Charles Ellicott Commentary Revelation 1

The Revelation of Jesus Christ. The book is a revelation of the things which are and the things which will be. “John is the writer, but Jesus Christ is the author,” says Grotius; and consistently with this, the action of Christ is seen throughout. It is Christ who tells John to write to the seven churches; it is Christ who opens the seven seals (Revelation 6:1), who reveals the sufferings of the Church (Revelation 6:9), who offers the prayers of the saints (Revelation 8:3), and delivers the little book to John (Revelation 10:1–11).

Thus, it is seen that although the rise and fall of earth’s history is included in the revelation, it is also a revelation of a living person. It is not the dull, dead onward flow of circumstances, but rather the lives of men and nations seen in the light of Him who is the light of every person and the life of all history. And so, we learn that “only a living person can be the Alpha and Omega, the starting-point of creation and its final rest.”

The testimony of Jesus is the spirit of this prophecy, as of all others. The Father gives this to the Son whom He loves, and shows Him all things that He Himself does.

Shortly. On this word much controversy has turned. Its force, “speedily,” affords a groundwork—and, it must be admitted, a plausible one—to the Preterist school of interpreters, who hold that the whole range of Apocalyptic predictions was fulfilled within a comparatively short time after the Apostle wrote.

The truth, however, seems to be that the words of God are of perpetual fulfillment: they are not only to be fulfilled, they have not only been fulfilled, but they have been and are being fulfilled, and they will yet be fulfilled. The principles which are enunciated by the Prophet, though “shortly” fulfilled, are not exhausted in the immediate fulfillment but still carry lessons for succeeding generations of mankind.

John—i.e., the Apostle and Evangelist. The arguments in support of this identification are admitted even by the most captious critics to be conclusive. “The Apocalypse, if any book can be traced to him, must be ascribed to the Apostle John” (Supernatural Religion). (See Excursus A.)

To many it will seem natural that John, the beloved disciple, should be the recipient of this revelation. Those who have been nearest to God learn most of His will. Such are friends, not servants, for the servant knoweth not what his Lord doeth; and thus, as in the Old Testament to Abraham, the friend of God, and to Daniel, a man greatly beloved, so in the New Testament to the disciple who leaned on Jesus’ bosom, are shown the things which God was about to do.

“Mysteries are revealed to the meek. The pure in heart shall see God. A pure heart penetrates heaven and hell” (Thomas à Kempis).

“More bounteous aspects on me beam,
Me mightier transports move and thrill;
So keep I fair through faith and prayer,
A virgin heart in work and will.”
—Sir Galahad.

Who bore record.—Elsewhere as well as here. And he tells us of what he bore record—of the Word of God. The writer declares that the substance of his testimony and witness had been this Word of God. We have here an indication of what the general character of his teaching had been. It evidently had been a teaching emphasizing that aspect of truth which is so forcibly set before us in the Fourth Gospel and the Epistles bearing the name of John. (John 1:1; John 1:14; 1 John 1:1, and others. Note also that the words “record,” “testimony,” “witness,” found in this verse, recur in the Gospel and Epistles. Compare John 5:31-40; John 19:35; John 21:24.)

Blessed is he that readeth. ... prophecy.—Any declaration of the principles of the divine government, with indications of their exemplification in coming history, is a prophecy. Sometimes the history which exemplifies these principles is immediate, sometimes more remote; in other cases (as, I venture to believe, is the case with the predictions of this book) the events are both immediate and remote.

The prophecy gives us the rule, with some typical application illustrative of its method of working; after-history affords us the working out of various examples. We, then, as living actors in the world, have not only to read and hear, but to keep—keep in mind and action those principles which preside over the development of all human history (James 1:22). The word “keep” is in itself a proof to me that the whole fulfillment of the Apocalypse could not have been exhausted in the earliest times, nor reserved to the latest times of the Church’s history, but that its predictions are applicable in all eras.

