The Prologue, 1-20

1:1 The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show his servants what must happen very soon. He made it clear by sending his angel to his servant John, 1:2 who then testified to everything that he saw concerning the word of God and the testimony about Jesus Christ. 1:3 Blessed is the one who reads the words of this prophecy aloud, and blessed are those who hear and obey the things written in it, because the time is near!

The revelation of Jesus Christ – ‘Revelation’ = apocalypse.

How are we to understand this expression?  Grammatically, it could mean:

(a) the revelation from Jesus Christ.  Michaels favours this interpretation.  Ian Paul suggests that the second half of the verse supports it, given that the revelation was made known to John by an angel from Jesus.  Mounce agrees: ‘The work is a revelation mediated by Jesus Christ rather than a revelation of Christ himself.’

(b) the revelation about, or concerning, Jesus Christ.  Ian Paul finds this supported by the wider context: John actually sees a revelation of Jesus.

(c) the revelation belonging to Jesus Christ.  This is favoured by Morris, who notes the words immediately following; ‘which God gave him.’

Ian Paul thinks that both (a) and (b) might be intended:

‘John might be intending us to understand both; the revelation that Jesus offers is a renewed vision of who he is and what it means to follow him. He is both the sender and the centre of the message we need to hear.’

His angel – Curiously, this angel does not appear subsequently.

His servant John – The author describes himself as God’s ‘servant’, (Rev 1:1), one of the ‘prophets’ (Rev 22:9) and ‘your brother’. (Rev 1:9).  Traditionally thought to be John the apostle, and also the author of the Fourth Gospel and the three Johannine Epistles.  This view dates back to Justin Martyr (c. AD 140). Against this ascription is the Gk style, which is both unusual and also unlike that of the other Johannine writings. (See the relevant article in NBD).

1:4 From John, to the seven churches that are in the province of Asia: Grace and peace to you from “he who is,” and who was, and who is still to come, and from the seven spirits who are before his throne, 1:5 and from Jesus Christ—the faithful witness, the firstborn from among the dead, the ruler over the kings of the earth. To the one who loves us and has set us free from our sins at the cost of his own blood 1:6 and has appointed us as a kingdom, as priests serving his God and Father—to him be the glory and the power for ever and ever! Amen.

The seven spirits who are before his throne – Referred to again in Rev 3:1; 4:5; 5:6.  We should probably understand these texts as referring to the ‘seven-fold Spirit’ – i.e., to the Holy Spirit.  Brandon Smith offers three reasons for this interpretation:

1. John’s use of the number seven.  Throughout Scripture – but especially in the Apocalypse – this number symbolises completeness and perfection.

2. John’s use of Scripture.  Revelation is full of OT quotations and allusions.  John’s ‘seven spirits’ recollects the ‘seven eyes’ of Zechariah 4:6, which represent God’s gaze over the whole earth (cf. Prov 15:3).

‘In the context of other New Testament writings, John may be thinking of Jesus sending the Spirit to fulfill the Great Commission (Mt 28:18–20; Jn 14:26), paired with Zechariah’s description of the power of the Spirit rebuilding the temple (Zech 4:6), which John also describes as God building his temple through the Spirit (Rev 3:12; 11:1) and which finds its eschatological culmination in the New Jerusalem (Rev 21:3, 16, 22).’

3. John’s worship language.  Doxologies in the NT generally have clear Trinitarian structures.  Rev 1:4 is best understood in the same way – grace and peace come from God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit.  In Rev 4 and 5, the ‘seven spirits’ come from God’s throne (whereas all others are turned towards the throne in praise and adoration.  It is the Spirit who brings John into the vision (Rev 1:10), and who guides him through it (Rev 4:2; 17:3; 21:10).  Elsewhere, prophetic inspiration comes by way of the Holy Spirit (Eze 3:12; 11:24; 2 Pet 1:16-21).

1:7 (Look! He is returning with the clouds,
and every eye will see him,
even those who pierced him,
and all the tribes on the earth will mourn because of him.
This will certainly come to pass! Amen.)

He is returning with the clouds – or, ‘He is coming with the clouds’ (so most EVV, including AV, NIV, ESV, RSV, NRSV, GNB).

