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Abingdon New Testament Commentaries: Revelation

Abingdon Press

Commentary

Introduction to the Visions (1:1-8)

John begins with a genealogy of Revelation: God gave it to Jesus Christ who gave it to an angel who gave it to John who testified to it by writing it down. The genealogy (1:1-2) is written in lean prose, no details are given as to where this transmission occurs, the actors are named without further attributes, and no motivation is given for the divine revelation beyond God's desire to let people know "what must soon take place." After the genealogy and a blessing for reader and hearers (1:3), John makes a unique shift for a visionary: He greets his readers in the form of a pastoral letter (1:4-6). Two prophetic sayings (1:7-8) then make a transition from pastoral letter to the first vision (1:9–3:22). The sayings' oracular, cryptic style contrasts with the matter-of-fact style in 1:1-6 and prepares the reader for the vision to come.

The aim of the introduction is clear. The visions are true because they come from God. Those who listen carefully will be blessed. The greeting in second-person "you" (1:4) draws the audience into John's orbit, and the "us" in the doxology (1:5-6) at the conclusion of the greeting unites John and his readers as one Christian community. Through matter-of-fact assertions, promises, greetings, and joint praise to Jesus Christ, John's Christian audience is led to accept what he writes as God's word—at least if they want to share in communion with John, Jesus, and God.

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1:1-2: John uses several quasi-technical terms to describe this chain of transmission: The term "revelation"—only here in Revelation—refers to a process of disclosure (apokalypsis, the "sis" suffix marks it as a process); for example, land is revealed as a river recedes from it (MM under apokalypto), or a person's hidden evil nature becomes evident when he or she gains power (Sull. 30.5.8). Here it refers to the disclosure of things hidden with God. Amos writes, "Surely the Lord GOD does nothing, without revealing his secret to his servants the prophets" (3:7; cf. Dan 2:22, 28). In the Jewish community at Qumran, the Teacher of Righteousness discloses "all the mysteries of the words of his servants, the prophets" (1QpHab VII.5). At Rev 1:1, "servants" probably refers to Christian prophets, but the term could refer to all Christians. "Show" (deixai) also has a technical meaning of "disclose." In a prayer of thanksgiving occurring several times in visionary literature, a seer rejoices "because you have shown us yourself" (PGM III.597, note 114). "Made it known" (esemanen) refers to an event or situation not fully disclosed (John 12:33; Acts 11:23; Dan 2:45;Ant. 7.214; 10.241). So, Heraclitus said that the oracle at Delphi always indicates or points to something more (semainei), rather than revealing it fully (legei) or concealing it completely (kruptei; De Pyth. or. 21, 404E). "Testified" (martyrein) refers to a highly personal act of disclosure, such as witnessing in a court of law or as a martyr. In this chain of transmission, both Jesus Christ and John "testify" to the word of God: Jesus Christ through an angel (22:16, 20); John by writing.

1:3: The scene of the beatitude in verse 3 is an assembly of Christians at worship where a reader (lector) reads aloud to the others. Such an arrangement was necessary since only a small number of Christians in the churches of Asia could read, probably about one out of ten (see Gamble 1995, 5). Moreover, in the first centuries after Christ most reading was done aloud, whether public or private. Recall Augustine's surprise that Ambrose always read silently, "his heart perceived the sense, but his voice and tongue were silent" (Confes. 6.3.3. For examples of reading silently, cf. De Alex. fort. 7, 340A; Brut. 5.2, and Gilliard 1993, 694, as well as his letter to the editor in Times Literary Supplement [Aug. 8, 1997], 19). We know little about church readers (lectors) in this early period of Christianity, but they probably had some control over what exactly was read before the congregation. By offering a blessing, John encourages them to read his book. Only six other beatitudes occur in Revelation (14:13; 16:15; 19:9; 20:6; 22:7; 22:14). Prophecies and revelations were regularly spoken or read in services of worship (Acts 11:28; 13:27; 1 Cor 14:26-33; 1 Tim 4:14).

