Revelation 1:1-8 The prologue

Rev 1:1 The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show to his servants [1] the things that must soon take place. He made it known by sending his angel to his servant [2] John,
2 who bore witness to the word of God and to the testimony of Jesus Christ, even to all that he saw. 3 Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear, and who keep what is written in it, for the time is near.

4 John to the seven churches that are in Asia:

Grace to you and peace from him who is and who was and who is to come, and from the seven spirits who are before his throne, 5 and from Jesus Christ the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of kings on earth.

To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood 6 and made us a kingdom, priests to his God and Father, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. 7 Behold, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, even those who pierced him, and all tribes of the earth will wail [3] on account of him. Even so. 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.”

    Just as the prologue to the Gospel of John serves as a kind of overture to the book, announcing its chief themes and setting the reader in a position to understand the story of Jesus, so the prologue to Revelation serves a like purpose. It, too, declares its chief themes and provides a vantage point from which the reader may rightly interpret the vision that follows.

    A revelation may relate to an act of uncovering, or an object uncovered; so here the revelation of Jesus Christ may denote the process of the Lord’s revealing the issues of history, or the truth that is revealed. The latter will be primarily in mind, without excluding the former. The revelation has been given to Jesus from God, just as in the gospel the Son speaks only what the Father has given him (Jn 3:34; 8:26). The mediation of an angel is in keeping with the visions of prophets and apocalyptists (cf. Ezk. 8; Dn. 10). The announcement of Christ, God and angel as the source of the revelation entails an extraordinary authority for the teaching of the book. The thought is further emphasized in v 2: Revelation is John’s witness to the word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ, i.e. the message from God and witness borne by Christ.

3 Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear, and who keep what is written in it, for the time is near.

    The blessing of v 3 is the first of seven contained in the book (see 14:13; 16:15; 19:9; 20:6; 22:7, 14). It declares the ‘happiness’ of one who reads the Revelation to a congregation and of those who both hear it and take its message to heart. (The Hebrew behind blessed has the sense of ‘Oh the happiness of!’.)

    Revelation is addressed to the seven churches in the province of Asia (4). The nature of the book as a letter is underscored by the blessing invoked on the churches (4-5). It is a prayer for grace and peace; the former is the characteristic blessing of the new era, the latter of the old covenant; the two together comprise the salvation of the kingdom of God. The blessing is trinitarian, though, like much in Revelation, it has a complex background. The first element of it reflects the name of God revealed to Moses (Ex. 3:14), but as interpreted by contemporary Jews. The Jerusalem Targum on Dt. 32:29 expanded ‘I am who I am’ as ‘I am he who is, and who was, and I am he who will be,’ thereby setting forth God as the Lord of all time. Our text modifies that significantly: God is not only Lord of the ages, it is of his nature that he is to come and achieve his purpose. This he does, and will do, through Jesus (the hint of the coming of the Lord at the end of the age is unmistakable). In this context the seven spirits before his throne must denote the Holy Spirit; there is a reminiscence here of Zc. 4:6, 10 (cf. Rev. 5:6) and of the Holy Spirit as the Spirit of the seven churches and therefore of the whole church (cf. Rev. 2:7 etc.). The description of Jesus in v 5 is peculiarly apt for the believers to whom the book was first directed. Jesus was the supreme witness for God, and he died on account of his witness (cf. Mk. 14:62-63; 1 Tim. 6:13, and note that the Greek term for witness has come into English as ‘martyr’); the firstborn from the dead indicates that by his resurrection Jesus assumed the first place in the kingdom of God (firstborn = heir) and opened it for all humanity; ruler of the kings of the earth points to his supremacy over the hostile rulers of this world, whose opposition cannot prevent the victory of his kingdom.

5 and from Jesus Christ the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of kings on earth.

To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood
6 and made us a kingdom, priests to his God and Father, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.

    The doxology of vs 5-6 reflects a fundamental theme of Revelation, namely the concept of redemption as the second exodus. The first exodus brought about the deliverance of Israel from Egypt’s slavery that they might become the covenant people of God at Sinai and the free people of God in the promised land. Their hope was summed up in the belief that the works of ‘the first Redeemer’ (Moses) would be repeated by ‘the second Redeemer’ (the Messiah). This hope God brought to pass through Jesus by his death and resurrection and will complete it through his future coming. The Redeemer loves us —eternally, freed us from our sins —once for all, and made us a kingdom and priests, i.e. kings and priests in the service of God, so bringing to fulfilment the calling of Israel at Sinai (see Ex. 19:6 and Rev. 5:10, 22:5). Jesus worshipped, loved, trusted and obeyed his God and Father, as all Christians should. Strikingly, however, God is never spoken of as the Father of believers in Revelation: the relationship of ‘Father’ is reserved for Jesus alone, thereby emphasizing his unique relation to God. [p. 1425]     V 7 has been called the motto of Revelation. The first line of the sentence echoes Dn. 7:13, the rest draws on Zc. 12:10; the same connection is made in Mt. 24:30 (but not in Mk. 14:62). The Zechariah passage speaks specifically of the ‘tribes’ of Israel mourning (‘The land will mourn, each clan by itself’), and of their bitter grief as the mourning for a firstborn son, in consequence of which a fountain is opened to remove all sin and impurity (Zc. 12:10-13:1). That all the peoples (‘tribes’) of earth are to mourn because of him is natural, since all are implicated in the death of Christ through their sin. The question whether the mourning of all humankind for their sin against Christ means a repentance acceptable to God, or a remorse that is too late, is uncertain. 15:3-4 suggests that the former interpretation is possible.

8 “I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.”

    The declaration that God is the Alpha and the Omega (8) is a pictorial way of affirming that God is the sovereign Lord of all ages. Alpha is the first letter of the Greek alphabet, Omega is the last; the equivalent in English would be ‘I am A and Z’. Jews were accustomed to use an equivalent mode of speech in their own language. The rabbis, for example, said that Adam transgressed the law ‘from A to Z’, whereas Abraham kept the law ‘from A to Z’. That suggests that I am the Alpha and the Omega means, ‘I am the beginning of history and the end of history and the Lord of all that lies between.’ Such is implied in the ‘translation’ of the following line: the Lord God,... the Almighty maintains his control over the world from the beginning to the end of all times, even when the powers of this world resist his will, and he intends to come and complete his good purpose for it. (Note that the simile of A and Z is applied to Jesus in 22:13.)