Chapter One
REVELATION 1:1-3
Text and Exposition
1. Introduction (1:1-8)
A. Prologue
1:1-3
1 The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show his servants what
must soon take place. He made it known by sending his angel to his servant John, 2 who testifies to everything he saw-that is, the word of God and the testimony of
Jesus Christ. 3 Blessed is the one who reads the words of this prophecy, and
blessed are those who hear it and take to heart what is written in it, because the
time is near.
The Prologue contains a description of the nature of the book, a reference to the
author, and a statement that the book was meant for congregational reading. Probably
vv. 1-3 were written last.
1 The book is called the "revelation of Jesus Christ." "Revelation" (apokalypsis)
means to expose in full view what was formerly hidden, veiled, or secret. In the NT
the word occurs exclusively in the religious sense of a divine disclosure. "Revelation"
may refer to either some present or future aspect of God's will (Luke 2:32; Rom 16:25;
Eph 3:5) or to persons (Rom 8:19) or especially to the future unveiling of Jesus Christ
at his return in glory (2 Thess 1:7; 1 Peter 1:7, 13). In this single occurrence ofapokalypsis in the Johannine writings, the meaning is not primarily the appearing or
revealing of Christ-though certainly the book does this-but rather, as the following
words show, 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).
"What must soon take place" implies that the revelation concerns events that are
future (cf. Dan 2:28-29, 45; Mark 13:7; Rev 4:1; 22:6). But in what sense can we
understand that the events will arise "soon" (en tachei)? From the preterist point of
view (the events are seen to be imminent to the time of the author; cf. Introduction),
the sense is plain: all will "soon" take place-i.e., in John's day. Others translate en
tachei as "quickly" (grammatically this is acceptable) and understand the author to
describe events that will rapidly run their course once they begin. However, it is
better to translate en tachei as "soon" in the light of the words "the time is near" in
v.3 (cf. 22:10).
Yet, if we adopt this sense, it is not necessary to follow the preterist interpretation
of the book. In eschatology and apocalyptic, the future is always viewed as imminent
without the necessity of intervening time (ef. Luke 18:8). That en tachei does not
preclude delay or intervening events is evident from the Book of Revelation itself.
In chapter 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.
If this sense is followed, we are neither forced to accept a "mistaken apocalyptic" view
as Schweitzer advocated nor a preterist interpretation (Albert Schweitzer, The Quest
of the Historical Jesus [New York: Macmillan, 1968]).
Two more focal points of the book are introduced by the words "by sending his angel
to his servant John." First, 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. Angels are referred to sixty-seven times in Revelation.
The second focal point is the word "servant" (doulos). All of God's people are known
in Revelation as his servants. No less than eleven times in the book are they so
described (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 so designated as the special representatives of the Lord Christ
himself, becomes a beautiful title of honor for God's people. Here, then, in the
Prologue are five links in the chain of authorship: God, Christ, his angel, his servant
John, and those servants to whom John addressed his book.
2 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. The following passages show us John's concept of the Word of God: 1:9; 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 chapter 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. John 1:1-2; 1 John 1:1). The church needs to be reminded
that the neglected Book of Revelation 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" translates the Greek martyria, another important term for the author.
It is variously rendered as "witness," "attestation," "validation," "verification." "The
testimony of Jesus" grammatically could be the testimony "to" Jesus-i. e., John's own
testimony about Jesus (objective genitive). However, the alternate grammatical sense
-the testimony or validation "from" Jesus (subjective genitive)-is to be preferred.
John testifies both to the Word of God received in the visions and also to the validation
of his message from Jesus himself. The important range of possible implications of the
term in the following references is worthy of study: 1:9; 6:9; 12:11, 17; 19:10; 20:4;
22:16-20.
3 "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 whole writing. Thus John immediately sets off his writing
from the late Jewish apocalyptic literature (which did not issue from the prophets) and
at the same time puts himself on a par with the OT prophets (cf. 10:8-11; David Hill,
"Prophecy and Prophets in the Revelation of St. John," NTS, 18 [1971-72], 401-18).
The twofold benediction "blessed" (makarios) 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 actually the inspired word of Christ (Rev
contains six more beatitudes: 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 himself. 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 (Scripture) performed a mitzvah (commanded act) and was worthy to
receive a divine blessing.
All must listen carefully and "take to heart what is written" (terountes, "observe,"
"watch," "keep") because "the time is near," the time or season (kairos) for the
fulfillment of the return of Christ (v.7; cf. Luke 11:28, 21:8) and for all that is written
in this book (cf. 22:10). The season (kairos) for Christ's return is always imminent-now
as it has been from the days of his ascension (John 21:22; 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 as a single unit in the
public worship service. As Minear says, "The student should not be content with his
interpretation of any passage unless and until it fits into the message of the book as
a whole" (I Saw a New Earth, p. 5). 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.
B. Greetings and Doxology
1:4-8
4 John,
1 To the seven churches in the province of Asia:
Grace and peace to you from him who is, and who was, and who is to come, and
from the seven spirits before his throne, 5 and from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful
witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth.
To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood, 6 and has made
us to be a kingdom and priests to serve his God and Father-to him be glory and
power for ever and ever! Amen.
7 Look, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, even those who pierced him; and all the peoples of the earth will mourn
because of him.
So shall it be! Amen.
8 "I am the Alpha and the Omega," says the Lord God, "who is, and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty."
John now addresses the recipients of his book: "To the seven churches in the
province of Asia" (cf. v. 11; 2:1-3:22). Almost immediately he introduces an expanded
form of the Christian Trinitarian greeting that merges into a doxology to Christ
(vv.5b-6) and is followed by a staccato exclamation calling attention to the return of
Christ to the world (v.7). The Father concludes the greeting with assurances of his
divine sovereignty.
4 The epistolary form of address immediately distinguishes this book from all other
Jewish apocalyptic works (cf. Introduction). None of the pseudepigraphical works
contain such epistolary addresses. John writes to actual, historical churches, addressing
them in the same way the NT epistles are addressed, These churches he writes
to actually existed in the Roman province of Asia (the western part of present-day
Turkey), as the details in chapters 2 and 3 indicate. But the question is this: 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 (Col 1:2), and Hierapolis (Col 4:13). There might also
have been churches at Magnesia and Tralles, since Ignatius wrote to them less than
twenty years later.
(Continues.)
