect of this reality. Such language can trigger all sorts of ideas, associations, existential involvement, and mystical responses that the straight prose found in much of the NT cannot attain.

The letters to the seven churches in the Roman province of Asia, modern Turkey, specifically locate the recipients of the book and give some broad indication of the historical situation. Some of the churches were experiencing persecution (2:10, 13). From this it has been customary to assume that persecution was quite intense and widespread. Revelation is then viewed as a "tract for the times" document, warning Christians against emperor worship and encouraging them to be faithful to Christ even to death. Recent studies, however, question how intense, widespread, or sustained the persecution was, even under Domitian. Thus the primary occasion for the writing of the book must be sought elsewhere than in the persecution of that time.

The letters to the churches imply that five of the seven had serious problems. The major problem seemed to be disloyalty to Christ. This may indicate that the major thrust of Revelation is not sociopolitical but theological. John is more concerned with countering the heresy that was creeping into the churches toward the close of the first century than in addressing the political situation. Newman suggests that this heresy could well have been Gnosticism, an idea he derives from a critical study of Irenaeus's statements in the second century about the Book of Revelation.

Revelation is also commonly viewed as belonging to the body of nonbiblical Jewish writings known as apocalyptic literature. The name for this type of literature (some nineteen books) is derived from the word "revelation" (apocalypsis) in Revelation 1:1 (q.v.). The extrabiblical apocalyptic books were written in the period from 200 B.C. to A.D. 200. Usually scholars stress the similarities of the Apocalypse of John to these noncanonical books—similarities such as the use of symbolism and vision, the mention of angelic mediators of the revelation, the bizarre images, the expectation of divine judgment, the emphasis on the kingdom of God, the new heavens and earth, and the dualism of this age and the age to come. Although numerous similarities exist, John's writing also has some clear differences from these writings, and these differences must not be overlooked.

Unlike the Jewish and Jewish-Christian apocalyptic books, the Apocalypse of John clearly claims to be a book of prophecy (1:3; 22:7, 10, 18-19), the effect of which is to identify the message, as in the OT prophetic tradition, with the Word of God (1:2; 19:9). The Jewish apocalyptists used the literary form of prophecy to trace the course of history from ancient times down to their own day. John does not follow this method. He clearly places himself in the contemporary world of the first century and speaks of the future eschatological consummation in much the same way as Ezekiel and Jeremiah did. While extrabiblical apocalypses are clearly pseudonymous (e.g., Enoch, Abraham, Ezra, Baruch, et al.), the last book of the NT is plainly attributed to John. It does not, however, explicitly identify him as being well known or an apostle. Many of the noncanonical apocalyptic works are ethically passive; they blame the immediate plight of God's people, not on their unfaithfulness, but on the pervasive presence of evil in the world. While Revelation is not lacking in words of encouragement to the faithful, it also strongly urges the churches to repent.

[Biblestudymanuals comment: Since author John is addressing churches, i.e., the people who are members of the body of Christ - the Church, then he is addressing believers - those who have trusted alone in Christ alone unto eternal life, cf Jn 3:16; then the repentance in view here is not changing from not believing to believing in Christ, but to changing sinful behavior to faithful behavior unto rewards in heaven when those who believed will get to heaven

Finally, and importantly, these apocalypses are pessimistic concerning the outcome of God's present activity in the world; and for hope they look wholly to the eschatological end, when God will once again intervene and defeat the evil in the world. Though Revelation is often read in this manner, there are great differences between it and the noncanonical apocalypses. In the latter, the turning point of history is the future event of the Messiah's coming as a conquering warrior-king. In Revelation the climactic event has already occurred in the victory of the slain Lamb (ch. 5). Now, however, the Lamb's victory is being worked out in history in the obedient suffering of his followers (12:11; 15:2). Their deaths are seen in Revelation as a part of the victory over evil that God is already effecting in the world. This partial victory through the suffering of the saints is combined with the hope of the final unambiguous victory of God at the end of history.

[Biblestudymanuals: How can Christ's victory be worked out in history by others? His victory needs no help? The deaths of the saints and their suffering are not part of a partial victory. God needs no help. There is no passage that stipulates that man contributes to Christ's victory over sin]

By viewing history in this way, the book makes clear that the source of Christian hope is not imminent in history itself but relates to a transcendent future. For John there is no evolutionary progress of righteousness in history. Therefore, any identification of the Apocalypse with the writings of the extrabiblical apocalyptists must be severely qualified. Indeed, the reader would do well to reexamine every method of interpreting Revelation that rests on this assumed similarity. For example, is it truly a "tract for the times" as other apocalyptic books, or should this supposed connection be questioned and the book freed to speak its own message about realities that are far more determinative of world events than immediate political powers?

John was no doubt quite familiar with the Jewish apocalyptists of the intertestamental period, and in some instances there seems to be a direct allusion to them (cf. comments at 2:7. But the relation is in general superficial. Only twice is an interpreting angel involved in the explanation of a vision (chs. 7 and 17), a feature constantly present in the other kind of apocalyptic writing. In no case can it be demonstrated that John depends on the assumed knowledge among his readers of the Jewish apocalyptists for clarity of meaning. On the other hand, he is everywhere dependent on the OT canonical books, especially those where symbol and vision play a dominant role, such as portions of Isaiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, and Zechariah.

Although throughout the following pages frequent references to noncanonical apocalyptic literature appear, they are given as aids in understanding the background of John's writing and should not be taken as sources of his thought or method in the same way that the inspired canonical Scriptures influenced him.

Ladd's suggestion that we create a new category called "Prophetic-Apocalyptic" to distinguish canonical materials from the late Jewish apocalyptics, if not so much in form, certainly in world view, has much merit. Thus, in Ladd's view, the beast of chapters 13 and 17 is historical Rome, but it is far larger than the ancient city and is also the future Antichrist. The references to the persecution of Christians likewise go far beyond the known historical situation of John's day. Evil at the hands of Rome is realized eschatology. Recently this view has been held also by others. The commentary on chapters 13 and 17 will reveal sympathy for Ladd's break with the dominant preterist interpretation while at the same time arguing that the preterist-futurist viewpoint, like that of the preterist, rests on the questionable assumption that John's Apocalypse is describing historical-political entities rather than theological archetypes (see Introduction: Interpretative Schemes; cf. also the introductions to chs. 13 and to 17).

Much more important than the late Jewish apocalyptic sources is the debt John owes to the eschatological teaching of Jesus, such as the Olivet Discourse (Matt 24; Mark 13; Luke 21). The parallelism is striking and certainly not accidental. In the commentary, these connections are dealt with in more detail (cf. introduction to 6:1ff.). In short, we believe that the ultimate source of John's understanding of the future as well as his interpretation of the OT lies not in his own inventive imagination but definitely in Jesus of Nazareth.

The question of the unity of Revelation is a relative one. Even Charles, who consistently advances a fragmentary approach to the book, recognizes the pervading unity of thought in the majority of the material (Commentary on Revelation, 1:1xxxviif.). Likewise Ford, who views the book as originating from three different authors, nevertheless insists that it displays an amazing and masterly literary unity that she ascribes to the work of still another person, an editor (p. 46).

The evidence that allegedly argues against a single author revolves around a number of internal difficulties. These fall into four categories: (1) the presence of doublets—the same scene or vision described twice; (2) sequence problems—persons or things introduced seemingly for the first time when in fact they had already been mentioned; (3) seeming misplaced verses and larger sections; and (4) distinctive content within certain sections that does not fit the rest of the book. In each case, however, there are satisfying alternative explanations. In fact, the difficulties just named stem more from the reader's presuppositions than from the text itself. Dissection of the text has been notoriously unfruitful in yielding further light on the book itself. We are more likely to discover the author's original intent if we approach Revelation with the assumption of its literary integrity than if we attempt at every turn to judge it by our modern and Western mentality.

There is also a certain artificiality about interpolation theories that claim unity for the book until a passage is encountered that does not fit in with preconceived views by which, without the slightest evidence, "interpolation" is cited to alleviate the embarrassment. Some of the best interpreters have succumbed to this temptation.

Yet without belaboring the argument, we may affirm that the book everywhere displays both the literary and conceptual unity to be expected from a single author. This does not eliminate certain difficult hermeneutical problems nor preclude the presence of omissions or interpolations encountered in the extant MSS of the book. Nor does the view of single authorship preclude that John in expressing in written form the revelation given to him by Christ used various sources, whether oral or written (cf. comments at 1:2). Yet, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, who is of course the primary author, John has everywhere made these materials his own and involved them with a thoroughly Christian orientation and content.

The question of the authorship of Revelation is the same as that of the authorship of the other Johannine writings (the Gospel and the Epistles). The earliest witnesses ascribe Revelation to John the apostle, the son of Zebedee (Justin Martyr [d. 165]; Clement of Alexandria [d.c.220]; Hippolytus [d.c.236]; Origen [d.c.254]) (Swete, pp. c1xxif.). Not until Dionysius, the distinguished bishop of Alexandria and student of Origen (d. c.264), was any voice raised within the church against its apostolic authorship. Dionysius questioned the apostolic origin of Revelation because the advocates of an earthly eschatological hope ("Chiliasts"), whom he opposed, appealed to Revelation 20. He based his arguments on four main comparisons between the First Epistle of John and the Gospels at points where these differ from Revelation: (1) the Gospel and First Epistle do not name their author but Revelation does; (2) the Gospel and First Epistle contain parallels to each other but not to Revelation; (3) no reference to Revelation appears in the Gospel or First Epistle and no reference to the Gospel or First Epistle is found in Revelation; and (4) the Greek in which Revelation is written is faulty and entirely different from that of the Gospel and First Epistle (ANF, 6:82-84).

From the time of Dionysius, the apostolic origin of the book was disputed in the East until Athanasius of Alexandria (d.373) turned the tide toward its acceptance. In the West the story was different. From at least the middle of the second century, the book held its own, being widely accepted and listed in all the principal canon enumerations. The Reformation period witnessed a renewal of the earlier questions concerning its apostolic authorship and canonical status. Thus Luther, offended by the contents of Revelation, declared that he regarded it as "neither apostolic nor prophetic."

Typical of current views is that of Moule, who claims that "few can now believe that the John of the Apocalypse is the same as the author (or authors) of what are commonly called the Johannine writings—the Gospel and the three epistles." The chief obstacle is the barbarous Greek style of Revelation as compared to that of the other Johannine writings. Of course, there is no good reason why the John of the Apocalypse could not have been the apostle John, while another John wrote the Gospel and the epistles.

However, despite the linguistic problem, a number of scholars have been convinced of the similarities between Revelation and the other Johannine books. So a group of dissenting scholars attribute the Apocalypse to the apostle, the son of Zebedee, or lean in that direction (e.g., most of the Roman Catholic scholars, Alford, Feine-Behm, Guthrie, Mounce, Stauffer, Swete, Zahn). Others leave the question open but do not deny apostolic authorship (Beasley-Murray, Beckwith, Bruce, Morris). Ford's view, that the book was not written by the apostle but was a composite writing by John the Baptist (chs. 4-11), a disciple of John the Baptist (chs. 12-22), and a later unknown Christian author (chs. 1-3), rests on conjectural evidence and has little to commend it to serious scholarly acceptance (pp. 28-40). Her arguments, instead, could be used to support the traditional view that the apostle, the son of Zebedee, who was a disciple of John the Baptist, was the author.

From the internal evidence, the following things can be said about the author with some confidence.

1. He calls himself John (1:4, 9; 22:8). This is not likely a pseudonym but instead the name of a well-known person among the Asian churches. Other than the apostle, John the Baptist, and John Mark, the only John we know about is the disputed "John, the presbyter" Papias spoke of (Eusebius Ecclesiastical History 3.39.1-7). (The John mentioned in Acts 4:6 would obviously not be a serious candidate.)

2. This John of the Apocalypse identifies himself as a prophet (1:3; 22:6-10, 18-19) who was in exile because of his prophetic witness (1:9). As such, he speaks to the churches with great authority.

3. His use of the OT and Targums make it virtually certain that he was a Palestinian Jew, steeped in the temple and synagogue ritual. He may also have been a priest.

To sum up, it must be admitted that the question of authorship of Revelation is problematic. On the one hand, the language and grammatical style are incompatible with the Gospel and the epistles; yet, on the other hand, in imagery, literary forms, liturgical framework, and symbolism, there are notable similarities to the Gospel and the epistles. Early and widespread testimony attributes the book to the apostle John, and no convincing argument has been advanced against this view. Perhaps we must be satisfied at present with a similar judgment for this book that Origen suggested for the authorship of Hebrews: "Who wrote the letter, God really knows." Regardless of the problem of authorship, the church universal has come to acknowledge the Apocalypse as divinely authoritative, inspired Scripture.

Only two suggested dates for Revelation have received serious support. An early date, shortly after the reign of Nero (A.D. 54-68), is supported by references in the book to the persecution of Christians, the "Nero redivivus" myth (a revived Nero would be the reincarnation of the evil genius of the whole Roman Empire), the imperial cult (ch. 13), and the temple (ch. 11), which was destroyed in A.D. 70 (so Westcott, Hort, Lightfoot, Ford). Some external evidence for the early date exists in the Muratorian Fragment (170-190) and the Monarchian Prologues (250-350). These documents claim that Paul wrote to seven churches following the pattern of John's example in Revelation. But this would date the book before the Pauline Epistles!

