Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Revelation 1:12
And I turned to see the voice that spake with me. And being turned, I saw seven golden candlesticks;
12. to see the voice ] The meaning is obvious, and the inconsequence of language characteristic.
candlesticks ] Or lamp-stands (Mat 5:15). The ancients did not use candles like ours: the candela was rather a torch.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
And I turned to see the voice that spake with me – He naturally turned round to see who it was that spake to him in this solitary and desolate place, where he thought himself to be alone. To see the voice here means to see the person who spake.
And being turned, I saw seven golden candlesticks – These were the first things that met his eye. This must have been in vision, of course, and the meaning is, that there seemed to be there seven such lamps or candelabras. The word rendered candlesticks ( luchnia) means properly a light-stand, lampstand – something to bear up a light. It would be applied to anything that was used for this purpose; and nothing is intimated, in the use of the word, in regard to the form or dimensions of the light-bearers. Lamps were more commonly used at that time than candles, and it is rather to be supposed that these were designed to be lamp-bearers, or lamp-sustainers, than candle-sticks. They were seven in number; not one branching into seven, but seven standing apart, and so far from each other that he who appeared to John could stand among them. The lamp-bearers evidently sustained each a light, and these gave a special brilliancy to the scene. It is not improbable that, as they were designed to represent the seven churches of Asia, they were arranged in an order resembling these churches. The scene is not laid in the temple, as many suppose, for there is nothing that resembles the arrangements in the temple except the mere fact of the lights. The scene as yet is in Patmos, and there is no evidence that John did not regard himself as there, or that he fancied for a moment that he was translated to the temple in Jerusalem. There can be no doubt as to the design of this representation, for it is expressly declared Rev 1:20 that the seven lamp-bearers were intended to represent the seven churches. Light is often used in the Scriptures as an emblem of true religion; Christians are represented as the light of the world (Mat 5:14; compare Phi 2:15; Joh 8:12), and a Christian church may be represented as a light standing in the midst of surrounding darkness.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 12. And I turned For he had heard the voice behind him. To see the voice; i.e., the person from whom the voice came.
Seven golden candlesticks] Seven golden lamps. It is absurd to say, a golden silver, or brazen candlestick. These seven lamps represented the seven Churches, in which the light of God was continually shining, and the love of God continually burning. And they are here represented as golden, to show how precious they were in the sight of God. This is a reference to the temple at Jerusalem, where there was a candlestick or chandelier of seven branches; or rather six branches; three springing out on either side, and one in the centre. See Ex 25:31-37. This reference to the temple seems to intimate that the temple of Jerusalem was a type of the whole Christian Church.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
And I turned to see the voice that spake with me; that is, to see the person whose voice I heard speaking to me: or else, by seeing is meant understanding; but that he might have done without turning; he therefore turned, hoping to see the person that spake.
And being turned, I saw seven golden candlesticks: by these seven candlesticks which he saw, are meant the seven churches; so we find it infallibly expounded, Rev 1:20. We shall find in this book frequent allusions to the Jewish temple: here they begin. In the Jewish tabernacle there was one golden candlestick, and seven lamps, to give light against it; so Num 8:2; Zec 4:2. John here seeth seven. God had but one church of the Jews, but many amongst the Gentiles. This notion, or comparison of churches to golden candlesticks, both showeth us the nature and office of the churches of Christ, they do not give light of themselves, only hold lights, and it is their duty to keep in them the pure word of God, which is a light to our feet, and a godly ministry; and it also lets us know, that they ought to keep themselves pure (as beaten gold) from all corruption as to doctrine, and their members from all scandalous conversation.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
12. see the voicethat is,ascertain whence the voice came; to see who wasit from whom the voice proceeded.
thatGreek, “ofwhat kind it was which.” The voice is that of God theFather, as at Christ’s baptism and transfiguration, so here inpresenting Christ as our High Priest.
spakeThe oldestmanuscripts, versions, and Fathers read, “was speaking.”
being“havingturned.”
seven . . .candlesticks“lamp-stands” [KELLY].The stand holding the lamp. In Exo 25:31;Exo 25:32, the seven are united inONE candlestick orlamp-stand, that is, six arms and a central shaft; so Zec 4:2;Zec 4:11. Here the seven areseparate candlesticks, typifying, as that one, theentire Church, but now no longer as the Jewish Church (represented bythe one sevenfold candlestick) restricted to one outward unityand one place; the several churches are mutually independent as toexternal ceremonies and government (provided all things are done toedification, and schisms or needless separations are avoided), yetone in the unity of the Spirit and the Headship of Christ. Thecandlestick is not light, but the bearer of light, holding it forthto give light around. The light is the Lord’s, not the Church’s; fromHim she receives it. She is to be a light-bearer to His glory. Thecandlestick stood in the holy place, the type of the Church on earth,as the holiest place was type of the Church in heaven. The holyplace’s only light was derived from the candlestick, daylight beingexcluded; so the Lord God is the Church’s only light; hers is thelight of grace, not nature. “Golden” symbolizes at once thegreatest preciousness and sacredness; so that in theZend Avesta, “golden” is synonymous with heavenly ordivine [TRENCH].
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
And I turned to see the voice that spake with me,…. The Complutensian edition reads, “and there I turned”: and so the Arabic version; that is, to see who it was that spoke, from whom the voice came, and by whom it was uttered; see Ex 20:18;
and being turned, I saw seven golden candlesticks; which represented the seven churches, Re 1:20; in allusion to the seven lamps in the candlestick of the sanctuary, Ex 25:37; compared to “candlesticks”, for the use of them, which is to hold forth light; these have none of themselves, but what is put into them, and being put into them, they hold it forth; so the churches of Christ have no light of themselves, but what is put into them; and the light which is put into them, is not the mere light of nature, nor the law of Moses, but the Gospel of Christ; which dispels darkness, and is the means of enlightening sinners, and gives light to saints, by which they walk and work; and this light is put into the churches by Christ, whose the Gospel is, and who is himself come a light into the world; and being put here by him, it is held forth by them, especially by the ministers of it, who are the lights of the world, both by their ministry, and in their lives and conversations: and they are compared to “golden” candlesticks, because of their excellency, preciousness, and value, in the esteem of Christ; and for their brightness and purity in doctrine, discipline, and life; and for their splendour, glory, and beauty; and for their stability and duration; and though they are liable to corruption and taint, yet may be melted, refined, and purified as gold.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
To see the voice ( ). The voice put for the person speaking.
Having turned (). First aorist active participle of , from which also , just before, for which verb see Acts 15:36; Acts 16:18.
Seven golden candlesticks ( ). See Mt 5:15 for (lampstand). Symbols of the seven churches as explained in verse 20. See Ex 25:35ff. for description of a seven-branched candlestick, but here the lampstands are separate.
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
Comment:
1) “And I turned to see the voice,” (kai epestrepha Blepe in ten phonen) “And I turned to glance at the (source of) the voice,” from behind him, Rev 1:10, like many who at the first sound of his voice after his resurrection did not recognize him, Joh 20:11-18.
2) “That spake with me,” (hetis elalei met ’emou) “Which spoke with (to me) me”; there appears to have been audible communication (Gk. elalei) between John and the Son of Man. Had not John heard the mother of our Lord instruct, “Whatsoever he saith unto you, do it”? Joh 2:5.
3) “And being turned,” (kai epistrephas) “And having turned,” when I turned, he was not disappointed, he saw whom, and more than, he had expected, Eph 3:20.
4) “I saw seven golden candlesticks,” (eidon hepta luchnias chrusas) “I saw (recognized) seven golden lampsticks or candlesticks”; representing the seven churches of Asia and symbolically (spiritually) all true congregations that carry on his program of church worship and work, Rev 1:20; Mat 28:18-20; Act 1:8.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
CRITICAL AND EXEGETICAL NOTES
Rev. 1:12. See the voice.See Him whose voice I heard. Seven golden candlesticks.Compare Zec. 4:2-11. Lamp-stands would be a better term. Not one candlestick with seven branches, but seven candlesticks. The independence of the Churches of Christ is consistent with the unity of the Church of Christ.
Rev. 1:13. Midst.Middle, centre. Like unto.So as to be immediately and distinctly recognised. Son of Man was Christs own name for Himself. It is used here because His glory might hide from view His oneness of sympathy with His people. Down to the foot.Compare the long garments of priests. Girdle.Put round the breasts as a sign of kingly repose, not round the loins, which would be a sign of toil. Christ is, as head of His people, the great Priest, and the great King. Thesethe garment and girdlesuggest His offices. Now we see His personal character and His power for fulfilling His offices. Each figure suggests absolute purity, in which lies perfect power.
Rev. 1:14. White.Compare scene at our Lords transfiguration. Flame of fire.Which is white when it is full and strong.
Rev. 1:15. Brass.Which glows with whiteness in the furnace. Many waters.Flowing down hill-sides, white with foam, the very sound of them in harmony with whiteness.
Rev. 1:16. Seven stars.See Rev. 1:20. In His light these glow with willingness. Two-edged sword.Gleaming white. Sun.So white no eye can gaze upon it. By and these figures the lustre of holiness and righteousness is signified.
Rev. 1:17. As dead.Compare Job. 42:5-6; Isa. 6:5. The realisation of the Divine presence, even in symbol, is profoundly humbling to the devout man.
Rev. 1:18. I am alive, etc.In this sentence is the key-note of the book. Hell and death.Figures of all the forms of woe that can affect the Church. They are in the absolute control of the Living One, and are used by Him for His purposes.
Rev. 1:20. Angels.Either the ministers, or the guardian angels, of the Churches. It is, however, quite possible that they represent the angels appointed to conduct the discipline of each Church. Then what is asserted is, that the angel of discipline for each Church is absolutely held in the Living Christs hands, and does but work out His purpose of grace.
Note on the Seven Spirits by Moses Stuart.After dismissing the suggestions that either God, or the Holy Spirit, can be meant by this figure expression, Stuart argues in favour of a third possible meaningthat of attending or ministering presence-angels. Among the ancient fathers not a few embraced this view; such as Clemens Alex. Andreas of Csarea, and others. So among the moderns, Valla, Beza, Drusius, Hammond, and many others. The nature of the whole expression favours this view. The seven spirits before His throne naturally means those who stand in His presence, waiting His commands in the attitude of ministering servants; see and compare Rev. 4:5; Rev. 7:9; Rev. 7:15; Rev. 8:2; Rev. 11:4; Rev. 11:16; Rev. 12:10; Rev. 14:3; Rev. 20:12which passages, although not all of the same tenor with the text before us, still decide that those who are before the throne are different from those on the throne.
2. Several passages in the Revelation go directly to confirm the opinion in question. E.g., Rev. 8:2, I saw , who stand before God. This is the first mention of these seven angels which occurs after the introduction to the book. The article of course designates here the well-known seven angels, i.e. archangels, or presence-angels, which the reader was expected readily to recognise. Such a meaning is unavoidable, under such circumstances. Here also, I cannot doubt, is to be ranked the passage in Rev. 4:5. where the seven lamps burning before the throne are said to be , i.e. the seven spirits. All the passages cited serve to show that the seven angels was a familiar idea with the writer; and that, in this respect, he only followed the common usus loquendi of his time. The book of Tobit introduces Raphael as saying, I am one of the seven angels. The book of Enoch gives the names of the seven angels who watch. The word watchers is employed in the Syriac liturgies for guardian angels, or archangels. We find seven Amshaspends, or archangels, in the theosophy of Zoroaster.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.Rev. 1:12-20
The Symbolic Presentation of Christ in His Church.There are two possible conceptions of the continuity of Christs life and ministry from the time of His resurrection. The usual thought of Him is of One who has passed into heaven, and there acts as Mediator, Intercessor, High Priest, for His people. That idea is specially elaborated in the epistle to the Hebrews. The less usual thought, but the one which is every day gaining more interest and importance, conceives Christ as actually having come again, as He said He would, and being actively engaged in His Church, for His Churchs good; but in spiritual, not in sensible fashion. So present, this vision represents
I. His place.In the midst of the seven golden candlesticks (Rev. 1:13). In the centre, the middle, the very heart of the Church, so as to have full control, out to the circumference.
II. His office.This appears to be indicated by His dress (Rev. 1:13). The long robe, indicating the priest; the peculiar position of the girdle indicating the King.
III. His character (Rev. 1:14-15).The figures indicate absolute and dazzling, glistering, whiteness. Not merely a passive holiness, but an active holiness which makes holy. It shines and makes shining.
IV. His mission.Symbolled by the two-edged sword proceeding out of His mouth. He had to search the Churches, and solemnly declare the truth concerning them, however severe and humiliating it might have to be. Symbolled, too, in a countenance like the sun, withering up all falseness and evil. St. Johns fear in the presence of this symbolled Christ represents the fear which the Church always has when it realises that the Living Christ is inspecting it, and critically searching it. The response to St. Johns fear represents the response Christ makes to the Churchs fear. It may be stated in this way. Christthe Living, Present Christcompasses the Christian ages even as God compasses all ages. Therefore, Christ can fully control and use all the evil influences that may be affecting His Church, making all things work together for good.
SUGGESTIVE NOTES AND SERMON SKETCHES
Rev. 1:12. The Candelabrum of the Apocalypse.This is a striking symbol of the Church. Herein we see
I. The position of the Churchwithout the veil.
II. Its work.To exhibit lightthat is, Christ.
III. Its unity.Many lamps, but one light.
IV. The source of its vitality.Continually fed by the Holy Ghost.
V. Its beauty.Each branch richly ornamented.
VI. Its value.the candelabrum was goldbelievers are Christs jewels. Application:
1. How great the honours!
2. How certain the safety, of believers!R. A. Griffin.
Rev. 1:13. Symbols of the Living Christ.Here our Lord appeared to St. John, clothed in all the insignia which serve as emblems of the different aspects of His glory. It is specially important to notice that it is from this general picture of the glory of the Lord that the particular emblems in which He appears to each particular Church are drawn. These emblems represent the qualities in virtue of which He will have power to do all that He announces to them.
The Symbolism of Numbers.There is an alternation of praise and blame, answering to the even and odd numbers included in seven. The law according to which the Seven Churches have been disposed in the picture seems to be this: the numbers one, three, five, and seven, indicate the different degrees of the dominion of sin over the Christian life in a Churchits graduation in evil. The numbers two, four, and six, indicate, on the contrary, the different degrees of the victory gained by the work of God over sinits progress in good.F. Godet, D.D.
Rev. 1:17-18. Christ Risen, Living, and Life-giving.The point of interest in these verses is this: they present St. Johns full and final impression of the person of Christ. A revelation by vision of the Risen Christ was given to St. John, because he would be specially sensitive to visions, his mystical, meditative mood of mind enabling him most effectively to deal with this mode of revelation. Compare the visions given to St. Paul, as a sufferer in Christs service; and to St. Peter, as a leader into the larger truth. St. Johns gospel concerns the person of Christ. He is not mainly interested in what Jesus did, but in what Jesus was, and in the things which revealed what He was. The synoptists relate what Christ said and did, without having any argumentative purpose in their narrationsor we may say, they give us history for beginners, the record of facts; but St. John gives us history for advanced students, the philosophy of the facts. The explanation of St. Johns peculiar point of view is found
1. In his nature, which may be compared with that of Mary of Bethany.
2. In the fact that he was brought to Christ by the personal influence of Christ. That fixed his lifelong interest upon Christ Himself. For many long years he had meditated on his theme, and, through his meditations, had kept the personal influence of the Living and Spiritual Christ strong upon him. And the heretical teachings of his day made him increasingly zealous to uphold views that honoured Christ; so he became the guide and helper of advanced Christians, who are spirituallyminded, mystical, and able to grow into discernment of those spiritual and eternal truths which underlie varying forms, and can gain expression through ever-varying forms. St. John can lead all who have the insight of love. It is well for us to keep in mind that Christianity, as a system, unfolded along two distinct lines.
1. Led by St. Paul, the doctrine of Christs work was gradually elaborated; and,
2. Led by St. John, the doctrine of Christs person. There is a Jewish way of reading the Crucifixion: there is a Pauline way, and there is a Johannine way. From this last point of view it appears as the great self-sacrifice. He laid down His life that He might take it again. St. John wants to know what the Crucifixion teaches concerning the person of Christ. There are three ways of treating our Lords resurrection:
1. We may collect evidences of it as an actual event in history. This is the familiar method of the ordinary ministry. The evidences include
(1) Scriptural anticipations of it;
(2) Christs prophetic words in relation to it;
(3) historical facts concerning it;
(4) historical results of it, in the martyr-witness of apostles, and in the founding of the Church. 2. We may endeavour to discover the doctrinal significance of it. Christian facts and truths have been shaped into systems; for the completion of every system, Christs resurrection is found to be absolutely essential. No Christian doctrinal system will hold together that denies it.
3. We may try to get at the spiritual significance of it, as a revelational experience through which Christ passed. Revelational, as carrying a revelation to us concerning Christs person. This last is St. Johns way. It is suggestive to compare the accounts of the resurrection-period in the synoptists with those given in St. John. What St. John felt had been taught him concerning the person and relations of the Risen Christ is embodied in our text, which records an immediate revelation made to the apostle, but as truly expresses the sanctified impression of more than fifty years of thought about Christ, and fellowship with Him.