An echo of Dan 7:13 (the remainder of the verse recalls Zec 12:10; the same connection is made in Mt 24:30).

Ian Paul remarks that whereas, in the UK and some other parts of the world, clouds make a virtually daily appearance, they are, in the Near East more rarely seen.  Consequently, the sighting of clouds (whether real or symbolic, natural or supernatural) is more significant.

Clouds signify:

• God’s powerful presence, Ex 13:21
• God’s mystery and otherness, Ex 24:15f; 40:34f
• God’s powerful action, 1 Sam 22:10
• God’s impenetrable presence, 1 Kings 8:10f = 2 Chron 5:14
• God’s glory and power in the natural realm, Job 37:15; Psa 104:3
• God’s coming in judgment, Isa 19:1; Jer 4:13

Such, remarks Ian Paul, is the canonical context for Dan 7:13.

But what event is being referred to here?

(a) Most commentators understand these texts to be referring to Christ’s return at the last day.  So Harper’s Bible Commentary, Leon Morris, Robert Wall, Ramsay Michaels, Paige Patterson, David Aune, Mounce, Ladd, and others.  Among older commentators, Matthew Poole, Matthew Henry adopt this view.  (It is to be noted that a number of such commentators do link Dan 7:13 to the ascension, but do not make that connection here).

For Mounce, this verse speaks of

‘The glorious day when he will return in triumph and bring history to a close.’

This interpretation is strengthened by similar sayings, spread through the book:

Rev 3:11 – [Indeed] I am coming soon.
Rev 16:15 – Indeed, I am coming like a thief.
Rev 22:7 – Indeed, I am coming soon.
Rev 22:12 – Indeed, I am coming soon.
Rev 22:20a – Surely, I am coming soon.
Rev 22:20b – Amen, come Lord Jesus.

According to Aune, this oracle uses:

‘a traditional combination of allusions to Dan 7:13 and Zech 12:10 to predict the Parousia (“coming”) of Christ as a cosmic event that will be witnessed by all and anticipates the distress and fear of unbelievers about to experience judgment (and so anticipates Rev 19:11–16).’

Koester understands the Gospels to use the Daniel passage to refer to Christ’s future coming, which will include the gathering of God’s elect (Matt 24:30; 26:64; Mark 13:26; 14:62; Luke 21:27).  Koester understands Rev 14:14-16 similarly.

‘Faith sees already the dawning light, the first streaks of day, on the tops of the eastern hills. Faith, not fancy, sees the Lord just on the point of leaving the right hand of the Father; and she raises her unheeded voice amid the sleeping, dreaming virgins, “Behold, he cometh with clouds!”‘ (J.H. Hewitson)

‘God’s people are surrounded by the ferocious beasts of successive imperial powers, and they look to the Ancient of Days to render judgement in their favour—which he does as the One like a Son of Man comes to him on the clouds.’

Such also is the background to Jesus’ use of this terminology in the Gospels (Matt 24.30 = Mark 13.26, Matt 26.64 = Mark 14.62).

An allusion to Dan 7:13 and Zech 12:10, texts also alluded to in Mt 24:30.

(b) However, there are some reasons for thinking, with Ian Paul, that the reference is to Christ’s ascension:

‘Most commentators think that coming with the clouds refers to expectation of Jesus’ return; but everywhere else in the New Testament, Daniel 7:13 is used to describe Jesus’ victorious ascent to the right hand of the Father. In Matthew 24:30–31, the same two verses are combined, and Jesus then declares solemnly, ‘This generation will not pass away until all these things take place’ (Matt. 24:34, AT). In Mark 14:62, Jesus quotes Daniel 7:13 to tell the high priest what he will witness. And Stephen’s final vision, before his martyrdom, is a vision of the ascended Jesus, described using the ‘Son of Man’ terminology from Daniel 7:13 (Acts 7:55–56). Those who pierced Jesus have indeed mourned (Acts 2:37), and many have seen the truth about Jesus. John reconfigures the context of Zechariah 12 from being Jerusalem to the whole of the known world, where Jesus has been ‘publicly attested as crucified’ (Gal. 3:1, AT).’

