College Press Bible Study Textbook Series
Revelation 1:1-3
Strauss-' Comments
SECTION 1
Text Revelation 1:1-3
1 The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show unto his servants, even the things which must shortly come to pass: and he sent and signified it by his angel unto his servant John 2 who bare witness of the Word of God, and of the testimony of Jesus Christ, even of all things that he saw. 3 Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of the prophecy, and keep the things that are written therein: for the time is at hand.
Initial Questions Revelation 1:1-3
1.
What does the word revelation mean to you?
2.
Was Jesus the source or the object (or both) of the revelation mentioned in Revelation 1:1?
3.
Does God's knowledge of future events cause them to happen?
4.
What does the word signified mean in Revelation 1:1?
5.
How many different Johns are mentioned in the New Testament and which one is - his servant John in Revelation 1:1?
6.
What does a witness do?
7.
Is the testimony mentioned in Revelation 1:2 about Jesus, or is it his testimony?
8.
How can we be blessed by reading the Word of God?
9.
What spiritual preparations must we make in order to hear the Words of the prophecy?
10.
In what sense can we keep the things written?
11.
What does - the time is at hand mean? - for what?
Commentary
Section 1
The Prologue (Revelation 1:1-8)
The English noun revelation is derived from a form of the Latin verb revelare which means to draw back the veil. The Latin form was transcribed into English. The Latin term was the translation of the Greek (apo - from and Kalupto - to cover). The meaning being to remove the cover from anything, and thus basically equivalent to the Latin term.) The earliest use of the revelation was in 1303 by R. Brunno. (See volume VIII of The Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford, 1933). The Greek term apocalypsis always means something shown or observed plus the interpretation. The book of The Revelation is concerned with unveiling the will and purpose of the living God. How was the unveiling accomplished? John's next phrase provides us with the answer. The revelation is that which is given by Jesus Christ. The phrase of Jesus Christ can be either a subjective genetive (which means that Jesus is the object that is disclosed or made manifest); or an objective genitive (which means that Jesus is the source of the revelation). Both of these aspects must be kept in mind. The next phase makes this apparent. It states that God (the father is meant as the definite article is used in the Greek Text) gave unto him.. The ultimate source of the revelation was the father, who gave (in a single act the verb is a first aor form) the revelation to Jesus Christ for the purpose of showing it to his servants (or slaves the term is a plural form of the ordinary term for a slave). What was Christ to show his servants? The next phase yields the answer to this question. Christ was to reveal to his servants the things which must shortly come to pass. The term which is translated must is the Greek word dei, which expresses all manner of necessity. It expresses necessity in a mathematical sense, that is, it is absolutely essential for that which follows to come to pass. The text literally reads - the things which must happen (or occur) with speed. It is most important that we see - the implication of the verb form of - the term translated happen (occur and/or come to pass). The aorist infinitive (the form of the verb) does not mean to begin to come to pass, but rather it speaks of a total completion, or complete fulfillment; the things must happen in their entirely. The source of the revelation was God; He revealed it to Christ, and now we note that Christ signified (aor, tense), or gave a sign and sent (aposteilas - aor participle) it through his messenger (tou aggelon) to his servant John. We now have a picture before us, tracing the genesis of the revelation from the living God to the mortal messenger - John.
Who (John) bare witness (aor tense - emarturesen) of the Word of God. This probably refers to the content of the book of Revelation as well as proclaimation of the gospel of Christ, which caused him to be banned to the island of Patmos.
Note: See John 1:1-18; Hebrews 4:12-13; Revelation 19:13 and the appendix on The Biblical Doctrine of the Word of God after the 19th chapter.
The second factor to which John bare witness was the testimony (marturian) of Jesus Christ. The concept of witness plays a vital place in both the Gospel of John and The Revelation - (for other N.T. passages containing the term witness see Acts 1:22; 1 Peter 5:1). The term witness and its various forms appears about 50 times, and about 40 times in the Epistles and the Revelation. The American Standard translators added the word even (italiced) which is not in the Greek text. The text literally reads as many things as he saw. This clause is in opposition with the Word of God, and of the testimony of Jesus Christ, this clause marks these two features out as seen by John. The addition of and (not in the text either) in the K.J. version presents us with three separate aspects of John's workbare witness of the Word of God, and the testimony of Jesus Christ, and of all the things that he saw. This is wrong, if we take the last clause to be in opposition to the two preceding clauses. The verb saw (eiden) is used of the seeing of visions in the same sense that the Hebrew O.T. uses the noun seer, and the verb see or saw.
