Revelation I: John's Vision

"4 John to the seven churches that are in Asia: Grace to you and peace from him who is and who was and who is to come, and from the seven spirits who are before his throne, 5 and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth.To him who loves us and freed us from our sins by his blood, 6 and made us to be a kingdom, priests serving his God and Father, to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.
7 Look! He is coming with the clouds;
every eye will see him,
even those who pierced him;
and on his account all the tribes of the earth will wail.
So it is to be. Amen.
8 ‘I am the Alpha and the Omega’, says the Lord God, who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.
9 I, John, your brother who share with you in Jesus the persecution and the kingdom and the patient endurance, was on the island called Patmos because of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus. 10 I was in the spirit on the Lord’s day, and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet 11 saying, ‘Write in a book what you see and send it to the seven churches, to Ephesus, to Smyrna, to Pergamum, to Thyatira, to Sardis, to Philadelphia, and to Laodicea.’

12 Then I turned to see whose voice it was that spoke to me, and on turning I saw seven golden lampstands, 13 and in the midst of the lampstands I saw one like the Son of Man, clothed with a long robe and with a golden sash across his chest. 14 His head and his hair were white as white wool, white as snow; his eyes were like a flame of fire, 15 his feet were like burnished bronze, refined as in a furnace, and his voice was like the sound of many waters. 16 In his right hand he held seven stars, and from his mouth came a sharp, two-edged sword, and his face was like the sun shining with full force. 17 When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. But he placed his right hand on me, saying, ‘Do not be afraid; I am the first and the last, 18 and the living one. I was dead, and see, I am alive for ever and ever; and I have the keys of Death and of Hades. 19 Now write what you have seen, what is, and what is to take place after this."

Introduction

I hadn't read The Revelation to John in several years, and when I picked it up to study for today, I did so with some trepidation. After all, this was the book that my Reformed (Protestant) forebears couldn't stand; this was the book that my doctoral professors dismissed with scorn as a sort of retrograde literary product; this was the book that, seemingly, belonged only to the "sky-watching" Christians (i.e., always watching for Christ's return). But I found as I read and re-read ch. 1 that I, in spite of myself, loved it. I loved the rhythmic language and the visualness of the writing. Jesus may have directed his words to those who "have ears to hear," but John is writing to those who have "eyes to see." Thus, this text fits in perfectly with the passage in John 20 I exposited earlier this week--it adds further to the issue of seeing and hearing that is at the heart of Christian faith.

Endless amounts of ink have been spilled on the issue of how The Revelation relates to the Gospel of John. Suffice it to say that the leading perspective now recognizes a "Johannine trajectory" of works written by/attributed to the beloved disciple and his community, originating in Asia Minor in the last few decades of the first century CE and dealing primarily with the physicality and humanity of Christ against those who might just be claiming his "spiritual" existence. The major scholarly development within this framework in the last few decades has been to recognize the Jewishness of the work of the Johannine community. Earlier in the 20th century the "big names" of NT scholarship, CH Dodd in England and Rudolf Bultmann in Germany, emphasized the Hellenistic or Platonic background to the Johannine work; now it is the Jewish elements that are front and center. And, those are especially visible in Rev. 1, where the cadences and imagery remind us of OT books from Exodus to Zechariah.

This essay briefly exposits the passage but does so from the perspective of what has given me delight in re(re)ading it. I begin by a few words about the context of Revelation; then I speak about the literary cadence of ch. 1; finally, I conclude with his vision of the risen Jesus in 1:12-16.

The Context/Purpose of Revelation

In a word, Revelation was written to strengthen Chrsitians in a time of impending persecution by appealing to one greater than the earthly powers, Christ, as the foundation and empowerer of faith. Whereas John definitely used symbolism from the Book of Zechariah, his picture of Christ in ch. 1, may have been informed by a desire to "trump" the Roman Empire. As G. B. Caird says,

"Coins from the early part of Domitian's (81-96) reign portray the emperor's heir, who had died in childhood, as an infant Zeus playing with the stars, as though he had been compensated by a cosmic dominion for the earthly empire he was never to inherit" (The Revelation of St. John the Divine, 15).

The point would be that the author wanted to show Christ as the one with true cosmic dominion, as a sort of direct challenge to the imperial cult of the divine ruler. A different kind of Son, then, holds the stars in his hands.

II. The Cadences of the Language (4-11)

Anyone versed in Biblical language knows the importance of "threes" in the Bible. A "threeness" may also be built into our human DNA in a way, as the advice I received when becoming a lawyer in my 40s was always to make "three-point" arguments to appellate courts. In any case, let's note the "threes" of just the first few verses of Rev. 1.

v. 4, "Grace to you and peace from him who is and who was and who is to come...."

v. 5, "Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth." Time could be spent unpacking the biblical flavor of each of these.

v. 5b, "To him who loves us and freed us from our sins by his blood and made us to be a kingdom..."

v. 8, "'I am the Alpha and the Omega,' says the Lord God, who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty."

v. 9. "I, John, your brother who share with you in Jesus the persecution and the kingdom and the patient endurance..."

The threefold rhythm establishes a majestic tone, a Hebraic tone, to the passage.

III. What John Saw (12-16)

John was instructed to write what he saw and send it to seven churches. Since seven is a symbolic number for wholeness or completeness, the letters are meant to symbolize a message to the entire Church. The time-bound 1st century message, then, is also a message for today. What that message is, however, must be rediscovered as the changing historical situation of our day gives us a different "read" of Revelation. In our day I think that Revelation most speaks to those who have experienced and understood incredible cruelty and pain. They are the ones, par excellence, who have the "key" to interpreting this book for today. Let's not try to pre-empt that message with an overarching explanation of the book here, but let me close with some words about the vision of Jesus which John saw in 12-16.

The first sign that we are dealing with imaginative literature, literature that should stoke our own imaginations, is v. 10, where John hears a voice behind him, like a trumpet, instructing him to write. What is a voice like a trumpet? Have you ever heard one? Does John refer to its clarity, its boldness, its musicality, its authority, its invitation to battle? I don't believe I have ever heard such a voice, though I have used the verb "trumpet" when someone is making a case for something. Then, there is the vision. Most commentators mention that the living Christ is in the midst of the seven lampstands, which indicates that He stands with His Church in the coming hard times. But here is where I want to "stop" with my unpacking of symbolism. As Caird says, to compile a catalogue and identify each element in the vision is to "unweave the rainbow." The beauty of the vision is precisely in the combined featrues of eyes, feet, sash, mouth, face and words. Biblical passages forming some of the imagery of this scene are not hard to find (Dan 10; Ex. 28; Ezek 1, etc.) but it is the overall force of it that should arrest us. Here is the human equivalent of the flaming cherubim of Gen. 3, a fantastic, multi-colored and multi-sonant creature which immediately sparks awe and fear. This is the one with whom John, and we, have to do.

Conclusion

So, let your mind "play" with the picture here. Notice the sword coming out of the mouth; the brilliant white hair; the flaming eyes; the burnished feet. Listen to the tonitruous rumble of the voice. Then perhaps we will be in the frame of mind to hear what the Spirit says to the Churches.

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