As for the meaning of the word (erchomai) translated ‘come’ (Ian Paul adds) whereas in English it almost always indicates movement towards, this is not the case in Greek:

‘The word occurs frequently, and it is not uncommon for ETs to render it as ‘go’ or ‘went’, as in ‘I may go and worship him’ in Matt 2.8, ‘he went and lived’ in Matt 2.23, 4.13, ‘he had gone indoors’ in Matt 9.28, ‘he went throughout Galilee’ Mark 1.39, and so on. There is a clear sense of arriving at something, but that something is not always the place of the observer or speaker. It is interesting to reflect on how different it would be to translate Dan 7.13 and its echoes as ‘he went/is going with the clouds…’’

1 Thess 4:13-18, however, does not use this language at all.  In that passage, Paul is indeed referring to the parousia, and not to the ascension,

‘and the ‘coming’ in v 16 is actually the word ‘descend’. And there is no mention of him coming ‘with clouds’; it is only ‘in the clouds’ that we will meet him. Paul is here drawing on imagery of an imperial visit, and not on this OT symbolic meaning of ‘clouds’.’

(c) A third view, held by some preterest interpreters, is that this is a figurative description of Christ’s coming in judgement to destroy Jerusalem.  He comes, not in person, but in the form of the Roman armies.  Gree notes the following in support of this view:

• The ‘coming’ of the Lord is often referred to in contexts that do not speak of his return at the end of the age (e.g. Rev. 2:5; 3:20; cf. Deut. 33:2; Isa. 19:1; Zech. 1:16; Mal. 3:1–2; Matt. 10:23).
• The language of ‘with clouds’ is used of judgements not associated with the end of the world (Isa. 19:1; Ps. 104:3).
• Jesus himself placed his ‘coming with clouds’ within the lifetime of some of his hearers (Matt. 16:28; 24:30, 34; 26:64).  Thus, we can understand ‘those who pierced him’ to refer to the actual generation who crucified our Lord.
• The mourning of ‘all the tribes of the earth’ could equally be the mourning of ‘all the tribes of Israel’ (Israel is usually divided into tribes, whereas the world is divided into nations).

All the tribes on the earth will mourn because of him – Or, ‘All the tribes of the land…’.  The word is φυλή and not ἔθνος, a tribe and not a ‘nation’.  Ian Paul comments:

‘Although ‘tribe’ can be used to describe a larger group, it almost always refers to a group within a nation, and in Zechariah it clearly refers to the twelve tribes of Israel. Most ETs wrongly translate this as ‘nation’ in Matthew and Revelation, under pressure from the interpretive tradition which assumes this is about Jesus’ return.’

The word translated ‘earth’ in the NET version can refer to both the land of Israel and the entire surface of the earth.

This mourning could be either:

(a) the mourning of despair in the face of impending judgement.

(b) the mourning of repentance.  This is favoured by Koester:

‘Those who formerly condemned Christ now grieve over what was done to him, which shows a change on their part…When Revelation pictures the human one coming on the clouds, the scene has more to do with ingathering than with condemnation, and New Jerusalem offers hope for the healing of the nations (Rev 22:2). The book allows hope for the penitent..’

Gundry, however, is more circumspect:

‘John isn’t concerned to say whether the tribes lament in repentance (probably not, since only certain Jews had him pierced) or in despair over their coming judgment. The focus rests on lament as such to emphasize the injustice done to Jesus. This injustice parllels the injustices perpetrated on his followers, but his coming with the clouds forecasts a vindication for them like his vindication.’

1:8 “I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God—the one who is, and who was, and who is still to come—the All-Powerful!

“I am the Alpha and the Omega” – ‘This’, says Thomas Watson, ‘interprets the word Jehovah; (which is) he subsists of himself, having a pure and independent being; (which was) God only was before time; there is no searching into the records of eternity; (which is to come) his kingdom has no end; his crown has no successors, Heb 1:8′ (A Body of Divinity, 61)

1:9 I, John, your brother and the one who shares with you in the persecution, kingdom, and endurance that are in Jesus, was on the island called Patmos because of the word of God and the testimony about Jesus. 1:10 I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s Day when I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet, 1:11 saying: “Write in a book what you see and send it to the seven churches—to Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea.”