The alternate and more generally accepted date rests primarily on the early witness of Irenaeus (185), who stated that the apostle John "saw the revelation... at the close of Domitian's reign" (A.D. 81-96) (Contra Haereses 5.30.3; ANF, 1:559-60). Both views appeal to the book's witness to persecution because of refusal to comply with emperor worship. On the other hand, if most of the persecution referred to in the book is anticipatory, and if the exegesis that sees in the book references to the succession of the emperors (ch. 17) and enforced emperor worship (ch. 13) is questionable, then no substantial argument can be advanced for either date. Therefore, though the slender historical evidence on the whole favors the later date (81-96), in the light of the present studies, the question as to when Revelation was written must be left open.

Swete captured the basic thrust of the book when he remarked, "In form it is an epistle, containing an apocalyptic prophecy; in spirit and inner purpose, it is a pastoral" (p. xc). As a prophet, John is called to separate true belief from false—to expose the failures of the congregations in Asia. He desires to encourage authentic Christian discipleship by explaining Christian suffering and martyrdom in the light of how Jesus' death brought victory over evil. John is concerned to show that the martyrs (e.g., Antipas [2:13]) would be vindicated. He also discloses the end both of evil and of those who follow the beast (19:20-21; 20:10, 15); he also describes the ultimate issue of the Lamb's victory and of those who follow him. John himself is centrally concerned with God's saving purpose and its implementation by Jesus. John writes to the church universal in every age so that they too might join him in confirming this witness of Jesus (1:9; 22:16). Sadly, because of the sometime overemphasis on either the symbolic or the literal, and because of the theological problems (see below), the church has often been deprived of the valuable practical thrust of this book as through it God seeks to lead us into authentic Christian discipleship.

From earliest times, certain theological emphases in Revelation are cited as objections to the whole book or to certain parts that are considered unworthy and sub-Christian. Among these are (1) its eschatological view of history, which includes an earthly Millennium (ch. 20); (2) the cry for vengeance in 6:10; (3) its "weakly Christianized Judaism"; and (4) its overuse of visions and symbols, according to Luther, who said that Christ is neither taught nor accepted in this book, and who considered it neither apostolic nor prophetic.

To sum up, Revelation is alleged to be sub-Christian in its Christology, eschatology, and doctrine of God, all three of which are thought to obscure or to contradict outright the central message of the NT. While none of the above problems should be glossed over, it is becoming apparent that prior commitment to a certain viewpoint on these three areas, rather than the intrinsic incompatibility of John's ideas with the central NT message, often determines the negative judgments that some scholars pass on Revelation. A recent study by Beasley-Murray points out the basic difference in John's views from standard Jewish apocalyptic thought and wisely argues for the necessity to read Revelation in conjunction with the NT books that preceded it, not as contradictory, but as complementary to them.

The MSS of Revelation are few compared to those of other NT literature. Thus, of the important early witnesses, only three papyri and scarcely half a dozen uncials of the Apocalypse are extant. While there are over a thousand minuscule MSS for each of most of the other books, Revelation has a total of only about 250. Thus we have Pl8 (third-fourth century), P24 (fourth century), P47 (late third century), ^ (fourth century), A (fifth century), C (fifth century), P (ninth century), and a few minuscules cited in Metzger's apparatus and commentary. In the Notes throughout this commentary, only those textual variants are discussed where, in my opinion, the sense of the passage is affected. I have also followed the practice of not citing all the textual evidence, since those who understand such technicalities have ready access to the standard critical editions of the Greek NT and works such as Metzger's (Textual Commentary) and Hoskier's collations (Text of the Apocalypse). In general, MSS A, ‏א‎, C, P47 weigh heavily in the external evidence, especially where they agree. A alone is sometimes the preferred reading. Most of the cases must be settled on intrinsic probability and context. I have given Metzger's conclusions throughout but have occasionally dissented when the internal evidence seems to warrant it.

Four traditional ways of understanding Revelation 4-22 have emerged in the history of the church. In our day, additional mixed views have been developed by combining elements from these four traditions.

This view is that, with the exception of chapters 1 to 3, all the visions in Revelation relate to a period immediately preceding and following the second advent of Christ at the end of the age. Therefore, the seals, trumpets, and bowls refer to events still in the future; the beasts of chapters 13 and 17 are identified with the future Antichrist, who will appear at the last moment in world history and will be defeated by Christ in his second coming to judge the world and to establish his earthly millennial kingdom.

Variations of this view were held by the earliest expositors, such as Justin Martyr (d.165), Irenaeus (d. c.195), Hippolytus (d.236), and Victorinus (d. c.303). After nearly a ten-century eclipse, during which time the allegorical method prevailed, the futurist view was revived in the late sixteenth century by Franciscus Ribeira, a Spanish Jesuit. He held that the beast was the Antichrist of the end time and that Babylon was not Rome under papal rule but a degenerate Rome of a future age. Unlike many modern futurists, Ribeira founded his views on a thorough appreciation of the historical backgrounds of Revelation and its language. Thus he understood the first five seals to depict various elements of early Christianity. The white horse was the apostolic age; the red, the early persecutors; the black, heresies; the pale, the violent persecutions by Trajan. But when Ribeira came to the sixth seal, he took this to indicate the signs that would precede the return of Christ; he also understood the seven trumpets and seven bowls to follow the three and a half years. This futurist approach to the book has enjoyed a revival of no small proportion since the nineteenth century and is widely held among evangelicals today. The chief problem with it is that it seems to make all but the first three chapters of Revelation irrelevant to the contemporary church. This objection is pressed more strongly when adherents to the futurist view affirm, as many do today, that the church will be removed from the earth before the events described in 6:1ff. occur.

As the word implies, this view centers on history and its continuity as seen in Revelation. It started with Joachim of Floris (d. 1202), a monastic who claimed to have received on Easter night a special vision that revealed to him God's plan for the ages. He assigned a day-year value to the 1,260 days of the Apocalypse. In his scheme, the book was a prophecy of the events of Western history from the times of the apostles (in some varieties, from the Creation) until Joachim's own time. A short time after his death, the Franciscans considered themselves the true Christians of his vision. They interpreted Babylon not only as pagan Rome but also as papal Rome. In the various schemes that developed as this method was applied to history, one element became common: the Antichrist and Babylon were connected with Rome and the papacy. Later, Luther, Calvin, and other Reformers came to adopt this view. That this approach does not enjoy much favor today is largely because of the lack of consensus as to the historical identification it entails. The distinguished exegete Henry Alford (1810-71) held a guarded version of this view.

According to this view, Revelation is to be seen as related to what happened in the time of the author; as to the time of its writing, it is a contemporary and imminent historical document. So the main contents of chapters 4-22 are viewed as describing events wholly limited to John's own time. This approach identifies the book with the Jewish apocalyptic method of producing "tracts for the times" to encourage faithfulness during intense persecution. The beasts of chapter 13 are identified respectively as imperial Rome and the imperial priesthood. This is the view held by a majority of contemporary scholars, not a few of whom are identified with the liberal interpretation of Christianity. As a system, it did not appear till 1614, when a Spanish Jesuit named Alcasar developed its main lines. Today some commentators argue that the events were imminent but not yet realized when John wrote; hence, they suggest an imminent historical view (so Caird). While they do not ignore the importance of the historical setting, those who accept Revelation as a book of genuine prophecy concerning events extending beyond the first six centuries are little attracted by this view.

This method of interpreting Revelation sees it as being basically poetical, symbolic, and spiritual in nature. Indeed, it is sometimes called the spiritualist view—not, of course, in reference to the cult of spiritualism, but because it "spiritualizes" everything in the book. Thus Revelation does not predict any specific historical events at all; on the contrary, it sets forth timeless truths concerning the battle between good and evil that continues throughout the church age. As a system of interpretation, it is more recent than the three other schools and somewhat more difficult to distinguish from the earlier allegorizing approaches of the Alexandrians (Clement and Origen). In general, the idealist view is marked by its refusal to identify any of the images with specific future events, whether in the history of the church or with regard to the end of all things. Undoubtedly, the book does reflect the great timeless realities of the battle between God and Satan and of divine judgment; undoubtedly, it sees history as being ultimately in the hand of the Creator. But certainly it also depicts the consummation of this battle and the triumph of Christ in history through his coming in glory.

Which view is the right one? Since there have been evangelicals who have held to each of the four views, the issue is not that of orthodoxy but of interpretation. In recent years many expositors have combined the stronger elements of the different views. The history of the interpretation of Revelation should teach us to be open to fresh approaches to it, even when this attitude goes contrary to the prevailing interpretations. Nothing short of the careful exegesis of the text uninhibited by prior dogmatic conclusions is required for the fullest understanding of the Apocalypse.

This commentary will pay close attention to the historical situation of first-century Christianity in its Judeo-Greco-Roman world setting. I do not, however, take the position that this emphasis necessarily leads to the conclusion that John's language and visions describe the political entities of imperial Rome or the imperial priesthood. Thus we feel that the preterist and to a lesser extent the preterist-futurist's views are misled. On the other hand, we believe that John is describing the final judgment and the physical, bodily return of Christ to the world. This means that in every age Revelation continues to encourage the church in persecution as well as to warn the church of the beast's satanically energized, multifaceted deception. Its language describes the deeper realities of the conflict of Christ's sovereignty with satanic power rather than the mere temporary historical-political entities, whether past (such as Rome) or future.

Revelation may then be viewed, on the one hand, as an extended commentary on Paul's statement in Ephesians 6:12: "For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of the dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms." On the other hand, it also reveals the final judgment upon evil and the consummation of God's kingdom in time and eternity.

While Revelation does not have a single direct quotation, there are hundreds of places where John alludes in one way or another to the OT Scriptures. Swete mentions that of the 404 verses of the Apocalypse, 278 contain references to the Jewish Scriptures (p. cxxxv). UBS's Greek NT (2d ed.) cites over five hundred OT passages in connection with the book (pp. 897-920). In any case, the author's use of the OT is unique (e.g., Paul's epistles contain ninety-five direct quotations and possibly an additional one hundred allusions to the OT).

The OT used by John is primarily Semitic rather than Greek, agreeing often with the Aramaic Targums and occasionally reflecting Midrashic background materials to the OT passages; and it can be shown that he used a text other than the Masoretic that has a close affinity with the Hebrew text of the Qumran MSS. From the Prophets, John refers quite frequently to Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel. John also refers repeatedly to the Psalms, Exodus, and Deuteronomy. Especially important are John's christological reinterpretations of OT passages he alludes to. He does not simply use the OT in its pre-Christian sense but often recasts the images and visions of the OT. While there is an unmistakable continuity in Revelation with the older revelation, the new emerges from the old as a distinct entity.

The main contents of Revelation are given in terms of a series of sevens, some explicit, some implied: seven churches (chs. 2-3); seven seals (chs. 6-7); seven trumpets (chs. 8-11); seven signs (chs. 12-15); seven bowls (chs. 16-18); seven last things (chs. 19-22). It is also possible to divide the contents around four key visions: (1) the vision of the Son of man among the seven churches (chs. 1-3); (2) the vision of the seven-sealed scroll, the seven trumpets, the seven signs, and the seven bowls (4:1-19:10); (3) the vision of the return of Christ and the consummation of this age (19:11-20:15); and (4) the vision of the new heaven and new earth (chs. 21-22). Commendable attempts have also been made to show that the literary structure of the Apocalypse is patterned after the Easter liturgy of the early church. All such schemes must, however, be subordinate to the exegesis of the book.

Space allows the mention of only representative books. Some defy exact categories and it may be unfair to classify them. We have used the interpretation of the beast (ch. 13) and Babylon (ch. 17) as the chief indicators of the nature of the books listed.

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Calkins, Raymond. The Social Message of the Book of Revelation. New York: Woman's, 1920.

Minear, Paul S. I Saw a New Earth: An Introduction to the Visions of the Apocalypse.

Cleveland: Corpus Books, 1968. Rissi, Mathias. Time and History. Richmond: John Knox, 1966.

III. Vision of the Seven-Sealed Scroll, the Seven Trumpets, the Seven Signs, and the Seven Bowls (4:1-19:10)

IV. Vision of the Return of Christ and the Consummation of This Age (19:11-20:15)

(Rev 1:1 NASB) "The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave Him to show to His bond-servants, the things which must soon take place and He sent and communicated it by His Angel to His bond-servant John,

(Rev 1:2 NASB) who testified to the Word of God and to the testimony of Jesus Christ, everything that he saw.

(Rev 1:3 NASB) Blessed is the one who reads, and those who hear the words of the prophecy and keep the things which are written in it, for the time is near."

The opening words in Rev 1:1 rendered "The Revelation of Jesus Christ" indicates that Jesus Christ, the Son of God at the time after His resurrection in the first century provided new information, new revelation "which God [The Father] gave to Him [in His resurrected Humanity]" to relay to the apostle John to show / present to His / Christ's bond-servants, i.e., all believers of this - the Church Age and following ages; and by virtue of that, that information will be passed on to the world for all men to heed. And that new revelation included that "which must soon take place" in the sense of when it is the time for those things to occur they will very quickly come to pass. The word "soon" (en tachei; cf. 2:16; 22:7, 12, 20) means that the action will be sudden when it comes, not necessarily that it will occur immediately. Once the end-time events begin, they will occur in rapid succession (cf. Luke 18:8; Acts 12:7; 22:18; 25:4; Rom. 16:20). And that Revelation will be sent to and be "communicated... by His Angel to His bond-servant [the Apostle] John." This communication which He made known, are from the Greek verb esēmanen, meaning "to make known by signs or symbols," which includes visions / symbols as well as words.

