Revelation1chapter 1

Revelation 1:1-3

The Revelation of Jesus Christ: The book names itself in its first words: the Revelation, apokalupsis, the unveiling, of Jesus Christ, his own disclosure given him of the Father, sent and signified, esemanen, sign-i-fied, by his angel to John, the verb warning the reader that this book speaks in signs whose meanings are fixed. Things which must shortly come to pass and the time is at hand are read two ways with holders, soon in sequence once begun, or imminent from the church's standpoint in every age, and both keep the church watching. The blessing on him that readeth, and they that hear, and keep is the first of the book's seven beatitudes, and it is the only book of Scripture that opens by blessing its own audience.

Revelation 1:4-6

The greeting comes from all three persons: from him which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Name of Exodus 3:14 opened into tenses; from the seven Spirits before the throne, read by the main line as the one Holy Spirit in his sevenfold fulness per Isaiah 11:2, with the seven-angels reading named; and from Jesus Christ, faithful witness, first begotten of the dead, prince of the kings of the earth, prophet, priest, and king in three titles. The doxology that breaks out is the church's standing charter, unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood, with the oldest copies reading loosed us, one Greek letter apart and both true, and hath made us kings and priests, Exodus 19:6 conferred. The book's worship begins in its greeting.

Revelation 1:7-8

The book's theme verse joins Daniel 7:13's clouds to Zechariah 12:10's pierced one: behold, he cometh with clouds, and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him, a visible, universal coming. All kindreds of the earth shall wail, and Zechariah's own scene is Israel's future mourning that turns to grace, the site's reading keeping that hope in the wail; even so, Amen doubles the assent in Greek and Hebrew at once. The Almighty then speaks for himself, I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, which is, and which was, and which is to come, a self-naming the risen Lord will take on his own lips at verse 11 and at 22:13, the book's quiet and constant deity claim.

Revelation 1:9-11

John writes as your brother, and companion in tribulation, and in the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ, three shares held together, banished to Patmos, a small Aegean island used for exile, for the word of God and the testimony of Jesus. In the Spirit on the Lord's day is read of the week's first day by the main line, with the reading that hears the eschatological day of the Lord named beside it. The trumpet voice commands a book, and the seven churches are a real postal circuit, Ephesus up the coast and around, seven congregations whose angels and lampstands the vision is about to explain.

Revelation 1:12-16

Turning, John sees seven golden lampstands and in their midst one like unto the Son of man, Daniel 7's title, wearing the long robe and golden girdle of priesthood and dignity. The portrait is assembled from the Old Testament's throne scenes piece by piece: head and hair white like wool as the Ancient of days of Daniel 7:9, eyes as a flame of fire, feet like furnace-burnished brass as Ezekiel's visions, a voice as the sound of many waters, Ezekiel 43:2's voice of the God of Israel. Seven stars in his right hand, a sharp two-edged sword out of his mouth per Isaiah 49:2, and a countenance as the sun in strength: the attributes of the Ancient of days worn by the Son of man is the chapter's christology, deity in portraiture.

Revelation 1:17-18

The seer who leaned on the Lord's breast at supper falls at his feet as dead, and the right hand that holds the seven stars is laid on him with the word the risen Christ always brings, fear not. The self-naming that follows is the gospel in three clauses, I am the first and the last, I am he that liveth, and was dead, and behold, I am alive for evermore, and its trophy line, and have the keys of hell and of death, hades and death unlocked from inside. Every terror the book will unveil is met before a single seal opens, by the hand and the keys.

Revelation 1:19-20

Verse 19 is the book's own table of contents, given by the Lord himself: write the things which thou hast seen, this vision; and the things which are, the seven churches of chapters 2-3; and the things which shall be hereafter, meta tauta, the visions that open at 4:1 with the same phrase. This site's tradition takes the outline at its word, reading chapters 4 onward as future to the church age, the futurist frame stated at the door; other schools order the book differently and are met where the texts raise them. The first symbols are then decoded by the Interpreter himself, the seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven candlesticks are the seven churches, the church not the light but the lampstand that holds it.