I. Christ as the Living One.He has life in Himself. That life was in a human body. That life now is in a spiritual body. He is Christ who is our life. In what sense are we said to live? Distinguish the derived life of the creature from the absolute life of God. Compare the terms Living one, and I am. The manifested life is this Divine, uncaused, eternal life of God, set in human conditions and limitations.
II. Christ as the Life-yielding One.Explain that the Divine life could not be yielded. Absolute, unbroken continuity belongs to its very essence. The manifest life, the human life which was the agency of the manifestation, alone could be yielded. The heresy attributed to Cerinthus was but an imperfect, unworthy, and dangerous setting of a spiritual truth, which needs to be recovered, and worthily stated. The Divine Being, Christ, did not die, could not die; the Man, Christ Jesus, died. Word-settings constantly imperil spiritual verities.
III. Christ as the Life-Resuming One.Am alive. The idea which the apostles were likely to take up was that Christ was dead, because Christs body lay in Josephs new tomb. They had, therefore, in some outwardly evidential way, to be shown that His body was not He. It could be changed for a spiritual body, and He remain the same. He lives. It may be said, Christ died. And with equal truth it may be said, Christ never died.
IV. Christ as the Life-Giving One.Keys of Death and Hades. He who has only derived life cannot quicken life. You may pull a flower to pieces, but you cannot put it together again, and breathe life into it, though you have a derived life in you. He who has life in Himself can quicken life. Death and Hades for bodies are but types of all kinds of deathsdeaths of feeling, deaths of power, deaths of sin, deaths of backsliding, deaths of doubt; but from all deaths the Risen and Living One can quicken us. St. John saw Christ in the vision as He is, as He permanently is, the Living One who gives life; who is ever giving life; who has come that we may have life, and have it more abundantly. That is our Christ. That is Christ who is our life.
The Self-description of the Risen Christ.
I. I am He that liveth.That word liveth is a word of continuous, perpetual life. It describes the external existence which has no beginning and no end; which, considered in its purity and perfectness, has no present, and no past, but one eternal and unbroken presentone eternal now. It is the I am of the Jehovah who spoke to Moses. He that liveth is the Living One; He whose life is The Life, complete in itself, and including all other lives within itself. If anything has come to us to make us think what a fragmentary thing our human life is, there is no greater knowledge for us to win than that the life of One who loves us as Christ loves us is an eternal life, with the continuance and unchangeableness of eternity. It is the thought of an eternal God that really gives consistency to the fragmentary lives of men, the fragmentary history of the world.
II. I am He that liveth, and was dead.Into that life of lives death has comeas an episode, an incident. When death came to Him it was seen to be, not the end of life, but only an event in life. It did not close His being, but it was only an experience which that being underwent. This is the wonder of Christs death. It was an experience of life, not an end of life. Life goes on through it and comes out unharmed.
III. I am alive for evermore.This existence after death is special and different. Alive for evermore is an assurance that in the continued life which has once passed through the experience of death there is something new, another sympathy, the only one which before could have been lacking, with His brethren whose lot it is to die, and so a helpfulness to them which could not otherwise have been, even in His perfect love. This new life, the life that has conquered death by tasting itthis life stretches on and out for ever. Think what that great self-description of the Saviour means, and what it is to us. What do we need, we men? Think of the certainty, yet mystery, of death. Christs words come to us, and at once death changes from the terrible end of life into a most mysterious, but no longer terrible, experience of life. Not merely is there a future beyond the grave, but it is inhabited by One who speaks to us, who went there by the way that we must go, who sees us and can help us as we make our way along, and will receive us when we come there. Then is not all changed?
IV. Have the keys of hell and of death.Hell, of course, means Hades, that unseen place, that place of departed spirits in which our creed expresses its belief. Christ, then, having experienced death, has the keys of death to open its meaning, and to guide the way through it for those who are to die like Him. It is because He died that He holds the keys of death. Can we not understand that? Do we not know how any soul that has passed through a great experience holds the keys of that experience, so that he can help those who have to pass through it? Having the keys of death and hell, He comes to us as we are drawing near to death, and He opens the door on both sides of it, and lets us look through it, and shows us immortality. What is it to be immortal and to know it? What is it to have death broken down, so that life stretches out beyond itthe same life as this, opening, expanding, but for ever the same essentially?
1. Think of the immense and noble freedom from many of the most trying and vexatious of our temptations, which comes to a man to whom the curtain has been lifted, and the veil rent in twain.
2. The whole position of duty is elevated by the thought, the knowledge, of immortality.
3. A new life is given to friendship, to all our best relations, to one another, by the power of immortality.Phillips Brooks.
Rev. 1:18. Christ in Glory.
1. These are the words of our Lord, and they were spoken by Him in glory. Some have gathered together the sayings of Christ in different periods. For instance, His utterances during His Passion; His Seven Sayings from the Cross on Good Friday; His words during the great Forty Days of the Risen Life; and His words from heaven. The Church to-day does not direct our eyes to the empty tomb, but to the vision of Christ in glory.
2. The words were addressed to St. Johnthe disciple whom Christ had drawn near to Him, with St. Peter and St. James, in the Garden of Gethsemane; the disciple who stood, with Christs blessed mother, beneath the cross, and watched Him in His dying hours; who was last at the cross and early at the sepulchre; the disciple whom Jesus loved (Joh. 13:23). Differences of substance and style between the Apocalypse and the fourth gospel are certainly not sufficient to justify the conclusion that it is not the same St. John who wrote both.
3. They were words of encouragement. John had another legacy besides that blessed one, Christs mother; he had the legacy of tribulation. He was realising the Lords prophecy, In the world ye shall have tribulation (Joh. 16:33). He was partaker in the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ. He was an exile in the Isle of Patmos for the testimony of Jesus Christa wretched, barren, desolate spot; and then condemned to work in the mines, if the statement of Victorinus can be relied upon; at any rate, a solitary exile in a remote island. It was there the Lord appeared to His servant, to strengthen and sustain him. What do the words of the text teach us about Christ? What about ourselves?
I. They point to Christ in Glory.
1. They may seem in this respect to antedate the Festival of the Ascension. Christ did not enter into glorythat is, did not visibly assume a glorious conditionon Easter Day. We know this by the narrative in the gospels. The glorious Form which appeared to St. John made him fall at His feet as dead (Rev. 1:17); but in the Risen Life, during the Great Forty Days, we read of no such manifestation. On the contrary, Christ is taken for the gardener. He stands, unknown, upon the shore; He joins the disciples on the road to Emmaus as an ordinary wayfarer; He dines with His disciples. No rays of glory emanate from His countenance or illuminate His garments. He does not force the human will to acknowledge Him by some overwhelming manifestation. When they saw Him on the mountain in Galilee, some doubted (Mat. 28:17). He reserved the light of glory till He entered the land of glory. He was received up in glory (1Ti. 3:16). The Church seems to desire to set Christ before us in all His perfected glory in heaven, that our joy may be full; and our Lord Himself, in the same way, over leaps the interval between Easter and Ascension Day in the question to the two disciples: Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into His glory? (Luk. 24:26).
2. The text teaches us the sameness of Christ, the identity of His person: I am He that liveth, and was dead. The angels impressed the same truth upon the minds of the apostles at the Ascension: This same Jesus which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen Him go into heaven (Act. 1:11). Our Lord not only speaks of Himself as the Living One, but also refers to His death: and was dead. I am the same you watched upon the cross. The waters of Lethe do not sponge out the marks of life on earth. Though in glory, the memory of the Passion was still fresh. He who was conceived and born of Mary, dwelt in Nazareth, preached in the towns and villages of Juda and Galilee, died upon the cross, rested in Josephs tomb, went to the spirits in prison, vanquished death, and rose from the dead on the third day, is the same who sits in glory at the Fathers right hand.
II. The text carries with it the conviction of our own identity hereafter.
1. The truth which Easter teaches is that of our own immortality. There are many indications of mans survival after death, but only one proof. The yearning for a life beyond the grave has been regarded as a witness to its existence, on the ground that natures desires are not futile. The consciousness that we are something more than flesh has been appealed to. The analogy of chrysalis and butterfly has been laid under contribution as suggestive. The moral argument is, that if there be a just God, the cruel wrongs of time must be rectified hereafter. The simplicity of the souls essence has been regarded as inferring its indestructibility, and the scientific doctrine that no force is ever destroyed. The goodness and purpose of God in creating man have seemed incompatible with a belief in annihilation. These and other indications of mans immortality can be enumerated, all forming accumulative inference of great force; but the one proof is the resurrection of Christ. He rose from the dead, the First-fruits of them that slept (1Co. 15:20), and He entered into heaven to open the kingdom of heaven to all believers. The doctrine of our resurrection rests upon the historic fact of Christs resurrection. Life and immortality have been brought to light through the gospel (2Ti. 1:10).
2. Further, we see that Easter teaches that our immortality is personal. The same who lived and died shall rise again and live for ever. No other immortality, of a lower kind, can satisfy us. The immortality of matter, of force, of mind, of love, of fame, are mere shadows; the substance is the survival of the personal life. The memory links us with the past; it is a ground of identification: liveth, and was dead. And this carries with it the truth of recognition in another life.
III. Lessons.
1. Joy in the triumph of Christ over death and hell.
2. The realisation of a present Christ, who, though in glory, can be touched with the feeling of our infirmities, through His experience of trial and temptation, of suffering and death, whilst on earth.
3. To rise from the death of sin to the life of righteousness, from the penitence of Lent to the new life of Easter-tide.
4. Through the grace of Easter communion to seek the virtue of perseverance, so as not to fall back into sin, but, like Christ, to be alive for evermore.The Thinker.
The Risen Saviour.From death to life is the greatest possible transition, and this transition, in the case of Jesus of Nazareth, is the most marvellous as well as the most perfect. It is the only true victory ever won. Warriors conquer to be conquered. Tyrants rule with a rod of iron to fall under its stroke. All men that rise, rise to fall. From the dust we came, and to the dust we must return. But the text speaks of a final victory: I am alive for evermore. The aged St. John was an exile in the lone island of Patmos. He had been banished thither for the word of God, and the testimony of Jesus Christ. He was not there alone. John, the beloved disciple, and Jesus, the loving Saviour, have again met in a strange land. The visit of the Saviour was special, and John was elevated to heights of inspiration far above that which he had experienced before. He received visions and revelations of a transcendent nature. The whole panorama of the future passed before his eyes. He saw the rise and fall of empires. The terrible conflict between good and evil was waged in his presence. He saw the rise of the kingdom of the Messiah, and the New Jerusalem coming down from heaven. Patmos was the only place, and the banishment from Society the only condition, suitable to such a revelation. But the aged apostle needed the assurance that the old Master was communing with him. So he is led back to the impressive scene of the Crucifixion: I am He that liveth, and was dead. Some sixty years previously John stood before the cross, and for that long period he had preached Christ and Him crucified, in the cities of Asia Minor. He was drawn nearer to the Saviour than he had ever been before when he saw Him on the cursed tree. It was a time of sorrow, followed by a few days of painful suspense. But the spell was broken. The tidings came that Jesus was risen. Peter and John ran towards the sepulchre; John outran Peter, and was first at the grave. He found none there: the sepulchre was empty. Then, in the upper room, the tidings were confirmed, when His glorious form appeared, and the familiar Voice, was heard saying, Peace be unto you! Their hearts throbbed with that joy ever after. Finally, they saw Him ascend, and a cloud veiled Him, that they saw Him not again. There, on the road to Bethany, they knew that He was alive for evermore. John, in Patmos, felt that only one could have uttered the words of the text. To those who have afflicted their souls, and have deepened their sense of demerit in the garden and at the cross, we now say, Arise, wipe off your tears, remove the sackcloth of penitence, rejoice, and look at your Living Lord.
I. Let us contemplate the resurrection of the Lord as a great historical fact.It is the central fact of Christianity, and the key-note of apostolic preaching. If the miracle of the resurrection of Jesus is a myth, the gospel has no sun for a centre of light and heat. The sanhedrin spread the calumny that the disciples stole the body. If so, we ask, what became of the body? The disciples were a few poor fishermen from Galilee, without standing or confederates at Jerusalem. Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus were the only two persons of influence, in Jerusalem, who were in any way identified with Christ. Did they lend themselves to the fraud? Under the circumstances, and in such a climate, how was the removal and the re-interment of the body possible? Can you conceive of any band of men making a sacrifice of every comfort, and facing a frowning world, with its torture and death, to propagate a conscious fraud? We turn away in haste from the absurdity. Another supposition has been started: that the death of Jesus was only apparent. This incredible view received its birth from two cases of crucified persons restored to life, mentioned by the historian Josephus. Leaving aside the flat contradiction which even the sanhedrin would give to such a supposition, how was it possible to restore animation after the spear-wound in His side, and the long hours of interment? This hypothesis is a greater absurdity than the first. We mention a third supposition: that the various appearances of Christ to His disciples after His death were visions, or apparitions. In France the effort has been male to prove that Christianity owes its potency to the morbid condition of Mary Magdaleneyea, to the hallucination of a nervous woman. In Germany, Straus and others, with more apparent decency, have endeavoured to build up something like an argument on the power of vision, arising from a strong desire to see Jesus. When it is said that he appeared to the eleven, to Paul, and to more than five hundred brethren at once, we are simply to understand a mental vision, arising from the feeling of hero-worship. But we have so much supposition to make that the most elementary principles of psychology must be discarded to do so. We must suppose between five and six hundred persons to be exactly of the same temperament and expectation, so that they had precisely the same mental vision. These persons are credited with sincerity by the holders of this view; but, if so, the world would question their sanity. We have briefly stated absolutely all that has ever been advanced against the great fact of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. How flimsy! Human credulity even rejects all such suppositions. The resurrection of Christ is a significant fact. It brings to light the truth that there is a living and personal Godthat He presides over human affairs. A revelation of His will is made, in which He has promised a Saviour for mankind. That Saviour is no other than His own Son. The resurrection verified the life of Jesus. St. Peter, looking at the perfection of that life, has said of death, It was not possible that He should be holden of it. Life is greater than mortality, and moral law is superior to the decay of nature. The natural order of creation is that life is stronger than death, otherwise spring would never follow winter. By analogy, a life of so much purity and force as that of Christ could not be holden of death. St. Paul speaks of the priesthood of Jesus as possessing the power of an endless life; and again the fact of the resurrection is confirmed by the abiding vitality of the Saviours life as witnessed in the lives of thousands. Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone; but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit. The death on the cross is followed by life everlasting, both to the Holy Victim and to them that believe on Him. The miracle of the resurrection is the comment on the life which preceded it; it is the illumination of words spoken, deeds done, and sufferings borne. But, dear brethren, our thoughts run past these weighty considerations to the sacred Person Himself. We are ready to leave all prospects of life and happiness on one side, to welcome from the tomb the Friend of Sinners. I am He that liveth. Oh, word of joy! The raptures of our hearts know no boundJesus lives.
II. We further observe that henceforth the Living Christ is the object of our faith.Having been buried with Him in death, we rise with Him into newness of life. But to rise into fellowship with the Living Christ, our faith must soar above the mere belief in historical Christianity. This sublime condition of fellowship implies association in thought with the risen Saviour. The person of Christ, not in form, but in fact, must engage our heart. Purity of thought, concentration of thought, and intensity of thought, alone can lead us to the living association with Jesus. The faith of the believer receives its strongest impetus from the fact that He who was dead is now alive. It imparts to the gospel its higher degree of life. Bodily presence we cannot have, neither do we realise each others love and service by presence always. Bodily presence creates mental absence. The Christ of the Resurrection became more real to the disciples than the Christ of the Crucifixion. Thomas believed because He saw, but Blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed. The Christian must realise more the power of faith. That faith increases in power as he lives near the Living Christ. Stand by the cross, and your faith works within a definite circle; but stand by the Risen Lord, and faith touches no circumference. The gospel, re-enacted in the heart and life, is our work. His marvellous teaching must speak to us with a living lip. We must lay hold of His hand to keep pace with His example. The power to destroy sin comes from fellowship with His sufferings. If we are compelled to go from the cross to the tomb, we need not linger there long, for He is in the upper room. Then we journey with Him to Emmaus, that He may open to us the Scriptures, and kindle the fire of His love within our breast. In Galilee also we receive our commission to work out lifes plan. Lastly, He is gone within the veil. The King of Glory has triumphantly entered, and is seated at the Fathers right hand. Will He think of us again? Hark to the sound of holy voices, singing His praise! See the golden crowns which are cast at His feet in honour of His person! Will He think of us again? Yes, oh, yes! He ever liveth to make intercession for us. The delightful life of daily and hourly communion with our living Saviour cannot be enjoyed by a mere contemplation of the fact that He is risen. The Holy Spirit is the true revealer of the Spiritual Christ. This truth was distinctly taught to the Church by the Saviour. We may have a very sincere desire to have the presence of Christ with us daily, but that blessing can only come through the Holy Ghost. The Spirit gives us the sight of the risen Lord. We cannot now hear Him speak except we have the ear circumcised by the Spirit. Heaven is far away from earth; He who fills the space between is the Spirit of God.
Spirit of purity and grace,
Our weakness, pitying, see;
Oh, make our hearts Thy dwelling place,
And worthy Thee.