To "hear" is to be involved in an aural, sensory event involving communication and learning. If members of the congregation hear the word properly, they will "keep" it (cf. 2:26; 3:3, 8, 10; 12:17; 14:12; 16:15; 22:7, 9). "Prophecy" (propheteias), an expression of Christian visionary experience, connects closely with "testified," for as an angel says later in Revelation, "the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy" (19:10; cf. 22:7, 10, 18, 19). The nearness of the time when God will judge all humans (11:18) motivates the hearers to obey (cf. 22:10).

1:4: John, the last recipient in the chain of revelation (1:1), is now the main actor who sends greetings to "the seven churches that are in Asia" (1:4). "Grace" and "peace" are typical elements in Christian greetings, usually from a double source, God and Jesus Christ (Rom 1:7; 1 Cor 1:3; Titus 1:4; 1 Clem.). The greeting expresses a wish, "May you have grace and peace." As noted earlier, Revelation is unique in combining the letter with vision-reports.

Here "grace" and "peace" derive from a triple source: God (note 1:8), "the seven spirits," and "Jesus Christ." "The seven spirits" are identified with "seven flaming torches" at 4:5 and with "seven eyes" of the Lamb at 5:6 (cf. Zech 4:10). John is probably alluding to the seven watchful archangels who stand before the divine throne ready to do God's will (8:2; 1 Enoch 20; Tob 12:15). He may, however, be referring to some other cluster of heavenly, perhaps astral, powers.

1:5-6: Of the three sources of grace and peace, John emphasizes Jesus Christ. John gives him three attributes, followed by a doxology. First, he is "the faithful witness" (martys; cf. "testimony [martyrian] of Jesus Christ," 1:5). This phrase associates Jesus with the royal line of David (Ps 89:37; Isa 55:4) and with death (2:13; John 3:11-15). If John's readers were familiar with the story of the crucifixion as told in the Gospels, they might recall Jesus' faithful witness in contrast to the false witnesses who testified against him at his execution (cf. 1 Tim 6:13). Second, he is "firstborn." The Davidic king is also called "firstborn" (Ps 89:27), but here John gives the term a twist: Jesus is "firstborn of the dead" (prototokos ton nekron), that is, he is "preeminent among the dead" (cf. Pol. Phil. 7.1 where heretics are called prototokos tou satana, "preeminent of Satan"). The grammatical construction, genitive without preposition, does not move Jesus out of the sphere of the dead. (For the construction, cf. 20:5; Heb 12:23; Col 1:15; Sib. Or. 8.314 in contrast to Col 1:18, which has the preposition ek: prototokos ek ton nekron.) Third, "ruler of the kings of the earth" (cf. Isa 55:4; Ps 89:28) parallels "firstborn of the dead": Jesus Christ is preeminent over both the dead and the living kings of the earth (cf. Rom 14:9, "For to this end Christ died and lived again, so that he might be Lord of both the dead and the living."). Later in the book, "kings of the earth" are associated with evil forces such as the "beast" and the "whore," but here at the beginning John makes clear that Jesus Christ has ultimate power over them (cf. 21:24. For "kings of the earth," cf. 6:15; 17:2, 18; 18:3, 9; 19:19).

A doxology brings the letter greeting to a close (cf. Rom 16:27; Gal 1:5). Doxologies occur primarily in the domain of worship, but then letters are also read in worship (Col 4:16). Three elements make up the skeleton of a doxology: first, the one given praise is addressed, for example, "to him"; then words of praise such as "glory" (doxa, note 4:9-11) and "dominion" follow (kratos, note 5:13-14; cf. 1 Pet 4:11); finally, the doxology ends with an "amen," often preceded by a temporal phrase, "forever and ever" (5:13; 7:12). The efficacy of Jesus' blood for deliverance from sin is a common theme in early Christian literature (note 5:9-10; Luke 22:20; Acts 20:28; Rom 3:25; 5:9; 1 Cor 11:25; Eph 1:7; 2:13; Heb 10:19; 1 Pet 1:2, 18; 1 John 1:7). Into this doxology, John has inserted a statement about what Christ has done for Christians (for "kingdom and priests"; see 5:10).

