LITMIR.BIZ

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Why was John exiled rather than simply executed by the Roman government? Only nobility and priests were given the luxury of exile, so this may speak to John’s social position.59 But it could also speak to the honor and respect John had as an older person with recognized status in the Christian community. According to Irenaeus (Against Heresies 2.22.5), John was released from Patmos and lived on until the reign of Trajan.60

John called himself a partner in three things (all agree in the dative case): the tribulation, the kingdom, and the patient endurance in Jesus. The word for “partner” in the Greek is similar to the word for koinonia, or fellowship. There was a commonality between John and the readers. Why are tribulation, the kingdom, and patient endurance listed together? According to Osborne, all three are related and should not be understood individually. Persecution and patient endurance are a part of the believer’s share in the kingdom.61 Mounce believes the order is important. The present is a time of tribulation and the kingdom a period of future blessedness. So, in the interim period, patient endurance is required.62 It is probably best not to think too much in terms of timing when we think about the kingdom. Revelation is a both/and kind of book. The kingdom is coming, and we dwell in the inaugurated age of the kingdom. Through our patient endurance in Jesus in the midst of trials, we will overcome (a common theme in Revelation) and inherit the kingdom of God of which we are already a part. Beale writes, “Believers are not mere subjects in Christ’s kingdom. They are actively involved in enduring tribulation, and in reigning in the midst of tribulation.”63 This threefold description of believers mirrors the threefold description of Christ in 1:5a. There is a corporate identity.

John writes that he was “in the Spirit.” What does ἐν πνεύματι (en pneumati) mean? Was he in some ecstatic state? Was he in prayer? Was he like Paul in 2 Corinthians 12:1–4? The phrase is important in Revelation, because it is the Spirit who empowered John and opened his eyes to see the heavenly visions. Though Aune writes that there is no reason to understand the phrase as referring to the Spirit of God because it could be taken as an idiom that refers to the fact that John received these revelations not “in the body” but in a trance-like visionary experience.64 I side with Osborne65 who takes John’s words more literally here, particularly because of the important role the Holy Spirit has in the rest of John’s visions. Bauckham provides other examples in the Old Testament where the divine Spirit is “the agent of visionary experience.”66 See Ezekiel 3:12, 14; 8:3; 11:1, 24; 37:1; 43:5.

John was in the Spirit “on the Lord’s day” (Revelation 1:10). This means Sunday, as that day took on this special designation because it was the day of Jesus’ resurrection. It does not refer to the day of the Lord, as some have proposed.67 From the second century on, the idea of “the Lord’s day” was taken to mean Sunday68, so it should not be surprising that this was the idea in the first century as well. On Sunday, while in prayer “in the Spirit” John heard a loud voice like a trumpet. When Moses was on Mount Sinai, something similar happened. Exodus 19:16 says, “On the morning of the third day there were thunders and lightnings and a thick cloud on the mountain and a very loud trumpet blast, so that all the people in the camp trembled.” If John was literarily making a reference to this trumpet blast as he heard the new trumpet sound off, he may have been placing his revelation on par with Moses’ revelation on Mount Sinai, i.e., that his vision of Jesus was as legitimate as Moses’ reception of the Law. Osborne mentions three other uses of the trumpet in the Old Testament: 1) to signal warfare (Judges 3:27; 6:34; Ezekiel 7:14; 2) as heralds for a king, especially in coronation (2 Samuel 6:15; Nehemiah 12:35–36); and 3) with sacrificial offerings (2 Chronicles 29:27:28).69 Given John’s richness in language and his reliance on the Old Testament, we can consider his intention a combination of these. He heard the voice like a trumpet because the final war is about to begin between the dragon and his forces against the Lamb. The trumpet is sounding forth because of the coming of the King of kings, which will signal the end of all things. And the trumpet accompanies the sacrifice of the Lamb and of those who follow the Lamb who do not love their lives as much as they love the Lamb, and so do not shrink from death.

The voice commands John to write about what he sees, not what he hears. This reminds us of the nature of Revelation. It was a vision to be passed on, penned down, for the strengthening and encouragement of the churches. The prophets of the Old Testament were also told to write for the sake of the people of God. The Lord tells Moses in Exodus 17:14, “Write this as a memorial in a book and recite it in the ears of Joshua.” The Lord commands Isaiah similarly in Isaiah 30:8, “And now, go, write it before them on a tablet and inscribe it in a book, that it may be for the time to come as a witness forever.” And Jeremiah was told, “Take a scroll and write on it all the words that I have spoken to you against Israel and Judah and all the nations.”70 John is part of a long tradition of prophets who are given the word of God’s judgments to the nations and hope for those God has redeemed.

Revelation was to be sent to the seven churches of Asia Minor, both literally seven churches and symbolically for the church universal, represented by those seven churches. The order of the churches followed the circular path of the messenger delivering the letter to these churches, in geographical order. These churches can be understood, then, both as literal churches in a literal location with real problems in the first century and as examples for other churches throughout the ages. The number seven here again stands for completion or perfection.71

In the middle of this trial and persecution and exile, John hears the voice of Jesus and sees images that, it’s clear from the text, bewilder and overpower him. We may think it strange that John writes that he “turned to see the voice” (1:12). How do you see a voice? This may be a simple metonymy, the voice representing the person speaking, thus emphasizing the “voice as expressing an authoritative utterance.”72

      Before John sees the owner of this powerful voice, he sees “seven golden lampstands” (1:12). Lampstands appear in the Old Testament in Exodus 25:31–40 and Zechariah 4:1–6. In Exodus 25, God describes how the lampstands of the tabernacle were to be crafted. The original lampstand of Israel’s sacrificial system was in the holy place. It had seven lamps and was made with gold, as is the lampstand in John’s vision. In Zechariah 4:1–6, the lampstand represents the presence of the Spirit (Zechariah 4:6, “Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the Lord of hosts.”) Whereas Zechariah’s lampstand was one lampstand with seven lamps, John sees seven lampstands, one for each of the seven churches and maintaining the idea of perfection. The lampstand in Zechariah stood for faithful Israel. The lampstands in Revelation are for the faithful people of God from all nations.

Jesus is standing “in the midst of the lampstands” (1:13). Described as “one like a son of man, clothed with a long robe and with a golden sash around his chest” (1:13), this is the same “one like a son of man” from Daniel 7, who “came to the Ancient of Days and was presented before him” (Daniel 7:13). The long robe and golden sash are signs of kingly authority and power. In Isaiah 6, Isaiah describes seeing the “train of [the Lord’s] robe fill[ing] the temple” (Isaiah 6:1). From Exodus 28:4, we know that a robe and a sash were a part of priestly attire (see also Exodus 28:31; 29:5; 35:8; Zechariah 3:5).73

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