Revelation. Gordon D. Fee
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“a very loud trumpet” at Sinai (Exodus 19:16/19 and 20:18). Whatever else, John probably intended this to be a wake-up call for the recipients. But sounding “like a trumpet” as it did, it is nonetheless still a “voice,” one that had something to say to John himself.
The content of what the voice says is in effect a command for John to write the document we know as the Revelation; but it comes to him by way of the vision he is about to be given. He is first told to write on a scroll what you see. This is followed by a second command, having to do with its primary destination: send it to the seven churches: to Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea. These churches when connected by road make a long, thin horseshoe-shaped semi-circle from Ephesus through Smyrna to Pergamum in the north—still on or close to the Aegean Sea—and then inland in a south-southeasterly direction down to Laodicea, which is about eighty miles east and slightly south of Ephesus. The spiritual conditions of these churches, in light of the coming holocaust, is what will dominate John’s concerns in chapters 2 and 3.
The Dramatis Personae: John’s Vision of Christ (1:12–16)
12I turned around to see the voice that was speaking to me. And when I turned I saw seven golden lampstands, 13and among the lampstands was someone like a son of man, 12 dressed in a robe reaching down to his feet and with a golden sash around his chest. 14The hair on his head was white like wool, as white as snow, and his eyes were like blazing fire. 15His feet were like bronze glowing in a furnace, and his voice was like the sound of rushing waters. 16In his right hand he held seven stars, and coming out of his mouth was a sharp, double-edged sword. His face was like the sun shining in all its brilliance.
After describing his response to the booming voice he had heard, John then turned around to look at the figure himself, expressed in abbreviated form: I turned around to see the voice that was speaking to me. What John offers first, however, is the setting: I saw seven golden lampstands,13 which are almost certainly to be understood as the menorah, a lampstand with seven candles burning brightly. The “lampstands” themselves will be identified at the end (v. 20) as the seven churches to be addressed by letter in chapters 2 and 3. But John’s immediate interest is not in the lampstands as such, but in the figure who is standing in the midst of them, whom John will go on to describe by way of elements from Daniel 7 and 10 (plus Ezekiel 1).
The description includes seven particulars (hair, eyes, feet, voice, right hand, mouth, and face), five of which have to do with the head; only the feet and right hand are from elsewhere on the body. The figure, John says, was like14 a son of man, which all of his readers will know from the Gospel narratives is the title Jesus used of himself. But it does not appear here in titular form; rather it is expressed in the precise language of Daniel 7:13, where the mysterious figure (from the perspective of the readers of the OT) who stood before Daniel was described as “one like a son of man.” For Daniel this would have meant simply “a human figure,” almost certainly intended to describe Israel’s hoped-for Messiah. But at the same time, and thus creating a unique collage of images, John describes his array as that of Israel’s chief priests: he was dressed in a robe reaching down to his feet and with a golden sash around his waist. In so doing, John is deliberately borrowing language from the Septuagint, where it is used exclusively for the full-length tunic of the high priest; thus his readers would readily understand that Jesus, the “son of man,” is also being presented as the great high priest.
As to the particulars, the hair on his head is described as white like wool, as white as snow, language taken directly from Daniel 7:9, where it describes the Ancient of Days. Thus, as in the Gospel that bears his name, John has no difficulty portraying Christ as divine. The imagery in this case is probably intended to picture absolute purity. Christ’s eyes were like blazing fire, language now borrowed from Daniel 10:6, most likely intending to portray him with eyes that are penetrating and all-seeing. The imagery of the feet . . . like bronze glowing in a furnace is also taken from Daniel 10:6, but with some slight modifications. John thus presents Christ with imagery that stands in sharp contrast to that in Daniel 2, which had feet consisting of a mix of clay and iron. Here the picture is of someone absolutely sturdy and unable to be tarnished, and thus not subject to decay or falsehood.
Christ’s voice is likened to the sound of rushing waters, language borrowed from the description of God in Ezekiel 1:24. The picture is that of confluent streams noisily joining and rushing seaward. John next pictures Christ’s right hand as holding seven stars, imagery that no longer describes Christ’s “appearance” as such, and which is also expressed without the “like” comparison of the previous ones. This imagery in fact has no Old Testament background, but did have a long history in astrological mythology (since most ancients believed that human life was influenced by the seven planets). John has thus co-opted pagan imagery and will give it a Christian point of reference—as the “angels” of the seven churches. Their relationship to Jesus lies with their being held by him “in his right hand,” the place of authority.
The most significant features, his mouth and his face, are described at the conclusion. In many ways the mouth is the most significant feature, since what follows concerning the churches is all spoken by Christ himself. As with that of his right hand, the description of his mouth has to do with what is related to it. Thus, in this case echoing Isaiah 49:2 (where the mouth of God’s servant has been made like a sharpened sword), coming out of his mouth was a sharp, double-edged sword. This imagery, also used in 2:12, 16 and 19:15, 21, indicates that Christ will speak words of both salvation and judgment, but especially of judgment. And finally, Christ’s face was like the sun shining in all its brilliance, imagery that most likely anticipates the conclusion of the book (21:11—22:5), where at the eschatological summation of all things the sun is no longer needed for light because of the presence of God and Christ.
Although it is difficult for many people in a verbal culture like ours, having been raised on the sights and sounds of television, to visualize this portrayal of Christ, for John’s readers it would most likely have been readily available to their imaginations. Here stands the true high priest—the heavenly one, Christ himself—and as such he has something to say to the church, two generations after his death and resurrection.
John’s Response and the Lord’s Command (1:17–20)
17When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. Then he placed his right hand on me and said: “Do not be afraid. I am the First and the Last. 18I am the Living One; I was dead, and now look, I am alive for ever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and Hades.
19“Write, therefore, what you have seen: both what is now and what will take place later. 20The mystery of the seven stars that you saw in my right hand and of the seven golden lampstands is this: The seven stars are the angels15 of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands are the seven churches.”
The rest of the opening vision takes the form, first, of response on John’s part (v. 17a), followed by Christ’s own words of identification (vv. 17b–18) and his commissioning of John to write down what he sees for the sake of the seven churches (v. 19), with a concluding interpretation of the key elements of the vision itself (v. 20).
John, who is himself obviously in the vision, first tells his readers of his own response to such an encounter: when I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. As with everything else to this point, this too has its biblical roots, echoing Ezekiel’s response to his theophany in 1:28 (“when I saw it, I fell face down”). What John is describing is the posture of obeisance, which is proper before a deity, but not before a created being, even an angel (see Rev 22:8–9). While John was in this position, Christ placed his right hand on me, the same hand that held the seven stars. At the same time this scene echoes Daniel’s experience in 10:10 and 18. The first words John hears, do not be afraid, are the typical biblical response to one who finds favor in the context of such a vision or encounter. In this case it is almost certainly an intentional echo of Isaiah 44:2 (cf. Dan 10:12; Luke 1:13, 30), given