The time is at hand.—In the apostolic mind this was always true, though the restless idleness of the Thessalonians was blamed (2 Thessalonians 2:2; 2 Thessalonians 3:11–12). The spirit of vigilance and of ever-readiness for both the providential advents and the final advent of the Christ was enjoined. (James 5:9; 2 Peter 3:8–9.)

JOHN to the seven churches (or, congregations) which are in Asia.—It is unnecessary to observe that the Asia here is not to be regarded as co-extensive with what we know as Asia Minor. It is the province of Asia (Acts 16:6–7), which was under a Roman proconsul and embraced the western portion of Asia Minor.

In St. John’s time, it consisted of a strip of coastline, some 100 square miles in extent. Its boundaries varied at different periods; but roughly, and for the present purpose, they may be regarded as the Caycus on the north, the Maeander on the south, the Phrygian Hills on the east, and the Mediterranean on the west.

Seven churches.—It has been maintained by some (notably by Vitringa) that the epistles to the seven churches are prophetic and describe the condition of the Church in the successive epochs of its subsequent history.

The growth of error, the development of schisms, the gloom of superstition, the darkness of medieval times, the dawn of the Reformation, the convulsions of subsequent revolutions, have been discovered in these brief and forcible epistles. Such a view needs no formal refutation. The anxiety for circumstantial and limited fulfilments of prophecy has been at the root of such attempts.

When we read God’s words as wider than our thoughts, we do not need such desperate efforts at symmetrical interpretations. For the truth then is seen to be that words addressed to one age are relevant to all, and that these epistles are the heritage of the Church in every epoch. In this sense, the churches are types and representatives of the whole family of God. Every community may find its likeness here.

This much is acknowledged by the best commentators of all schools. “The seven churches,” says St. Chrysostom, “are all churches by reason of the seven Spirits.”

“By the seven,” writes St. Augustine, “is signified the perfection of the Church universal, and by writing to the seven he shows the fullness of one.” And the words, “He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches,” are, as has been well observed, a direct intimation that some universal application of their teaching was intended.

Grace be unto you, and peace.—Three apostles, St. Peter, St. Paul, and St. John, adopt the same salutation. Not only is this a type of link of Christian fellowship between them, but its adoption by St. John, after St. Paul had first used it, is a slight indication that the Apocalypse cannot be regarded (as some recent critics would have it) as an anti-Pauline treatise.

As the Christian greeting, it transcends while it embraces the Greek and Hebrew salutations. There is no tinge of the sadness of separation; it is the greeting of hope and repose, grounded on the only true foundation of either, the grace of God, which is the well-spring of life and love.

From him which is, and which was, and which is to come (or, which cometh).—The phrase presents a remarkable violation of grammar, but the violation is clearly intentional. It is not the blunder of an illiterate writer; it is the deliberate putting in emphatic form the “Name of Names.” “Should not,” says Professor Lightfoot, “this remarkable feature be preserved in an English Bible? If in Exodus 3:14 the words run, ‘I AM hath sent me unto you,’ may we not also be allowed to read here, from ‘HE THAT IS, AND THAT WAS, AND THAT IS TO COME’?”

The expression must not be separated from what follows. The greeting is triple: from Him which is, and which was, and which cometh; from the seven Spirits; and from Jesus Christ—i.e., from the Triune God. The first phrase would therefore seem to designate God the Father, the self-existing, eternal One, the fount and origin of all existence.

Professor Plumptre suggests that the phrase used here may be used in allusion and contrast to the inscription spoken of by Plutarch, on the Temple of Isis, at Sais: “I am all that has come into being, and that which is, and that which shall be; and no man has lifted my veil.”

The pagan inscription identifies God with the universe, making Him not an ever-being, but an ever-becoming, from whom personality is excluded. The Christian description is of the personal, everlasting, self-revealing God—who is, who was, and who cometh. We should have expected after “is” and “was” “will be,” but there is no “will be” with an eternal God.