III. And, lastly, we observe that the resurrection of Christ is the open door of immortality.But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the first-fruits of them that slept. These are the words with which we seek to succour the hearts of the bereaved. They are words of comfort in the deepest sorrow. The resurrection of the Lord shows that life is more than the animation of the organism of the brain. As animation moves the material form, so does life wear animation as a garment. But under it all is the living spirit. We are now unable to speak of the body that shall be: we are content with the promise that it will resemble His glorious body. The most astonishing words ever uttered by human lips are these: I am the Resurrection and the Life. Those who are in Christ are in life. The vision which was given to Hosea represents the Saviour at the gates of Hades, demanding the release of the prisoners: I will ransom them from the power of the grave; I will redeem them from death; O death, I will be thy plagues; O grave, I will be thy destruction; repentance shall be hid from Mine eyes. He has taken the keys of helan from the hands of Pluto, and has opened the gates of the dark world. The first thought which engrosses our mind is the release of those who have entered from our side. To the aged there are many. Some of them are very near to our hearts. See the Risen Saviour standing at their grave, as He stood at the grave of Lazarus, saying, Come forth. Blessed thought: we shall see them again. Then comes the other thought, that we must soon enter the valley of death. It will not be long ere these bodies will lie in their graves, when the shades of death will hide from us everything earthly. His resurrection will throw light on the other side. Think for a moment of the glorious sight which the resurrection of Jesus suggests, when, in the last day, He will turn the key to open millions of graves. To-day the churchyard is the quiet resting place of manythe most peaceful spot on earth. But the day will come when the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised, incorruptible. We fear not death, for we have witnessed the death of Jesus; we dread not the grave, for we have been at the grave of Jesus. There is a resurrection into spiritual life, before the body can come up from the grave, fashioned after the body of His Glory.
It is not death to fling
Aside this mortal dust,
And rise, on strong, exulting wing,
To live among the just.
Weekly Pulpit.
Easter Joy.The Easter season is a time of great joy for all the children of God.
1. They rejoice on account of the completeness of the work of salvation. For when Christ had risen from the dead, He thereby had fully paid the wages of sin. God has accepted the death of His Son in the place of our death, and therefore has given us life.
2. All Christians rejoice on account of the excellent witnesses and testimonies concerning the resurrection of Christ. He appeared no fewer than ten different times after His resurrection, and on one occasion was seen of five hundred (1Co. 15:5). He conversed and ate with His disciples alone (Act. 10:41). He permitted Himself to be touched by them (Joh. 20:25; 1Jn. 1:1). Evidence of this kind admits of no contradiction. Even now He still furnishes the proof that He is alive by living in us (Gal. 2:20).
3. Christians rejoice in Easter because they have been given the seal and security of the gracious forgiveness of sins, of peace with God, so that they can, without fear, approach God, and know that He will come to them.
4. Christians rejoice because the resurrection of Christ is for them a comfort in death. Christ has sweetened death for the believers, has sanctified the grave, and they, too, shall enter into eternal life.
5. Christians, for these reasons, make it a special point to celebrate Easter-day by rejoicings of the heart, by meditation and prayer, and contemplation of the great things which God has done for them.
6. They strive daily to rise from the dead spiritually, to throw aside sin and evil deeds, and sanctify their lives to the service of God.G. H. Schodde, Ph. D.
Symbol of the Keys.As to keys, and the associated idea of unlocking, one need but compare Psa. 9:13; Isa. 38:10; Mat. 16:18, in order to see that the Hebrews ascribed to the underworld or region of the dead doors or gatesimagery borrowed from the doors of sepulchres. In like manner the great Abyss has doors to be unlocked (Rev. 9:1; Rev. 20:1-3). The Rabbins say that God has reserved four keys to Himself, which He has not committed to any of the angelsviz., the key of rain, of aliment, of the sepulchre, and of parturiency. Wet-stein has many citations which show how common this sentiment was among them. If it were prevalent when the Apocalypse was written, and John had any respect to it in the passage before us, it would furnish another particular in which he ascribes to the Saviour the prerogatives of the Godhead.Moses Stuart.
The Living Lord.The Isle of Patmos is of undying interest to the Christian Church. Yet it is not the kind of interest that makes us want to visit the lonely place. Perhaps we should understand the book of Revelation better if we could study it among the very scenes that helped to give tone and shape to the writers imaginations. Patmos is a rocky and bare island of the gean Sea. On account of its stern and desolate character it was used under the Roman empire as a place of banishment. As the coast is approached from the sea, it is found to be high and comprising many promontories and bays, which give to the whole a very irregular appearance. The only port that is used is a deep bay, sheltered by high mountains on every side but one, where it is protected by a projecting cape. Above the landing place is a small village, comprising about fifty habitations, and situated on the edge of a vast crater, sloping off on either side, like the roof of a tiled house. The famous grotto, or cavern, where the apostle is said to have written the book of Revelation, is situated on the face of the hill about half-way between the town and the port. A traveller helps us to realise the scene on which the banished apostle must often have gazed. The time when the island appears in its best position is during the rising and setting of the sun. Whether viewed in dim perspective, through grey and silvery mists, or amidst hues of liveliest purple, the isles and continent of Greece present their varied features, which neither pen nor pencil can adequately portray. Picture an evening sun, behind the towering cliffs of Patmos, gilding the battlements of the monastery of the Apocalypse with its parting raysthe island, surrounded by inexpressible brightness, seeming to float upon an abyss of fire, while the moon, in milder splendour, is rising full over the opposite expanse. A poetic soul could not fail to be affected by the influence of such surroundings. To the lonely man came wonderful visions, weird as ever were given to the prophets of the olden time. But the first, the introductory vision, which was the key to all the rest, was the vision of the Risen, Living, Glorified, Present-working Master and Lord, whose name John loved to bear, and for whose sake John was then a banished and persecuted man. Then, and always, the key to everything is fuller apprehension of the person and the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. One thing above all others we desire, even as did the apostle Paul before us: that we may know Him, and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings. We must know Him in the exercise of Christian thought. St. John knew Him with the aid of suggestive symbolic representations. But what he came to know we can learn from him; and it was this: Christ bears present and saving relations to men through all the progress of human history. Jesus lives. He has come again to the world. He is in the world. He is adequately endowed for the conflict with evil. He is living Saviour; Captain of salvation. The text is a part of Christs own explanation of the symbols in which He had presented Himself to the beloved St. John. We notice
I. The mystery behind Christ.Was dead. This is the assertion of a fact which carries the profoundest significance with it. It brings to mind the most wonderful event that ever occurred in human history. Not most wonderful, even, as the death of an innocent man by torturing crucifixion, but most wonderful as the submission to human death of one who was the Son of God, with power. It is not only an historical fact, it is a cherished memory that is full of gracious influence. Thoughtful souls are never made so gentle, so tender, as when they meditate in full view of Him who died. But why, when Christ is showing Himself as the Living One, does He recall His death? It must have been to call back to St. Johns mind His veritable humanity. Nothing stamps a man as a man more than the fact that he will have to die; there is no discharge from that war. We know Jesus Christ was a real brother-man, for He died. It was also necessary for Christ to qualify the glorious vision in which He appeared to St. John, or it might so absorb his attention as to keep away from his thought the competency of Christ for the work which He had to do as the Living One. He who died must have passed through a life before He died, and so He must have gained actual and full experience of our human needs and sorrows, and must be able to succour the tempted, and to redeem His Church from all evil, seeing He was in all points tempted like as we are. But the place taken by Christs death in His own representation of Himself needs our special notice. He does not put the death first. The greatest, and most important, of all truths for His Church is this: I am He that liveth. The second truth is: I was dead. The apostle Paul apprehended the same relative position of the two truths when he wrote, It is Christ that died, yea, rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us. Only as we set these two truths in their right relations can we apprehend one of the deeper meanings of Christs death. It was the experience, and the obedience, through which He gained both the right and the fitness to be the bringer-on of sons unto glory. For that work He was made perfect through suffering. Gaining His fitness to be the ever-living Saviour lights up the deeper meanings of the life of Christ as well as of His death. It helps us to understand that salvation is His personal work. It is only a part of the truth to say, He has saved us; the rest of the truth is this: He is saving us. He is able to save unto the uttermost. His healings of the sick, and lame, and leprous, when He dwelt among men, and wore earth about Him, do but show what He can now do in souls. He is alive for evermore, and we can come to Him, soul-blind, soul-lame, and receive, direct from Him, healing and life.
II. The glory in Christ.He that liveth. Am alive for evermore. This is no mere assertion of His resurrection from the dead. It is the declaration, I am the living One. As in the days of His flesh, our Lord affirmed that He had life in Himself. He was the Life. In Christs continuous, eternal life, that human death was only an episode. When death came to Him, it was seen to be, not the end of life, but only an event in life. It did not close His being, but it was only an experience which that being underwent. That spiritual existence which had been going on for ever, on which the short existences of men had been strung into consistency, now came and submitted itself to that which men had always been submitting to. And lo! instead of being what men feared it was, what men had hardly dared to hope that it was notthe putting out of lifeit was seen to be only the changing of the circumstances of life, without any power over the real principle of lifeany more power than the cloud has over the sun that it obscures, or than the ocean has over the bubble of air that it buries fathoms deep, but whose buoyant nature it cannot destroy, nor hinder it from struggling towards, and sometimes reaching to, the surface of the watery mass that covers it. That was the wonder of Christs death. He passed into it for love of us. And as He came out from it, He declared its nature. It is an experience of life, not an end of life. Life goes on through it and comes out unharmed. This is shown us in the vision of Him who liveth, and was dead. But to St. Johns mind that visioned Figure might seem to be an appearance only, a symbol, a picture-teaching. He must learn that it was but the garment, the setting, the manifestation of a real, living Being; only figured in this way in order to help St. John, and us, to realise what Jesus Christ still is, and what are the relations in which He still stands to His Church, and what is the work that He still has to do, in the Church, and in the world. And is not this truth, that Christ is the Living Saviour, a new revelation, even to us? So strangely Christian doctrine strives to gather our supreme interest about our Saviours death; and once a year we break loose to glory in the Risen and Living Christ of the Easter memories. Christian doubts and fears too often cling about the Saviour dead, and we cannot rise into the heaven of our hope in the Living One, and sing away our fears. And sometimes our strange Christian infirmities even make us wish Him dead; for we do not want a Saviour who is actually working now, cleansing now, finding out the sin-stains in His people, washing them away, and seeking to make His people whiter than snow. So it is the ever-new gospel we need to hear again to-day: Jesus lives. More than all He was to His disciples, in the days of His flesh, He is to us. His relations to them were really spiritual relations, but they were illustrated for them by actual bodily associations. His relations with us are spiritual relations, and they are illustrated for us in the records of His human life with His disciples. If we can enter into the inner mysteries, then we say, Christ has come again, even as He promised. Indeed, He never really went away. He only passed out of sense apprehensions. He is here: free from bodily limitations; His name is still Emmanuel Jesus, God with us, saving usnot who has saved usfrom our sins.
III. The present mission of Christ.Have the keys of hell and of death. I need not explain that hell here is really Hades, the resting place of disembodied spirits; nor need I tell you more than that the keys are the symbol of authority. The steward in possession goes about with the keys hanging from his shoulder, as the sign of his office. But it cannot surely be the present glory of Christ, that He has merely to open the gates of death, and rule the spirits in Hades? This is teaching by figure and symbol. Just as leprosy is taken as the type of all diseases, so death and hell stand as types of all the forces that resist the progress of Christian life in the individual, and the extension of Christs Church. Death stands as the representative of all the material forces; Hades stands as the representative of all the immaterial, unseen, spiritual forces; for we wrestle against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. When we see death and hell standing for all the material and spiritual oppositions to the progress of Christs Church, we begin to understand why Christ was figured to St. John as the infinitely white One, who is white, and liveth to make white. The full figure is given in the first chapter, as bearing relation to the whole Church, and its entire circle of needs. And then Christ is visioned in parts, those sides of Christs living power being chosen which bear direct relation to each of the Seven Churchesto the weaknesses, the sins, and the perils, of each. This is the truth shining forth from our text: the White Christ is alive, and is working to make His Church white, as He is white. Are you a seeker for salvation? See! Christ liveth, and can save you. Are you a Christian, battling with sin! See! you do not struggle alone; Christ is with you in the fight. Are you a Christian in the world of peril and temptation? See! the Hebrew youths were safe, even in the fire, when one was with them like unto the Son of God. To the Church, groaning under the burdens of her disability we say, Let her arise, shake herself from the dust, and win her victories, for her Lord lives, He is alive for evermore.
Resurrection in Retrospect.The true explanation of the extreme distress and perplexity of our Lords disciples lies in this: the resurrection of Christ they could not understand, they could not believe. And this condition of mind continued till the event actually took place. But what a difference there is between resurrection in prospect and resurrection in retrospect! No change in any recorded history or any known biography is more startling. The whole mind of the Christian disciples, in reference to the resurrection of their Lord, is suddenly transfigured, and that which they looked forward to dimly, timidly, unwillingly, they now look back upon with undoubting and exulting confidence. It has been said
1. That there was a fraud: Christ did not really rise, but His disciples practised a deception. But falsehood in one thing does not fit a truthful and genuine religion; and falsehood does not make men brave.
2. That the death of Christ was an imaginary death. But Christ prophesied and expected His death; and the physical conditions narrated involve actual death.
3. The belief in the resurrection was the result of a waking dream. But there is no conceivable basis for any such idea in the record. We cannot separate the thought of our own resurrection from the thought of that rising of Christ; nor ought we to separate them. At present our resurrection is in prospect, and we know not what it will be. But it will not be so always. The time will come when all will be behind uswhen all the past will be clearly known and well remembered. Then it will be resurrection in retrospect. We shall look back on the life we led here. This we know as to the future, that if we are true Christians we shall then be with Him who liveth, and was dead, and is alive for evermore; and because He liveth, we shall live also.Dean Howson.
The Keys of Hell and of Death.
I. The keys symbolise sovereignty.And the sovereignty referred to is in the hands of Christ. He is the Everlasting One who was dead and is alive again for evermore. Upon Christs head are many crowns; in Him are vested many sovereignties. Nature is His, for He made it. Mind is His, for He created it. Angels are His, for they worship Him. Men are His, for He redeemed them. The Church is His, for He purchased it with His own blood. And over all is He the Supreme Ruler. There is not an atom or a force of nature; not a form or function of life; not a type or order of intelligence; not a nation or grade of moral being; not a condition or circumstance of existence;over which His throne flings not its shadow or shelter. It is of the sovereignty of this ascended, triumphant, glorified, and enthroned Jesus that the Spirit speaks in this sublime portion of Holy Writ. Here you have the range of His Kingship; the province of His empire; the process of His government; the antagonisms with which He wrestles; the methods by which He puts down all rule and authoritycurbs the rage of men, confounds the schemes of hell, rolls back the swelling billows of error and vice, conserves the truth, enshields His Church, and finally sits enthroned upon the homage, reverence, and love, of a redeemed and glorified humanity! Among the antagonisms of that humanity, death, in form most hideous; death, with its most terrific symbols and enginery; death, with its cruel mockings;threatens to extinguish the race. Christ knows and feels all this. And that there might not be a moments misgiving or shadow of anxiety, He reveals Himself, clothed in attributes and belted with potencies which qualify Him for all the emergencies which await the Church of the future, till time shall be no longer. He knows her, for He ever walks in the midst of the golden candlesticks. Her members droop and die; He is alive for evermore. Her foes wield the dread sceptre of destruction, but they know not that it is under Him, and because of His permission, and subject to His control, that they waste and lay low the vineyard of the Lord of Hosts; for He has the keys of hell and of death.
II. Christ is sovereign of death.He has the keys of death. That death is not an outlaw we might anticipate, seeing that there is nothing around us not subject to law. Life, in all its beauties, melodies, and beatitudes, is everywhere and always under law. Shall it be that such an agency as death shall act defiant of law? When we remember the agonies which it can extract; the energies which it can paralyse; the hopes which it can blast; the homes which it can disrupt and desolate: how it can revel in ruin and banquet upon groans, and quaff the chalice filled with tears wrung from poor widows and orphans hearts; how, with dread might, it can strew earth with the wreck and spoil of noble manhood and cultured womanhood; how, in a moment, the result of long, long years of the training of character for the highest service of humanity can be frustrated;then we ask again, Is death an exception to the general fact that law prevails throughout Gods universe? Can it be that such a monster is loose, with no hook in his jaw and no bridle to his power? Does not He, who guides Arcturus, wheels the comet, rides upon the whirlwind, rims in old Ocean, chains the fire-fiend, enkindles and extinguishes the volcano; who bids the seasons from their palaces in the heavens march forth to fling their treasures over the habitable earth;does not He control and order this overshadowing hierarchy of death? Yes! thanks to His ever-blessed name, He has the keys of death! He is King of kings, and the King of Terrors is but a vassal prince, without right of independent sovereignty, and altogether subject to Him who in His own person conquered death and the grave. He opens the gates of death and no man shuts. He shuts and no man opens. No saint or servant of His can die, but as He permits it. Not a foothold is there for Chance. Within the domain of death, unknown to Him, the grave cannot seize another victim. No march of spoliation can death steal upon the hosts of Gods elect. Their Captain is all-vigilant, and, should the unauthorised arrow fly, His shield shall turn and shiver it. He has the keys of death.
