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Revelation 1.1-2
October 16th 2016
Meat
All right. Revelation chapter 1 verse 1.
(On BOARD BEFORE)
Idealist Historicist Preterist Futurist Omitist
Revelation 1:1 “The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto him, to shew unto his servants things which must shortly come to pass; and he sent and signified it by his angel unto his servant John.”
And then verse 2
“Who bare record of the word of God, and of the testimony of Jesus Christ, and of all things that he saw.”
We have eight points to consider in this first passage:
(ON BOARD BEFORE)
“the Revelation of Jesus Christ”
Which God gave unto Him
To show his servants
Things
Which must shortly come to pass
And He sent and signified it (the revelation)
By his angel
Unto his servant John
So . . . to line number one.
The Revelation of Jesus Christ.
This is evidently a title or caption of the whole book, and is designed to comprise the substance of the whole; for all that the book contains would be embraced in the general declaration that it is a Revelation of Jesus Christ.
Because of this I do not feel we have the right to break the revelation up into segments or time periods that are distinct from each other. It is singular – the revelation – and so it all comes as a package.
The word translated Revelation (of Jesus Christ) is “apocalupto” and from it we get the term “apocalypse.” I always thought when I was younger that apocalypse meant a final war or violent sort of end time but it means something entirely different – it means an uncovering or nakedness.
To uncover or reveal, hence the English translation to Revelation.
So we might call this book “an uncovering or unveiling of Jesus Christ.”
The implication is that something has been hidden or in the dark which is now about to be revealed or uncovered.
From the Idealist view what is about to be revealed is an allegory for the ages, to the Historicist what is about to be revealed is the history of the Christian faith unfolding, to the preterist it is what was about to happen then and to the futurist what was being revealed to John was the hidden covered unveiled future of the end of the world.
Whatever the application, where the angel told Daniel to “seal up the book until the time of the end,” Jesus said in Matthew 10:26
“for there is nothing covered, that shall not be revealed; and hid, that shall not be known.”
I believe that we are seeing Jesus words come to fruition here and right now we wind up with a book that is called “the revealing, the unsealing, the uncovering,” that He was talking about.
So the act of this uncovering might include:
What we read in Luke 2:32 which says that “Christ would be “a light to lighten the Gentiles” I say this because the word to lighten there is “ APOCALUPSIS.
It might include Romans 8:19 which says:
“For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God.”
As earnest expectation of “the manifestation” here is also Apocalupsis.
It certainly seems to include
1st Corinthians 1:7 that says:
“So that ye come behind in no gift; waiting for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ,” as the coming in that line is the apocalupsis.
It certainly would include 2nd Thessalonians 1:7 which directly states:
“And to you who are troubled rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels.”
Also, the Revelation seems to also include the manifestation of the wrath of God at the day of judgment which will reveal the true nature of his wrath, as Paul says in
Romans 2:5 But after thy hardness and impenitent heart treasurest up unto thyself wrath against the day of wrath and revelation (apocalupsis) of the righteous judgment of God;
It could be speaking of the revelation that will uncover who the real children of God are as Paul says in Romans 8:19
“that is, till it shall be manifest by the event what they who are the children of God are to be.”
And of course it may be speaking of the second advent “or the appearing of the Lord Jesus Christ,” disclosing him in his glory coming out of the Holy of Holies and showing what he truly is as 2nd Thessalonians 1:7 says,
“When the Lord Jesus shall be revealed”–
Or as 1st Corinthians 1:7 says, “Waiting for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
Or as 1st Peter 1:7 says,
“At the appearing of Jesus Christ.”
Or also 1st Peter 4:13, as it says
“When his glory shall be revealed.”
It also seems to be used in the sense of making known what is to come–whether by words, signs, or symbols–as if a veil were lifted from that which is hidden from human vision.
Now, in the Greek the article is lacking and therefore the better reading is this is “a Revelation,” and not “the Revelation,” of Jesus Christ.
Perhaps this has been omitted because the use of the article might imply that this was the only revelation (which is not true since all of the Bible has been revealed).
The phrase, “the Revelation of Jesus Christ,” might, so far as the construction of the language is concerned, refer either to Christ as the subject or the object.
So it might either mean that Christ is the object that is revealed in the book or it may mean that this is a revelation which Christ makes to mankind.