1:1. The opening words, The revelation of Jesus Christ, indicate the subject of the entire book. The word "revelation" is a translation of the Greek apokalypsis, meaning "an unveiling" or "a disclosure." From this word comes the English "apocalypse." The revelation was given to John to communicate to others, His servants, and it prophesies what must soon take place, rather than relating a historic presentation as in the four Gospels. The word "soon" (en tachei; cf. 2:16; 22:7, 12, 20) means that the action will be sudden when it comes, not necessarily that it will occur immediately. Once the end-time events begin, they will occur in rapid succession (cf. Luke 18:8; Acts 12:7; 22:18; 25:4; Rom. 16:20). The words, He made it known, are from the Greek verb esēmanen, meaning "to make known by signs or symbols," but the verb also includes communication by words. The angel messenger is not named but some believe he was Gabriel, who brought messages to Daniel, Mary, and Zechariah (cf. Dan. 8:16; 9:21-22; Luke 1:26-31). The reference to John as a servant (doulos, which normally means "slave") is the term used by Paul, James, Peter, and Jude (cf. Rom. 1:1; Phil. 1:1; Titus 1:1; James 1:1; 2 Peter 1:1; Jude 1) in speaking of their positions as God's servants."

The Prologue contains a description of the nature of the book, a reference to the author, and a statement that the book was meant for congregational reading. Probably vv. 1-3 were written last.

1 The book is called the "revelation of Jesus Christ." "Revelation" (apokalypsis) means to expose in full view what was formerly hidden, veiled, or secret. In the NT the word occurs exclusively in the religious sense of a divine disclosure. "Revelation" may refer to either some present or future aspect of God's will (Luke 2:32; Rom 16:25; Eph 3:5) or to persons (Rom 8:19) or especially to the future unveiling of Jesus Christ at his return in glory (2 Thess 1:7; 1 Peter 1:7, 13). In this single occurrence of apokalypsis in the Johannine writings, the meaning is not primarily the appearing or revealing of Christ—though certainly the book does this—but rather, as the following words show, the disclosure of "what must soon take place."

The content of the book comes from its author, Jesus Christ. Yet even Christ is not the final author but a mediator, for he receives the revelation from God the Father ("which God gave him to show"). John is the human instrument for communicating what he has seen by the agency of Christ's messenger or angel (cf. 22:6, 8, 16). Through John the revelation is to be made known to the servants of God who comprise the churches (cf. 22:16).

"What must soon take place" implies that the revelation concerns events that are future (cf. Dan 2:28-29, 45; Mark 13:7; Rev 4:1, 22:6). But in what sense can we understand that the events will arise "soon" (en tachei)? From the preterist point of view (the events are seen to be imminent to the time of the author; cf. Introduction) the sense is plain: all will "soon" take place—i.e., in John's day. Others translate en tachei as "quickly" (grammatically this is acceptable) and understand the author to describe events that will rapidly run their course once they begin. However, it is better to translate en tachei as "soon" in the light of the words "the time is near" in v. 3 (cf. 22:10).

Yet, if we adopt this sense, it is not necessary to follow the preterist interpretation of the book. In eschatology and apocalyptic, the future is always viewed as imminent without the necessity of intervening time (cf. Luke 18:8). That en tachei does not preclude delay or intervening events is evident from the Book of Revelation itself. In chapter 6 we hear the cry of the martyred saints: "How long, Sovereign Lord, holy and true, until you... avenge our blood?" They are told to "wait a little longer" (vv. 10-11). Therefore, "soonness" means imminency in eschatological terms. The church in every age has always lived with the expectancy of the consummation of all things in its day. Imminency describes an event possible any day, impossible no day. If this sense is followed, we are neither forced to accept a "mistaken apocalyptic" view as Schweitzer advocated nor a preterist interpretation (Albert Schweitzer, The Quest of the Historical Jesus [New York: Macmillan, 1968]).

Two more focal points of the book are introduced by the words "by sending his angel to his servant John." First, they introduce us to the significance of angels in the worship of God, in the revelation of God's Word, and in the execution of his judgments in the earth. Angels are referred to sixty-seven times in Revelation.

The second focal point is the word "servant" (doulos). All of God's people are known in Revelation as his servants. No less than eleven times in the book are they so described (e.g., 2:20; 7:3; 22:3). John is one servant selected to receive this revelation and communicate it to other servants of God. "Servant," used throughout the NT to describe those who are so designated as the special representatives of the Lord Christ himself, becomes a beautiful title of honor for God's people. Here, then, in the Prologue are five links in the chain of authorship: God, Christ, his angel, his servant John, and those servants to whom John addressed his book."

The Prologue contains a description of the nature of the book, a reference to the author, and a statement that the book was meant for congregational reading. Probably vv. 1-3 were written last.

(Rev 1:2 NASB) who testified to the Word of God and to the testimony of Jesus Christ, everything that he saw."

And John testified to the Word of God and to the testimony of Jesus Christ which the angel declared to the Apostle John which he put down in writing everything that he saw implying that the Angel's communication to John was visual, i.e., many visions as well as words.

(Rev 1:2 NASB) who testified to the Word of God and to the testimony of Jesus Christ, everything that he saw."

"1:2. John faithfully described what he saw as the Word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ. What John saw was a communication from—and about—Jesus Christ Himself."

(Rev 1:2 NASB) who testified to the Word of God and to the testimony of Jesus Christ, everything that he saw."

"2 Two elements in the book are of chief importance: "The word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ." In referring to his visions as the "word of God," John emphasizes his continuity with the prophets in the OT as well as the apostles in the NT. The following passages show us John's concept of the Word of God: Rev 1:9; Rev 3:8, 10; Rev 6:9; Rev 12:11; Rev 17:17; Rev 19:9; Rev 20:4. In Rev 19:13 Jesus is himself identified with the name "the Word of God." Here, in chapter 1, the reference is not directly to Christ but to the promises and acts of God revealed in this book that are realized through Jesus, the Word of God incarnate (cf. John 1:1-2; 1John 1:1). The church needs to be reminded that the neglected Book of Revelation is the very Word of God to us. While John's literary activity is evident throughout, he claims that what he presents he actually "saw" in divinely disclosed visions. And in the book God himself bears witness to the readers that these things are not the product of John's own mind (Rev 1:1-2; Rev 21:5; Rev 22:6; cf. 2 Peter 1:21).

"Testimony" translates the Greek martyria, another important term for the author. It is variously rendered as "witness," "attestation," "validation," "verification." "The testimony of Jesus" grammatically could be the testimony "to" Jesus—i. e., John's own testimony about Jesus (objective genitive). However, the alternate grammatical sense -the testimony or validation "from" Jesus (subjective genitive)-is to be preferred. John testifies both to the Word of God received in the visions and also to the validation of his message from Jesus himself. The important range of possible implications of the term in the following references is worthy of study: Rev 1:9; Rev 6:9; Rev 12:11, 17; Rev 19:10; Rev 20:4; Rev 22:16-20."

(Rev 1:2 NASB) who testified to the Word of God and to the testimony of Jesus Christ, everything that he saw.

(Rev 1:3 NASB) Blessed is the one who reads, and those who hear the words of the prophecy and keep the things which are written in it, for the time is near."

"Blessed is the one who reads the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear it and take to heart what is written in it, because the time is near" (1:3).

"Then I heard a voice from heaven say, 'Write: "Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on. "Yes,' says the Spirit, 'they will rest from their labor, for their deeds will follow them'" (14:13).

"Behold, I come like a thief! Blessed is he who stays awake and keeps his clothes with him, so that he may not go naked and be shamefully exposed" (16:15).

"Then the angel said to me, 'Write: "Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding supper of the Lamb!"' And he added, 'These are the true words of God'" (19:9).

"Blessed and holy are those who have part in the first resurrection. The second death has no power over them, but they will be priests of God and of Christ and will reign with Him for a thousand years" (20:6).

"Behold, I am coming soon! Blessed is he who keeps the words of the prophecy in this book" (22:7).

"Blessed are those who wash their robes, that they may have the right to the tree of life and may go through the gates into the city" (22:14).

The prologue presents concisely the basic facts underlying the entire book: its subjects, purpose, and angelic and human channels. It is most important to observe that the book was primarily intended to give a practical lesson to those who read and heed its contents." '''

(Rev 1:2 NASB) who testified to the Word of God and to the testimony of Jesus Christ, everything that he saw.

(Rev 1:3 NASB) Blessed is the one who reads, and those who hear the words of the prophecy and keep the things which are written in it, for the time is near."

'''1:3. The prologue concludes with a blessing on each individual who reads the book as well as on those who hear it and take to heart what is written in it. The implication is that a reader will read this message aloud to an audience. Not only is there a blessing for the reader and the hearers, but there is also a blessing for those who respond in obedience.

"Blessed is the one who reads the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear it and take to heart what is written in it, because the time is near" (1:3).

"Behold, I come like a thief! Blessed is he who stays awake and keeps his clothes with him, so that he may not go naked and be shamefully exposed" (16:15).

"Then the angel said to me, 'Write: "Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding supper of the Lamb!"' And he added, 'These are the true words of God'" (19:9).

"Behold, I am coming soon! Blessed is he who keeps the words of the prophecy in this book" (22:7).

"Blessed are those who wash their robes, that they may have the right to the tree of life and may go through the gates into the city" (22:14).

John concluded his prologue with the time is near. The word "time" (kairos) refers to a period of time, that is, the time of the end (Dan. 8:17; 11:35, 40; 12:4, 9). The end time, as a time period, is mentioned in Revelation 11:18 and 12:12. In 12:14 the word "time" means a year (cf. Dan. 7:25); and the phrase "time, times, and half a time" means one year ("time") plus two years ("times") plus six months ("half a time"), totaling three and one-half years—the length of the time of "the end." Revelation 1:3 includes the first of seven beatitudes in the book (1:3; 14:13; 16:15; 19:9; 20:6; 22:7, 14).

(Rev 1:2 NASB) who testified to the Word of God and to the testimony of Jesus Christ, everything that he saw.

(Rev 1:3 NASB) Blessed is the one who reads, and those who hear the words of the prophecy and keep the things which are written in it, for the time is near."

"This is the first place in the book where synoptic parallels to the Apocalypse can be noted (cf. Luke 11:28; 21:8). No less than twenty-five direct and indirect uses of the sayings of Jesus can be identified in the Apocalypse. See the excellent work on this subject by Louis A. Vos, The Synoptic Traditions in the Apocalypse (Kampen: J.H. Kok, 1965)."

(Isa 11:2 NASB) "The Spirit of the LORD will rest on Him, The spirit of wisdom and understanding, The spirit of counsel and strength, The spirit of knowledge and the fear of the LORD.

(Isa 11:3 NASB) And He will delight in the fear of the LORD, And He will not judge by what His eyes see, Nor make a decision by what His ears hear;"

So in view we have the seven manifestations of the Spirit of God: as the Spirit of the Lord, as the Spirit of wisdom, as the Spirit of understanding, as the Spirit of counsel, as the Spirit of strength, as the Spirit of knowledge and as the Spirit of the fear / godly respect of the Lord.

(Rev 3:1 NASB) "To the angel of the church in Sardis write: He who has the seven Spirits of God and the seven stars, says this: 'I know your deeds, that you have a name that you are alive, but you are dead."

The One Who has in the sense of possesses the seven Spirits of God can only be God, the Son of God Jesus Christ - the author Who inspired John to write the letter of the Revelation.

4) [Compare Revelation 4:5]:
(Rev 4:5 NASB) "Out from the throne come flashes of lightning and sounds and peals of thunder. And there were seven lamps of fire burning before the throne, which are the seven Spirits of God;" in the sense of representing the seven Spirits of God.

(Rev 1:4 NASB) '''John to the seven churches that are in Asia: Grace to you and peace, from Him who is and who was and who is to come, and from the seven Spirits who are before His throne,

(Rev 1:5 NASB) and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth. To Him who loves us and released us from our sins by His blood—

(Rev 1:6 NASB) and He has made us to be a kingdom, priests to His God and Father—to Him be the glory and the dominion forever and ever. Amen.

Following this is Rev 1:5-6 which verses complete the previous verse 4 as follows:

(Rev 1:4 NASB) '''John to the seven churches that are in Asia: Grace to you and peace, from Him who is and who was and who is to come, and from the seven Spirits who are before His throne,

(Rev 1:5 NASB) and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth. To Him Who loves us and released us from our sins by His blood -

(Rev 1:6 NASB) and He has made us to be a kingdom, priests to His God and Father — to Him be the glory and the dominion forever and ever. Amen."

Finally, comes greetings from the third Person of the Trinity, Jesus Christ Who in verse 5 is declared to be the faithful witness in the sense of being the source of the revelation to be given in John's letter to the seven churches. His credibility is proved by his earthly life of obedience in the past; it is proved in the present by his witness to the true condition of the churches; and it will be proved in the future by the consummation of all things in him. In the past he was loyal to the point of death (cf. John 7:7; 18:37; 1 Tim 6:13), as was his servant Antipas (2:13). That Christ was a reliable witness to God's kingdom and salvation—even to the point of suffering death at the hands of the religious-political establishment of his day—is an encouragement to his servants who also are expected to be loyal to him—even to their death (2:10).