III. He has also the keys of Hell.Hell, or Hades, here refers to the invisible world of spirits. The sovereignty of this invisible world owns Christs sceptre. It is within His empire. Who dare compute the myriads on myriads congregated there! And they are all there living! All live unto Him.J. O. Peck, D.D.
Rev. 1:20. Holding the Stars.The hand that holds the seven stars is as loving as the hand that was laid in blessing upon the little children. The face that is as the sun shining in its strength beams with as much love as when it drew publicans and harlots to His feet. The breast that is girt with the golden girdle is the same breast upon which John leaned his happy head.A. Maclaren, D.D.
The Angels of the Churches.This title appears to have been borne by the ministers of the synagogues among the Jews. The business of this officer, who was always called a bishop of the congregation, was to offer prayers for the whole assembly, to which the people answered, Amen, and to preach, if there were no other to discharge that office. The reading of the law was not properly his business, but every Sabbath he called out seven of the synagogue, and on other days fewer, to perform that duty. The angel stood by the person that read, to correct him if he read improperly. He took care also that worship was performed without disorder and with all regularity. By a name probably borrowed from the synagogue the bishops and pastors of the Seven Churches of Asia Minor are termed the angels of the Churches. It is very reasonable to suppose that Paul alludes to this name when he says that women ought to be covered before the angels (1Co. 11:10). Bishops, or ministers of Christian Churches, are often called angels by the earlier writers. It is, however, better to regard the angel of the Church as the ideal embodiment (so to speak) of the Church, rather than any particular official. The angel of the Church would be the spiritual personification of the Churchthe Church, seen in its heavenly representative, and seen, therefore, in the light of those splendid possibilities which are hers if she holds fast by Him who holds the seven stars.
The General Idea of the Picture of the Seven Churches.It contains the portraiture of all the shades and, in a manner, the statistics of all the spiritual states, either of good or evil, in which Christianity on earth may find itself. The Lord chose, in order to characterise these seven degrees, the Churches of the country in which John lived, which embodied most perfectly these seven types. The number seven indicates here, as it always does, a totality. But the idea of the book is that of a simultaneous, not that of a successive, totality, as those think who see in these seven Churches the portraiture of the principal phases of the history of the Church. One may, doubtless, by taking up this latter standpoint, succeed in bringing out some ingeniously conceived points of harmony, but they always have a somewhat arbitrary character. Besides, the subject itself of this first part is against such an interpretation. It is the starting point of the Lords progress which should be here indicated; this starting point is the state of the Church at the time of the vision, and not the unrolling of its future history, which is contained rather in the subsequent visions.F. Godet, D.D.
The Universal Church.We are introduced, in chaps. 2, 3, to the Universal Church under the presentation given of seven Churches of Asia selected for that purpose. These Churches are so selected that they present us with a picture of the various elements that make up the Churchs life. We see her in herself and in her relation to the world; in her strength and in her weakness; in her steadfastness and in her declensions; in her prosperity and in her sufferings; in her outward poverty and in her true riches; in the distinction existing between the real and nominal followers of Christ within her borders; in the just indignation of her Supreme Head against the one, and in His leading the other to the full possession of His own triumph in the presence of His Father and their Father, of His God and their God.W. Milligan, D.D.
ILLUSTRATIONS TO CHAPTER 1
Rev. 1:18. The Classical Idea of Hades.The Greek word Hades in the New Testament, and the Hebrew word Sheol in the Old Testament, are used in the most general sense to denote the state of the dead, including the grave as the residence of the body, and the world of spirits as the abode of the soul. The Hebrew idea of it is perhaps most fully given in Job. 10:21-22. But it may be interesting to compare the pagan notion from which the word Hades is taken. The name was given by the ancient Greeks and Romans, and especially by the poets, to Pluto, the god who was supposed to preside over the infernal regions. He is represented as being the son of Chronos and Rhea, the husband of Persephone, and the brother of Zeus and Poseidon. He bore the character of being a fierce, cruel, and inexorable tyrant, dreaded by mortals, who, when they invoked him, struck the earth with their hands, sacrificed black sheep in his honour, and in offering their sacrifices stood with averted faces. The grim Hades shuts up the shades of the dead in his dark domains. His wife Persephone shared the throne of the lower world with her cruel husband. And not only did Hades rule over infernal regions; he was considered also as the author of those blessings which spring from the earth, and more especially of those rich mineral treasures which are contained in the bowels of the earth.
CHAPTER 2
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
(12) Seven golden candlesticks.Comp. the vision in Zec. 4:2-11. It has been observed that there is a difference in the two visions. In Zech., as in Exo. 25:31-32, the seven branches are united, so as to form one candlestick; here there are said to be seven candlesticks; and from this supposed difference it is argued that we have a hint of the variety of the Christian churches, as distinguished from the singleness of the Jewish church. But is it not more probable that what St. John saw was the old familiar seven-branched candlestick, identical in form with that which has been rendered familiar to all by the Arch of Titus, but that as the mention of the seven churches was then fresh in his mind, his eye fell rather upon the seven limbs and seven lights than on the whole candlestand, especially if, as Prof. Plumptre suggests, the figure of the Christ concealed part of the main stem? Thus to his view the separate individuality of the churches, and their real union in Him who was the Light, would rather be symbolised. Thus, too, the external teachings of the earlier symbols are not disturbed: the new revelation illumines the types and shadows of the older. These symbols were intended to raise them out of symbols; the truths were to throw light on the parables, rather than the parables on the truths. Men were to study the visions of an earlier day by the revelations of that day (Maurice, Apocalypse, p. 22).
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
12. See the voice An expressive solecism: not, as Hengstenberg, that the word see is used in a “larger sense;” but the voice being all he as yet knows, he turns to see into what embodiment it will shape itself.
Being turned In position to receive the Apocalypse that summons him.
Candlesticks Why does he see the candlesticks before he sees even the sun -bright face (Rev 1:16) of the divine Person? We think the Person, at first unseen, grew gradually visible, and is traced by St. John’s words as he gleams successively into view; the radiant clearness of the countenance (Rev 1:16) being the last fully recognised. The Son of man comes first in his trumpet -like voice, next in his visible tokens, last in his glorious Person. Happy those to whom he comes with a fear not! Rev 1:17.
Golden Says Cocceius, (quoted in Latin by Trench,) “Gold in figures and symbolical expression signifies that which is most precious of all things; which perfects all to which it belongs, but can be perfected by nothing; which is most pure and liable to no change, and experiences no harm from time, or fire, the consumer of all things.” Hence these golden candlesticks, as well as, throughout this book, “the golden girdle,” Rev 1:13; golden crowns,” Rev 4:5; “golden vials,” Rev 5:8; “golden censer,” Rev 8:3; “golden altar,” Rev 8:3; “golden reed,” Rev 21:15; “city of pure gold,” Rev 21:18; the street “pure gold,” Rev 21:21. This symbolism, Trench notes, rested not upon the mere costliness of that material. “Throughout all the ancient East there was a sense of sacredness attached to this metal.” Thus “golden,” in the Zend-Avesta, is throughout synonymous with heavenly and divine. So also in many Eastern lands, while silver might be degraded to profane and every-day uses, it was not permitted to employ gold in any services except only royal and divine.
Candlesticks These so-called candlesticks were lamps, with oil and a wick inserted. The candelabra of the temple had three lamps on each side and one at the centre, making seven. A lamp-vessel represents a Church, the oil the grace of God, and the blaze the light with which the Church illuminates the world. The temple candelabra represented the Jewish Church in its organic unity; but these seven separate candlesticks represent the individuality of the Churches; yet the number seven suggests completeness, uniformity, and oneness. And this accordance of the seven Churches with the sevenfold candelabra demonstrates that the number is selected for symbolical reasons, and not because there were but seven Churches in Asia.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
‘And I turned to see the voice which spoke with me, and having turned I saw seven golden lampstands, and in the middle of the lampstands one like a son of man, clothed with a garment down to the foot, and girded about at the breasts with a golden girdle.’
The seven lampstands are reminiscent of the sevenfold golden lampstand in the Tabernacle (Exo 25:31-32; Exo 25:37; Heb 9:2) and in the Temple (2Ch 4:7), which was filled with oil and gave light in the tabernacle. It represented God as Israel’s light (compare Joh 8:12) and Israel as God’s light to the world (compare Mat 5:14-16).
But just as Israel was supposed to be a light to the world, this task is now placed on the churches. This representation of the church in connection with the sevenfold lampstand of Israel confirms that John and Christ see them as the new Israel. Here however the lampstands are separate, because they represent seven individual churches.
Yet there can be little doubt that we are to see these seven churches as representative of the church as a whole, for the number seven would be seen as the number of divine perfection and completeness. Thus there is diversity in unity, and unity in diversity. The messages are to individual churches, but these seven churches also represent the whole church.
We can also compare with this the sevenfold lampstand connected to the two ‘sons of oil’, the anointed servants of God, in Zechariah 4. There too the two anointed servants of God were to further the purposes of God and, in their case, to build a Temple of God as a witness to the nations in the face of great difficulties and opposition. Here the idea is that the churches, as the Temple of God (1Co 3:17; Eph 2:21), should be a witness to the nations.
‘And in the middle of the lampstands.’ This stresses that the imminently returning Christ is in a real sense already with His people. Thus later we are told He walks among the lampstands (Rev 2:1). He stands and walks among them in what they have to endure, loving, empowering, ever watchful, in readiness to bring this age to its conclusion. As He says elsewhere, ‘Behold, I am with you always, even to the end of the age’ (Mat 28:20).
‘One like a son of man.’ The reference here is to the heavenly figure mentioned in Dan 7:13. This is one who comes out of a background of suffering at the end of a long period of tribulation to receive the kingdom and the glory and the dominion. While on earth Jesus constantly referred to Himself as this figure in His use of the term ‘the Son of Man’, but He always referred His ‘glorious appearing’ to the world as in the future. Now by the Spirit John is carried forward to that glorious moment, to witness Christ in readiness for that glorious appearing.
So John is indicating that what he is describing is Jesus in readiness for His appearing as directly connected with the events outlined in Daniel. The ‘one like a son of man’, having received dominion, power and authority on behalf of His suffering people at the resurrection and ascension (Mat 28:18; Act 2:33; Act 2:36; Rom 14:9; 1Co 15:24-25; Eph 1:20-22; Php 2:9-11; Heb 1:2-3; 1Pe 3:22; Rev 17:14), and having established the Kingly Rule of God over His people, is now about to introduce the everlasting kingdom. In vision John, carried forward into the future, sees the day of Christ, ‘the Lord’s day’, as having arrived. (This applies only to this vision. It does not necessarily attach to future visions). This is John’s vision. And he has to declare it to the churches.
The people to whom he will write are aware that in ‘the end days’ the people of God would endure great suffering, but that eventually, through their representative, they would achieve final triumph (Dan 7:27 with Dan 7:13). So the presentation of a vision of Jesus as having entered the presence of the Ancient of Days, and as being in readiness to bring in the everlasting kingdom, having received everlasting dominion, great glory and a kingdom which shall not be destroyed (Dan 7:14), will bolster them up in the suffering they are to face. For while His people may suffer while here on earth, they can then be sure that the Victor stands among them to enable them in their witness (compare Mat 28:18-19) and to finally bring them to Himself to be with Him where He is (Joh 14:2-3), sharing His everlasting rule.
But these churches are not told that theirs is the end of ‘the last days’ which have already begun (Act 2:16; 1Co 10:11; 1Pe 1:19-21; 2Pe 3:3; Heb 1:1-2). What is promised is imminence not immediacy. Like Christians of every age they are to live in expectation. Thus this vision of Christ is applicable in every age, and acts constantly as a strengthening and encouragement in whatever God’s people have to face. He, as it were, still stands there like this ready to come.
The garment down to the foot (Rev 1:13) parallels the description of the High Priestly garment in the Old Testament (Exo 28:4; Exo 28:39 LXX). Jesus is here depicted as the great High Priest Who acts on behalf of His people. Additionally the girdle ‘of gold’ stresses His kingship. Thus He is the royal priest, Who represents the churches before God, ever living to make intercession for them (Heb 7:25). And now, having been once offered to bear the sins of many, and having been in the Holy Place on behalf of His people, He is appearing to those who wait for Him, a second time, apart from sin, unto salvation (Heb 9:28).
The description that follows is partly based on Eze 43:2 and Dan 7:9; Dan 10:6 but we are not to assume that this means that they are representative of the same person. Indeed it is clear that that is not the case. The phraseology is utilised by John because he finds it highly descriptive and fitting to describe the indescribable. (Jesus Christ would not have needed Michael’s help against the ‘prince of Persia’ (Dan 10:13). The opposite was the case (Jud 1:9)).
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
The vision of the Son of Man:
v. 12. and I turned to see the voice that spake with me. And being turned, I saw seven golden candlesticks;
v. 13. and in the midst of the seven candlesticks one like unto the Son of Man, clothed with a garment down to the foot, and girt about the paps with a golden girdle.
v. 14. His head and His hairs were white like wool, as white as snow, and His eyes were as a flame of fire,
v. 15. and His feet like unto fine brass, as if they burned in a furnace, and His voice as the sound of many waters.
v. 16. And He had in His right hand seven stars; and out of His mouth went a sharp two-edged sword; and His countenance was as the sun shineth in his strength. John records, first of all, what impression the voice made upon him: And I turned around to see the voice which spoke with me. Not from mere curiosity, but compelled by the power from above, which is apparent throughout the visions, John turned around to see whose was the voice that spoke to him. The expression is purposely given in an odd form, to concentrate the attention upon the voice, the word of Christ.
John now describes what he saw: And having turned around, I saw seven golden lamp-stands, and in the midst of the lamp-stands one similar to a Son of Man clothed in a long robe and girded across his breast with a golden belt. The prophet saw, not a single candlestick with seven lamps, Exo 25:37; Zec 4:2-10, but seven individual cressets, or lamp-stands. The time of the Jewish Church was past, and therefore its symbol was no longer in use. Seven lamps, representing seven congregations, are mentioned, since these do not comprise the Church, but the entire Church is reflected in them. In the midst of the cressets stood He that was like a Son of Man, Dan 7:13. The congregations are inseparable from their Head and Center Jesus, who abides and moves among the cressets of His temple with the dignity and authority of a high priest. This is indicated by the long robe reaching to the feet, which was a mark of dignity in the Orient, See Isa 6:1, as well as by the golden girdle about the breast, which showed the flowing garment to the best advantage and added to the majesty of the wearer. Note that Christ is described as being similar to a man; He possesses a true human nature, but with this is combined the majesty of His eternal Godhead, which elevates Him far above a mere human being. He is both our High Priest and our King.
The description continues: His head and hair were white as wool, white as snow, and His eyes were like a flame of fire, and His feet were like burnished bronze glowing in a furnace, and His voice was like the voice of many waters. See Dan 7:9. Just as in the Old Testament prophecy the Ancient of Days, the Father, is pictured with white hair, so Christ here, by the same token, is shown to be the everlasting God, Isa 9:6. The eyes like flaming fire signify the combination of burning zeal and of holy omniscience in one whose essence abhors sinfulness and impurity in every form. The word which is translated “brass” designates an alloy of metals which seems to have been very much like our bronze. His feet were like this metal as it glowed and melted in the intense heat of the furnace. Where He goes, He spreads terror in the ways of those that have rejected Him; He is like a consuming fire to the unbelievers. His voice was like the mighty rushing of many waters, Dan 10:6, which threatens the enemies of the Church and hinders them in their designs against the saints of the Lord.
The apostle finally writes: And having in His right hand seven stars, and a two-edged sharp sword projecting out of His mouth, and His appearance as the sun shines in his strength. The seven stars are the angels, or ministers, of the seven congregations, v. 20. These He holds in His right hand, to indicate that they belong to Him, that He holds and protects them by His almighty power, Joh 10:28. The sharp, two-edged sword going forth from the mouth of the Lord is His Word, the breath of His mouth, Heb 4:12, powerful to overcome all the godless and adversaries, Isa 49:2; Isa 11:4; 2Th 2:8. His entire appearance, the impression which John received from the whole vision, was that of a form surrounded with rays of the strongest sun-light, emanating a splendor greater than that of the sun at midday, penetrating through fog and clouds. The believers receive light and power from Him, but the unbelievers shrink and shrivel and wither before the power of His holy gaze.
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
Rev 1:12. Seven golden candlesticks; The original word here used for candlesticks, answers almost constantly to the Hebrew one used for the golden candlesticks, or chandeliers, in the tabernacle and temple.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Rev 1:12 . . John turns , [741] viz., according to the connection, backwards, [742] in order to see. This is correctly explained according to its meaning, as “the one who uttered the voice;” [743] the has its foundation in the liveliness and directness of the presentation, which immediately penetrates from the perception of the voice to the speaker himself, just as in Rev 4:1 is written, while the subject speaking is only .
John now sees, after turning, seven golden candlesticks, but in no way a candlestick [744] with seven branches, [745] and, in the midst of them, Christ himself (Rev 1:13 ). [See Note XXVI., p. 125.]
[741] Act 9:40 .
[742] Cf. Mat 24:13 ; Mar 13:16 ; Luk 17:31 .
[743] N. de Lyra, Beng., etc.
[744] Cf. the interpretation, Rev 1:20 .
[745] Grot., etc.