While I have intimated that this was Christ BEING revealed to Mankind, I think we have to admit that while this might be true, the real meaning of this is this is the Revelation Christ makes – to John, to the Seven Churches, to mankind.
I think that this is the clearest meaning because,
(1) it expressly says that it was a revelation which God gave to him (therefore it couldn’t be Him being revealed to others);
(2) because the revelation given him was a disclosure of events which were to happen – many of which do not speak of Him at all.
Next line:
“Which God gave unto him.”
“Which God imparted or communicated to Jesus Christ.”
I find this so intriguing on a number of levels.
First of all, when did God given Jesus this revelation?
Secondly, I can’t help but note that God – God – gave the Revelation to Jesus the Messiah.
Now this second point is in accordance with other scriptural representations as God is the original fountain of truth and knowledge, and that, whatever was the original dignity of Jesus there was always – and apparently continues to be in the heavens prior to this Revelation, a mediatorial dependence/relationship on the Father.
When Jesus was on earth we remember Him saying in John 5:19-20:
“Verily, verily, I say unto you, The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do: for whatsoever he doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise. For the Father loveth the Son, and showeth him all things that himself doeth.”
OR in
John 7:16 “My doctrine is not mine, but his that sent me.” And in John 8:28: “As my Father hath taught me, (edidaxe me) I speak these things.” And in John 12:49: “For I have not spoken of myself; but the Father which sent me, he gave me a commandment, what I should say, and what I should speak.”
From these words and this first verse of Revelation one it seems that the same mediatorial dependence was still present in heaven prior to His coming to earth and would continue UNTIL . . . (as 1st Corinthians 15:24-28 says) he has subdued all things and will at that time hand the Kingdom over to God so that God will then be all in all.
To the Futurist this has yet to happen and Jesus is still mediating from the right hand of the Father and receiving instructions.
To the Idealist and the Historicist this seems to be the case but to the Preterist, if this Revelation from God to Christ to John to the Seven Churches occurred as stated, then 1st Corinthians 15 is complete and the mediatorial relationship is finished – God is all in all – and everything has been complete.
Point 3
To show unto his servants.
The word rendered to show–deixai–commonly denotes to point out; to cause to see; to present to the sight.
This is important because so far we can see that this information being revealed was or is to show, was or is to point out, and therefore it was to be understood clearly.
The fact that it has NOT been understood clearly by believers today says something to me.
If God gave a Revelation to show or to point something out God would make it understandable to the intended recipients, in this case His servants.
Now, the term servant or servants is used twice here – both times taken from the Greek DOULOS which literally means, slave.
In scripture the term doulos is often applied primarily to prophets and apostles (in relationship to God) and we see this is the case here where John is plainly called a doulos of Christ.
But because it is directed to the Seven Churches I think we have to admit that they, at least, would be included in who was supposed to receive this revelation.
Verse three seems to open this up to anyone who reads the Revelation as it says, “Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein: for the time is at hand,” but specifically the revelation was directed at the servants of Christ “to show unto his servants things.”
(Our number four)
“Things”
This term is a pronoun and might better be translated “What”
“to show unto his servants what . . .”
Ready? #5
“which must shortly come to pass.”
“Events which must shortly come to pass.”
In terms of the four main views of Revelation this phrase or line is sort-of justifiable in the two of the four views, (the Idealist and the historicist view) impossible in the futurist view, and in compliance with the preterist view.
The word rendered “must” come to pass”—deh-on – and it means “that it is necessary” (must) “shortly come to pass.”
They were not the result of chance; they were not fortuitous. They necessarily had to “shortly come to pass.”
We get that phrase from the Greek phrase En Tachos, which means
“a brief space (of time)and with the prefix “en” it means with haste, quickly, shortly, and “speedily.”
With great swiftness.
The word or phrase is used in 1st Corinthian 4:19 where we read,
“But I will come to you shortly, if the Lord will.”
In Luke 14:21, where it says
“Go out quickly into the streets.”
In Luke 16:6,
“Sit down quickly, and write fifty.”
In John 11:31, “She rose up hastily (tacewv) and went out.”
In Galatians 1:6, where Paul asks
“That ye are so soon removed (tacewv) from him that called you.”
And many others.
When the Angel appears to Peter in jail in Acts 12:7 and says:
“arise up quickly;”
The same word is used.