Whereupon the phrase rendered, "To Him Who loves us and released us from our sins by His blood" refers to Christ Who loves us believers in Him and released us, i.e. forgave us in the sense of no longer being held accountable for all of our sins by the blood He shed for our sins as a result of our moment of faith alone in Him alone for that forgiveness.

Whereupon it says in Rev 1:6 "and He has made us to be a kingdom, priests to His God and Father - to Him be the glory and the dominion forever and ever. Amen;" which declares that Christ has made believers in Him to be a kingdom - to be priests to His God and Father referring to His Perfect Humanity declaring God to be His God and Father - for the Son of God is God. And then John wrote what is rendered as follows: "to Him [Christ] be the glory and the dominion forever and ever. Amen"

'''1:4-6. This salutation—like Paul's salutations in his epistles and the salutation of John himself in 2 John—specifies the book's destination. The recipients of this message were the seven churches in the Roman province of Asia in Asia Minor (Rev. 1:11; chaps. 2 and 3). The words grace and peace concisely summarize both a Christian's standing before God and his experience. "Grace" speaks of God's attitude toward believers; "peace" speaks both of their standing with God and their experience of divine peace.

The salutation is unusual in that it describes God the Father as the One who is, and who was, and who is to come (cf. ). The seven spirits probably refers to the Holy Spirit (cf. Isa. 11:2-3; Rev. 3:1; 4:5; 5:6), though it is an unusual way to refer to the third Person of the Trinity. Of the three Persons in the Trinity, Jesus Christ is here mentioned last, probably because of His prominence in this book. He is described as the faithful Witness, that is, the source of the revelation to be given; the Firstborn from the dead (cf. Col. 1:18), referring to His historic resurrection; and the Ruler of the kings of the earth, indicating His prophetic role after His second coming (chap. 19)

Christ's resurrection was from the dead. As the "Firstborn," He is the first to be resurrected with an everlasting body,

[Biblestudymanuals: Note that Lazarus was raised from the dead before Jesus was, but not with an eternal resurrection body which the text may not be referring to, and others. But Christ's resurrection is preeminent and with a resurrection body]

which is a token of other selective resurrections including those of saints who die in the Church Age (Phil. 3:11), the Tribulation martyrs (Rev. 20:5-6), and the wicked dead of all ages (20:12-13).

In His dying on the cross Christ who loves us is the One who freed us from our sins by His blood (some Gr. mss. have the word "washed" instead of "freed"). Believers are now a kingdom and priests with the purpose now and forever of serving God. This prompted John to express a benediction of praise and worship culminating with Amen (lit., "so be it").'''

(Rev 1:4 NASB) '''John to the seven churches that are in Asia: Grace to you and peace, from Him who is and who was and who is to come, and from the seven Spirits who are before His throne,

(Rev 1:5 NASB) and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth. To Him who loves us and released us from our sins by His blood -

(Rev 1:6 NASB) and He has made us to be a kingdom, priests to His God and Father—to Him be the glory and the dominion forever and ever. Amen.'''

(Rev 1:4 NASB) '''John to the seven churches that are in Asia: Grace to you and peace, from Him who is and who was and who is to come, and from the seven Spirits who are before His throne,

"4 The epistolary form of address immediately distinguishes this book from all other Jewish apocalyptic works (cf. Introduction). None of the pseudepigraphical works contain such epistolary addresses. John writes to actual, historical churches, addressing them in the same way the NT epistles are addressed. These churches he writes to actually existed in the Roman province of Asia (the western part of present-day Turkey), as the details in chapters 2 and 3 indicate. But the question is this: Why did John address these churches and only these seven churches? There were other churches in Asia at the close of the first century. The NT itself refers to congregations at Troas (Acts 20:5-12), Colosse (Col 1:2), and Hierapolis (Col 4:13). There might also have been churches at Magnesia and Tralles, since Ignatius wrote to them less than twenty years later.

At present it is difficult to say why the Lord selected these seven churches. Some have suggested that the churches selected were prophetic of the church ages throughout history O.A. Seiss, The Apocalypse [Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1957], p. 64; the Scofield Reference Bible adopts this view in its notes). For example, Ephesus would represent prophetically the apostolic period until the Decian persecution (A.D. 250) followed by Smyrna, which represents the church of martyrdom extending until the time of Constantine (A.D. 316). However, after this initial agreement identifications become more difficult except for the last church. All agree that Laodicea is the final period of lukewarm apostasy. Yet there is no reason from the text itself to hold this view. The churches are simply churches found in every age. If the churches were genuinely prophetic of the course of church history rather than representative in every age, those who hold to the imminent return of Christ would have been quickly disillusioned once they realized this.

The reason seven churches were chosen and were placed in this order seems to be that seven was simply the number of completeness, and here it rounds out the literary pattern of the other sevens in the book (cf. Introduction: Structure). These seven churches contained typical or representative qualities of both obedience and disobedience that are a constant reminder throughout every age to all churches (cf. 2:7, 11, 17, 29; 3:6, 13, 22; esp. 2:23). Mounce suggests that the seven were possibly chosen because of some special relationship to emperor worship (Revelation, p. 68). As for the order of their mention (1:11), it is the natural ancient travel circuit beginning at Ephesus and arriving finally at Laodicea (see a map of the area).

"Grace and peace" are the usual epistolary greetings that represent the bicultural background of the NT—Greek (charis, "grace") and Hebrew (salom, "peace"; here the Gr. eirene). The source of blessing is described by employing an elaborate triadic formula for the Trinity:

Similarly there follows a threefold reference to the identity and function of Christ: "the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth"; and three indications of his saving work: "who loves us and has freed us from our sins... and has made us to be a kingdom and priests."

The descriptive name of the Father is "him who is [ho on], and who was [ho en] and who is to come [ho erchomenos]." Each name of God in the Bible is replete with revelatory significance. This particular title occurs nowhere else except in Revelation (4:8; cf. 11:17; 16:5). It is generally understood as a paraphrase for the divine name represented throughout the OT by the Hebrew tetragrammaton YHWH. In Exodus 3:14 the LXX has ho on for the Hebrew tetragrammaton, and in the LXX of Isaiah 41:4 the Lord is described as the one "who is to come." The complete combination of the three tenses does not occur in our Bibles but can be found in a Palestinian Targum on Deuteronomy 32:39. A case can be made that John has made a literal translation here of that Aramaic Targum (L. Paul Trudinger, Some Observations Concerning the Text of the Old Testament in the Book of Revelation, JTS, 17,[1966], 87). The force of the name has been widely discussed. In 1:8 and 4:8 it is parallel with the divine name "Lord God, the Almighty." The tenses indicate that the same God is eternally present to his covenant people to sustain and encourage them through all the experiences of their lives.

"And from the seven spirits before his throne" seems clearly to focus on the Holy Spirit, not on angels. But why "seven spirits"? Some understand John to mean the "sevenfold spirit" in his fullness (NIV mg. and Ladd, Commentary on Revelation, in loc.). Borrowing from the imagery of Zechariah 4, where the ancient prophet sees a lampstand with seven bowls supplied with oil from two nearby olive trees, John seems to connect the church ("lampstands" [v. 20]) to the ministry of the Holy Spirit (3:1; 4:5; 5:6). The "seven spirits" represent the activity of the risen Christ through the Holy Spirit in and to the seven churches. This figure brings great encouragement to the churches, for it is "'not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit,' says the LORD Almighty" (Zech 4:6), that the churches serve God. Yet the figure is also a sobering one because the history of each church (chs. 2-3) is an unfolding of that church's response to the Holy Spirit—"He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches" (2:7, 11, et al.).

Mounce opts for the view that the seven spirits are perhaps "part of the heavenly entourage that has a special ministry in connection with the Lamb" (Revelation, p. 70). However, to identify the seven spirits with angels is highly unlikely because (1) such reference to angels would break the symmetry of the Trinitarian address in 1:4-5 by the intrusion of an angelic greeting and (2) "spirit(s)" in the Book of Revelation refers only to the Spirit of God or to demons, with the exception of 11:11 and 13:15, neither of which refers to angels (for further objections to Mounce's view, see F.F. Bruce, "The Spirit in the Apocalypse," in Christ and the Spirit in the New Testament edd. B. Lindars and S. Smalley [Cambridge: Cambridge University, 1973], pp. 333-37).

(Rev 1:5 NASB) and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth. To Him who loves us and released us from our sins by His blood -

"5 Finally, greetings come from the Son—"from Jesus Christ." John immediately adds three descriptive epithets about Christ and a burst of doxology to him. He is first the "faithful witness." His credibility is proved by his earthly life of obedience in the past; it is proved in the present by his witness to the true condition of the churches; and it will be proved in the future by the consummation of all things in him. In the past he was loyal to the point of death (cf. John 7:7; 18:37; 1Tim 6:13), as was his servant Antipas (2:13). That Christ was a reliable witness to God's kingdom and salvation—even to the point of suffering death at the hands of the religious-political establishment of his day—is an encouragement to his servants who also are expected to be loyal to him—even to their death (2:10).

The fact that he is "the firstborn from the dead" brings further encouragement. As Christ has given his life in faithfulness to the Father's calling, so the Father has raised Christ from the dead, pledging him as the first of a great company who will follow (cf. 7:13-14). John nowhere else refers to Christ as the "firstborn" (prototokos), though Paul uses it in Romans 8:29 and Colossians 1:15, 18; and it also occurs in Hebrews 1:6. The same expression is found in Colossians 1:18, where it is associated with words of supreme authority or origin such as "head," "beginning" (arche, cf. Rev 3:14), and "supremacy." In Colossians 1:15 Paul refers to Christ as the "firstborn over all creation." This cannot mean that Christ was the first-created being but rather that he is the source, ruler, or origin of all creation (cf. Colossians 1:18 comment). So for Christ to be the "firstborn" of the dead signifies not merely that he was first in time to be raised from the dead but also that he was first in importance, having supreme authority over the dead (cf. 1:18). In the LXX of Psalm 89:27 the same word is used of the Davidic monarch: "I will also appoint him my firstborn, the most exalted of the kings of the earth." Rabbinic tradition believed this reference was messianic (LTJM, 2:719).

The further title for Jesus, "the ruler of the kings of the earth," virtually connects John's thought with the psalm just quoted. Christ's rulership of the world is a key theme of John (11:15; 17:15; 19:16). Jesus Christ is the supreme ruler of the kings of the earth. But who are the "kings of the earth" over whom Jesus Christ rules? John could mean the emperors such as Nero and Domitian, the territorial rulers such as Pilate and Herod, and their successors. In that case John was affirming that even though Jesus is not physically present and the earthly monarchs appear to rule, in reality it is he, not they, who rules over all (6:15; 17:2). Another approach holds that Jesus rules over the defeated foes of believers, e.g., Satan, the dragon, sin, and death (1:18). A third possibility sees believers as the kings of the earth (2:26-27; 3:21; cf. 11:6). Support for this view comes from the reference to Christ's redeeming activity in the immediate context as well as by the reference to believers in v. 6 as a "kingdom."All three ideas are true; so it is difficult to decide which was uppermost in John's mind. We should be careful, however, not to read into the term "king" our own power concepts but to allow the biblical images to predominate.

The mention of the person and offices of Christ leads John to a burst of praise to his Savior: "To him who loves us... be glory and power." In the present, Christ is loving us. Through all the immediate distresses, persecutions, and even banishment, John is convinced that believers are experiencing Christ's continual care. Moreover, in the past Christ's love was unmistakably revealed in his atoning death, by which he purchased our release from the captivity of sin. Christ's kingly power is chiefly revealed in his ability to transform individual lives through his "blood" (i.e., his death; cf. 5:9; 7:14). Through his death on the cross, he defeated the devil; and those who follow Christ in the battle against the devil share this victory. "They overcame him [the devil] by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony" (12:11).

(Rev 1:6 NASB) and He has made us to be a kingdom, priests to His God and Father—to Him be the glory and the dominion forever and ever. Amen.'''

"6 This transformation simultaneously involves the induction of blood-freed sinners into Christ's "kingdom" and priesthood. Of Israel it was said that they would be a "kingdom of priests and a holy nation" (Exod 19:6; cf. Isa 61:6). The OT references as well as John's probably refer to both a "kingdom" and "priests" rather than a "kingdom of priests" (RSV). As Israel of old was redeemed through the Red Sea and was called to be a kingdom under God and a nation of priests to serve him, so John sees the Christian community as the continuation of the OT people of God, redeemed by Christ's blood and made heirs of his future kingly rule on the earth (5:10; 20:6). Furthermore, all believers are called to be priests in the sense of offering spiritual sacrifices and praise to God (Heb 13:15; 1 Peter 2:5). While John sees the church as a kingdom, this does not mean that it is identical with the kingdom of God. Neither do the new people of God replace the ancient Jewish people in the purpose of God (cf. Rom 11:28-29)."

(Rev 1:7 NASB) '''BEHOLD, HE IS COMING WITH THE CLOUDS, and every eye will see Him, even those who pierced Him; and all the tribes of the earth will mourn over Him. So it is to be. Amen.'''