With Him all is; so the word “cometh” is used, hinting His constant manifestations in history, and the final coming in judgment. This allusion to the Second Coming is denied by Professor Plumptre, but as he admits that the words, “He that cometh,” used in the Gospels and applied by the Jews to the Messiah, may be deliberately employed here by the Apostle, it is difficult to see how the Advent idea can be excluded. The word appears to imply that we are to be always looking for Him whose “comings” recur in all history as the earnests of the fuller and final Advent.

From the seven Spirits.—The interpretation which would understand these seven Spirits to be the seven chief angels, though supported by names of great weight, is plainly untenable. The context makes it impossible to admit any other meaning than that the greeting which comes from the Father and the Son comes also from the Holy Spirit sevenfold in His operations, whose gifts are diffused among all the churches, and who divides to every man severally as He will.

For corresponding thoughts in the Old Testament, compare the seven lamps and seven eyes of Zechariah (Zechariah 3:9; Zechariah 4:2; Zechariah 4:10), “the symbols of eternal light and all-embracing knowledge.” It may not be inappropriate to note that Philo speaks of the number seven in its mystical import as identical with unity, as unity developed in diversity, and yet remaining one. This unity in diversity is the thought St. Paul seems anxious to keep before the minds of the Corinthians, lest their gifts should become the source of division. All work that one and self-same spirit (1 Corinthians 12:11).

The subsequent recurrence in this book of the number seven is, I think, selected to support this thought of completeness and variety. The dramatic unity is preserved, though the scenes which are unfolded are amply diversified; and the seven seals, seven trumpets, and seven vials, are not three successive periods, but three aspects of one complete period presided over by that one Spirit whose guidance may be seen in all ages and in diverse ways.

The Spirits are before the throne. This reference to the throne gives a touch of authority to the description. The Holy Spirit who pleads with men is the Spirit from God’s Throne.

From Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, and the first begotten (or, firstborn) of the dead, and the prince (or, ruler) of the kings of the earth.—The triple title applied to Christ corresponds to the three ideas of this book: Christ the Revealing Prophet, the Life-giving High Priest, and the real Ruler of mankind.

The faithful witness.—There may be a reference here, it has been suggested by Professor Plumptre, to the bow in the cloud, which is described in Psalms 89:37 as the faithful witness. The coincidence of expression is remarkable: I will make him my firstborn, higher than the kings of the earth; he shall stand fast as the sun before me, and as the faithful witness in heaven. The idea of testimony and witness is a favourite one with St. John, who records its use by our Lord Himself. (John 5:36; John 18:37. See also Revelation 19:10; Revelation 22:18. Compare also to the work of the Only Begotten as stated in John 1:18.)

The prince (or ruler) of the kings of the earth.—The message does not come from One who will be, but who is the true ruler of all earthly potentates. The disposition to dwell on the future and more visibly recognised reign of Christ in the future has tended to obscure the truth of His present reign.

It is instructive to notice that this book, which describes so vividly the manifestations of Christ’s kingdom (Revelation 11:15; Revelation 12:10), claims for Him at the outset the place of the real King of kings. Such was the Apostle’s faith. “Above all emperors and kings, above all armies and multitudes, he thought of the Crucified as ruling and directing the course of history, and certain in His own due time to manifest His sovereignty” (Professor Plumptre). “What are we to see in the simple Anno Domini of our dates and superscriptions, but that for some reason the great world-history has been bending itself to the lowly person of Jesus?” (Bushnell). “A handful read the philosophers; myriads would die for Christ; they in their popularity could barely found a school; Christ from His cross rules the world” (Farrar, Witness of History). Such is a real kingship.

Unto him that loved us, and washed us.—Instead of “washed us,” some manuscripts read, “loosed us.” There is only one letter’s difference in the two words in Greek. The general tone of thought would lead us to prefer “washed” as the true reading. On a solemn occasion, which St. John remembered clearly, our Lord had said, If I wash thee not, thou hast no part with Me. The thought of the “cleansing blood,” intensified by the recollection of the water and blood which he had seen flowing from Christ’s pierced side, often recurred to his mind (Revelation 7:13–14; 1 John 1:7; 1 John 5:6–8).