‘In the first major section of his book (1:9–3:22), he peals back the layers of the visible world to show the seven churches of Asia both a picture of Jesus as he presently exists and a picture of the seven churches as Jesus sees them.’ (Thielman, Theology of the New Testament)

Patmos – one of a cluster of small islands off the coast of modern-day Turkey. The island is hilly, and measures just eight miles by four. It was here that John spent his final days, and here that, one Sunday, he received the prophecy that rounds off our Bible.

The Lord’s Day – Why on this day, rather than any other? –

‘Though John was absent from the church in regard of bodily presence, yet he was present in spirit with all the faithful. And therefore no doubt in this day he gave himself to prayer and other duties that he could perform for the glory of God in that solitary place. Now it is the Lord’s manner when his servants are thus humbled then to come and reveal himself unto them in a special manner. So he did unto Daniel (Daniel 9) and to Cornelius (Acts 10) and to Peter, praying alone on the housetop (Acts 10:11). And so doubtless, finding John thus employed this Lord’s Day, he revealed his will unto him touching the state of the church to the end of the world. (William Perkins, Exposition upon the First Three Chapters of Revelation)

On the continuing applicability (or otherwise) of the Fourth Commandment:

‘Most Christians…believe that the sabbath commandment was a part of the ceremonial law of Israel and therefore not applicable to the church. This seems to have been the position of the early church. No hint of cessation from work on Sundays is found until Tertullian. While various factors, including Scripture, (Ps 92:2) may have led to an early morning and late evening meeting schedule, one likely explanation was the need to assemble at times that would not conflict with the workday.’ (D.K. Lowery, art. ‘Lord’s Day’, EDT.)

1:12 I turned to see whose voice was speaking to me, and when I did so, I saw seven golden lampstands, 1:13 and in the midst of the lampstands was one like a son of man. He was dressed in a robe extending down to his feet and he wore a wide golden belt around his chest. 1:14 His head and hair were as white as wool, even as white as snow, and his eyes were like a fiery flame. 1:15 His feet were like polished bronze refined in a furnace, and his voice was like the roar of many waters. 1:16 He held seven stars in his right hand, and a sharp double-edged sword extended out of his mouth. His face shone like the sun shining at full strength.

Son of man – A term with ‘both overtones of divinity and undertones of humanity’ (Bewes)

A golden sash round his chest – lit. ’round his breasts’.  Ian Paul comments that the sash is:

‘not round his waist (like the angel in Dan. 10:5) nor round his chest (like the angels in Rev. 15:6), but round his mastoi, translated ‘breasts’ in Luke 11:27 and 23:29 and rendered as ‘paps’ in the KJV. We find similar imagery (which seems equally odd to modern ears) in Isaiah 60:16: ‘You will suck the milk of nations and suck the breasts of kings’ (AT), and 1 Peter 2:2 talks of the ‘spiritual milk’ we find in Jesus. Goddesses in the ancient world were often depicted as having a belt around their breasts; throughout Revelation Jesus is consistently depicted as taking the place of other spiritual powers and being the true source of the benefits they claim to offer.’ (TNTC)

In this article, Ian Paul notes again that the word used is mastoi (breast), and not stethos (chest).  Although this is not conclusive (older English has no problem in referring to a man’s ‘breast’ as the seat of intimate emotion) it is suggestive, given that the LXX always used mastoi to refer to women’s breasts.

Ian Paul adds:

‘We shouldn’t really be too worried about this flexibility of sex identity in Revelation. After all, the 144,000 apparently male martyr-warriors in chapter 14 (who were counted in chapter 7) are in fact (female) ‘virgins’ in Rev 14.4. More widely, we should remember that the NT is rather less bothered about the sex of Jesus than we often are. When Paul talks of Jesus as the first Adam in Romans 5 and 1 Cor 15, he must be referring to Jesus as the first human and not as the first male, since he clearly includes women amongst those who die because of sin and shall be made alive because of redemption. Similarly, in 2 Cor 11.3, Eve is an archetype for men as much as women of people who are deceived. (And, once more, the men as well as women are to be presented to husband Christ as a (female) virgin.) The depiction of Jesus as the personification of the woman wisdom from Proverbs 8 underlies much of the language of John 1, and we probably have an allusion to that in Rev 3.14 (‘the origin of creation’, compare Prov 8.22).’