[Author John announces, "BEHOLD, HE [CHRIST] IS COMING WITH THE CLOUDS," which refers to His Second Coming in which every eye will see His coming again, which rules out the rapture which none will see Him waiting in the clouds

But every eye will see His coming again, i.e., His Second Coming will be seen in the sense of every human being on the planet will see Him instantly. This is not a seeing Him throughout during a relatively longer period of time around the sphere of the world by some means to account for the 24 hours of the revolution of the planet or does it imply something figuratively, as some contend. This seeing implies a beginning at an instant of time and an ongoing period via the the impetus of an all powerful, supernatural Creator God Who can do all things. Note the phrase "even those who pierced Him" refers to individuals who lived during the first century who participated / contributed in some manner to His crucifixion in the first century. Somehow through the supernatural superintendance of God, those who participated in Christ's crucifixion will see Him as well as all the tribes of the earth, not just Israel as some contend - throughout the world, portraying some kind of supernatural superintendance by God, even to the extent that those of another time in history who have died and their souls / spirits are in the after life in Hades. Furthermore all the tribes of the earth will mourn over Him; not just Israel, as some contend. Note that God being Creator is Almighty / Omnipotent and can indeed superintend supernaturally over the world past, present and future to see to it that "every eye will see Him, even those who pierced Him - those who were guilty of supporting, even participating in His death - a mourning not only about His death but also about His coming to judge all the nations who are on the planet - even later at the end of the age at the Great White Throne Judgment.

1) [Compare Commentary By David M. Levy of Israel My Glory, Nov/Dec 2019 - at israelmyglory.org]:

(Rev 1:7 NASB) '''BEHOLD, HE IS COMING WITH THE CLOUDS, and every eye will see Him, even those who pierced Him; and all the tribes of the earth will mourn over Him. So it is to be. Amen.'''

The apostle John wrote, "Behold He is coming with clouds, and every eye will see Him, even they who pierced Him. And all the tribes of the earth will mourn because of Him. Even so, Amen" (Rev 1:7). This text refers to Jesus Christ's return to Earth, which He spoke of at least 22 times in Scripture.

Some people mistake the verse as referring to the Rapture of the church. However, at the Rapture, only Christians will be caught up to meet Christ in the air and be transported to heaven (Jn 14:1-3; 1 Thes 4:16-17

). Christ does not come to Earth.

The Rapture occurs quickly, "in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye" (1 Cor 15:52). Therefore, not everyone on Earth will see the event. But Christ comes directly at His Second Advent, and every eye will see Him. "And in that day His feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, which faces Jesusalem" (Zech 14:4).

Some say His coming will be gradual, not instantaneous; and as the earth rotates, everyone will see Him coming. Others point out that modern technology makes it possible for the whole world to view the event simultaneously. [But God being supernatural does not need man's help, nor is He restricted to forces and materials in the natural world. Scripture says He is coming "with power and great glory" (Mt 24:30). In Christ's glorified state, He will light up a dark universe (v. 29), so everyone will see this spectacular event.

John said, "even they who pierced Him' will see Him (Rev 1:70) How can that happen if they've been dead for centuries? Yet Zechariah prophesied, 'They will look on Me Whom they pierced' (Zech 12:10). The word they refers to Jewish people; Me refers to Jesus, the divine Messiah of Israel.

Jesus was falsely condemned at an illegal, Jewish religious trial. There, Jesus told His accusers they would see Him "coming on the clouds of heaven" (Mt 26:64). He was also accused at a Roman trial before Pontius Pilate and taken to be crucified (27:1, 11-31). The word pierce means to "thrust through," normally with a sword or spear, resulting in death. Genile Roman soldiers actually curcified Christ. God, however, clearly holds all people responsible (Acts 2:23; 4:27-28).

Even those dead for centuries will see Jesus return to Earth. Then "all the tribes of the earth will mourn because of Him" (Rev 1:7; cf. Mt 24:30). Some will mourn in repentance over their sin

[Biblestudymanuals: Not correct. They will repent in the sense of changing their minds from not believing to expressing a moment of faith alone in Christ alone with the implied understanding that they are accountable to God for their sin and need to accept Christ's payment for them by that moment of faith alone, cf. Jn 3:16. See study on repent which simply means to change the mind about something that is stipulated in the context of the passage

]

and [they will therefore] be saved (Zech 12:10-14), while others will mourn in despair, knowing He is coming in judgment (Rev 19:11-16)."

(Rev 1:8 NASB) "I am the Alpha and the Omega," says the Lord God, "Who is and Who was and Who is to come, the Almighty."

Rev 1:8 has in view four of the many names of God which He entitles to Himself in His Word beginning in thus verse with "I am the Alpha and the Omega," then "the Lord God" both in the sense of the One and Only Who the third name is the One "Who is and was and Who is to come" - speaking of Christ's - the Son of God's - Second Coming; and the fourth, "the Almighty." By this declaration, God authenticates the testimony of John in this Book of the Revelation, especially of the truthfulness of the message of the Second Coming of Christ.

Alpha and omega are the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet. Their mention here is similar to the "First" and "Last" in v. 17 and is further heightened by the "Beginning" and the "End" in 21:6 and 22:13. Only the Book of Revelation refers to God as the "Alpha and the Omega." God is the absolute source of all creation and history. Nothing lies outside of him. Therefore, he is the "Lord God" of all and is continually present to His people as the "Almighty" (parwtokrator, lit., "the one who has his hand on everything"; cf. 4:8; 11:17; 15:3; 16:7, 14; 19:6, 15; 21:22; 2 Cor 6:18."

(Rev 1:7 NASB) '''BEHOLD, HE IS COMING WITH THE CLOUDS, and every eye will see Him, even those who pierced Him; and all the tribes of the earth will mourn over Him. So it is to be. Amen.

(Rev 1:8 NASB) "I am the Alpha and the Omega," says the Lord God, "Who is and Who was and Who is to come, the Almighty." '''

'''1:7-8. Readers are exhorted to look for He is coming. This is His second coming which will be with the clouds (cf. Acts 1:9-11). Every eye will see Him, even those who pierced Him. Though the literal executioners and rejecters of Christ are now dead and will not be resurrected until after the Millennium, the godly remnant of Israel "will look on [Him], the One they have pierced" (Zech. 12:10). This godly remnant will represent the nation.

[Biblestudymanuals: But those who did pierce him will actually see Him via the supernatural superintendence of God albeit they have been in the afterlife since the first century. Otherwise to take this figuratively deteriorates into nonsense, especially since God is fully capable to see to it that all of this will literally occur]

Christ's second coming, however, will be visible to the entire world including unbelievers, in contrast with His first coming at His birth in Bethlehem and in contrast with the future Rapture of the church, which probably will not be visible to the earth as a whole. The present tense of the expression "He is coming" (Rev. 1:7) points to the future Rapture of the church (John 14:3).

"He is coming" refers to Christ's visible coming and touching down on the planet and not His staying in the clouds and catching up believers in the church

]

John again appended the word Amen. The salutation closes with a reminder of Christ as the eternal One, the Alpha and the Omega, the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet (also used in Rev. 21:6; 22:13). He is further described as the One who is, and who was, and who is to come (cf. 4:8; 11:17), the Almighty. The Greek word for "Almighty" is pantokratōr, "the all-powerful One." It is used 10 times in the New Testament, 9 of them in Revelation (2 Cor. 6:18; Rev. 1:8; 4:8; 11:17; 15:3; 16:7, 14; 19:6, 15; 21:22). The major revelation of the entire book is referred to in these salutation verses.'''

(Rev 1:7 NASB) '''BEHOLD, HE IS COMING WITH THE CLOUDS, and every eye will see Him, even those who pierced Him; and all the tribes of the earth will mourn over Him. So it is to be. Amen.

(Rev 1:8 NASB) "I am the Alpha and the Omega," says the Lord God, "Who is and Who was and Who is to come, the Almighty." '''

'''7 What Christ will do in the future is summed up in the dramatic cry: "Look, he is coming." This is a clear reference to the return of Christ (22:7, 12, 20). The preceding affirmation of Christ's rulership over the earth's kings and the Christians' share in the messianic kingdom leads to tension between the believers' actual present condition of oppression and suffering and what seems to be implied in their royal and priestly status. So the divine promise of Christ's return is given by the Father, and the response of the prophet and congregation follows in the words "So shall it be! Amen." Or we might think of Christ as saying, "So shall it be!" and the prophet and the congregation responding, "Amen" (cf. 22:20). The promise combines Daniel 7:13 with Zechariah 12:10 (taken from the Heb. text rather than LXX, as in John 19:37; cf. Matt 24:30, which also refers to the coming of Christ). Daniel 7 provides a key focus for John throughout the whole book (there are no fewer than thirty-one allusions to it).

Christ's coming will be supernatural ("with the clouds") and in some manner open and known to all ("every eye"), even to those who "pierced" him, i.e., put him to death. "Those who pierced him" might be those historically responsible for his death—such as Pilate, Annas, and Caiphas—and those Jewish leaders of the Sanhedrin who pronounced him guilty. And yet, when he comes, there will be mourning among "all the peoples of the earth." From the NT point of view, Pilate, Annas, Caiaphas, and the others were acting as representatives for all mankind in crucifying Jesus. While it is possible to see this mourning as a lament of repentance and sorrow for putting the Son of God to death, more probably the mourning results from the judgment Christ brings upon the world. The expression "peoples of the earth" (phylai; lit., "tribes") is normally used throughout the LXX and NT of the tribes of Israel (7:4ff; 21:12; cf. Matt 19:28; 24:30). John, however, uses phylai in a number of places to refer more broadly to the peoples of all the nations (5:9; 7:9; 11:9; 13:7; 14:6—a usage that seems natural here, also.

8 Such a stupendous promise requires more than the prophet's own signature or even Christ's "Amen." God himself speaks and, with his own signature, vouches for the truthfulness of the coming of Christ. Of the many names of God that reveal his character and memorialize his deeds, there are four strong ones in this verse: "Alpha and Omega," "Lord God," "who is, and who was, and who is to come," and "the Almighty" (cf. v. 4 for comments on the second title). Alpha and omega are the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet. Their mention here is similar to the "First" and "Last" in v. 17 and is further heightened by the "Beginning" and the "End" in 21:6 and 22:13. Only the Book of Revelation refers to God as the "Alpha and the Omega." God is the absolute source of all creation and history. Nothing lies outside of him. Therefore, he is the "Lord God" of all and is continually present to His people as the "Almighty" (parwtokrator, lit., "the one who has his hand on everything"; cf. 4:8; 11:17; 15:3; 16:7, 14; 19:6, 15; 21:22; 2Cor 6:18).'''

(Rev 1:9 NASB) '''John, your brother and fellow partaker in the tribulation and kingdom and perseverance which are in Jesus, was on the island called Patmos because of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus.'''

(Rev 1:10 NASB) I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day, and I heard behind me a loud voice like the sound of a trumpet,

(Rev 1:11 NASB) saying, "Write in a book what you see, and send it to the seven churches: to Ephesus and to Smyrna and to Pergamum and to Thyatira and to Sardis and to Philadelphia and to Laodicea.'''

[Author John declares himself to the seven churches to whom he addresses this letter as follows: "John, your brother and fellow partaker of the tribulation" / persecution that was going on in that part of the world at that time toward believers - especially those who were faithful in their testimony about Jesus. And he also declared himself to be fellow partakers with them of the eternal / heavenly kingdom of God. So in view is the fact that John and the believers in the seven churches and all believers will share in their residence in the eternal kingdom of God. John further states that he was sent to the island on Patmos in the sense of being imprisoned because of John's teaching of the Word of God and his testimony about Jesus in Ephesus.

One of the Sporades Islands, Patmos lies about thirty-seven miles west-southwest of Miletus, in the Icarian Sea. Consisting mainly of volcanic hills and rocky ground, Patmos is about ten miles long and six miles wide at the north end. It was an island used for Roman penal purposes. Tacitus refers to the use of such small islands for political banishment (Annals 3.68; 4.30; 15.71). Eusebius mentions that John was banished to the island by the emperor Domitian in A.D. 95 and released eighteen months later by Nerva (Ecclesiastical History 3.20. 8-9).

(Rev 1:10 NASB) I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day, and I heard behind me a loud voice like the sound of a trumpet,

[John continues to expound in verse 10, "I was in the spirit" in the sense of being directed by the Holy Spirit. And then he wrote, "on the Lord's day," evidently referring to the first day of the week when the Christians would gather together to worship and John preached at the church in Ephesus.

Most commentators, both ancient and modern, have, however, taken the expression to mean Sunday, the first day of the week (W. Stott, "A Note on kyriake in Rev 1:10," NTS, 12 [1965], 70-75). This usage occurs early in the apostolic fathers (Didache 14; Ignatius To the Magnesians 9). Tendencies toward recognizing Sunday as a day designated by Christ to celebrate his redemption occur even in the earlier parts of the NT (Acts 20:7; 1Cor 16:2). Such a reference would bind the exiled apostle to the worshiping churches in Asia through his longing to be with them on Sunday. It is not impossible, however, that the day referred to here was an Easter Sunday.'''

Whereupon John wrote, "and I heard behind me a loud voice like the sound of a trumpet...."

(Rev 1:11 NASB) '''saying, "Write in a book what you see, and send it to the seven churches: to Ephesus and to Smyrna and to Pergamum and to Thyatira and to Sardis and to Philadelphia and to Laodicea.'''

[So John continued to write - referring to Christ's command to John as follows: [(v. 10b) '''and I heard behind me a loud voice like the sound of a trumpet] .... saying, Write in a book what you see, and send it to the seven churches: "to Ephesus and to Smyrna and to Pergamum and to Thyatira and to Sardis and to Philadelphia and to Laodicea."

[BKC: "Each of these churches was an autonomous local church and the order of mention is geographical in a half-moon circle beginning at Ephesus on the coast, proceeding north to Smyrna and Pergamum, then swinging east and south to Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea.]

