Expositor's Bible Commentary Commentary Revelation 1:17

"And when I saw him, I fell at his feet as one dead. And he laid his right hand upon me, saying, Fear not; I am the first and the last," — Revelation 1:17 (ASV)

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 John saw a supernatural being and was stricken with trembling and fear, as had prophets before him (Ezekiel 1:28; Daniel 8:17; Daniel 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; cf. Matthew 17:6–7). The title “the First and the Last,” which belongs to God in Isa 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 (Joshua 3:10; 1 Samuel 17:26; Psalms 42:2; Revelation 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!” John’s view of Jesus and his kingdom revolves around the Cross and the Resurrection, i.e., around atonement theology—an interpretation that sets 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” (GK 87) translates the Hebrew term Sheol (“death” or “grave”; GK 8619) 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 (Revelation 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 them. He has the “keys.” For the Christian, death can only be seen as the servant of Christ.