NOTES BY THE AMERICAN EDITOR
XXVI. Rev 1:12 .
Alford notes the change from the seven-branched candlestick of the temple, as symbolizing the loss of outward unity, so that “each local church has now its own candlestick.” So Trench: “The Christian Church is at once ‘the Church’ and the ‘churches.’ ” Plumptre: “What he needed was to bring out clearly the individuality of each society.” Tait: “These candlesticks were of gold, to denote the preciousness of every thing connected with the Church, and, we may add, the beauty of the Church and her holy services.”
Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary
DISCOURSE: 2479
ST. JOHNS VISION
Rev 1:12-17. And I turned to see the voice that spake with me. And being turned, I saw seven golden candlesticks; and in the midst of the seven candlesticks one like unto the Son of man, clothed with a garment down to the foot, and girt about the paps with a golden girdle. His head and his hairs were white like wool, as white as snow; and his eyes were as a flame of fire; and his feet like unto fine brass, as if they burned in a furnace; and his voice as the sound of many waters. And he had in his right hand seven stars: and out of his mouth went a sharp two-edged sword: and his countenance was as the sun shineth in his strength. And when I saw him, I fell at his feet as dead.
IN order to obtain the Divine blessing, it is necessary that we should wait upon God in all the ordinances of his appointment. Yet God has not so restricted his favours, but that we may expect the communication of them to our souls wherever we be, provided our neglect of his instituted means proceed from imperious necessity, and not from an indifference to his commands. St. John was banished to the Isle of Patmos, where he had no opportunity of assembling with the Church of Christ, and of sanctifying the Sabbath in the way to which he had been accustomed. But he sought the Lord in secret, and was in the Spirit, that is, in a holy heavenly frame, on the Lords day: and what was wanting to him in respect of external advantages, was abundantly compensated by an extraordinary vision of his Lord and Saviour.
We will,
I.
Illustrate this vision
In doing this, it will be proper to notice,
1.
The person who appeared to him
[This, though said to be like unto the Son of man, was not a created angel, but the Son of man himself, even that Jesus, who had been dead, but was living again, and was alive for evermore [Note: ver. 18.]. This glorious person appeared to John in a manner suited to the characters and circumstances of the different Churches; and in the epistles, written to them, reference is continually made to this description of him. He is here described in his situation, habit, appearance, voice, and attitude.
1.
In his situation.There was in the temple a golden candlestick with seven lamps, to which it was the priests office to attend [Note: Exo 25:31-32.]. This candlestick, which on account of the number of the lamps is considered as seven, represented the seven Churches of Proconsular Asia: and the Son of man standing in the midst of them, denoted, that he inspected the state of Churches and individuals, to observe how their light shone, to replenish them occasionally with fresh supplies of his Spirit, and, by seasonable trials in a way of providence or of grace, to trim them, as it were, whensoever their dimness called for his special interposition.
2.
In his habit.The garments which he wore were such as were appointed for the high-priest [Note: Exo 28:4.]: and by this clothing he intimated, that, though he was in glory, he still executed the priestly office, presenting his blood before the mercy-seat, and ever living to make intercession for his people. He would have it known to the Church that he is a Priest upon his throne [Note: Zec 6:13.].
3.
In his appearance.This was august beyond all expression or conception. His hoary head, denoting both his majesty and wisdom, marked him out as the Ancient of days [Note: Dan 7:9.]. His fiery eyes evinced, that he searched the heart and tried the reins, and penetrated the inmost recesses of the soul. His feet of fine and burning brass intimated, that, as all his steps were holy, so was his procedure firm and irresistible. His countenance, shining as the meridian sun, displayed his excellency and glory, and his worthiness of universal love.
4.
In his voice.This, which was terrible, like the roaring of the tempestuous ocean, shewed, that, however his words had formerly been disregarded, it became all to attend to them with the deepest humility.
5.
In his attitude.He held in his hand seven stars, (which represented the ministers of the seven Churches [Note: ver. 20.],) and thereby intimated, that all ministers were under his direction and controul, and that they ought to shine for the good of men without regarding their menaces or assaults, since under his protection they could not but be safe. At the same time, emitting from his mouth a sharp two-edged sword, he declared his power and determination to subdue his enemies, and either to subject them to himself as vessels of mercy, or to cut them asunder as monuments of his indignation [Note: Rev 2:16.].]
2.
The effect of the vision
[On almost all occasions the appearance even of an angel has produced much fear and terror in the minds of those to whom he came: no wonder therefore that such an effect should flow from the appearance of God himself. Manoah concluded that he must die, because he had seen God face to face [Note: Jdg 13:22.]. Ezekiel [Note: Eze 1:28.], Daniel [Note: Dan 10:8-9.], and Paul [Note: Act 9:4.] fell down before him, unable to sustain the brightness of his glory. Once indeed man could converse with his Maker face to face: but, since the introduction of sin into the world, he has been intimidated by a sense of guilt, and incapacitated for so high an honour; insomuch that the most beloved of all Christs Disciples was overwhelmed at the sight of him, and fell at his feet as dead.]
Not to insist any longer on the circumstances of the vision, we shall,
II.
Deduce from it some pertinent observations
1.
They who suffer much for their Lord may expect peculiar manifestations of his power and love
[John was now in banishment: yet, though suffering much by reason of hardships and privations, he was infinitely happier than Domitian on his throne. St. Paul also found, that, as his afflictions abounded, so also did his consolations. Thus it shall be with all who suffer for righteousness sake. What then have they to fear? Need they regard the reproaches of men, when they are so highly honoured by their God? Need they be concerned about losses, when they are enriched with such invaluable communications? Need they fear stripes, or imprisonment, when their trials may lead to such manifestations as these? ]
2.
We have reason to be thankful that our Lord reveals himself to us now through the medium of men, and of the written word
[We see from the example before us how much we should be disconcerted by visions; and how unfit they would be, as stated means, of edifying the Church. But when God speaks to us by the instrumentality of men, we can attend with ease, and weigh with care whatever is brought to our ears. It is true, indeed, that many take occasion from this circumstance to despise the word, when otherwise they would tremble at it: but, on the other hand, myriads are drawn to God by the cords of a man, who otherwise would only have brought upon themselves, like Pharaoh, an aggravated condemnation. Let us then improve this privilege; and, however weak Gods instruments may be, let us attend to them with reverence, that his agency may be rendered visible in our experience [Note: 2Co 4:7.] ]
3.
The brighter discoveries we have of Christ, the more shall we be humbled in the dust before him
[The appearances of God to man have at all times tended to the humbling of their souls. Abraham and Moses no sooner caught a sight of him, than they hid their faces, from a consciousness of their own extreme unworthiness: and Job, though one of the most perfect of men, confessed himself vile, and abhorred himself in dust and ashes [Note: Job 42:5-6.]. Even the seraphim before the throne make use of their wings to veil their faces and their feet, and confess thereby that they are unworthy either to serve or to behold their God [Note: Isa 6:2.]. And would not a view of the Lord in his glory make us also to cry out, Woe is me, I am unclean [Note: Isa 6:5.]! Yes: a discovery of created things may puff us up: but a sight of God himself cannot but abase us in the dust ]
4.
There is a day coming when the most stouthearted sinner will tremble before him
[If John, who had lain in the bosom of his Lord, and had seen him transfigured on the holy mount, and was in himself so eminently holy, so highly beloved; if he fell at the Redeemers feet as dead, what will the ungodly do in the day of judgment? If, when God spake from Mount Sinai, the Israelites were so terrified as to desire that he would speak to them no more in such a way; and Moses himself exceedingly quaked and feared; how shall not the wicked tremble in that day, when Jesus shall appear in all his glory to judge the world? Let them laugh now if they will: but they will soon call upon the rocks to fall upon them, and the hills to cover them from the wrath of the Lamb. O that to-day, while it is called to-day, they would hear his voice, and no more harden their hearts against him!]
Fuente: Charles Simeon’s Horae Homileticae (Old and New Testaments)
12 And I turned to see the voice that spake with me. And being turned, I saw seven golden candlesticks;
Ver. 12. And being turned I saw ] It is well observed here by a learned interpreter (Mr Brightman), that every godly endeavour doth receive some fruit greater than a man can hope for; John turned himself to behold the man, and behold (over and besides) seven candlesticks, which he had not the least suspicion of.
Seven golden candlesticks ] Candlesticks the Churches are called, for the light they have and give; golden, for their worth and price; as much above other men as gold is above other metals. As God is the gold of his people (“the Almighty shall be thy gold,” saith Eliphaz, Job 22:25 ), so they are his; yea, his peculiar treasure: they comprehend all his gettings,Tit 2:14Tit 2:14 , they are the people of his acquisition, 1Pe 2:9 .
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
12 20 .] THE VISION, in which our Lord appears to St. John, and the command is repeated . This vision is the introduction, not only to the messages to the churches, but to the whole book: see further on Rev 1:19 .
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
12 .] And I turned about to see the voice which was speaking with me (the voice, the acting energy, being used for the person whose voice it was. , giving the force of qualis ; of what sort it was which was speaking, &c.): and when I had turned about I saw seven golden candlesticks ( is a word repudiated by the Atticist writers. So Phrynichus, App. p. 50, : and Eustathius, p. 1842. 26, , . It is found in Philo, Josepbus, and Lucian. See Lobeck’s Phrynichus, p. 313 note. It is the vessel containing the : better therefore rendered candlesticks than lamps , which gives more the idea of the light itself. The seven golden candlesticks are (united in one ) part of the furniture of the tabernacle, Exo 25:31 ff. Again, in ref. Zech., we have the with its seven . Here there are seven separate candlesticks, typifying, as that one , the entire church, but now no longer bound together in one out-ward unity and one place. Each local church has now its candlestick, to be retained or removed from its place according to its own works):
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
Rev 1:12 . The seven golden lamp-stands are cressets representing the seven churches (20), the sevenfold lamp-stand of the Jewish temple ( cf. S. C. 295 99) having been for long used as a symbol (Zec 4:2 ; Zec 4:10 ). The function of the churches is to embody and express the light of the divine presence upon earth, so high is the prophet’s conception of the communities ( cf. on Rev 2:4-5 ); their duty is to keep the light burning and bright, otherwise the reason for their existence disappears (Rev 2:5 ). Consequently the primary activity of Jesus in providence and revelation bears upon the purity of those societies through which his influence is to reach mankind, just as his connexion with them on the other hand assures them of One in heaven to whom out of difficulties here they can appeal with confidence.
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Rev 1:12-16
12Then I turned to see the voice that was speaking with me. And having turned I saw seven golden lampstands; 13and in the middle of the lampstands I saw one like a son of man, clothed in a robe reaching to the feet, and girded across His chest with a golden sash. 14His head and His hair were white like white wool, like snow; and His eyes were like a flame of fire. 15His feet were like burnished bronze, when it has been made to glow in a furnace, and His voice was like the sound of many waters. 16In His right hand He held seven stars, and out of His mouth came a sharp two-edged sword; and His face was like the sun shining in its strength.
Rev 1:12 “I saw seven golden lampstands” This does not refer to the Menorah (seven-stemmed candelabrum) which was in the Tabernacle (cf. Exo 25:31-40) nor to the lampstand of Zec 4:2. These separate, single lampstands were a symbolic way of referring to the seven churches (cf. Rev 1:20; Rev 2:1).
Rev 1:13-18 In this description of Jesus much of the imagery has two possible OT backgrounds: (1) YHWH, but also (2) the angel of Daniel 10.
Rev 1:13
NASB”one like a son of man”
NKJV”One like the Son of Man”
NRSV”one like the Son of Man”
TEV”looked like a human being”
NJB”one like a Son of Man”
Notice the variety in capitalization. The reason is the ambiguity of the term. In the OT it was a descriptive phrase for a human being (cf. Psa 8:4; Eze 2:1 and many more). However, it also was used in Dan 7:13 and possibly Eze 1:26 to refer to a human Messiah, whose deity (cf. Rev 2:18, where this same personage is called “Son of God”) is assumed because
1. he appears before God
2. he rides on the clouds of heaven
3. he is given the eternal kingdom.
Jesus used this term to refer to Himself because it had no rabbinical usages, no nationalistic or militaristic connotations. It combined the human and divine aspects of Jesus’ person (cf. 1Jn 4:1-3; Joh 1:1-2; Joh 1:14).
Notice that the NKJV and NRSV have “the” while NASB, TEV, and JB have “a.” There is no definite article in the Greek text (cf. Dan 7:13; Heb 1:2; Heb 3:6; Heb 5:8; Heb 7:28). However, the fact that it is a title makes it definite. The ambiguity may be purposeful (an aspect of John’s writings). Jesus is a real human being and also the Divine Messiah.
“clothed in a robe reaching to the feet, and girded across His chest with a golden sash” This phrase has been understood in several ways.
1. as a reference to the High Priest (cf. Exo 28:4; Exo 29:5; Lev 16:4 and Zec 3:4)
2. as a reference to a royal, wealthy person (cf. 1Sa 18:24; 1Sa 24:12 and Eze 26:16)
3. as a vision of the glorious interpreting angel of Dan 10:5-21, which might signify Jesus as bringing God’s message.
Josephus, in his book, Antiquities of the Jews III.7.2,4, said that the High Priest wore a girdle interwoven with gold. Therefore, Jesus is the High Priest (cf. Psa 110:4-7; Zechariah 3) of the heavenly sanctuary (cf. Heb 8:1-13; Psalms 110).
Rev 1:14 “His head and His hair were white like white wool” This is an allusion to the Ancient of Days in Dan 7:9. This is an example of NT authors attributing titles and descriptions of YHWH to Jesus, emphasizing Jesus’ deity.
“His eyes were like a flame of fire” This symbolized His penetrating knowledge (cf. Dan 10:6; Rev 2:18; Rev 19:12).
Rev 1:15
NASB”like burnished bronze, when it has been caused to glow in a furnace”
NKJV”like fine brass, as if refined in a furnace”
NRSV”like burnished bronze, refined in a furnace”
TEV”like brass that has been refined and polished”
NJB”like burnished bronze when it has been refined in a furnace”
This word for bronze (chalkolibanon) is uncertain. Brass is the related term, chalkos (cf. Mat 10:9; 1Co 13:1; Rev 18:22). It was used in Eze 1:7 for the cherubim’s feet and in Dan 10:6 for the angelic messenger. Jesus’ feet are described in these same terms (cf. Rev 1:15; Rev 2:18) to show His heavenly origin or majestic character.
“NASB, NKJV,
NRSV”voice was like the sound of many waters”
TEV”voice sounded like a roaring waterfall”
NJB”voice like the sound of the ocean”
This was used of
1. YHWH in Eze 1:24; Eze 43:2
2. the wings of the cherubim of Eze 1:24
3. of the angelic messenger (possibly) in Dan 10:6
Apparently it was a symbol of a heavenly person’s authoritative voice (cf. Rev 14:2; Rev 19:6).
Rev 1:16 “In His right hand He held seven stars” This phrase is repeated in Rev 1:16; Rev 1:20; Rev 2:1; Rev 3:1. This shows Jesus’ personal care of His local churches.
“and out of His mouth came a sharp two-edged sword” Hromphaia refers to the large Thracian, broadsword which the Roman soldiers carried. This metaphor appears in the OT in Isa 11:4; Isa 49:2. It symbolizes both (1) war (cf. Rev 2:16; Rev 6:8) and (2) the power of the word of God, especially judgment (cf. Rev 2:12; Rev 19:15; Rev 19:21; 2Th 2:8). Heb 4:12 uses another type of sword (machaira), but the same idea the power of the word of God.
“His face was like the sun shining in its strength” A similar phrase is used to describe the angelic messenger of Dan 10:6 and Rev 10:1. In Dan 12:3 (cf. Mat 13:43) it was a symbol of the resurrected righteous ones. Jesus is described in similar terms at His transfiguration (cf. Mat 17:2).
Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley
voice. The Speaker (Figures of speech Metonymy of Effect, and Catachresis. App-6). See Rev 1:10.
spake = was speaking.
being = having.
candlesticks = larnpstands. Occurs seven times in Rev.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
12-20.] THE VISION, in which our Lord appears to St. John, and the command is repeated. This vision is the introduction, not only to the messages to the churches, but to the whole book: see further on Rev 1:19.
Fuente: The Greek Testament
Rev 1:12. , to see the voice) to see Him, to whom the voice belonged; or, an instance of Oratio Semiduplex.[19]
[19] See Appendix.
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
Rev 1:12-18
4. THE INITIAL VISION
Rev 1:12-18
12 And I turned to see the voice that spake with me.– Turning to see who was speaking was the natural thing to do. The text says to “see the voice.” By a common figure of speech the voice is put for the one speaking.