The essential idea is that the thing or “what” which is spoken of or revealed here was to occur soon and could not in any way a remote and distant event.
There is the notion of rapidity, of haste, and of complete suddenness.
The same idea is expressed in a phrase we will come across a few times in the Revelation that says, “the time is at hand.”
Some suggest that this phrase refers to the time of these things beginning was at hand but their actual fulfillment is still unfolding.
This is the view, of course of all the views except the Preterist.
These say it’s not necessary to suppose that all that there is in the book was soon to happen. So again it is believed that a series of events were to quickly commence while the sequel would be remote – sort of like the engine of a long train was at hand to move forward but it wouldn’t be for thousands of years until the caboose passes the initial starting point.
I do not believe that this view concurs with the intent of the whole revelation as the last chapter also promises that all that was written was about to come to pass or was at hand.
Number six
“And he sent and signified it by his angel.”
From the Greek, “He, sending it by his angel, signified it to his servant John.”
Apparently the idea is not precisely that he sent his angel to communicate the message, but that he sent the message by the angel.
And signified it. “Say-man-ee-oh.” The angel indicated the Revelation by signs and symbols – with which the whole book is filled.
The term “Say mah-nee-oh” is used by John in John 12 when Jesus said at verse 31
“Now is the judgment of this world: now shall the prince of this world be cast out.
And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me.”
Then John adds:
“This he said, signifying (say-mah-nee- oh) what death he should die.”
In other words the sign or symbol Jesus gave was that He would be lifted up from the earth,” and John tells us that He said this to “signify” (say-mah-nee-oo) illustrate, describe the type of death that He would die.
We might wonder what it was exactly that was signified to John. The answer would be . . .
No idea but the general sense is that Jesus had the angel illustrate to John through expressive symbols the things He had been given by God.
Perhaps it was a moving picture, or still photographs, or abstract symbols that John was able to interpret and put into words.
I could really come up with some wild hypothecations as to what these symbols were – but it would be total conjecture on my part and therefore a waste of time.
When John writes, “By his angel”
It seems to be an angel was employed to cause these scenic possibly moving representations to pass before the mind of the apostle.
It appears that the communication was not made directly to him but was through the medium of a heavenly messenger.
For this reason we read in Revelation 22:6,
“And the Lord God of the holy prophets sent his angel to show unto his servants the things which must shortly be done.”
There are frequent allusions in Scripture to angels being employed as agents in making the Divine will known through Revelations to humankind.
In Acts 7:53, it says, “Who have received the law by the disposition of angels.”
And in Hebrews 2:2 we read, “For if the word spoken by angels was stedfast.”
In Galatians 3:19 it says, “And it was ordained by angels in the hand of a mediator.”
However nowhere in the Revelation are we given any insight into how or why this specific angel was called to do this work or how the angel went about making the symbols known to John.
Additionally, John is pretty much everywhere represented as seeing the symbols himself so it appears that the angels job was to either cause the symbols to pass his eyes or to possibly convey their meaning to his mind so he could understand them.
Remember, the Revelation was given from God (who is Spirit) to Christ, who was a resurrected being, to an angel in heaven to John through symbols – and so it was to certainly be spiritually understood.
How far John himself understood the meaning of these symbols we have not the means of knowing with certainty. And the final line of verse 1
Unto his servant John.
We have always assumed it was to John the Beloved but this is not certain from this utterance alone.
The interesting thing about the authorship of Revelation is that with the other books of the Bible apostolic authorship is very important because they had walked and talked and been taught of Jesus themselves and so their written witness could and should have been vetted by their first-hand experience with Him.
But if this book is dedicated to revealing things (that up to this point had been hidden) it’s almost as if it could have been produced by almost any . . . John, or Peter or Paul.
However, verse 2 seems to say that this John was a witness of more than just this Revelation.
Verse 2
1 The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto him, to shew unto his servants things which must shortly come to pass; and he sent and signified it by his angel unto his servant John:
2 Who bare record of the word of God, and of the testimony of Jesus Christ, and of all things that he saw.
In the Gospel of John 21:24 John wrote of himself:
“This is the disciple which testifieth of these things, and wrote these things.”
In John 19:35 we read of him again:
“And he that saw it bare record” so it seems we have some biblical back-up suggesting that this the same John.
“and he sent and signified it by his angel unto his servant John . . .”
