Charles Ellicott Commentary


Charles Ellicott Commentary
"Straightway I was in the Spirit: and behold, there was a throne set in heaven, and one sitting upon the throne;" — Revelation 4:2 (ASV)
And immediately I was in the spirit.— . The mind and soul were absorbed in the vision of things celestial. (See 2 Corinthians 12:1–4).
“Words may not tell of that transhuman change;
If I were only what You created,
Then newly, Love! by whom the heaven is ruled,
You know, who by Your light bore me up.” —
Paradiso, Canto 1, lines 68-73.
And, behold, a throne was set (i.e., not that the seer saw the throne being set, but when he saw it was already set) in heaven, and one sat on the throne.—(Compare to Micaiah’s speech, 1 Kings 22:19).
The enthroned One is not named.
Have we here a touch of the Jewish reluctance to name Jehovah? Or is it that the descriptive phrase, “He that sat on the throne,” is used here and kept before us throughout the whole book to remind us that the great world drama always moves forward under the eyes of the ruling One? (Revelation 5:7; Revelation 6:15; Revelation 20:11; Revelation 21:5).