Expositor's Bible Commentary Commentary Revelation 1

The book is called the “revelation of Jesus Christ.” “Revelation” (apokalypsis; GK 637) means to expose in full view what was formerly hidden, veiled, or secret. In the NT this word occurs exclusively in the religious sense of a divine disclosure. It may refer either some to present or future aspect of God’s will (Romans 16:25; Ephesians 3:5) or to persons (Romans 8:19) or especially to the future unveiling of Jesus Christ at his return in glory (2 Thessalonians 1:7; 1 Peter 1:7, 13). In the only occurrence of this word in John’s writings, the meaning is not primarily the appearing or revealing of Christ—though certainly the book does this—but rather 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). Thus there are five links in the chain of authorship: God, Christ, his angel, his servant John, and the servants in the churches.

“What must soon take place” implies that the revelation concerns events that are future (cf. Daniel 2:28–29, 45; Mark 13:7; Revelation 4:1; Revelation 22:6). But in what sense can we understand that the events will arise “soon” (GK 5443)? From the preterist point of view (see the introduction), all will take place in John’s day. But we do not need to follow this interpretation of the book. In eschatology and apocalyptic literature, the future is always viewed as imminent without the necessity of intervening time (cf. Lk 18:8). “Soon” does not, in other words, preclude delays or intervening events, as Revelation itself suggests. In ch. 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.

Two more focal points of the book are introduced by the words “by sending his angel to his servant John.” (1) 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. John refers to angels sixty-seven times. (2) The word “servant” (GK 1528) is important. All of God’s people are known in Revelation as his servants, described as such at least eleven times (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 designated as the special representatives of the Lord Christ himself, becomes a beautiful title of honor for God’s people.

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 (3:8, 10; 6:9; 12:11; 17:17; 19:9; 20:4). In 19:13 Jesus is himself identified with the name “the Word of God.” Here, in ch. 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. Jn 1:1-2). The church needs to be reminded that this book 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 (1:1–2; 21:5; 22:6; cf. 2 Peter 1:21).

“Testimony” (GK 3456) can mean “witness,” “validation,” or “verification” (cf. 1:9; 6:9; 12:11, 17; 19:10; 20:4; 22:16–20). While “the testimony of Jesus” can mean John’s own testimony about Jesus, here it means the testimony that Jesus himself gives. John testifies both to the Word of God received in the visions and to the validation of his message from Jesus himself.

“The one who reads” reflects the early form of worship where a reader read the Scriptures aloud on the Lord’s Day. “Those who hear” are the people of the congregation who listen to the reading. “This prophecy” is John’s way of describing his writing and refers to the entire book of Revelation (10:11; 19:10; 22:7, 9–10, 18). Prophecy involves not only future events but also the ethical and spiritual exhortations and warnings contained in the writing. Thus John immediately sets off his writing from the late Jewish apocalyptic literature (which did not issue from the prophets) and puts himself on a par with the OT prophets.

The twofold benediction “blessed” (GK 3421), pronounced on the reader and the congregation, emphasizes the importance of the message in that they will be hearing not only the word of John the prophet but the inspired word of Christ (see other beatitudes in 14:13; 16:15; 19:9; 20:6; 22:7, 14). John wrote in anticipation of the full and immediate recognition of his message as worthy to be read in the churches as the Word of God coming from Christ. In the ancient Jewish synagogue tradition in which John was raised, no such blessing was promised on anyone who recited a mere human teaching, even if from a rabbi, while one who read a biblical text was worthy to receive a divine blessing.

All must listen carefully and “take to heart what is written” because “the time [GK 2789] is near,” the season for the fulfillment of the return of Christ (v.7; cf. Lk 11:28, 21:8) and for all that is written in this book (cf. 22:10). The season for Christ’s return is always imminent—now as it has been from the days of his ascension (Acts 1:11).

A comparison of the Prologue (1:1–3) with the Epilogue (22:7–21) shows

that John has followed throughout Revelation a deliberate literary pattern. This should alert us to the possibility that the entire book was designed to be heard and interpreted as a single unit, and every part should fit into the message of the book as a whole. This should not in any way detract from the fact that John claims to have seen real visions (“saw,” v.2), which we may assume were arranged by John in their particular literary form for purposes of communication.

The epistolary form of address immediately distinguishes this book from all other Jewish apocalyptic works. John writes to actual, historical churches, addressing them in the same way the NT letters are addressed. These churches actually existed in the Roman province of Asia (the western part of present-day Turkey). But 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 (Colossians 1:2), and Hierapolis (Colossians 4:13).

At present it is difficult to say why the Lord selected just these seven churches. Some have suggested that these churches were prophetic of the church ages throughout history. Yet there is no reason from the text itself to hold this view. The churches are simply representative churches found in every age. Seven churches were chosen and were placed in this order because seven was simply the number of completeness, and here it rounds out the literary pattern of the other sevens in the book. 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). As for the order of their mention (1:11), it is the natural ancient travel circuit beginning at Ephesus and arriving finally at Laodicea (consult a map of the area).

“Grace and peace” are the usual greetings in NT letters: “grace” (GK 3921) represents a traditional Greek greeting, and “peace” (GK 1645; cf. 8934) represents a traditional Hebrew greeting. The source of blessing is described by employing an elaborate triadic formula for the Trinity: “From him who is, and who was, and who is to come,” i.e., the Father; “From the seven spirits before his throne,” i.e., the Holy Spirit; “From Jesus Christ,” i.e., the Son (v.5). 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 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 (see comment on Ex 3:14; cf. also Isa 41:4, where the Lord is described as the one “who is to come”). The complete combination of these three tenses occurs in a Palestinian Targum on Dt 32:39. 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 with 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. But why “seven spirits”? Some understand John to mean the “sevenfold spirit” in his fullness (see NIV note). Borrowing from the imagery of Zec 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” (Zechariah 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.).

Finally, greetings come from the Son—“from Jesus Christ.” John immediately adds three descriptive epithets about Christ and a burst of doxology to him.

(1) He is 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. Jn 7:7; 18:37; 1Ti 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).

(2) The fact that he is “the firstborn from the dead” brings further encouragement. As Christ gave 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” (GK 4758), though Paul uses it in Ro 8:29; Colossians 1:15, 18 (cf. also Heb 1:6). In Col 1:18, this same expression is associated with words of supreme authority or origin such as “head,” “beginning,” and “supremacy.” In Col 1:15 Paul refers to Christ as the “firstborn over all creation,” meaning that he is the source, ruler, or origin of all creation (see comment on that verse). 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).

(3) “The ruler of the kings of the earth” virtually connects John’s thought with Ps 89. Christ’s rulership of the world is a key theme of John (11:15; 17:15; 19:16). Who are the “kings of the earth”? John could mean emperors such as Nero and Domitian, 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); in the immediate context John refers to Christ’s redeeming activity, and in v.6 he refers to believers 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; those who follow Christ in the battle against the devil share his victory (12:11).