And having turned I saw seven golden candlesticks; –Here the vision proper begins. In the tabernacle and temple there were golden candlesticks. Each had seven prongs with a lamp on each prong. But in this vision there appeared seven distinct lampstands. This is evident from the following verse where Christ is represented as being “in the midst of” them. Neither is there anything said about these candlesticks having more than one lamp. Being made of gold probably represents their great value as well as their enduring qualities. In this book there are a number of things described as golden or made of pure gold. Each will he noted in its proper place
13 and in the midst of the candlesticks one like unto a son of man,–There is no question but that the one John saw in this vision represented the Lord. The King James Version translates “the” Son of man. Christ often applied this title to himself. (Mat 8:20; Mat 9:6.) A like expression is found in Dan 7:13, also referring to Christ. Commentators have disagreed as to whether John saw Jesus himself or the appearance of a human to represent him. Such controversy is useless. Both would lead to the same truth. This part of the vision clearly was intended to represent Christ’s relationship to churches. Whether he really appeared or a form of man to represent him affects not the case. The fact that John was looking at a picture favors the Revised Version and the latter view.
clothed with a garment down to the foot, and girt about at the breasts with a golden girdle.–The robe reaching to the feet and the girdle around the breasts are supposed to represent the dignity that belonged to both priesthood and kingship. Girdles were then worn around the body to fasten down the flowing robes, but one richly ornamented with gold, placed about the breasts, indicates royal dignity. This is what should naturally be expected, as the vision was intended to show Jesus as one having both the power and authority to open the seals–reveal the things that the church should know. As the great Prophet, he would know exactly what was to transpire that should be told; as Priest and King, he would have full authority to make such revelations as were needed to give any commands necessary to the doing of his will.
14 And his head and his hair were white as white wool, white as snow; and his eyes were as a flame of fire; –It is perfectly evident that the language here used is not intended as a natural description of the Lord as he lived on the earth ; for being in his thirty-fourth year when he ascended he was a young man, and probably in physical appearance not greatly different from others. Neither is it necessary to conclude that the description here correctly represents his glorious appearance in heaven. It seems more probable that the appearance of the one John saw was assumed to impress the apostle with a sense of Christ’s majesty and glory. White as a color indicates purity and victory; the expression white as wool and snow means that it was perfectly white. The intention here is not to indicate age, but to show that Jesus was perfectly sinless and fully able to do what was proposed. The eyes appearing as a flame of fire indicates their penetrating power, probably meaning that the Lord was able to look into the future as well as into men’s hearts and reveal both the true and false.
15 and his feet like unto burnished brass, as if it had been refined in a furnace; and his voice as the voice of many waters. –The feet of the one speaking to John looked like burnished brass that had been fully refined. Perhaps there is no special significance in this more than that it harmonizes with the majestic splendor of Christ as able to do the work proposed. The voice John heard was like the sound of many waters, the roar of the ocean or a great cataract. God himself is referred to in a similar way. “And, behold, the glory of the God of Israel came from the way of the east: and his voice was like the sound of many waters; and the earth shined with his glory.” (Eze 43:2.) See also Eze 1:24; Dan 10:6. Representing the sound of the voice as the roar of many waters is another sublime way of expressing divine majesty and power.
16 And he had in his right hand seven stars: and out of his mouth proceeded a sharp two-edged sword:–In verse 20 these seven stars are said to be the angels of the seven churches. Here we have in this book the first direct explanation of the symbol used, being definitely told what the stars represent. When the book itself explains a symbol, there is an end of controversy on that point whether we understand it or not.
Being held in the right hand probably indicates that the angels were to be sustained and protected by the Lord–would receive their support and instruction from him. The appearance of a sword proceeding from his mouth must in some way refer to his words. This is perfectly natural when we note that the word of God is said to be “living, and active, and sharper than any two-edged sword.” (Heb 4:12.) Isaiah said that Jehovah had made his “mouth like a sharp sword.” (Isa. 49 2.) The words proceeding from the Lord’s mouth would not only comfort and instruct the saints, but would also terrify and destroy the ungodly. Through a prophet Jehovah said “I have slain them by the words of my mouth.” (Hos 6:5.) Paul said that Jesus at his coming would slay the lawless one “with the breath of his mouth.” (2Th 2:8.) The word “sharp” indicates the penetrating power of Christ’s words, while the two-edged nature represents the thoroughness of its work.
and his countenance was as the sun shineth in his strength.–The hair, eyes, mouth, and voice have already been described. This expression is evidently intended as a general description of his appearance; it was as the sun in its full strength and not obscured by any clouds. It was probably like his appearance on the mount of transfiguration. (Mat_172.) The entire description most appropriately presents the majesty, power, and authority of Jesus to make the revelation intended, and most solemnly to impress John with the necessity of giving heed to what was revealed to him.
17 And when I saw him, I fell at his feet as one dead. And he laid his right hand upon me, saying, Fear not; –John was overwhelmed by the divine majesty and the suddenness with which the vision came. Losing consciousness, he fell as one would who was really dead. The overpowering influence of supernatural events was not an uncommon thing. (Dan 8:18; Dan 8:27; Dan 10:9; Eze 1:28; Act 26:13-14.) John, remembering Jesus as he saw him here on earth, probably did not recognize the being in the vision as representing the Lord. The explanation that follows immediately is further proof that he did not at first know who was represented by the vision. Laying his right hand upon John was doubtless for the purpose of raising him up. Compare Dan 8:18. The command to “Fear not” was intended to give John assurance to hear what would be revealed to him. Once Jesus gave a similar command to his apostles, saying, “It is I; be not afraid.” (Mat 14:27.) In the midst of manifestations of divine power man needs assurance from God to calm his fears:. Jesus gave it when he was here in person (Luke 9 34, 35); his words supply the same assurance now (Heb 6:18-20).
I am the first and the last, 18 and the Living one and I was dead, and behold, I am alive for evermore,–Alpha and Omega, which mean the first and the last, probably refer to God in verse 8; here the words first and last clearly refer to Christ. They declare his existence from eternity which is also asserted by both John and Paul. (Joh 1:1-2; Col. 1 16, 17.) If of eternal existence, John could well afford to depend implicitly upon his word and power; hence no reason why he should fear. Referring to Christ as the “Living one” means he was in his very nature the source and fountain of life. Jesus said: “For as the Father hath life in himself, even so gave he to the Son also to have life in himself.” (Joh 5:26.) Saying that he had been dead, but was now alive effectively identified the one represented in the vision as the Lord. This was evidence that John’s faith in the Lord’s resurrection had been no delusion. Jesus had died once, hut never could die again. This should remove all fear and give perfect assurance that he is able to fulfill all his promises.
and I have the keys of death and of Hades.–Hades is a Greek word and means the “unseen.” It refers to the state between death and the resurrection, the place of abode of disembodied spirits of both bad and good. This is evident from the Savior’s use of the word in Luk 16:23. The expression “keys of death and of Hades” is closely related to the preceding statements in reference to Christ once being dead, but now being alive. That Christ’s spirit went to Hades while his body was in the tomb is certain from Peter’s words in Act 2:27. Keys mean authority or power. Since Christ’s body was raised and his spirit returned from Hades, he has power to abolish death and bring the waiting spirits from the Hadean world. This he will do when he comes again and the judgment takes place. (Rev 20:11-14.)
Commentary on Rev 1:12-18 by Foy E. Wallace
(5) The Son of man in the midst.
1. In the midst of the seven candlesticks one like unto the Son of man”-Rev 1:12-13.
When John turned to see the voice, he saw one who had the appearance of Jesus. From his own memory John knew Jesus. He could recognize the countenance of the Lord and his personal appearance by his constant association with him in the days of his flesh. And he had seen him in majesty, glory and power in his ascension. Now he beheld in the vision One who was like him–he had known his incarnate person; he saw him in ascended glory; he knew his coronated majesty; he knew his kingly power–and he recognized the Son of man!
2. He was clothed with a garment.”– Rev 1:13.
The royal garment was in keeping with appropriate royalty, a royal garment which was indicative of monarchial dignity.
3. And girt with a golden girdle– Rev_113.
It represented the source and sway of the truth, as the girdle of truth suggests in Eph 6:14.
4. His head and his hairs were white like wool, as white as snow”– Rev 1:14.
These figures symbolized his sinless purity and his sublime majesty, as employed in Isa 1:18 : Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.
5. And his eyes were as a flame of fire”– Rev 1:14.
The same symbols are used in the prophetic apocalypses to designate divine omniscience, that He is the penetrator and the discerner of all things.
6. And his feet like unto fine brass, as if they burned it in a furnace”– Rev 1:15.
The reference here is to the method of refining metals and minerals in a crucible, and it is the emblem of untarnished and unmingled truth of which Jesus Christ is the source and the administrator.
7. And his voice as the sound of many waters– Rev 1:15.
In this metaphor John saw Jesus as the combination of unison and rhythm in its perfect flow, signifying the accord and harmony of divine utterance, set to the melody of divine love and grace and blessing.
8. And out of his mouth went a sharp two-edged sword”– Rev 1:16.
The same theophany is presented in the flaming sword of Eden. It stood for divine justice, and here it means that Jesus Christ was, and is now, the executor of righteous judgment and justice.
9. And his countenance was as the sun shineth in his strength– Rev 1:16.
The sun of the solar system is the light of the world. As the monarch of the universe it rules the solar system as the earth and all planets revolve around it. So was the Son of man in this high point in the vision. In all his grandeur, as in the last prophetic glimpse of Malachi, he was the sun of righteousness, with all the spiritual benefits to mankind that the sun can bestow in its rays upon the earth.
10. “I am alive for evermore . . . and have the keys of hell (hades) and death”– Rev 1:17-18.
This is the awe-inspiring declaration that by his own death of the cross, he became Lord of Death, and of the hadean world, because its gates could not prevail against him. He is therefore the Lord of both the dead and the living (Rom 14:9)–by his death and resurrection, of which his appearance to John was the visible proof.
Commentary on Rev 1:12-18 by Walter Scott
SEVEN GOLDEN LAMPS
Rev 1:12. “I turned back to see the voice which spake with me; and having turned, I saw seven golden lamps.” The Seer on turning round to see the voice of the speaker necessarily turned round to the east, the scene of immediate interest. The first object he beheld was “seven golden lamps.” What these signified we are informed in Rev 1:20 : “The seven lamps are seven assemblies.” The numerical value of the number seven points to what is morally complete. Gold, the most precious of metals, signifies divine righteousness. The founding and constitution of the Church, whether viewed in relation to Christ as His body, or to God as His house, is the display of divine righteousness of the character of God. It could not be otherwise. In the symbol of “seven golden lamps” we have the Church in its completeness and perfection on earth, as in the thoughts of God, in its public position as His witness. It is not what the Church has become, but viewed in its origin and character as set up by Him. While the whole Church is in view it is here regarded as separate assemblies.
The seven golden lamps evidently allude to the seven-branched golden lamp-stand which stood at the south side of the outer compartment of the sanctuary of old. Here the lamps stand in the east. There, the seven lamps had one stem and one stand, while each lamp threw its clear light on the beautifully ornamented shaft or stem, discovering its beauties during the dark hours of night (Exo 25:31-40; Num 8:2-4), so only in the divine presence are fully expressed the moral glories of Jesus, God’s beloved Son. Here each lamp rests on its own base. They represent separate and independent assemblies, each one in its place responsible to cast its beams of light athwart the gloom. It is the serious and urgent responsibility of every professed company of saints to be in its own locality a witness for God, and what, of course, is true of local assemblies is equally so of the Church universal. The seven Asiatic lamps have long since been removed according to the divine threat (Rev 2:5), and a similar judgment, although expressed under a different symbol, is about to overtake the professing Church as a whole (Rom 11:22). Where are the golden lamps to-day? This is a solemn and searching question for us all.
Rev 1:13-16
THE VISION OF CHRIST (Rev 1:13-16).
The thing which first arrests the attention of the Seer is the seven golden lamps, not simply lamp-stands.*The “candle” is distinguished from the “candle-stick,” or, as in the Revised Version, the “lamp” from its “stand.” It is the “lamp” which gives the light (Luk 8:16; Luk 11:35-36 : Mat 5:15). There is prominence given to the “stand” in the ancient sanctuary, as in its chaste ornamentation, under the sevenfold light of the Spirit, were set forth the beauties of Jesus to the worshippers within. But what is the Church apart from Christ? The distinguishing glory of this introductory vision is not the churches in their divine standing on earth, but the grandeur and majesty of the One Who has deigned to be in their midst. Who is He? “One like unto (the) Son of Man.” The omission of the definite article in the original, as also in Dan 7:13, is to be noted. Both the Prophet and the Seer beheld the Son of Man without doubt, but what morally characterised Him as bearing that Name or title is the thought presented in the omission of the article, not so much the person known as the Son of Man; but one is seen in Heaven by the Hebrew Prophet, and on earth by the Christian Seer, in the moral characteristics belonging to Him who bore that title. It is characteristic, not personal.
13 “The Son of Man” is a title used of Ezekiel about one hundred times, and once of Daniel (Dan 8:17), the only Hebrew Prophet so spoken of. The Lord alone in the Gospels uses the title of Himself, about seventy times. Joh 12:34 is only an apparent exception. The title is one which expresses a wider range of dominion and glory than that of king of Israel (compare Psa 2:1-12; Psa 8:1-9). As Son of God He quickens the dead, spiritually (Joh 5:25) and physically (v. 28). As Son of Man He judges (v. 22), and also executes His judgment (v. 27). It is a title of peculiar delight to the Lord.
13. “Clothed with a garment down to the foot,” i.e., to the feet of the glorious One, but not so low as to cover them (v. 15). Neither the material nor colour of the robe is specified. There is an evident allusion to the ephod, the pre-eminent garment of the high priest.*Exo 28:31 in the LXX. has the same word for “ephod” as in Rev 1:13 for “garment.” Hence we infer the sacerdotal application of the word here. But the long flowing garment is neither girded about the loins (Luk 12:35) nor laid aside (Joh 13:4) as the activity of service would require, “rather dignified priestly judgment” is expressed thereby.
13. “Girt about at the breasts with a golden girdle.” The materials in the girdle of the high priest were “gold” and “linen,” in which latter the colours “blue, purple, and scarlet” were displayed (Exo 28:8), thus intimating the union of divine and human righteousness in Jesus our great High Priest, while the colours set forth His heavenly character (blue), sufferings (purple), and glory (scarlet). But the girdle here is one wholly of gold, divine righteousness. Girt about at the breasts instead of the loins (Dan 10:5) would intimate calm repose. The girdle in itself sets forth righteousness and faithfulness, attributes which ever characterised the Lord in all His ways (Isa 11:5). The angels of judgment (Rev 15:6), like our Lord, are girded with golden girdles at their breasts. The usual order, girt about the loins, is departed from in their case, as the place of the girdle at the breasts denotes that judgment to be executed is according to what God is in His nature.
Rev 1:14. “His head and His hair were white as white wool, as snow.” “The Ancient of Days” (Dan 7:9) is similarly described. There are certain characteristics common to both Son of Man and Ancient of Days. They are distinct persons, yet so identified in action and character that it is not always possible to distinguish them. The identification of Jesus with Jehovah; of the wearied Man (Joh 4:6) with the unwearied Creator (Isa 40:28) is a subject of profound interest. Divine wisdom in absolute purity seems, in the main, the thought intended by the dazzling whiteness of the head and hair. In the passage in Daniel the whiteness of the head is not mentioned. Here the head is uncovered. Personal attributes are in question, and not official or relative glories, which latter are found in verse 16.
14. “His eyes as a flame of fire,” keen, penetrating judgment, which searches out, and exposes in all its nakedness, evil, however covered up. Who or what can escape the scrutiny of those eyes as of fire?
Rev 1:15. “His feet like fine brass, as burning in a furnace.” An emblem of the most awful unyielding strength in judicial judgment (compare with Rev 10:1).
15. “His voice as the voice of many waters” (compare with Eze 43:2). The grandeur, the majesty of His voice is beyond the ceaseless roar of many cataracts. “The LORD on high is mightier than the noise of many waters, yea, than the mighty waves of the sea” (Psa 93:4). The sign of His supreme sovereignty and majesty over all the waves of human passion, over the circumstances of a wrecked world and a ruined Church, is declared to be “His voice as the voice of many waters.” It was His voice “God said” ten times repeated, which brought order out of chaos, light out of darkness, and life out of death (Gen 1:1-31). It was His voice which stilled the angry Galilean sea, and hushed its boisterous winds and waves into the calm of a sleeping child (Mat 8:23-27).
Rev 1:16. “Having in His right hand seven stars.” The stars are declared to be the angels or representatives of the churches (v. 20). The “stars” as a symbol are the expression, first, of countless multitudes (Gen 15:5); second, eminent persons in authority, civil and ecclesiastical (Dan 8:10; Rev 6:13; Rev 12:4); third, lesser or subordinate powers in general (Gen 37:9; Rev 12:1). All Church authority, all ministry, and all spiritual rule in every assembly are vested in Christ. His competency to give or withhold, to preserve and sustain every true minister of God is the fundamental idea in the stars being held in His right hand. When the eternal security of believers is in question they are said to be in His hand, and in the Father’s hand, from whence no power can pluck them (Joh 10:28-29). But they are not said to be in His “right hand,” as here. Spiritual rulers we do not say official ones, for all such have not been set in the Church of God are held and maintained in the right hand of the Son of Man. “The right hand” betokens supreme authority and honour (Psa 110:1-7 : l; Eph 1:20; Rev 5:1; Rev 5:7). What a responsible, yet withal honourable position every ruler in the Church occupies! Dan 12:3 points to a future class of Jewish ministers or rulers. Jud 1:13 refers to a class of Christian apostates.
The responsibility of a star is to shine. During the night of the Lord’s absence the assemblies are God’s light bearers through the darkness, and are collectively the light of the world. But each Christian ruler or guide is also to shine in his appointed sphere. The darker the night the greater need to shine, and to reflect the light of Heaven upon the increasing darkness around.
