Revelation 1:20

Revelation 1:20. The mystery of the stars which thou sawest upon my right hand. It is generally agreed that the word ‘mystery' here depends on ‘write,' and that it is in apposition with the ‘things which thou sawest' The word denotes what man cannot know by his natural powers, or without the help of Divine revelation. It occurs again in chaps. Revelation 10:7; Revelation 17:5; Revelation 17:7; and its use there, as well as its present context, forbids the supposition that it refers merely to the fact that the seven stars are angels of the seven churches, or that the seven candlesticks are seven churches. It includes the whole history and fortunes of these churches. All that concerns them is a part of the ‘mystery' which is now to be written, and which the saints shall understand, though the world cannot. We may further notice that, in the second clause of the first half of this verse, and the seven golden candlesticks, the last word is not, as we might have expected, dependent upon ‘mystery.' It is in the accusative not the genitive case; and would thus seem to depend upon the verb ‘sawest,' and to be subordinate to the first clause, though closely connected with it (comp. John 2:12; John 14:6). It so, the ‘seven stars' are the prominent part of the mystery, thus illustrating the unity of the Church with the Saviour Himself, for He is ‘the bright, the morning star' (chap. Revelation 22:16). Further also we may notice the ‘upon' prefixed to ‘my right hand' instead of ‘in' as in Revelation 1:16. Surely, in spite of the commentators, there is a difference. The Seer beholds the churches ‘in' the hand of their Lord as His absolute property and in His safe keeping. The Lord Himself beholds them ‘upon' His right hand, in a more upright and independent position: they are churches which He is about to send forth to struggle in His place.

An explanation of what the stars and the candlesticks are is now given. The seven stars are angels of the seven churches. It seems doubtful if stars are ‘in all the typical language of Scripture symbols of lordship and authority ecclesiastical or civil' (Trench). They are often emblems of light (Numbers 24:17; Psalms 148:3; Jeremiah 31:35; Ezekiel 32:7; Daniel 12:3; Joel 2:10; Joel 3:15; 2 Peter 1:19; Revelation 2:28; Revelation 22:16), so that it cannot at least be inferred from the use of the word that the ‘angels' are persons in authority. What they are is more doubtful, and the most various opinions have been entertained regarding them. Several of these may be set aside without much difficulty. They are not ideal messengers of the churches, supposed to be sent on a mission to the Seer. He would then have replied by them, not to them. They are not the officials known as angels or messengers of the synagogue. Such an office is too subordinate to answer the conditions of the case, and there is no proof that it had been transferred to the Christian Church. They are not the guardian angels of the churches, for, instead of protecting, they represent the churches, and they are spoken of in the epistles which follow as chargeable with their sins. Two interpretations remain of wider currency or of higher authority. They are thought to be the Bishops or presiding ministers of the churches. But, even supposing that the Episcopal constitution of the Church at this early date could be established on other grounds, ‘it is difficult to see how a personage whose name (angel, one sent forth) implies departure from a particular locality should be identified with the resident governor of the Church' (Saul of Tarsus, p. 143); nor could a Bishop be appropriately commended for the virtues, or condemned for the sins, of his flock. The interpretation of some of the oldest commentators on the Apocalypse is the best. Angels of a church are a method of expressing the church itself, the church being spoken of as if it were concentrated in its angel or messenger. In other words, the angel of a church is the moral image of the church as it strikes the eye of the observer, that presentation of itself which it sends up to the iew of its King and Governor. There is much in the style of thought marking the Apocalypse to favour this view, for the leading persons spoken ol in the book, and even the different departments of nature referred to in it, have each its ‘angel' God proclaims His judgments by angels (chaps Revelation 14:6; Revelation 14:8-9; Revelation 18:1; Revelation 18:1; Revelation 18:21); He executes them by angels (chaps. Revelation 8:2; Revelation 15:1; Revelation 15:6); He seals His own by angels (chap. Revelation 7:3); He even addresses the Son by an angel (chap. Revelation 14:15). The Son in like manner acts by an angel (chap. Revelation 20:1); and reveals His truth by an angel (Revelation 1:1; Revelation 22:6; Revelation 22:16). Michael has his angels (chap. Revelation 12:7); the dragon has his angels (chap. Revelation 12:7; Revelation 12:9); the waters, fire, the winds, and the abyss have each its angel (chaps. Revelation 16:5; Revelation 14:18; Revelation 7:1; Revelation 9:11). In some of these instances it may be said that the angels are real beings, but in others it is hardly possible to think so. The method of expression seems to rest upon the idea that everything has its angel, its messenger by whom it communicates its feelings, and through whom it comes in contact with the external world. The angels here spoken of are, therefore, not so much ideal representatives of the churches, as a mode of thought by which the churches are conceived of when they pass out of their absolute condition into intercourse with, and action upon, others. Perhaps the same mode of speaking may be seen in Daniel 10:20-21; Daniel 12:1, where Persia and Grecia are represented by angels.

With the view now taken the equivalent designation ‘stars' agrees much better than the supposition that these stars are persons in authority.

When it is said of the Son of man that He has the ‘seven stars upon His right hand.' it is much more natural to think that we have here a symbol of the churches themselves than of their rulers; and in chap. Revelation 12:1 the twelve stars are not persons, the number twelve being simply the number of the Church. It may indeed be argued as an objection to the above reasoning, that it is immediately added in this verse that the candlesticks are the seven churches, and that we shall thus have two figures for the same object. But between the figures there is an instructive difference confirmatory of all that has been said; for the ‘star' represents the Church as she gives light in the firmament of heaven, as she shines before the world for the world's good; the candlestick represents her as having her Divine life nourished in the secret place of the tabernacle of the Most High. The one is the Church in action, the other the Church in her inner life; and hence, probably, the mention of the former before the latter, for throughout the Apocalypse it is with the working, struggling Church that we have to do. Hence also in Revelation 1:13 the Son of man is ‘in the midst of the candlesticks;' while the stars are ‘upon His right hand' (Revelation 1:20), the hand that is stretched out for acting and for manifesting His glory to the world.