1:7: This enigmatic oracle is charged with dramatic tension. The rider of the clouds, though not specified, would be associated by listeners with Jesus Christ in the doxology. The verb translated "is coming" in the NRSV would better be rendered "is moving" (erchetai), for in contrast to passages such as 10:1; 11:12; or 1 Thess 4:16, movement here is not specified as toward or away from the audience. (Ateh in Dan 7:13 is also movement without a direction specified.) We should here see Jesus' movement as crossing the sky like lightning (Matt 24:27), similar to the end time "figure of a man" in 2 Esdras who "flew with the clouds of heaven" (13:3 and Dan 7:13). "Riding the clouds" is a divine attribute (see Isa 19:1). As the eschatological (end-time) Jesus is moving across the sky, his appearance has global dimensions: "every eye" and "all the tribes of the earth" see him.

In the Christian story as the Fourth Evangelist tells it, the "pierced one" is the crucified Jesus (John 19:34-37). "Those who pierced him" also associates the figure with the Lord God and with the mourning of Hadad-rimmon (a Canaanite deity) in Zech 12:

And I [the Lord God] will pour out a spirit of compassion and supplication on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so that, when they look on me [MT] whom they have pierced, they shall mourn for him, as one mourns for an only child, and weep bitterly over him, as one weeps over a firstborn [prototokoi]. On that day the mourning in Jerusalem will be as great as the mourning for Hadad-rimmon in the plain of Megiddo. The land [ge] shall mourn, each family [kata phulas] by itself. (Zech 12:10-12)

In this oracle as a whole, the heavenly figure referred to in Dan 7:13 and 2 Esdr 13:3 is brought into connection with "wailing" (kopsontai), which occurs most often in a funerary context (18:9; 1 Kgs 13:29; Luke 23:27; Gos. Pet. 7.25; 12.52; Ant. 8.273). "The tribes of the earth" (phylai tes ges) wail "on his account" (ep' auton; cf. 18:9; 2 Sam 1:12; contrast Apoc. Peter 6 and the long recension of Ign. Trall. 10 where the text is changed to read "and they shall wail 'for themselves [eph' heautois]'"). Here, as in Zech 12, we enter the domain of ritual lamentation of a hero or deity (see Hvidberg 1962, 119). The lament over "the pierced one" is comparable to the ritual lamentation over Achilles (Paus. 6.23.3), Adonis (Syr. D. 6, "and then, they say he lives and they send him into the air [sky]"), or Attis (Diod. Sic. 3.59.7). Note also that the "man" flying with the clouds in 2 Esdras comes from "the heart of the sea," that is, Sheol, the place of the dead.

1:8: This final oracle brings the introduction to a close. The repetition of "who is and who was and who is to come" at 1:4 and 1:8 exemplifies ring composition (or an envelope pattern), in which a word or phrase is repeated at the beginning and at the end of a unit and thus forms a ring around the block of text. The "I" of God here also provides a transition to the "I" of John in 1:9. A declaration of God speaking in first person (ego eimi), one of the most audacious forms found in religious literature, functions as a form of divine self-revelation (Exod 3:14; Isa 41:4; John 8:28; Isis sayings from Cyme in Grant 1953, 131-33). By revealing himself as "the Alpha and the Omega," God declares that he takes in all that is, from A to Z (cf. 21:6; 22:13 referring to Christ; Isa 41:4; 44:6). More common in religious literature is the phrase, "who is and who was and who will be" (see Charles, 1:10-11). By changing the last part, John emphasizes that God is the one who comes (cf. 11:17; 16:5; Isa 40:10; John 14:23). The expression, "the Almighty" (pantokrator), appears only in Revelation among New Testament books (at 2 Cor 6:18 as part of an Old Testament quotation). In the Septuagint, the term translates Sabaoth, a Hebrew word associated with the warrior-God of the ark of the covenant (cf. Josh 5:14; 10:12-14; Judg 5:11-21; 2 Sam 5:22-25; Pss 103:19-21; 148:1-5; Dan 8:10; James 5:4). Elsewhere in Revelation, these epithets of God occur primarily in heavenly liturgies (4:8, 11; 11:17; 15:3; 16:5, 7; 19:6).