16. “Out of His mouth proceeded a sharp two-edged sword.” The execution of divine judgment by the simple force of His Word judgment, too, which cannot be warded off for the sword as two-edged is the force of the figure. We never read of our Lord personally putting His hand on His enemies. He speaks, and it is done. His personal word is the point here, as the written Word in Heb 4:12. The ungodly in the Church are the first to be threatened with judgment, which it is hopeless to escape unless they repent (Rev 2:16). At the commencement of the millennial reign we witness one of the saddest sights on earth, the congregated nations of the west, etc., under their leaders in open defiance of the Lamb of God (Rev 19:19-21). The sword of the Almighty Victor, the resistless energy of His Word, finds out His enemies, and the universal slaughter of the multitudinous hosts of Gentiles glorifies His righteousness “in taking vengeance” on those who refuse to own His sceptre.
16. “His countenance was as the sun shineth in his strength.” Once the vile spittle of men rested on His patient face (Mat 26:67), now divine glory, more brilliant far, more resplendent than the midday tropical sun, is here seen in the face of the Lord. “The sun in his strength,” on which no mortal eye can gaze, images forth the supreme glory of Jesus, Son of Man. We may remark that Christ is spoken of as the Light of the World (Joh 8:12), as the Sun of Righteousness to Israel (Mal 4:2), and as the Bright and Morning Star to the Church (Rev 22:16). Hengstenberg draws a contrast between the glory of the sun and that of the stars (1Co 15:41), applying the lesson to the transcendent glory of Christ (the sun), to that of His ministers (the stars). The stars are mere reflectors. They have no independent light of their own. In the matchless yet simple story of creation (Gen 1:1-31) the distinguishing orbs for day and night are appointed their place in relation to this earth, and then it is added as a matter of small import, “the stars also” (v. 16). Would that every servant would lay it to heart. Is there not in this a lesson to every minister? We are but of trifling importance save as held in the right hand of Christ. It is the servant’s connection with the Lord which alone imparts dignity.
What a glorious vision of Christ we have had, so totally unlike the Christ of the Gospels. There, His attributes are those of tenderness, holiness, and love; here, He is seen clothed in majesty and power. There, the Man of Sorrows; here, in combined deity as the Ancient of Days, and humanity as Son of Man. He was, of course, ever Divine, always God, but on earth He veiled His eternal glory, or as Paul expresses it, “emptied Himself” (Php 2:7, R.V.). Here His glory shines in the midst of the churches, a strength and consolation to every true heart, a terror to all morally opposed to it.
Rev 1:17-18
HUMAN WEAKNESS AND DIVINE CONSOLATION (Rev 1:17-18).
17. “When I saw Him, I fell at His feet as dead; and He laid His right hand upon me, saying, Fear not, I am the first and the last, and the living One; and I became dead; and behold, I am living to the ages of ages, and have the keys of death and of hades.”
The effect of the glorious vision of Christ was over-powering. The same John who had pillowed his head on his Master’s bosom (Joh 13:23), outran Peter in the race to the sepulchre (Joh 20:4), worshipped Him risen from the dead (Mat 28:17), witnessed with rapt gaze His ascending Lord (Act 1:9-10), now fell at His feet as dead. Christ transfigured on the holy mount was an object of fear to the favoured three of the apostolic band (Mat 17:6-7). Isaiah, who above all the Hebrew prophets revelled in the glorious future, was broken down in the presence of the glory of Christ; while seraphim covered face and feet, the glory too bright to look upon, and the place too holy to tread upon (Isa 6:1-13 with Joh 12:41). Ezekiel fell on his face before that same glory (Eze 1:28), and Daniel more than once did the same (Dan 8:17-18; Dan 10:7-10). But Christ is here beheld, not in the native region of glory, His palace-home in the heavens, but in the midst of the churches in the full display of attributes betokening power and majesty. Here we behold the incarnate Son of Man glorified. Hence, as answering to this representation of Christ, the effect is more marked than that hitherto produced. John fell at His feet as dead. Probably the most loving and loved of the disciples was John, but what avails even the strength of human affection in light of the overwhelming glory of Jesus, Son of Man! But human weakness is answered by divine consolation. The glorified Saviour and High Priest is “touched with the feeling of our infirmities.” His grace and tenderness are equal to His majesty and greatness.
17. “He laid His right hand upon me,” relates the Seer. The hand of power. On the mount the touch of the hand and the voice of Jesus instantly dispelled the fear of the disciples (Mat 17:6-7). Here, too, the hand and voice of the glorious One restores the disciple from his death-like swoon. It was more than a touch, “He laid His right hand upon me.” How the pressure of that hand in its life-giving energy and strength would thrill “the disciple whom Jesus loved,” the very same Jesus in time and eternity, in earth and in Heaven.
17. “Fear not” was the glorified Saviour’s reassuring word as an accompaniment to His right hand. Both were needed. The “fear not,” so often repeated on earth amidst its dreads and circumstances, again breaks on the ear of the apostle, for Jesus is unchanged. His circumstances are totally altered, but the heart that beat in Galilee is the same that now throbs in tenderest love toward His own.
17. “I am the first and the last.” This is essentially a divine title. Jehovah claims it three times exclusively for Himself in the prophecy of Isaiah (Isa 41:4; Isa 44:6; Isa 48:12), and Christ correspondingly three times in this book (Rev 1:17; Rev 2:8; Rev 22:13). The application of this Jehovah title to the Son of Man is an absolute proof of His Deity. Eternal Self-Existence, with its necessary correlative, Absolute Supremacy, is thus intimated. As the “FIRST,” He is before all, and above all, and from whom all proceed. As the “LAST,” He is after all, and in Him all things centre. He is the source and sum of universal creation. What cause for fear then? In the calm contemplation of this magnificent title, claimed and borne by Jesus of Nazareth glorified in the heavens, fear disappears like mist before the rising sun. Here is a rock of strength for wearied feet and for life’s heaviest burdens.
Rev 1:18. “The Living One” is the next divine title. He was, is, and ever shall be the source of life. He is the Living One independently of the creature. The incarnation of the Lord did not originate life, but manifested what previously existed (1Jn 1:2). “The Living One in particular was the designation used by the Hebrews to distinguish the true God from all false ones.” The eternal life of believers, the eternal existence of unbelievers, and the immortality of angels have each their source in Christ, “the Living One.” What is predicated of God in the Old and New Testament Scriptures (Jer 10:10; 1Ti 3:15) is equally true of Christ.
18. “I became dead.” Even as man, death, the wages of sin, had no claim upon Him. But in grace to us He voluntarily “became dead,” not merely died, but became truly and really dead. He laid down His life. Matthew writes, He “yielded up His spirit” (Mat 27:50, R.V.); Mark, “He gave up the ghost” (Mar 15:37); Luke, He committed His spirit to His Father and “gave up the ghost” (Luk 23:46); John, He bowed His head and “gave up His spirit” (Joh 19:30, R.V.). The moral grandeur of the statement, “I became dead,” is enhanced as we reflect on the divine glory of the speaker. He, “the First and the Last,” stooped from the glory of eternal existence to become a man, whose brief life here was measured by little over thirty years; and “the Living One,” the life and originator of all intelligence, stoops down into death, that thereby He might annul him that had the might of death, the devil, and deliver his captives (Heb 2:14-15). This victory over death is complete. Death’s bands are broken. “He tore the bars away.” The angels, though not seen at the cross, were witnesses, both outside and inside the tomb, of Christ’s victory over death (Mat 28:2-7; Joh 20:11-13). Our translation to the heavens will be announced by the shout of triumph, “O death, where is thy victory? O death, where is thy sting?” (1Co 15:55, R.V.).
18. “Behold, I am living to the ages of ages.” The Victor over death calls attention to the fact that He ever lives, He will die no more. He has emerged from the domain of death, and announces to His saints and Church for their everlasting strength and consolation that He lives, no more to die. The “Amen” in the Authorised Version is unanimously rejected by the critics.
18. Then follows the fitting conclusion to this grand declaration of combined divine and human glory: “And have the keys of death and of hades.” In our English Bibles the order is reversed, hades preceding death. But clearly this is a mistake, and contrary to the general order in which the words are found in other parts of the book (Rev 6:8; Rev 20:13-14). Death demands the body; hades claims the soul. The Lord became subject to the one, and entered the other. Our English word “hell” should be discarded, and “hades,” signifying the unseen, substituted. Efforts have been made to fix the locality of hades. It is impossible to do so. It is rather a state than a place, and refers to that condition in which all, good and bad, are found after death and previous to the resurrection. For believers, hades is to be with Christ; for unbelievers, hades is to be in torment. Thus both the Lord and the rich man went to hades (Act 2:27; Luk 16:23). Christ has come out of it; the rich man will do so when raised for eternal judgment. Hades as a state exists between death and resurrection. The word does not in itself signify either blessing or misery. The state is one of conscious blessedness for believers, and one of conscious misery for unbelievers.*The reader desirous of studying this and kindred subjects would do well to procure “Facts and Theories as to a Future State,” by F. W. Grant. The work contains a masterly expose of current and wide-spread errors on questions affecting the eternal destiny of the race.
The “keys” denote Christ’s complete mastery over the bodies and souls of all. The right to “open” and “shut” intimates His absolute authority over death and hades, the respective jailers of the dead, and is exercised at His sovereign pleasure. Satan has not now the power of death (Heb 2:14). For the force of “key” as a symbol of undisputed authority, see Isa 22:22; Mat 16:19.
Commentary on Rev 1:12-18 by E.M. Zerr
Rev 1:12. Turned to see the voice. That is he turned to see the source from which the voice was coming, and when he did he saw something more than the speaker. Candlesticks (or lampstands) for the purpose of light were used in the tabernacle services (Exo 25:31-37), but in that case there was only one unit that had seven parts to it. In the present the candlesticks are separate pieces, the reason for which will be seen in the next chapter.
Rev 1:13. Like unto the Son of man. Much of the language addressed to John is worded as if Christ did the talking personally. That is not the case, for He has been on his throne in heaven since his ascension and will remain there until He comes to judge the world (Heb 10:12-13). All that is said as coming from and concerning Christ is done through the instrumentality of an angel. (See Rev 22:8.) The long garments were worn by the priests, and the girdle of gold around the breast betokened a king. All this was very appropriate because Christ is both High Priest and King (Zec 6:13), and this angel was representing Him.
Rev 1:14. When white is used as a symbol, it indicates purity and glory. Flame of fire. The first word indicates that the eyes are active and penetrating. Fire will consume dross and rid a situation of that which is objectionable.
Rev 1:15. The original for brass is defined by Thayer as follows: “Some metal, like gold if not more precious.” As if they burned in a furnace is said to indicate the brightness of the appearance. When used figuratively many waters means great numbers of people. The significance of this and the preceding verse is to show the dignity and authority of Christ as represented by this person.
Rev 1:16. Had in his right hand denotes the ability to grasp and support the things named. It is similar to a familiar saying that “God holds all things in the hollow of His hand.” We will learn in verse 20 what the seven stars represent. Sharp two-edged swordis the word of God (Heb 4:12). The original for countenance means the appearance in general, but in this passage Thayer defines it, “Face, countenance.” In comparing this person’s face to the shining sun (a condition when the sun is not obscured by clouds), the purpose is to indicate the penetrating brilliance of the Lord’s face.
Rev 1:17. The sight and sound of this wonderful being so overcame John that he was prostrated with fear. Not that he was rendered unconscious for then he could not have been benefited by encouraging words which were spoken to him. Fear not indicates that John was affected with a feeling that perhaps something was about to happen for which he was not prepared. Hence he was given this assurance that the one who was before him was He that was the first and the last. Verse 8 tells us that the phrase refers to the Lord who is being represented by this angel.
Rev 1:18. This verse gives further items of the dignity and power of the person speaking to John. Liveth, and was dead identifies him as Christ since the Father was never dead. Alive for evermore is further proof that it is Christ because that is declared of him (Rom 6:9). The person who holds a group of keys has the power or authority to open and shut. The places where Christ can use these keys will next he named. Hell is from HADES, which is the abode of departed spirits. Death is from THANATOS, which is the state of the body after the spirit leaves it. The passage as a whole means the Lord has the power or control over the bodies and souls of men. That is why Jesus said what he did in Mat 10:28.
Commentary on Rev 1:12-18 by Burton Coffman
Rev 1:12
And I turned to see the voice that spake with me. And having turned I saw seven golden candlesticks; and in the midst of the candlesticks one like unto a son of man, clothed with a garment down to the foot, and girt about at the breasts with a golden girdle.
I turned to see the voice … “As in Gen 3:8, the voice is put for the speaker.”[41] One of the big things in Revelation is the voice so frequently mentioned. The voice from heaven is one of the principal focal points in the whole book.
Seven golden candlesticks … Caird has a remarkably perceptive interpretation of this, thus:
Once again John is asserting that the church is the new Israel, the true people of God, but with this difference: whereas Israel was represented by a single candelabra with seven lamps, the churches are represented by seven separate standing lamps; for, according to the teaching of the New Testament, each local congregation of Christians is the church universal in all its fullness.[42]
For a discussion of the Jewish candlestick, its connection with Zechariah 4, and its symbolism, see in my Commentary on Hebrews, pp. 181-183.
One in the midst of the candlesticks … This, of course, is the Lord Jesus Christ, here represented as walking amidst his congregations, only the seven here mentioned? Of course not, but amidst all the congregations of his people throughout history. This is one of the truly great messages of the whole prophecy. Christ is with his congregations! He is fulfilling the promise of Mat 18:20; Mat 20:28.
One like unto a son of man … This rendition could be greatly improved by reading it “the Son of man,” for, as Beckwith pointed out, “the article before “son” is omitted”;[43] and this could be rendered “the Son of man.” “That Christ is meant and not an angel is shown by Rev 1:17 f.”[44]
Garment down to the foot … golden girdle … Most commentators see these things as symbols of the high priesthood of Jesus Christ; but, as Beckwith said, “That office of his is not mentioned in our book.”[45] We believe that Christ is here presented as the Judge of all people. The sword in his mouth a moment later in the text is no part of the trappings of a priest. The garment down to the foot and the golden girdle are marks of rank and dignity. “Neither shows Christ to be represented here in his priestly character, as many commentators interpret.”[46]
[41] A. Plummer, The Pulpit Commentary, Volume 22, Revelation (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1950), p. 6.
[42] G. B. Caird, op. cit., p. 24.
[43] Isbon T. Beckwith, op. cit., p. 437.
[44] Ibid.
[45] Ibid.
[46] Ibid.
Rev 1:14
And his head and his hair were white as white wool, white as snow; and his eyes were as a flame of fire.
This description of the white hair is a “deliberate reminiscence of Dan 7:9, where it belongs to the Ancient of Days.”[47] This application to Jesus Christ of the attributes of deity is a recurring phenomenon in Revelation. There are also a number of other reflections of the Book of Daniel, not only in this passage, but throughout the book.
His eyes were a flame of fire … This indicates the omniscience of Christ, the ability to penetrate all disguises and to judge things as they are, not as they might pretend to be.
ENDNOTE:
[47] G.R. Beasley-Murray, op. cit., p. 1282.
Rev 1:15
And his feet like unto burnished brass, as it had been refined in a furnace; and his voice as the voice of many waters.
“The sense is that the feet of Jesus resembled gold-bronze, not as this is when it is cold, but as it appears when it is glowing in the intense heat of a furnace. Where such feet tread, they utterly blast and instantly turn to ashes everything they touch, or even approach.[48]
Here again, we have a figure that is utterly incompatible with the priestly function of our blessed Lord. It is in his character as Judge that he appears in this introductory vision and throughout the book of Revelation.
ENDNOTE:
[48] R. C.H. Lenski, op. cit., p. 66.
Rev 1:16
And he had in his right hand seven stars: and out of his mouth proceeded a sharp two-edged sword: and his countenance was as the sun shineth in his strength.
Two-edged sword … A most unlikely symbol of any priestly function. As Wallace said:
This sword stands for divine justice, and means that Jesus Christ was, and is now, the executor of righteous judgment and justice.[49]
Sun shining in his strength … Here is a reflection of the imagery of Malachi regarding the “sun of righteousness” that shall rise with healing in his wings. Christ as the light of the world; Christ as the center around which everything else revolves; Christ the omnipresent one (who could hide from the sun?); and Christ the omnipotent one – all of these are appropriately symbolized by this glorious countenance.
Despite the fact of so much of Revelation using terminology and imagery found in the Old Testament, the essential teaching of Revelation is not derived. “It conveys a conception of the Messiah which is unique, for Christ is endowed with a splendor and authority which hitherto had been ascribed only to God.”[50]
Before leaving this verse, it should also be pointed out that the mouth is a very abnormal place from which a sword might appear; the symbolism, therefore, includes the meaning that the gospel which came from the mouth of Jesus is the two-edged sword. And why two-edged? As Bruce expressed it: “It proclaims grace to those who repent and put their faith in God, with the corollary of judgment upon the impenitent and disobedient.”[51]
Seven stars … For comment on this, see under Rev 1:20 where the key to understanding them is revealed.
[49] Foy E. Wallace, Jr., op. cit., p. 80.
[50] Martin Kiddle, The Revelation of St. John, “The Moffatt New Testament Commentary” (New York: Harper and Brothers, n.d.), p. 16.