(Rev 1:9 NASB) "I, John, your brother and fellow partaker in the tribulation and kingdom and perseverance which are in Jesus, was on the island called Patmos because of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus.

(Rev 1:10 NASB) I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day, and I heard behind me a loud voice like the sound of a trumpet,

(Rev 1:11 NASB) saying, "Write in a book what you see, and send it to the seven churches: to Ephesus and to Smyrna and to Pergamum and to Thyatira and to Sardis and to Philadelphia and to Laodicea."

The location of the dramatic revelation of Christ recorded in this book was the island of Patmos, a small island in the Aegean Sea southwest of Ephesus and between Asia Minor and Greece. According to several early church fathers (Irenaeus, Clement of Alexandria, and Eusebius), John was sent to this island as a prisoner following his effective pastorate at Ephesus. Victorinus, the first commentator on the Book of Revelation, stated that John worked as a prisoner in the mines on this small island. When the Emperor Domitian died in A.D. 96, his successor Nerva let John return to Ephesus. During John's bleak days on Patmos, God gave him the tremendous revelation embodied in this final book of the Bible.

"1:9-11. This section begins with the expression I, John. This is the third reference to John as the human author in this chapter and the first of three times in the book when he referred to himself as I (cf. 21:2; 22:8). This contrasts with his reference to himself in 2 John 1 and 3 John 1 as an elder and his indication in John 21:24 that he was a disciple.

In these opening chapters addressed to the seven churches of Asia, John described himself as a brother who was patient in his endurance of suffering. His suffering had come because of his faithful proclamation of and faith in the Word of God and the testimony of Jesus. (Some Gr. texts add "Christ" after Jesus.) "The testimony of Jesus" means John's testimony for and about Jesus, not a testimony given by Jesus. Like many other well-known writers of Scripture (Moses, David, Isaiah, Ezekiel, Jeremiah, and Peter), John was writing from a context of suffering because of his commitment to the true God."

(Rev 1:10 NASB) "I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day, and I heard behind me a loud voice like the sound of a trumpet,"

"John's revelation occurred on the Lord's Day while he was in the Spirit. Some have indicated that "the Lord's Day" refers to the first day of the week. However, the word "Lord's" is an adjective and this expression is never used in the Bible to refer to the first day of the week.

Probably John was referring to the day of the Lord, a familiar expression in both Testaments (cf. Isa. 2:12; 13:6, 9; 34:8; Joel 1:15; 2:1, 11, 31; 3:14; Amos 5:18, 20; Zeph. 1:7-8, 14, 18; 2:3; Zech. 14:1; Mal. 4:5; 1 Thes. 5:2; 2 Peter 3:10).

[Biblestudymanuals.net: Not true. John continues to expound in verse 10, "I was in the spirit" in the sense of being directed by the Holy Spirit. And then he wrote, "on the Lord's day," evidently referring to the first day of the week when the Christians gathered together to worship and when and where John preached at the church in Ephesus: "and I heard behind me a loud voice like the sound of a trumpet."

Note that at least the first vision - if not the whole Book of Revelation - was revealed on "the Lord's Day" (kyriake hemera). Since this is the only place in the NT where this expression is used, its identification is difficult. Paul uses kyriake as an adjective in 1 Corinthians 11:20 in reference to the "Lord's supper" (kyriakon deipnon). Although "kyriake hemera" does not appear anywhere else in the Bible this does not preclude this expression here in Rev 1:9 from meaning the first day of the week rendered "Sunday" in English.]

"In the Spirit" could also be rendered "in [my] spirit" (cf. Rev. 4:2; 17:3; 21:10). That is, he was projected forward in his inner self in a vision, not bodily, to that future day of the Lord when God will pour out His judgments on the earth.

[Biblestudymanuals.net This may be. But in all likelihood, at 404 verses, John might very well have penned the letter beginning on the Lord's Day - Sunday and may have done it all in that one day]

Each of these churches was an autonomous local church and the order of mention is geographical in a half-moon circle beginning at Ephesus on the coast, proceeding north to Smyrna and Pergamum, then swinging east and south to Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea. (For more information on these seven churches see comments on chaps. 2-3).

(Rev 1:10 NASB) I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day, and I heard behind me a loud voice like the sound of a trumpet,

(Rev 1:11 NASB) saying, "Write in a book what you see, and send it to the seven churches: to Ephesus and to Smyrna and to Pergamum and to Thyatira and to Sardis and to Philadelphia and to Laodicea."

'''9 This verse begins a third introduction in which the author again identifies himself as John and adds further significant information about where and when the visions took place together with their divinely appointed destination. John stresses his intimate identification with the Asian Christians and the reason for his presence on Patmos.

John indicates that it was "because of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus" that he was formerly on Patmos (cf. Rev 1:2; Rev 6:9; Rev 20:4). He was not there to preach that Word but because of religious-political opposition to his faithfulness to it. John sees his plight as part of God's design and says he is a partner with Christians in three things: "suffering" ("ordeal," "tribulation," "distress," "agony"), "kingdom," and "patient endurance" (or "faithful endurance"). John and the Asian believers share with Christ and one another the suffering or agony that comes because of faithfulness to Christ as the only true Lord and God (John 16:33; Acts 14:22; Col 1:24; 2Tim 3:12). Also, they share with Christ in his "kingdom" (power and rule)... they will reign with Christ in the eschatological manifestation of his kingdom (20:4, 6; 22:5)...

...Christ's royal power does not now crush opposition but uses suffering to test and purify the loyalty of his servants. His strength is revealed through their weakness (2 Cor 12:19). Christians are called, as was John, to ... willingly enter... into suffering [and] conflict with the powers of this age."

(Rev 1:10 NASB) "I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day, and I heard behind me a loud voice like the sound of a trumpet,"

'''10 "I was in the Spirit" describes John's experience on Patmos. The words imply being transported into the world of prophetic visions by the Spirit of God (4:2; 17:3; 21:10; cf. Ezek 3:12, 14; 37:1; Acts 22:17). At least the first vision—if not the whole Book of Revelation—was revealed on "the Lord's Day" (kyriake hemera). Since this is the only place in the NT where this expression is used, its identification is difficult. Paul uses kyriake as an adjective in 1 Corinthians 11:20 in reference to the "Lord's supper" (kyriakon deipnon). Some feel that John was transported into the future day of the Lord, the prophetic day of God's great judgment and the return of Christ (E. W. Bullinger, The Apocalypse, 2d ed. [London: Eyre & Spottiswoode, 1909], p. 152). The major objection to this is that John does not use the common expression for the eschatological "day of the Lord" (hemera kyriou). Others find a reference here to Easter Sunday and base it on the tradition reported in Jerome's commentary on Matthew 24, that Christ would return on Easter Eve (Friedrich Bleek, Lectures on the Apocalypse, ed. and trans. L.T. Hossbach and S. Davidson [London: Williams & Norgate, 1875], p. 156).

More recently a convincing attempt has been made to link the literary form of Revelation with the paschal (Easter) liturgy of the ancient church (Massey H. Shepherd, Jr., The Paschal Liturgy and the Apocalypse [Richmond: John Knox, 1960]). Most commentators, both ancient and modern, have, however, taken the expression to mean Sunday, the first day of the week (W. Stott, "A Note on kyriake in Rev 1:10," NTS, 12 [1965], 70-75). This usage occurs early in the apostolic fathers (Didache 14; Ignatius To the Magnesians 9). Tendencies toward recognizing Sunday as a day designated by Christ to celebrate his redemption occur even in the earlier parts of the NT (Acts 20:7; 1Cor 16:2). Such a reference would bind the exiled apostle to the worshiping churches in Asia through his longing to be with them on Sunday. It is not impossible, however, that the day referred to here was an Easter Sunday.'''

'''11 The "voice" John heard could be Christ's or, more likely, that of the angel who appears frequently to John (4:1; 5:2). What John sees (visions and words), he is to
write it down in a papyrus scroll and send to the seven Asian churches (v. 4). This writing would include the substance of the whole book, not just the first vision. (For a map of the seven churches, see Introduction.)"

(Rev 1:12 NASB) "Then I turned to see the voice that was speaking with me. And having turned I saw seven golden lampstands;

(Rev 1:13 NASB) and in the middle of the lampstands I saw one like a son of man, clothed in a robe reaching to the feet, and girded across His chest with a golden sash.

(Rev 1:14 NASB) His head and His hair were white like white wool, like snow; and His eyes were like a flame of fire.

(Rev 1:15 NASB) His feet were like burnished bronze, when it has been made to glow in a furnace, and His voice was like the sound of many waters.

(Rev 1:16 NASB) In His right hand He held seven stars, and out of His mouth came a sharp two-edged sword; and His face was like the sun shining in its strength."

1) (Rev 1:12 NASB) "Then I turned to see the voice that was speaking with me. And having turned I saw seven golden lampstands;"

[Note that the instructions that Christ gave to John imply Christ's absolute authority to address the churches with John as His official messenger. Thereafter in this chapter comes the vision (vv. 12-16) which leads to John's transformed understanding of Jesus as the Lord of all through his death and resurrection (vv. 17-18).

In these symbolic pictures the glorified Lord is seen in his inner reality that transcends his outward appearance. The sword coming out of his mouth (v. 16) alerts us to this. In words drawn almost entirely from imagery used in Daniel, Ezekiel, and Isaiah of God's majesty and power, John uses hyperbole to describe the indescribable reality of the glorified Christ. These same poetic phrases reappear in the letters to the churches in chapters 2 and 3 as well as throughout the rest of the book (14:2; 19:6, 12, 15).

So having heard the voice that was speaking with him, John turned to see this voice." And what he saw was seven golden lampstands. This is similar but not identical to the one lampstand with seven lamps which was located in the tabernacle and the temple. As we continue to read Revelation chapter one, it is evident that John was often speaking figuratively, for one cannot actually "see" a voice.

In the OT tabernacle, Moses constructed a seven-branched lampstand (Exod 25:31ff.). Subsequently this lampstand symbolized Israel. Zechariah had a vision of a seven-branched golden lampstand fed by seven pipes—explained to him as the "eyes of the Lord, which range through the earth" (4:10). Thus the lampstand relates directly to the Lord Himself: Since other allusions to Zechariah's vision of the lampstand appear in the Revelation—e. g., "seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God" (5:6) and the "two witnesses" that are "the two olive trees" (11:3-4) it is logical to assume here a connection with that vision as well.

But there are problems in any strict identification. In v. 20 Christ tells John that the "seven lampstands are the seven churches" and in 2:5 that it is possible to lose one's place as a lampstand through a failure to repent in the sense not of loss of salvation but of not properly and faithfully representing Christ and thus there will be loss of rewards for faithful service as a result. Therefore, the imagery represents the individual churches scattered among the nations - churches that are supposed to bear the light of the divine revelation of the gospel of Christ to the world (Matt 5:14). If Zechariah's imagery was in John's mind, it might mean that the churches, which correspond to the people of God today, are light bearers only because of their intimate connection with Christ, the source of the light, through the power of the Holy Spirit (1:4b; 3:1; 4:5; 5:6). It's up to each individual, each church to make that effort to represent Jesus Christ to the world. Most have not done that exceptionatally well if at all.

2) (Rev 1:13 NASB) "and in the middle of the lampstands I saw one like a son of man, clothed in a robe reaching to the feet, and girded across His chest with a golden sash."

In the middle of the lampstands John saw Someone "like a Son of Man," an expression used in Daniel 7:13 to refer to Christ. The description was that of a priest dressed in a long robe... with a golden sash around his chest

(Dan 7:9 NKJV) "I watched till thrones were put in place, And the Ancient of Days [God the Father] was seated; His garment was white as snow, And the hair of His head was like pure wool. His throne was a fiery flame, Its wheels a burning fire;

(Dan 7:10 NKJV) A fiery stream issued And came forth from before Him. A thousand thousands ministered to Him; Ten thousand times ten thousand stood before Him. The court was seated, And the books were opened.

(Dan 7:11 NKJV) I watched then because of the sound of the pompous words which the horn was speaking; I watched till the beast was slain, and its body destroyed and given to the burning flame.

(Dan 7:12 NKJV) As for the rest of the beasts, they had their dominion taken away, yet their lives were prolonged for a season and a time.

(Dan 7:13 NKJV) I was watching in the night visions, And behold, One like the Son of Man, Coming with the clouds [angels] of heaven! He came to the Ancient of Days [God the Father], And they brought Him near before Him.

(Dan 7:14 NKJV) Then to Him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, That all peoples, nations, and languages should serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion, Which shall not pass away, And His kingdom the one Which shall not be destroyed."

The phrase, "Ancient of Days," in Dan 7:9-14 refers to God the Father. And the phrase "Son of Man" in Dan 7:13, where "Son of" means to have the characteristics of; in the case of Dan chapter 7, a representative of Man, i.e., Humanity Who at the same time is God.

