Revelation Chapter 1
Originally posted Tuesday December 9, 2008
General Comment: Although
Revelation (Gr. = apokalypsis) is the last book in the New Testament it was not
the last to be written. That honor belongs to 2 Peter, written some 3 to 4
decades later. Revelation was written during the latter part of the reign of
the Roman Emperor, Domitian, between 92 and 96 CE. Revelation's
audience includes the churches of western Asia Minor. Seven of these churches
are named in chapters 2 and 3 and probably represent those churches with which
John was most closely associated as a prophet. However, and as with all New
Testament writings, the actual circulation would have been to a greater number
of churches. The mention of seven specific churches is not an absolute
indication of their importance over all others. The number seven appears several
times in Revelation and is symbolic of completeness and wholeness. To address
it to the seven is to address it to all Christian communities - the whole
of Christendom, now complete and awaiting the events which John
predicts must happen
soon. We are already familiar with the divine "must." In its use
here it serves to emphasize John's certainty that the events
witnessed in his visions will take place any moment.
The writer is a
Jewish Christian prophet. The poor quality of the Greek indicates a person whose
original language was Aramaic. He would have been one of many Jewish Christians
who fled from Judea (or Galilee) in the years before the destruction of
Jerusalem (70 CE). He calls himself John (a common Jewish name) but he is
not to be confused with the source of the Gospel bearing that name or the
writer of the letters of John. Because of the proximity of the addressed
churches to Ephesus, he has been considered by some to have been part of a
larger group of prophets and evangelists who's preaching and teaching became
the core of the Gospel of John. This is doubtful. He certainly represents a
later and more desperate time not reflected in the Gospel.The Gospel reflects
an environment of hostility in which the antagonists were Jewish Pharisees who
were leading the formation of a new understanding of Judaism - without
Christians. In Revelation the antagonists represent Roman Imperial religion and
Roman persecutors. As such Revelation is the most political of all the New
Testament writings, speaking to a specific time with symbols and images framed
by a specific set of circumstances being experienced by these Christians of
western Asia Minor. The circumstances are cosmic in nature. The basic premise
of all apocalyptic writings is that the world is thoroughly evil
and beholden to Satan. There is absolutely nothing that human beings can
do to defeat the cosmic power of evil. In such absolute hopelessness and
futility there is only one recourse for deliverance. The remedy will
be God's direct and final intervention in history by which all evil is
destroyed, all believers vindicated and a new world order established under the
reign of Christ. It is this utter despair that drives John's visions and is at
the root of every generation's reinterpretation of John's words.
Much has been made
of the significance of Revelation for the modern age. The simplicity of its
purpose and its intended meaning for the beleaguered Christians at the end of
the 1st century has been all but lost. In the frantic attempt to rip it from
its moorings as an attack against Roman power, it has been refitted with the
latest cast of characters and newspaper clippings into a prediction
of the end of the age. No doubt the original message of remaining strong in
one's faith through all circumstances serves our age as well as John's. There
are many enemies that tempt our faith but most of them come from
within us and not from the outside. For many church members Christianity is a
casual and inconsistent relationship. The God of the universe is more of hymn
than heart. No doubt the fiery prophet of Patmos, were he among us today, would
find cause to rekindle the flames of faith that we might once again be a people
whose hearts are strangely warmed.
Revelation, Chapter 1:1-8 - Introduction and Salutation
The English
translation of the opening verse is misleading. This is not the revelation
of or about Jesus Christ. It is a revelation given to Jesus by
God with the intent that it be shared with God's "servants." The
revelation is of events soon to occur in the lives and times of those who will
hear it. Christ's chosen messenger, who has made this revelation
known, is John, who has faithfully given his testimony "even to
all whom he saw."
This revelation is
so important John pronounces the blessedness (happiness) over all who read the
prophecy to others and all who hear and keep what is written,
"for the time is near." The implicit understanding is that those who
do not listen as well as those who do listen but do not "keep"
(practice) what they have heard have lost God's blessing. John is a prophet. He
speaks what he sees "in the Spirit." To ignore the Spirit is to
abandon all hope.
John addresses the
seven churches of [western] Asia. He invokes the grace and peace from
the God of all time (vs.
8; Exod. 3:14; Isa. 41:4), the "seven
spirits" who are "before the throne [of God]" and Christ. The
triune invocation represents the presence of God as the sustainer
of not only the believers past but the hope of his/her future. The
spirits, because they are before the throne, represent the
collective, worshipping presence of all Christians before God. The Christ
is the victorious Christ who has defeated death through resurrection and
is Lord of all earthly powers. This latter assertion is important to our understanding
of other New Testament verses which declare the Lordship of Christ over all
things heavenly and earthly. These references - mostly in Paul's letters, refer
to the resurrected Christ of glory to whom God has given absolute authority. In
Revelation this authority is about to be exercised in a cataclysmic
fashion upon the Roman Empire which is the manifestation of
Satan's reign in the world. It is this Christ for whom all humanity waits and
every eye will see as he "[comes} with the clouds" (Dan.7:13).