1:17 When I saw him I fell down at his feet as though I were dead, but he placed his right hand on me and said: “Do not be afraid! I am the first and the last, 1:18 and the one who lives! I was dead, but look, now I am alive—forever and ever—and I hold the keys of death and of Hades!

I fell at his feet as though dead – ‘Should the Lord Jesus appear now to any of us in his majesty and glory, it would not be to our edification nor consolation. For we are not meet nor able, by the power of any light or grace that we have received, or can receive, to bear the immediate appearance and representation of them. His beloved apostle John had leaned on his bosom probably many a time in his life, in the intimate familiarities of love; but when he afterward appeared to him in his glory, “he fell at his feet as dead.”‘ (John Owen)

“I am alive for ever and ever!” –

“I hold the keys of death and Hades” – We tend to think of death as final.  The gates are locked against us.  But Jesus holds the keys:

‘The world of the dead is pictured as having gates which are normally kept locked so that once departed spirits have passed through they have no way back to the land of the living. Jesus, however, inspires hope by letting us know that he holds the keys to those gates. He alone can unlock death’s gates, release departed spirits out of Hades and rejoin them with a physical body.’ (David Lawrence, Heaven – It’s Not The End Of The World, p 85)

1:19 Therefore write what you saw, what is, and what will be after these things. 1:20 The mystery of the seven stars that you saw in my right hand and the seven golden lampstands is this: The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches and the seven lampstands are the seven churches.

“The seven stars that you saw in my right hand” – These may allude to the seven celestial lights (Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, the Moon and either the Earth or the Sun) that were commonly thought to be gods:

‘From this it was an easy transition to make of them a symbol of the political power exercised by the Roman Caesars over the world, and in this sense the seven stars often occur on imperial coins. When John declares that the seven stars are in Christ’s hand, he is claiming that the sovereignty over this world resides not in the Caesars of Rome but in the Lord of the Church. These seven stars he then defines as the angels of the churches. The purpose of John’s prophecy, from its first page to its last, is to assure the saints of God that they are kings and priests to God through the redemptive grace of Christ. The purport of the symbolism of the seven stars = the angels of the churches is therefore plain: it declares that the sovereignty of this world belongs not to those who proudly claim to be the saviours and lords of men and who seek to crush the Church of Jesus. It belongs to the Christ of God and his people.’ (Beasley-Murray)

The angels of the seven churches – Who are these angels, to whom the letters in Rev 3-4 are addressed?

(a) The pastors of the churches?  But in the NT the pastoral role is always plural, never singular.  Moreover, in Revelation ‘angel’ always refers to a supernatural being.

(b) Guardian angels?  See Deut 32:8; Dan 10:13; 12:1; Mt 18:10; Heb 1:14; Acts 12:15.

(c) A personification of the church?  Hemer (NBD) tentatively suggests that

‘the “angel” is perhaps something like a heavenly counterpart of the church. In practice we may visualize this as amounting to a personification of the church, even if this does less than justice to the connotations of the original concept.’

Heiser (Angels: What the Bible Really Says About the Heavenly Host) agrees that these ‘angels’ are:

‘members of the heavenly host assigned to the churches in a surrogacy role. Angelic mediation of God’s will and word to believers—which involved both praise and admonition…seems to be operative in this relationship.’

(d) ‘Heavenly counterparts of the earthly congregations’.  This is the view of Beasley-Murray:

‘The idea is not to be literalized, as though John thought of congregations seated in heaven above, answering to their equivalents on earth below. We help ourselves if we think of them as existentially in heaven though living on earth. John writes to people who form very earthly communities, whose life is characterized by the failures and weakness to which any human organization is prone. But these communities have one feature which marks them off from all others on earth: they are in Jesus (v. 9), and so saints of the Most High, priests and kings with Christ to God, lights in the world through whom the Light of the world shines. It is because their determinative life is in Jesus that John writes to the ‘angels’ of the churches. Their earthly conduct is the reflection of their heavenly relationship.’