With the definite article, "the" a specific Son of Man is in view, a unique Human Being Who Daniel saw in a vision "coming with the clouds of heaven" [Angels, (cf. Ps 104:1-4)] toward the Ancient of Days, [God the Father], (Dan 7:9). Note that heaven does not characteristically have clouds; nor does the Son of Man come with the clouds of heaven unless those clouds were other than literal clouds, i.e., angelic beings. Hence those clouds, it can be concluded are angelic beings, who characteristically would accompany the Son of Man, (cf. Ps 104:1-4), and lead Him into the presence of the Ancient of Days, a term used to describe God, (Dan 7:9-10). So God the Son, Who is God and Man at the same time, appears in heaven in Daniel's vision of the future in His glorified human body. So the Son of Man is led by angels into the throne room and the presence of God the Father before hosts of angelic beings and believers of ages past, (vv. 9-12). Such a unique "Son of Man," who can approach the Ancient of Days, God the Father, must also be more than a man, for verse 7:14 declares that "He was given authority, glory and sovereign power; all peoples, nations and men of every language worshipped Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away; and His kingdom is one that will never be destroyed;" for only God is to be worshipped, (Dt 6:13), and has an everlasting dominion and absolute sovereign power. Hence "the Son of Man" is God and Man. So it is in the name of the Son of Man in which universal judgment is committed to Him. And in the Son of Man is fulfilled blessing and salvation through a coming Man. All of this is a function of God and God alone. So He Who bears the title of the Son of Man is God Himself.

Evidently the words "someone 'like a son of man'" are to be understood in connection with Daniel 7:13 as a reference to the heavenly Messiah who is also human. Jesus preferred the title Son of Man for himself throughout his earthly ministry, though he did not deny, on occasion, the appropriate use of "Son of God" as well (John 10:36; cf. Mark 14:61). Both titles are nearly identical terms for the Messiah. The early church, however, refrained from using "Son of Man" for Jesus except rarely, such as when there was some special connection between the suffering of believers and Christ's suffering and glory (e.g., Acts 7:56; Rev 14:14; cf. Richard N. Longenecker, The Christology of Early Jewish Christianity [London: SCM, 1970], p. 92).

"Dressed in a robe" begins the sevenfold description of the Son of Man. The vision creates an impression of the whole rather than of particular abstract concepts. John saw Christ as the divine Son of God in the fullest sense of that term. He also saw him as fulfilling the OT descriptions of the coming Messiah by using terms drawn from the OT imagery of divine wisdom, power, steadfastness, and penetrating vision. The long robe and golden sash were worn by the priests in the OT (Exod 28:4) and may here signify Christ as the great High Priest to the churches in fulfillment of the OT Aaronic priesthood or, less specifically, may indicate his dignity and divine authority (Ezek 9:2, 11). In Ecclesiasticus 45:8, Aaron is mentioned as having the symbols of authority: "the linen breeches, the long robe, and the ephod.

3) (Rev 1:14 NASB) His head and His hair were white like white wool, like snow; and His eyes were like a flame of fire.

"The whiteness of His hair corresponded to that of the Ancient of Days (cf. Dan. 7:9), a reference to God the Father. God the Son has the same purity and eternity as God the Father, as signified by the whiteness of His head and hair. The eyes like blazing fire described His piercing judgment of sin (cf. Rev. 2:18)."

In an apparent allusion to Daniel, Christ's head and hair are described as "white like wool, as white as snow" (Dan 7:9; cf. 10:5). For John, the same functions of ruler and judge ascribed to the "Ancient of Days" in Daniel's vision relate to Jesus. In Eastern countries, white hair commands respect and indicates the wisdom of years. This part of the vision may have shown John something of the deity and wisdom of Christ (cf. Col 2:3). Christ's eyes were like a "blazing fire," a detail not found in Daniel's vision of the Son of man (Dan 7) but occurring in Daniel 10:6. This simile is repeated in the letter to Thyatira (2:18) and in the vision of Christ's triumphant return and defeat of his enemies (19:12). It may portray either his penetrating scrutiny or fierce judgment.

4) (Rev 1:15 NASB) His feet were like burnished bronze, when it has been made to glow in a furnace, and His voice was like the sound of many waters.

This concept is further enhanced by His feet which were like bronze glowing in a furnace (cf. 2:18). The bronze altar in the temple was related to sacrifice for sin and divine judgment on it. His voice was compared to the roar of rushing waters.
His feet appeared like shining bronze, as if it were fired to white heat in a kiln. A similar figure of glowing metal is found in Ezekiel 1:13, 27; 8:2; Daniel 10:6. In both Ezekiel and Daniel the brightness of shining metal like fire is one of the symbols connected with the appearance of the glory of God. Revelation 2:18ff. might imply that the simile of feet "like burnished bronze" represents triumphant judgment (i.e., treading or trampling down) of those who are unbelieving and unfaithful to the truth of Christ Who will be triumphant over unbelievers who oppose Him on the earth when He comes in His Second Coming to earth.

"His voice was like the sound of rushing [lit., 'many'] waters" describes the glory and majesty of God in a way similar to that in Ezekiel (1:24; 43:2). Anyone who has heard the awe-inspiring sound of a Niagara or Victoria Falls cannot but appreciate this image of God's power and sovereignty (Ps 93:4). The same figure occurs in 14:2 and 19:6 (cf. also the Apocalypse of Ezra, a late Jewish book written about the same time or slightly earlier than Revelation; it similarly refers to the voice of God [4 Ezra 6:17]).

5) (Rev 1:16 NASB) "In His right hand He held seven stars, and out of His mouth came a sharp two-edged sword; and His face was like the sun shining in its strength."

His face glowed with a brilliance like the sun shining. John noticed that in his right hand he held seven stars." The right hand is the place of power and safety, and the "seven stars" Christ held in it are identified with the seven angels of the seven churches in Asia (v. 20). Significantly Christ held them in His right hand, indicating sovereign possession. This is the only detail in the vision that is identified. Why the symbolism of stars? This probably relates to the use of "angels" as those to whom the letters to the seven churches are addressed (chs. 2-3). Stars are associated in the OT and in Revelation with angels (Job 38:7, Rev 9:1) or faithful witnesses to God (Dan 12:3). The first letter (that to Ephesus) includes in its introduction a reference to the seven stars (2:1), and in 3:1 they are associated closely with the "seven spirits of God" in the sense of the ways that the Holy Spirit manifested Himself to mankind throughout the ages.

Speaking of Christ's role as a Judge, John saw a sharp double-edged sword coming out of His mouth. This type of sword (rhomphaia, also referred to in 2:12, 16; 6:8; 19:15, 21) was used by the Romans in a stabbing action designed to kill. Jesus Christ was no longer a Baby in Bethlehem or a Man of sorrows crowned with thorns. He was now the Lord of glory.

Originally this was a large broad-bladed sword used by the Thracians (HDB, 4:634). The metaphor of a sword coming from the mouth is important for three reasons: (1) John refers to this characteristic of Christ several times (1:16; 2:12, 16; 19:15, 21);(2) he uses a rare word for sword (rhomphaia) that is found only once outside Revelation (Luke 2:35); and (3) there is no scriptural parallel to the expression except in Isaiah 11:4, where it is said that the Messiah will "strike the earth with the rod of his mouth" and "with the breath of his lips he will slay the wicked."

The sword is both a weapon and a symbol of war, oppression, anguish, and political authority. But John seems to intend a startling difference in the function of this sword, since it proceeds from the mouth of Christ rather than being wielded in his hand. Christ will overtake the Nicolaitans at Pergamos and make war with them by the sword of his mouth (2:12, 16). He strikes down the rebellious at his coming with such a sword (19:15, 21). The figure points definitely to divine judgment but not to the type of power wielded by the nations. Christ conquers the world through his death and resurrection, and the sword is his faithful witness to God's saving purposes. The weapons of his followers are loyalty, truthfulness, and righteousness (19:8, 14).

Finally, the face of Christ is likened to "the sun shining in all its brilliance." This is a simile of Christ's divine glory, preeminence, and victory (Matt 13:43; 17:2; cf. Rev 10:1; 1 Enoch 14:21).

(Rev 1:18 NASB) and the living One; and I was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of death and of Hades."

A) [(Rev 1:17-18) Biblestudymanuals Commentary On Rev 1:17-18]:

(Rev 1:17 NASB) "When I saw Him, I fell at His feet like a dead man. And He placed His right hand on me, saying, "Do not be afraid; I am the first and the last,

(Rev 1:18 NASB) and the living One; and I was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of death and of Hades."

[When John saw Jesus in His glory, it was not the same as when he put his head on Jesus' breast - Jesus being in His Perfect Humanity - as it is stated in Jn 13:25. Instead, when he saw Jesus in His glory, John fell at His feet like a dead man. But the Lord in all His glory nevertheless put His right hand on John and said, 'Do not be afraid; I am the first and the last, [(cf. Rev 1:8; 2:8; 21:6; 22:13)] and [am] the living One; and I was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore in the sense of the resurrected One, and I have the keys of death and of Hades in the sense of having exclusive authority over death and the place of the dead, (cf. Jn 5:21-26; 1 Cor 15:54-57; Heb 2:14; Rev 20:12-14). All born of God, children of God, i.e., believers will enter eternal life unto heaven no matter how faithful or unfaithful based on Who Christ is and what He did and not on their behavior, as some contend.

So Rev 1:17-18 identify Christ to John and connect the vision of the glorified Christ (vv. 13-16) with His existence in history during the time in the first century when He appeared in His Perfect Humanity to the disciples and the world at that time and place. The vision is seen in the light of the Eternal One who identifies Himself in these verses. "I fell at his feet as though dead" indicates that in the vision John actually saw a supernatural being and was stricken with trembling and fear, as had done the prophets before him (Ezek 1:28; Dan 8:17, 10:9). Immediately Christ placed his hand on John and assured him that he would not die: "Do not be afraid" (cf. 2:10; 19:10; 22:8; Matt 17:6-7). The title "the First and the Last," which belongs to God in Isaiah 44:6 and 48:12 (where it means that He alone is God, the absolute Lord of history and the Creator), shows that in John's Christology Christ is identified with the Deity - so Jesus Christ is God. God the Son.

1) [Compare Isaiah 44:6]:

(Isa 44:6 NASB) "This is what the LORD says, 'He Who is the King of Israel and His Redeemer, the Lord of armies: 'I am the First and the Last, And there is no God besides Me."

2) [Compare Isaiah 48:12]:

(Isa 48:12 NASB) "Listen to Me, Jacob, Israel whom I called; I am He, "I am the first, I am also the Last."

Christ is also "the Living One" in that He, like God being God, never changes - He is immutable. Logically speaking, this expression is a further elaboration of what it means to be to "the world as the First and the Last," i.e., He alone is God and only He can speak and act in the world as God, (cf. Josh 3:10; 1 Sam 17:26; Ps 42:2; Rev 7:2). These divine qualities of His Person are now linked to His earthly existence in first-century Palestine - "I was dead, and behold I am alive for ever and ever!" This passage is sufficient to counter the claim that John's view of Christ does not revolve around atonement theology, (cf. 1 Jn 2:2). On the contrary, his whole view of Jesus and His kingdom revolves around the Cross and His resurrection - an interpretation that should serve to set the tone for all the visions that follow.

It was through Jesus' suffering, death, and resurrection that He won the right to have the "keys of death and Hades." Keys grant the holder access to interiors and their contents, and in ancient times the wearing of large keys was a mark of status in the community (cf. 3:7; 9:1, 20:1, 21:25). "Hades" translates the Hebrew term seol ("death," "grave") almost everywhere in the LXX. In the NT the word has a twofold usage: in some cases it denotes the place of all the departed dead (Acts 2:27, 31); in others, it refers to the place of the departed wicked (Luke 16:23; Rev 20:13-14). Since Christ alone has conquered death and has himself come out of Hades, he alone can determine who will enter death and Hades and who will come out of these. He has the "keys." For the Christian, death can only be seen as the servant of Christ.

3) [(Rev 1:17-18) Bible Knowledge Commentary On Rev 1:17-18]:

(Rev 1:17 NASB) "When I saw Him, I fell at His feet like a dead man. And He placed His right hand on me, saying, "Do not be afraid; I am the first and the last,

(Rev 1:18 NASB) and the living One; and I was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of death and of Hades."

"17-18. John stated, When I saw Him, I fell at His feet as though dead. Paul was struck to the ground in a similar way when he saw Christ in His glory (Acts 9:4). Previously John had put his head on Jesus' breast (cf. John 13:25, KJV). But now John could not be this familiar with the Christ of glory.

John received reassurance from Christ in the words, Do not be afraid. Christ stated that He is the eternal One, the First and the Last (cf. Rev. 1:8; 2:8; 21:6; 22:13), and the resurrected One, the Living One, Who though once dead is now alive forever and ever! Here Christ affirmed that He alone has the keys of death and hades that is, authority over death and the place of the dead (cf. John 5:21-26; 1 Cor. 15:54-57; Heb. 2:14; Rev. 20:12-14). Though the glorified Christ is to be reverenced, faithful believers like John can be sure they are accepted by the Son of God.

[Biblestudymanuals: faithful and unfaithful believers and every believer in between can be sure they are accepted by the Son of God relative to residence in heaven unto eternal life; for they all are children of God born of God, (cf. Jn 1:12-13). The comparative differences lie in the rewards each individual believer receives for the amount of faithful service. No child of God born of God can get unchilded and thrown into the Lake of Fire.]

The Christian's death and resurrection are both in His hands. This picture of Christ glorified contrasts with the portrayal of Christ as a Man in the four Gospels (cf. Phil. 2:6-8), except for His transfiguration (Matt. 17:2; Mark 9:2)."

4) [(Rev 1:17-18) Expositor's Bible Commentary On Rev 1:17-18]:

(Rev 1:17 NASB) "When I saw Him, I fell at His feet like a dead man. And He placed His right hand on me, saying, "Do not be afraid; I am the first and the last,

(Rev 1:18 NASB) and the living One; and I was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of death and of Hades."