Revelation, Chapter 1:9-20 - A Vision of Christ
John prefaces
the beginning of his vision with the details of his situation.
He describes himself as a fellow believer. He is one who shares "in
Christ" the present and anticipated persecution and the coming messianic
kingdom (for and into which they have been freed by Christ's sacrifice).
With his fellow Christians he faces both with "patient
endurance." He was on the island of Patmos, one of a number
of islands in the Aegean Sea, off the southwestern coast of Turkey.
It is situated approximately 65 miles from Ephesus, John's
probable home. Its remote location and rugged terrain made it suitable for
the isolation which often led the prophets to fast and experience visions. The
island was used by the Roman Governor of Asia as a place of exile, perhaps
including hard labor in the sulfur mines. The text indicates John may have
been exiled as a result of his prophetic preaching (the word of God). and
his "testimony" (witness) to Christ. However, without John's
clarification we should not rule out the possibility that John deliberately
sought such a remote area for the very purpose of seeking God's direction. It
was common for prophets (and Jesus) to seek the wilderness areas to listen for
God's inner voice. We read of an excellent example of this kind of experience
in the story of Jesus' seclusion in the wilderness after his baptism. This has
been the experience of mystics in all religions throughout the centuries. Being
alone with God, in communion, empty of thought, without a sense of self, the
space between dissolves and the two become one. In the space between
breaths, In moments such as these there are no distinctions, just the
still small voice seen within one's spirit.
His first vision was
of Christ speaking and it occurred on a Sunday - "the day
belonging to the Lord." He writes that he was "in the Spirit"
which is a way of describing a spiritual trance induced by severe fasting
and meditation. Being in the Spirit he heard a voice with "a
great sound as if of a trumpet" (Exod. 19:16; Heb.12:18-19; 1 Cor. 15:51-52). The
voice instructs him to record his experience in a book and to send it to the
seven churches. As John turns toward the voice he sees the heavenly image
of "one like "a Son of Man" standing amidst seven
golden lampstands. Elements of John's description are taken from Dan. 7, 10 and Ezek 1.
The meaning of these features is not germane to the vision beyond
emphasizing John's meager attempt to communicate his encounter with a
heavenly being who is yet to be identified. One aspect of the image,
the two edged sword, does have other biblical roots as a reference to the
prophetic word of God in Heb. 4:12. Its use here by John, prefacing
the letters to the seven churches, is relevant to the later word of
judgment spoken against the churches. In John's descriptions we should
note his use of the words "like" and "as
if." This is akin to Paul's comment that we look in a mirror and
see but dimly. John struggles to describe the images before him. The language
of visions is mythological. He uses the best words he can find to describe
something which is not of his world and is beyond his human ability to
understand.
John's reaction to
what he sees is to fall prostrate before the glorious being as one totally
unworthy of being in the presence of the voice (Ezek. 1:28).
The voice which has taken form now touches and speaks to John in a gentler
and more comforting tone. John need not be afraid (Dan.8:18; MT 17:6) for the voice
is that of the heavenly Christ, the "first and the last" (Isa. 44:6, 48:12), one
who was dead yet now "[is] living into the ages of ages (forever),
who has the keys of Death and Hades (MT 16; Rom. 6:9; Ps. 68:20 - judgment).
"Hades" is both the Greek and Roman god of the underworld. It is
also the place of the dead, the equivalent of the Hebrew "Sheol"
but not the typical New Testament Gahanna (hell). Generally Hades and Sheol
were not considered as places of torment but more as a place where the dead
"languished." Even the word "hell" is sometimes used in a
similar way. Taken together all of these terms were understood as the place of
waiting for the final judgment. Death is used in two ways. There is
physical death which happens to all humanity and there is also spiritual
death, the outcome of the judgment of the ungodly. The former is a state of
waiting for the judgment while the latter is the destruction
(nothingness) of the ungodly.
The voice again
instructs John to write. What he has already seen is self evident; what is
present is being seen in the present moment; what is to take place
after this is the opening of the forthcoming visions of
the events of the end times as well as the heavenly
setting in which the visions take place. Invs. 20 the
voice gives an explanation of two parts of John's vision. Such explanations are
common in other apocalyptic writings such as Daniel and 4 Ezra but unusual in
Revelation. The seven golden lampstands - in visionary language, are not
simply representative of the seven churches to which John has been
instructed to write. They are the heavenly ideal of what the seven
churches should be - beacons shining in the darkness of the world with the
light of Christ. It is metaphorical, yet real and a later vision will encompass
the fate of the church that does not live up to such an ideal. The seven stars
in Christ's right hand (the hand of honor) are the angels (spirits) of the
seven churches (see
1:4). John does not provide any explanation for
the differing location of the lampstands and stars in relation to Christ. In
Johannine thought the Spirit of Christ returns to be in the midst of the church
as teacher and encourager. This may be represented by his being
envisioned by John as in the midst of the seven lampstands (churches). The
angels - or spirits, of the churches are kept close, being held in the safe
hand of Christ until his return.
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