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The verbs used to narrate the genealogy of Revelation—"revelation," "show," "made it known," and "testify"—place this writing in the cultural domain of prophecy, oracles, and visions. In that domain, revelation opens the ordinary world of everyday life to more than it appears to be: to a "heavenly" dimension above (cf. 4:1-2), as well as to a future hidden in the present (4:1; 22:6; Matt 24:6), for the God who discloses "what must soon take place" (ha dei genesthai en tachei) also brings it to pass (4:1; 22:6; Matt 24:6; Dan 2:29, 45 Theod.). Revelation is, however, always filtered through the person who presents the revelation. John, like all writers, is present in what he writes in this sense: It is his values and beliefs that shape the visions that God gives him.

John begins Revelation matter-of-factly with an omniscient third-person point of view. He even knows what God, Jesus, and the angel did in transmitting the revelation. As readers, we hardly think about the fact that someone is making these assertions. At verse 4, John removes the veil of narrator and speaks plainly and openly, "John." His intended hearers also become explicit: "To the seven churches that are in Asia." They are addressed directly in the second person, "Grace to you...." Then, as we have seen, the first-person plural, "us, our," in the doxology establishes and assumes a community to which John, the reader, and the hearers all belong.

In the rest of the book, beginning with 1:9, John reports, in first person, visions that he experienced. In those vision-reports, John has a dual role. On the one hand, his ego ("I") frames the visions by phrases such as "I heard," "I saw," "After this I looked." On the other hand, he is a character within the visions interacting with other characters, for example, "So I went to the angel and told him to give me the little scroll; and he said to me, 'Take it, and eat ...'" (10:9). As both framer and character in the frame, John's role in writing becomes much like that of an actress presenting a one-woman show of the life of someone such as Emily Dickinson.

That shift to first person affects the kind of moral and religious authority expressed in the rest of the book. From 1:9 to the end, John reports personal experience. We are told only that which flows through his center of consciousness. He knows only that which he experiences, deduces from his experiences, or learns from others. Moreover, he has privileged access to these experiences. Hearers cannot see exactly what he sees. They have no access to what lies behind the report (cf. 1 Cor 13:2; 1 Thess 5:19-22). For that reason, a seer's words (including John's) are always liable to be suspect. That suspicion is, however, abated by the way John uses first person to reflect his psychological and religious state in which his ego blurs with either God's or Christ's, or both. Note, for example, the sequence of "I" in 1:8-18: "I am the Alpha and the Omega ... I, John, your brother ... I was in the spirit ... I turned ... I fell ... I am the first and the last ... I was dead, and see, I am alive." By that blurring, John exemplifies what Christ says in the Odes of Solomon, "Then I arose and am with them, and will speak by their mouths" (42.6).

John's First Vision (1:9–3:22)

John identifies himself as a "brother," sketches out the circumstances in which he wrote his book, and then tells about his initial vision (1:9-11). Prominent in the vision is a Likeness of a Human, whom John describes in detail (1:12-17) and who directs John not to be afraid (1:17-18), to write down what he sees (1:19), and to take dictation in the form of a prophetic pronouncement to each of the seven churches (2:1, 8, 12, 18; 3:1, 7, 14). The pronouncement to the church at Laodicea brings John's first vision to an end (3:14-22) and provides a transition to his second vision, which begins at chapter 4.

Brother John (1:9-11)

Neither here nor earlier in the greeting does John claim any special role such as apostle, elder, or prophet. He is simply a "brother" and a "partner" of those to whom he writes. After stating the basis of their common communion (1:9a), John tells where he is, when he has his visions, and what religious-psychological state he is in (1:9b-10a). His initial vision begins when he hears a voice behind him telling him to write in a book all that he sees and to send it to "the seven churches" (1:10b-11). When he turns "to see whose voice it was that spoke," the vision begins (1:12).

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Excerpted from Abingdon New Testament Commentaries: Revelation by Leonard L. Thompson. Copyright © 1998 Abingdon Press. Excerpted by permission of Abingdon Press.
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