"17-18 These verses identify Christ to John and connect the vision of the glorified Christ (vv. 13-16) with his existence in history. The vision is seen in the light of the Eternal One who identifies himself in these verses. "I fell at his feet as though dead" indicates that in the vision John actually saw a supernatural being and was stricken with trembling and fear, as had the prophets before him (Ezek 1:28; Dan 8:17, 10:9). Immediately Christ placed his hand on John and assured him that he would not die: "Do not be afraid" (cf. 2:10; 19:10; 22:8; Matt 17:6-7). The title "the First and the Last," which belongs to God in Isaiah 44:6 and 48:12 (where it means that he alone is God, the absolute Lord of history and the Creator), shows that in John's Christology Christ is identified with the Deity.

Christ is also "the Living One" in that he, like God, never changes. Probably this expression is a further elaboration of what it means to be "the First and the Last," i.e., he alone of all the gods can speak and act in the world (Josh 3:10; 1Sam 17:26; Ps 42:2; Rev 7:2). These divine qualities of his person are now linked to his earthly existence in first-century Palestine—"I was dead, and behold I am alive for ever and ever!" This passage is sufficient to counter the claim that John's view of Christ does not revolve around atonement theology. On the contrary, his whole view of Jesus and his kingdom revolves around the Cross and resurrection—an interpretation that should serve to set the tone for all the visions that follow.

It was through Jesus' suffering, death, and resurrection that he won the right to have the "keys of death and Hades." Keys grant the holder access to interiors and their contents, and in ancient times the wearing of large keys was a mark of status in the community (cf. 3:7; 9:1, 20:1, 21:25). "Hades" translates the Hebrew term seol ("death," "grave") almost everywhere in the LXX. In the NT the word has a twofold usage: in some cases it denotes the place of all the departed dead (Acts 2:27, 31); in others, it refers to the place of the departed wicked (Luke 16:23; Rev 20:13-14). Since Christ alone has conquered death and has himself come out of Hades, He alone can determine who will enter death and Hades and who will come out of these. He has the "keys." For the Christian, death can only be seen as the servant of Christ...."

[Biblestudymanuals: with a view to resurrection from the dead unto eternal life as a forever servant of Jesus Christ]

VII) [Rev 1:19-20]:

(Rev 1:19 NASB) "Therefore write the things which you have seen, and the things which are, and the things which will take place after these things.

(Rev 1:20 NASB) As for the mystery of the seven stars which you saw in My right hand, and the seven golden lampstands: the seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands are the seven churches."

A) [(Rev 1:19-20) Biblestudymanuals Commentary On Rev 1:19-20]:

(Rev 1:19 NASB) "Therefore write the things which you have seen, and the things which are, and the things which will take place after these things.

(Rev 1:20 NASB) As for the mystery of the seven stars which you saw in My right hand, and the seven golden lampstands: the seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands are the seven churches."

So following John's revelation of Jesus Christ in His eternal glory, Jesus spoke to John saying, "Therefore write the things which you have seen - in the sense of in the past and the things which are - in the sense of in John's present, i.e., his message to the seven churches; and the things which will take place in the future the main purpose of the book which is prophetic. This is just what the timing of the Book of the Revelation follows: past, present and then future. The prophetic part of the Book is the main purpose of the Book and has the greatest volume. It introduces the events preceding, culminating in, and following the Second Coming of Christ comprising chapters 4-22. By carefully and properly reading the Book of the Revelation in accordance with the normative rules of language, context and logic as we all were taught in school

, we can come to the conclusion that this book follows a chronological order. Some have attempted to seize upon certain phrases here and there from different books and other contexts to fit their particular scheme of interpretation and ignore anything that might contradict their conclusions within Revelation. Notice that Rev 1:19 has already established that there is a chronological order to this Book which cannot be contradicted by someone who has his own agenda such as amillennialism. They do not follow the chronological wording which when taken in accordance with those rules of reading, makes the most sense, follows the authors' writing of those words and cannot be contradicted or ignored because that would be violating the normative rules of reading that we learned in school. For it is evident that it is the human author's - and God's intent - that when reading God's Word and even other written materials that we use to guide us through all kinds of things in life we are to follow the author's words they way they are written. If we do not follow the rules of reading, but follow our own rules, we are taking the Bible out of the hands of people that don't follow these special rules, but simply take God's Word the way they learned to read in school.

(Rev 1:20 NASB) As for the mystery of the seven stars which you saw in My right hand, and the seven golden lampstands: the seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands are the seven churches."

Now, Jesus Christ speaks to John about the mystery of the seven stars which John saw in the right hand of the glorified Lord Jesus Christ which are the angels of the seven churches in the sense of the messengers = angeloi = the pastors who were to deliver the message John was instructed to write down for those messengers / the pastors to give to each church; and the seven golden lampstands which Jesus Christ said were the seven churches to whom Jesus Christ commanded John to write to which he obeyed and became part of this letter beginning with the church at Ephesus at Rev 2:1 - the next chapter.

1) [Compare Rev 1:12-16]:

(Rev 1:12 NASB) "Then I turned to see the voice that was speaking with me. And having turned I saw seven golden lampstands;

(Rev 1:13 NASB) and in the middle of the lampstands I saw one like a son of man, clothed in a robe reaching to the feet, and girded across His chest with a golden sash.

(Rev 1:14 NASB) His head and His hair were white like white wool, like snow; and His eyes were like a flame of fire.

(Rev 1:15 NASB) His feet were like burnished bronze, when it has been made to glow in a furnace, and His voice was like the sound of many waters.

(Rev 1:16 NASB) In His right hand He held seven stars, and out of His mouth came a sharp two-edged sword; and His face was like the sun shining in its strength."

(Rev 1:20 NASB) As for the mystery of the seven stars which you saw in My right hand, and the seven golden lampstands: the seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands are the seven churches."

So the Book of Revelation, instead of being a hopeless jumble of symbolic visions and expressions, taken normatively according to the normative rules of reading - of language, context and logic, it was meant to be taken figuratively with literal meanings behind those figurative expressions that are indeed chronological and make total, logical and historical sense. John's account proves itself out to be a carefully written record of what he saw and heard, including frequent theological and practical explanations.

Revelation, with assistance from such other symbolic books as Daniel and Ezekiel, was intended by God to be understood by careful students of the entire Word of God. Like the Book of Daniel, it is be better understood as history unfolds to reveal that it was never meant to be spiritualized to support points of view that negates historical events and a careful reading by the careful and logical reader . Though timeless in its truth and application, it is a special comfort to those who need guidance in the days leading up to Christ's Second Coming.

2) [(Compare Dt 29:29)]:

(Dt 29:29 NASB) "The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our sons forever, that we may observe all the words of this law."

So before unfolding the tremendous prophetic scenes of chapters 4-22, Christ first gave a personal message to John to deliver to each of the seven churches with obvious practical applications to His church today beginnning with chapter 2.

1) [(Rev 1:19-20) Bible Knowledge Commentary On Rev 1:19-20]:

"1:19-20. Following the revelation of Christ in glory, John was again commanded to write. The subject of his record has three tenses: (a) what he had already experienced: what you have seen; (b) the present experiences: what is now; and (c) the future: what will take place later. This appears to be the divine outline of Revelation. What John was told to write was first a record of his experience (chap. 1), now history. Then he was to write the present message of Christ to seven churches (chaps. 2-3). Finally, the main purpose of the book being prophetic, he was to introduce the events preceding, culminating in, and following the second coming of Christ (chaps. 4-22).

The chronological division of the Book of Revelation is much superior to many other outlines in which interpreters often seize on incidental phrases or manipulate the book to fit their peculiar schemes of interpretation. This outline harmonizes beautifully with the concept that most of Revelation (beginning in chap. 4) is future, not historic or merely symbolic, or simply statements of principles. It is significant that only a futuristic interpretation of Revelation 4-22 has any consistency. Interpreters following the allegorical approach to the book seldom agree among themselves on their views. This is also true of those holding to the symbolic and historical approaches.

In Revelation a symbol of vision is often presented first, and then its interpretation is given. So here the seven stars were declared to be the angels or messengers of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands are the seven churches themselves. The Book of Revelation, instead of being a hopeless jumble of symbolic vision, is a carefully written record of what John saw and heard, with frequent explanations of its theological and practical meanings.

Revelation, with assistance from such other symbolic books as Daniel and Ezekiel, was intended by God to be understood by careful students of the entire Word of God. Like the Book of Daniel, it will be better understood as history unfolds. Though timeless in its truth and application, it is a special comfort to those who need guidance in the days leading up to Christ's second coming.

Before unfolding the tremendous prophetic scenes of chapters 4-22, Christ first gave a personal message to each of the seven churches with obvious practical applications to His church today."

2) [(Rev 1:19-20) Expositor's Bible Commentary On Rev 1:19-20]:

"19 John is told to "write, therefore, what you have seen." This verse faces us with an important exegetical problem concerning the sense of the words and the relationship of the three clauses: "what you have seen, what is now and what will take place later." Does Christ give John a chronological outline as a key to the visions in the book? Many think he does. If so, are there three divisions: "seen," "now," and "later"? Or are there two: "seen," i.e., "now" and "later"? In the latter case, where does the chronological break take place in the book? For others, v. 19 simply gives a general statement of the contents of all the visions throughout the book as containing a mixture of the "now" and the "later" (Moffatt, EGT, 5:347; Caird, p. 26).

While no general agreement prevails, the key to the problem may lie in the middle term "what is now." The Greek simply reads "which [things] are" (ha eisin). There are two possibilities. First, the verb can be taken temporally ("now") as NIV has done. This would refer to things that were present in John's day, e.g., matters discussed in the letters to the churches (2-3). Or second, the verb can be taken in the sense of "what they mean" (Alf, 4:559). This later explanation agrees with John's usage of the verb eisin throughout the book (cf. 1:20; 4:5; 5:6, 8; 7:14; 17:12, 15). "What they are [mean]" would immediately be given in the next verse, i.e., the explanation of the mystery of the lamps and stars. The change from the plural verb eisin in the second term to the singular mellei ("will") in the third tends to distinguish the last two expressions from both being time references.

Again, most commentators understand the phrase "what you have seen" as referring to the first vision (1:12-16); but it may refer to the whole book as the expression "what you see" in v. 11 does (EGT, 5:347). In this case the translation could be either "what you saw, both the things that are and the things that will occur afterwards," or "what you saw, both what it means and what will occur afterwards." "What will take place later" clearly refers to the future, but to the future of what? Some have taken the similar but not identical phrase in 4:1 (q.v.) to mean the same as here and have rendered it "what shall take place after these present things," i.e., after the things relating to the seven churches (2-3). This results in either the historicist view of chapters 4-22 or in the futurist view of them. But if the future is simply the future visions given to John after this initial vision, then the statement has little significance in indicating chronological sequence in the book. While v. 19 may provide a helpful key to the book's plan, on careful analysis it by no means gives us a clear key to it (see Notes).

John is told to write down a description of the vision of Christ he has just seen, what it means, and what he will see afterward, i.e., not the end-time things, but the things revealed later to him—whether they are wholly future, wholly present, or both future and present depends on the content of the vision. This leaves the question open concerning the structure of the book and its chronological progression, as John may have intended.

20 The first vision is called a "mystery" (mysterion). In the NT a "mystery" is something formerly secret but now revealed or identified. Thus John identifies the "mystery" of the harlot in chapter 17 by indicating that she is the "great city" that rules over the kings of the earth (vv. 7, 18; cf. 10:7). The seven stars represent the "angels of the seven churches." Who are the angels? There is no totally satisfactory answer to this question. The Greek word for angels (angeloi ) occurs sixty-seven times in Revelation and in every other instance refers to heavenly messengers, though occasionally in the NT it can mean a human messenger (Luke 7:24; 9:52; James 2:25 [Gr.]).

A strong objection to the human messenger sense here is the fact that the word is not used that way anywhere else in apocalyptic literature. Furthermore, in early noncanonical Christian literature no historical person connected with the church is ever called an angelos. Mounce and others (Beckwith, Morris) following Swete, who claims the idea comes from the Spanish Benedictine Beatus of Liebana (c. 785) (p. 22), identify the angels as a "way of personifying the prevailing spirit of the church" (Mounce, Revelation, p. 82). Though this is an attractive approach to our Western way of thinking, it too lacks any supporting evidence in the NT use of the word angelos and especially of its use in Revelation. Therefore, this rare and difficult reference should be understood to refer to the heavenly messengers who have been entrusted by Christ with responsibility over the churches and yet who are so closely identified with them that the letters are addressed at the same time to these "messengers" and to the congregation (cf. the plural form in 2:10, 13, 23-24).

As stated in v. 16, the stars are clearly linked in 3:1 with the seven spirits of God. Whatever may be the correct identification of the angels, the emphasis rests on Christ's immediate presence and communication through the Spirit to the churches. There is no warrant for connecting the seven stars with the seven planets or with images on Domitian's coins (Stauffer). In some sense, the reference to angels in the churches shows that the churches are more than a gathering of mere individuals or a social institution; they have a corporate and heavenly character (cf. 1 Cor 11:10; Eph 3:10; Heb 1:14). (See H. Berkhof, Christ and the Powers [Scottdale, Penn.: Herald, 1962] for further insight on the angelic ministries.) That the "seven lampstands are the seven churches" not only shows that the churches are the earthly counterpart of the stars but links the vision of Christ with His authority to rule and judge his churches."

Continue to Revelation chapter two