“Who bare record of the word of God, and of the testimony of Jesus Christ, and of all things that he saw.”
Three things that John either did because of receiving this revelation or had done before – He . . .
bare record of the word of God,
and (he bare record) of the testimony of Jesus Christ,
and of all things that he saw.”
Let’s talk about this first line because though it seems rather matter of fact or uneventful it is a VERY important line in identifying the author (or recorder) of Revelation.
“Bare record of the Word of God.”
It is the subject of not a little debate, this line.
The main question is whether the writer refers to the “testimony” which he bears in this book respecting the “word of God;” or whether he refers to some “other book” with which those to whom he wrote were so familiar that they would recognize him as the author OR whether he refers to the fact that he had borne witness respecting Jesus Christ, also known as “the Word.”
The phrase “the word of God” (ton logon tow teou) occurs all through the New Testament and may either mean
* the word or doctrine respecting God meaning that which teaches what God is OR
* that which he speaks or teaches.
It is more commonly used in the latter sense and especially refers to what God speaks or commands.
So a fair meaning of this expression would be that John had borne faithful witness to, or testimony of, the truth which God had spoken to him.
But not all scholars agree on this and some see this as referring to the gospel which John published while others believe this speaks to the revelation made to him in Patmos or to this book itself.
Could we harmonize all these views and suggest that because the phrase is in the aorist tense that the writer meant to refer to a characteristic of himself, to wit, that he was a faithful witness of the word of God and of Jesus Christ, whenever and however they were made known to him ?
I take the meaning, then, of the expression “who bare record of the word of God,” as a general description of John the Beloved who was
a verbal eye witness of the Word
a literary witness of the Word given Him
and the future witness of the Revelation he was about to reveal.
This is language that the apostle would be likely use (because he used it in his other writings) but it is not the language a forger would likely use to write a Revelation in his name.
In other words such artifice would unlikely for a forger but perfectly natural for John.
The issue with this is this phrase points purposefully to the Beloved as the author. If he was then we must believe that it was meant to be read.
(On Board)
BE READ
If it was not written by Him then it must be rejected, NOT because He is not the author and someone else is but because the writer attempted to make it LOOK like John the Beloved was the author – therefore it is a forgery.
(On Board)
BE READ NOT READ
Finally, if it is from John and we admit that it ought to be read we have to ask, should it be read by us?
I mean we know it was addressed to the seven churches – but the other epistles were addressed to specific churches too – so that’s not a justification to remove it.
The wonderment I have is due to the fruit of the book. But we will discuss this later.
his servant John . . .”
“Who bare record of the word of God, and of the testimony of Jesus Christ, and of all things that he saw.”
In other words, in accordance with the interpretation about him bearing record of the Word of God, h bare record of the Words regarding Christ and bore testimony which Jesus Christ Himself bore for the truth.
In other words this line does not mean he gave a testimony respecting Jesus Christ.
The idea is, that Jesus Christ was himself a witness to the truth, and that the writer of this book was a witness merely of the testimony which Christ had borne.
“And of all things that he saw.”
The Greek better reads, “and whatsoever he saw,” meaning in addition to all he has bore witness of include all the things he also saw.
Many believe that this last line was included to give validation to what he saw in this particular revelation.
This is a debated view due to some manuscript variance – so it really depends on which manuscripts you hold up as valid over the others but it seems like verse 2 is there to present John as a vetted witness, recorder and apostle perfectly fit to reveal this revelation of Jesus Christ to the world.
And so to what seems like another brief introduction from John, who under the spirit says:
Revelation 1:3 Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein: for the time is at hand.
Other translations put it this way:
Revelation 1:3 (RSV) Blessed is he who reads aloud the words of the prophecy, and blessed are those who hear, and who keep what is written therein; for the time is near.
Revelation 1:3 (WNT) Blessed is he who reads and blessed are those who listen to the words of this prophecy and lay to heart what is written in it; for the time for its fulfillment is now close at hand.
Revelation 1:3 (YLT) Happy is he who is reading, and those hearing, the words of the prophecy, and keeping the things written in it–for the time is nigh!
Revelation 1:3 (MNT) Blessed is he who reads, and they who hear the words of the prophecy, and keep what is written in it. FOR THE CRISIS IS AT HAND.
And we’ll stop there and continue next week.
Questions / Comments