Note: The root meaning of the Hebrew verb is to see, but in the Prophetic literature it means to see supernaturally revealed visions.
As the book of Revelation is in the lineage of O.T. Apocalyptic literature, e.g., Daniel, Ezekiel, and Zechariah, we can better understand its imagery and message.
In this verse appears the first of the seven beatitudes of The Revelation. They are found in the following passages:
1.
Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of the prophecy, and keep the things which are written therein; for the time is at hand. (Revelation 1:3)
2.
Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from henceforth; yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labors; for their works follow with them. (Revelation 14:13)
3.
Blessed is he that watcheth, and keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked, and they see his shame. (Revelation 16:15)
4.
Blessed are they that are bidden to the marriage supper of the Lamb. (Revelation 19:9)
5.
Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: over these the second death hath no power; but shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years. (Revelation 20:6)
6.
Blessed is he that keepeth the words of the prophecy of this book. (Revelation 22:7)
7.
Blessed are they that wash their robes, that they may have the right to come to the tree of life, and may enter in by the gates into the city. (Revelation 22:14)
(Compare these promises of spiritual blessings with those in Matthew 5:1-12). What is revealed is the Word of God, and from this well of living waters may mighty blessings flow.
John declared that he that readeth or literally the one reading (anaginoôskôn- a present participle) is blessed but what does he mean by this declaration? It is clear that John had in mind the reader of the word in public assembly. This was a practice of the Jewish Synagogues and was retained in the Christian assemblies. Specifically this does not apply to just any reader, but rather to the official reader. It is certainly true that any present day reader will be blessed by reading the Scriptures, but from a purely exegetical standpoint this verse does not so declare.
The blessing is also available to they that hear the words of the prophecy. John makes it crystal clear that the hearers must continually listen to the Word of God - (literally the ones hearing - present participle - or the ones that keep on hearing). Our Lord has warned us all in His parable of The Sower (Luke 8:4-18)! He still warns us with these words - Take heed therefore now ye hear. How well do we hear the Word of God? The great paradox of hearing and not hearing was true in the time of Isaiah (chp. 6); in the time of Christ (Mark 4:10 f); and in the ministry of Paul (Acts 28:26-28); and it is still true today. But the reader of The Revelation has received a fresh warning that only the ones who keep on hearing shall be blessed and ultimately saved.
The noun prophecy comes from a verb form (pro-phçmi-means both to speak forth in the sense of preaching, and to fore-tell about future events. (Compare the amount of preaching to a present audience, and the amount of precision predictive prophecy in both the O.T. and N.T. literature). The next clause shows us that those who keep on hearing are the same class as those who keep the things that are written therein. John uses another present participle (tçrountes - keeping plus ta - the things) in order to show, as in the case of hearing, that one must constantly keep that which he heard. The participle form of this term keep implies a diligent care for and not a mere preserving of that which was heard. The imagery of John's language makes it very plain that in order to be blessed by the Word of God - each hearer must actively participate and not merely observe the word as we would an opera or T.V. The Church is burdened today by too many auditors and too few who actually participate in the dynamic life of The Church. It is for this reason that many congregations could just as well be called Worshippers Anonymous. What specifically are the hearers to constantly keep? John replies that are written therein. (The perfect participle form - to gegrammena literally means - having been written and therefore stand written). The perfect participle declares that the Word of God in The Revelation is finished; therefore, there will be no further revelation. What is the stated motive for hearing and keeping the Word? The season (kairos - means a fixed or specific period; chronos means a period of time whether long or short; ôra - time or period of nature) at hand is the motive!
Note: See the appendix in the closing pages on The Biblical Theology of Time and Eternity.. For basic discussion of the biblical vocabulary and its doctrinal import. (See the above appendix for a discussion of the contemporary effort of Werner Kümmel, [successor of Rudolph Bultmann] Promise and Fulfillment. Biblical Theology Monograph - to show that the term eggus used in this verse proves that the church expected Christ's immediate return and since this expectation was not realized, they and the N.T. were mistaken. N.T. Christians cannot accept this conclusion!)
The revelatory visions recorded in The Revelation cover the time from the first century and the historical situation of the seven churches of Asia to the coming again of Jesus Christ. In light of this fact, what then can the phrase the time is at hand (or near) mean? At hand or near for what? The answer to this begins to be given in the next section of the first chapter.
Review Questions
Prologue Revelation 1:1-8
1.
What is the origin or source of revelation according to Revelation 1:1?
2.
What two factors did John bare witness to according to Revelation 1:2?
3.
If we desire the blessings of God what are some of the things we must do according to Revelation 1:3?