[51] F. F. Bruce, op. cit., p. 636.
Rev 1:17
And when I saw him, I fell at his feet as one dead. And he laid his right hand upon me, saying, Fear not; I am the first and the last, and the Living one; and I was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of death and of Hades.
I fell at his feet … Paul fell at the feet of Jesus revealed to him as a supernatural person (Act 26:14); and the phenomenon occurs frequently throughout the Bible, especially in connection with receiving visions. See Eze 1:28; Dan 8:17; Dan 10:9; and Mat 17:6.
Fear not … How fully in the character of the beloved Jesus are these blessed words to the terrified apostle. With similar words he comforted the apostles that night when they were struggling to navigate Galilee, and on the night of his betrayal, “Be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.” This is the message that heaven has often shouted to earth, but the need to hear it is perpetual. The night the shepherds beheld the angelic band speaking of “Good tidings which shall be to all people,” their message began with, “Fear’ not.”
I am the first and the last, and the Living one, etc. … Again, we are reminded of that holy Being who IS and WAS and SHALL BE for ever. See more on this under Rev 1:8.
This writer has made a practice for many years of reading these two verses as the final committal at the graveside, with only one deviation from the text here, using J. B. Phillips’ translation “death and the grave” instead of “death and of Hades,” as here.
The Living one … This is particularly interesting, because it is a title of God himself. This is really the most important title in the verse, because it is as the Living one that Christ holds the keys of death and of the grave. Christ, like the Father, possesses life in his essential nature. “As the Father hath life in himself, even so gave he to the Son to have life in himself’ (Joh 5:26).
Commentary on Rev 1:12-18 by Manly Luscombe
12 Then I turned to see the voice that spoke with me. And having turned I saw seven golden lampstands. I turned – John wanted to see who was speaking. He turned toward the trumpeting voice. Seven golden candlesticks – John does not see the source of the voice. Instead, he sees the ultimate recipients of his writings.
13 and in the midst of the seven lampstands One like the Son of Man, clothed with a garment down to the feet and girded about the chest with a golden band. In the middle – Walking around among these candlesticks (churches) John sees the Son of man. Son of man – One of the terms used to describe Jesus was the Son of man. Jesus often used this term. While Son of God described his relation to the Father, Son of man referenced his relationship to the human race. Long garment, golden girdle – John is describing the Son of man. The golden girdle was a part of the garments worn by a Jewish High Priest.
14 His head and hair were white like wool, as white as snow, and His eyes like a flame of fire; Hair – white like wool – Generally, white is a symbol of purity. Here it may just be part of the drama he is about to tell you. White hair was also a symbol of wisdom and maturity of mind. Eyes – flame of fire – Most do not take this in a literal sense. Flaming eyes would bring to mind a sense of his power, authority and fear.
15 His feet were like fine brass, as if refined in a furnace, and His voice as the sound of many waters; Feet – fine brass – His feet had been burned in a furnace. They had been through all types of torture. They were not the soft feet of a king who sat on a throne. These were the calloused feet of one who walked dusty roads all the way to Calvary. Voice – sound of many waters – Earlier, his voice was described as a trumpet. Here the tone is softer, gentler, and kinder. It is the sound of a babbling brook. It is the sound of water cascading down a mountainside. His voice is authoritative.
16 He had in His right hand seven stars, out of His mouth went a sharp two-edged sword, and His countenance was like the sun shining in its strength. Seven stars in right hand – The stars are the angels (messengers) to the seven churches. Each of these stars was given a copy of this revelation. Each star was to deliver the book to the various churches. Mouth – sharp sword – Jesus speaks with a two edged sword. The Word of God cuts both ways – coming and going, like it or not, in season or out of season. The Roman soldiers carried double-edged swords. (Eph 6:17; Heb 4:12) Countenance – sunshine – His strength was glistening in the brightness of the sun. The whole appearance was a glow, brilliance, and brightness.
17 And when I saw Him, I fell at His feet as dead. But He laid His right hand on me, saying to me, Do not be afraid; I am the First and the Last. Fell as dead – How would you react? It was clear that John was in the presence of deity. He was filled with fear and awe. All he knew to do was to fall down at the feet of Jesus. Right hand – Jesus extends his hand to offer assurance and comfort. Fear not – Jesus used these words when the apostles thought they were going to die in the storm on Galilee. The word fear in this passage refers to being afraid. Jesus was offering comfort. There is no reason to have any fear of harm. First and last – This is a parallel phrase to those in Rev 1:11.
18 I am He who lives, and was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore. Amen. And I have the keys of Hades and of Death. He that lives – Jesus begins to describe himself. He is the one that lives. He has always lived. He is now alive. He will be alive forever. Was dead – As the Son of man, Jesus lived on earth, suffered and died a physical death. Alive forever – Jesus is still the eternal one. Keys of Hades – Hades, the grave, the world of the unseen. It may be that Jesus is saying, I can open the graves. It may be that Jesus meant, I am in control of all the departed spirits. Either way, Jesus is assuring John that those who died are in his care and control. He is aware and is with them. He has the power to resurrect. Of death – Jesus was the first to be raised to immortality. He has the key to overcome death. He can raise us from the dead.
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
see: Eze 43:5, Eze 43:6, Mic 6:9
I saw: Rev 1:13, Rev 1:20, Rev 2:1, Exo 25:37, Zec 4:2
Reciprocal: Exo 25:31 – a candlestick Exo 37:17 – the candlestick of Exo 37:23 – General Num 8:2 – General 1Ch 28:15 – the candlesticks Dan 8:16 – I heard Rev 1:19 – the things
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Rev 1:12. Turned to see the voice. That is he turned to see the source from which the voice was coming, and when he did he saw something more than the speaker. Candlesticks (or lampstands) for the purpose of light were used in the tabernacle services (Exo 25:31-37), but in that case there was only one unit that had seven parts to it. In the present the candlesticks are separate pieces, the reason for which will be seen in the next chapter.
Comments by Foy E. Wallace
Verse 12
Verses 12-16
(5) The Son of man in the midst.
1. “In the midst of the seven candlesticks one like unto the Son of man”–Rev 1:12-13.
When John turned to see the voice, he saw one who had the appearance of Jesus. From his own memory John knew Jesus. He could recognize the countenance of the Lord and his personal appearance by his constant association with him in the days of his flesh. And he had seen him in majesty, glory and power in his ascension. Now he beheld in the vision One who was like him–he had known his incarnate person; he saw him in ascended glory; he knew his coronated majesty; he knew his kingly power–and he recognized the Son of man!
2. “He was clothed with a garment.”–Rev 1:13.
The royal garment was in keeping with appropriate royalty, a royal garment which was indicative of monarchial dignity.
3. “And girt with a golden girdle”– Rev 1:13.
It represented the source and sway of the truth, as the girdle of truth suggests in Eph 6:14.
4. “His head and his hairs were white like wool, as white as snow”–Rev 1:14.
These figures symbolized his sinless purity and his sublime majesty, as employed in Isa 1:18 : “Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.”
5. “And his eyes were as a flame of fire”– Rev 1:14 .
The same symbols are used in the prophetic apocalypses to designate divine omniscience, that He is the penetrator and the discerner of all things.
6. “And his feet like unto fine brass, as if they burned it in a furnace”–Rev 1:15.
The reference here is to the method of refining metals and minerals in a crucible, and it is the emblem of untarnished and unmingled truth of which Jesus Christ is the source and the administrator.
7. “And his voice as the sound of many waters”– Rev 1:15 .
In this metaphor John saw Jesus as the combination of unison and rhythm in its perfect flow, signifying the accord and harmony of divine utterance, set to the melody of divine love and grace and blessing.
8. “And out of his mouth went a sharp two-edged sword”–Rev 1:16.
The same theophany is presented in the flaming sword of Eden. It stood for divine justice, and here it means that Jesus Christ was, and is now, the executor of righteous judgment and justice.
9. “And his countenance was as the sun shineth in his strength”–Rev 1:16.
The sun of the solar system is the light of the world. As the monarch of the universe it rules the solar system as the earth and all planets revolve around it. So was the Son of man in this high point in the vision. In all his grandeur, as in the last prophetic glimpse of Malachi, he was the sun of righteousness, with all the spiritual benefits to mankind that the sun can bestow in its rays upon the earth.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Rev 1:12. The Seer naturally turns to see; and the first thing that strikes his eyes as the outer circle of the vision is seven golden candlesticks, each of them like the golden candlestick of the Tabernacle. That we have seven candlesticks instead of one points to the richness and fulness of the New Testament Dispensation in its contrast with the Old. The idea that we have before us only one candlestick with seven branches is to be rejected as alike inconsistent with the language of St. John and with the symbolism of the book. It is, besides, wholly unnecessary to think of only one candlestick for the sake of unity. The number seven is not less expressive of unity than unity itself.
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
As if St. John had said, “I turned to see the person whose voice I heard speaking with me, and I beheld seven golden candlesticks, representing the seven Asian churches, and in the midst of those candlesticks I saw one in the shape of a man, which reminded me of Christ the Son of man, clothed in garments much like unto Aaron’s the high-priest, who was an illustrious type of Christ, our great and merciful High-priest, who made an atonement for us on earth, and maketh now intercession for us in the highest heavens.”
Note here, 1. The comparison made between the churches of Christ and the golden candlesticks; they are candlesticks, in regard of the light which they held forth; the candlestick does not give light of itself, but holds it forth to others: it is the church’s duty to keep within herself the pure word of God, and to keep herself pure from being besmeared with errors in doctrine, or vice in conversation.
Churches, the holiest and purest of all churches, are rather candlesticks than candles; Christ is the light, the word is the lamp, the church but the instrument to convey the light unto us.
Again, the churches are golden candlesticks; gold is the most precious of metals, the church is the most excellent of all societies; for it beautifies all societies whatsoever that are members of the church of Christ.
Note, 2. How Christ was seen by St. John walking in the midst of the golden candlesticks, present in and with his churches; that is, St. John had in his vision a very lively representation of Christ in his human nature; not that St. John now saw Christ in his manhood really, for that was then in heaven, but he had a resemblence of it in the vision.
Note, 3. The description given of Christ, as walking in the midst of his gospel church.
He is, 1. described by his attire, habited like Aaron the high-priest, with a garment down to his feet, and girt with a golden girdle; to signify, that as Aaron was of the old so Christ is the high priest of the new testament, presenting continually to his Father the memorials of his death, the merits of his sacrifice, and making intercession with the Father for our gracious acceptance with him.
2. He is next described by the parts and members of the body: His head and hair as white as snow and wool, signify his eternity and his purity, that he is the Ancient of days, even the Father of eternity, and perfectly innocent, pure and holy: His eyes like flaming fire, denoting his piercing knowledge; that as head of his church, he espies out all her ways, words, and thoughts: His feet like burning brass, and his voice like many waters; which expressions represent the enemies of his church; and that vengeance he would execute upon his murderers, in particular, at the destruction of Jerusalem, and upon all the impenitent rejectors of his gospel grace, at the general judgment: then will they understand what they now will not believe, that it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
3. He is next described by what he had in his right hand, namely, seven stars, representing the seven angels, bishops and ministers of the seven churches. These are called stars, their office and duty being to enlighten the church, both by the light of life and doctrine; and as stars are seated above, so should their conversation be in heaven, and their affections not set upon the things below.
Stars give direction, light, and influence, to others; they were not made for themselves. Ministers must not chiefly seek their own, but others’ good. Stars are swift in their motion, and their motion is constantly in their own orb and sphere. Vain is the pretence of care and concern for other churches, whilst we neglect our own.
Finally, ministers are stars, as in respect to their situation, and in respect of their constant and regular motion; so in respect of their continuance and duration. Stars are fixed in heaven, so are ministers in the church; Christ holds them in his hand, otherwise the world would soon have them under their feet.
4. He is described by a sharp two-edged sword coming out of his mouth, denoting the piercing power of the word of God to conquer sin, convert sinners, and to condemn and slay the unconverted.
Lastly, it is added, that his countenance was as the sun that shineth in his strength; that is, very glorious in itself, and very comforting and refreshing to those that are his members, his sincere believers and followers. This part of the description of Christ sweetly follows the former: when his feet were as burning brass, to tread down and consume his enemies; his countenance was as the sun, to cheer and cherish, to comfort and refresh his friends.
Fuente: Expository Notes with Practical Observations on the New Testament
Rev 1:12-16. And I turned to see the voice That is, to see him whose voice it was; and being turned, I saw It seems the vision presented itself gradually. First, he heard a voice, and upon looking behind him he saw the golden candlesticks, and then, in the midst of the candlesticks, which were placed in a circle, he saw one like the Son of man That is, one in a human form. As a man, likewise, our Lord doubtless appears in heaven; though not exactly in this symbolical manner, wherein he presents himself as the Head of his church. He next observed that our Lord was clothed with a garment down to the foot, and girt with a golden girdle Such the Jewish high-priests wore. But both of them are here marks of royal dignity likewise; girt about at the breast He that is on a journey girds his loins. Girding the breast was an emblem of solemn rest. It seems that the apostle, having seen all this, looked up to behold the face of our Lord, but was beat back by the appearance of his flaming eyes, which occasioned his more particularly observing his feet. Receiving strength to raise his eyes again, he saw the stars in his right hand, and the sword coming out of his mouth: but upon beholding the brightness of his glorious countenance, (which probably was much increased since the first glance the apostle had of it,) he fell at his feet as dead. During the time that St. John was discovering these several particulars, our Lord seems to have been speaking. And doubtless even his voice, at the very first, bespoke the God; though not so insupportably as his glorious appearance. His head and his hairs That is, the hairs of his head, not his whole head; were white as white wool Like the Ancient of Days, represented in Daniels vision, chap. Rev 7:9. Wool is commonly supposed to be an emblem of eternity; as snow Betokening his spotless purity; and his eyes as a flame of fire Piercing through all things: a token of his omniscience. And his feet like fine brass Denoting his stability and strength; as if they burned in a furnace As if, having been melted and refined, they were still red hot; and his voice To the comfort of his friends, and the terror of his enemies; as the voice of many waters Roaring aloud, and bearing down all before them. And he had in his right hand seven stars In token of his favour and powerful protection. And out of his mouth went a sharp two-edged sword Signifying his justice and righteous anger, continually pointed against his enemies as a sword: sharp, to stab; two-edged, to hew. And his countenance was as the sun shineth in his strength Without any mist or cloud.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
12. Seven golden candlesticks. Gold throughout the Bible means Holy Ghost religion. In regeneration, we find a gold-mine. In sanctification, our gold is put in the smelting furnace, all the earthly elements eliminated out of it, till nothing but the pure, transparent gold is left. Then it is coined and sent glittering around the world to bless the nations. Brass symbolizes counterfeit religion, being a compound of zinc and copper, and always made by men; whereas, gold is one of the original elements which God created when He made the world. 2 Chronicles 12 : tells us about the apostasy of Rehoboam, when Shishak, the king of Egypt, came up with his army, captured Jerusalem, and took out of the temple the golden shields which king Solomon had made. Afterwards, Rehoboam made shields of brass to fill the places left vacant by the golden shields. Shishak emblematizes the devil and Rehoboam as the fallen Church. When the devil comes and takes away the Holy Ghost religion out of the heart, he always pokes off on us a big lot of brass to fool us, so we will not find out that we are already fallen, but think we are growing in grace, till the devil dumps us into hell. Thus, fallen Church are full of Satans egotistical, brassy religion. The pastors all want to be bishops, and the members all want to go to the General Conference. The golden candlestick symbolizes a Church full of Holy Ghost religion, in which the Holy Ghost Himself is the light. Here we have a glorious description of the glorified Savior as He walks amid the golden candlesticks.
Fuente: William Godbey’s Commentary on the New Testament
1:12 {8} And I turned to {k} see the voice that spake with me. {9} And being turned, I saw seven golden candlesticks;
(8) The exposition, declaring the third and last point of the proposition (for the other points are evident of themselves) in which is he first speaks of the author of his calling (till verse 17), and secondly, of the calling itself Rev 1:17-20 . First of all the occasion is noted in this verse, in that John turned himself towards the vision, and after he sets down the description of the author, in the following verses, Rev 1:13-16 .
(k) To see him whose voice I had heard.
(9) The description of the Author, who is Christ: by the candlesticks that stand about him, that is, the churches that stand before him, and depend upon his direction. In Rev 1:13 he is described by his properties, that he is provided with wisdom and dexterity for the achieving of great things, and in Rev 1:14 with ancient gravity and most excellent sight of the eye. In Rev 1:15 he is described with strength invincible and with a mighty word, and in Rev 1:16 by his ruling of the ministry of his servants in the Church by the sword of his word, and enlightening all things with his countenance, and mightily providing for everyone by his divine providence.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
2. The source of the commission 1:12-16
John turned to see the person who had given him his commission. These verses describe what he saw.
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
When John turned to see the person who spoke to him he saw a majestic figure clothed in a long robe standing among seven lampstands (cf. Exo 25:31-40; Zec 4:2; Zec 4:10; Mat 18:20). This person would have resembled a priest in Israel ministering in the tabernacle or temple. The seven lampstands represent seven churches (Rev 1:20; cf. Zec 4:2-6). [Note: See Appendix 2, "Symbols Used in the Book of Revelation That the Book Itself Interprets," at the end of these notes.]