Revelation 1:2

who bare record i.e. who bears witness in the present work. The past tense is used, as constantly in Greek e.g. in St John's own Epistle, I. Rev 2:14 of the act of a writer which willbe past when his work comes to be read. The "witness" John is said to bear is that contained in this Book not, as some have imagined, in his Gospel.

There is, however, some evidence to the identity of authorship of the two, in the resemblance between the attestations to the authority of this Book in these three verses, and to that of the Gospel in Revelation 21:24. The two may be presumed to proceed from the same persons, probably the elders of the Church of Ephesus.

the word of God His word made known to man, especially as revealed to St John himself; not the personalWord of God of St John's Gospel Revelation 1:1 and Revelation 19:13, as He is immediately mentioned under another name.

the testimony of Jesus Christ See Revelation 22:16 for a similar description of the specialRevelation of this book. Both -the word" and -the testimony" are repeated in Revelation 1:9 where they refer to the generalRevelation of Christian truth for which the Seer was in exile.