3. Greetings (Rev 1:1-11)

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Rev 1:1: The Revelation to Yeshua

This is the Revelation

• We have several questions answered immediately in verse 1.
  • Who wrote: John
  • Who is it for: servants of Yeshua (not for unbelievers)
  • Who is it about: Yeshua
  • When should we study: immediately for the time is near
• As we noted in the introduction, this is one revelation, so the book’s name is Revelation, not “revelations.”
• John’s Hebrew name, Yochanan, means something like “blessed by God.”
• Although the original record we have is in Greek and John was multilingual, Jesus very likely communicated this in Hebrew, John’s primary language.
  • Interestingly, Hebrew words for “revelation” and “exile” are linguistically related.
    • גָלָה is the verb for “to reveal, uncover” and is pronounced “ga-LAH”; גָלוּת, “ga-LOOT,” is the word for exile.
  • Jewish apocryphal writings, of which Revelation is included, tend to occur when the people were exiled by God, living outside the land when they were vulnerable to abuses by the pagan nations.
  • As we mentioned in the introduction, one of the purposes of Jewish apocalyptic literature was for God to communicate to His people that He is still in control. Although things seem unfair now, a day is coming when God will set everything straight.
  • To help capture the “Jewishness” of the book, we will be using the Complete Jewish Bible (CJB) paraphrase translation.
    • No translation is perfect, and the CJB is not without problems.
    • You can hover over any Bible reference and compare the English Standard Version (ESV). Often the King James Version does the best job at capturing the meaning of the Greek.

God/Yeshua/Angel/Yochanan

• Note that we receive Revelation, “4th hand.”
  • God gave it to Jesus, who gave it to an angel/messenger, who gave it to John, who wrote it down and communicated to the servants of Messiah.
• John is not receiving all of this directly from Jesus but through an angel who bears witness to Jesus.
• By the end of the chapter, we will be practically unable to distinguish who is speaking, even though we know from verse 1 that it must be the angel
• This concept is very similar to the “Angel of the LORD” that we see in the Old Testament.
• We often presume this angel is a pre-incarnate version of Jesus, but it may not be that simple.
• There appears to be an “Angel of the Messiah,” just like an “Angel of the LORD.”
• This angel has the full authority to speak to John, just as if it were Jesus Himself speaking.
• Lizorkin and Shir discuss the challenges of figuring out who is speaking in Revelation:
  • “As in any complex composition, such a rich polyphony of heavenly sound will demand careful and attentive listening to clearly distinguish between the voices and appreciate both their choir-like message and the voice of the individual performers."¹
• Chapter one reveals that John’s concept of the “Trinity” may not be fully in keeping with the traditional Protestant view
  • Protestants see the Trinity as three co-equal persons. Still, throughout Revelation and even in the Gospel of John, Jesus is subordinate to the Father.
  • In verse 1, we see that Jesus had to learn about Revelation from the Father.
  • While the doctrine of the Trinity is undoubtedly biblical, we must remember it is a man-made concept – the word “trinity” never appears in the Bible.
  • We would be wise to loosely hold any man-made ideas (including views on Eschatology) as we work through Revelation.
  • Let the Spirit pour into us as we check everything out against Scripture!

Servants

• The Greek word for servants is doulos which we can translate as “bondservants.”
• A bondservant is one who freely and willingly attaches himself to the household of his master, “because he loves you and your household since he is well-off with you.” (Deut 15:16-17)
• As talmidim of Jesus, we are called to be His bondservants.
• This book is for us

As we go through the book, we will highlight some of the patterns of seven that may not be obvious. The callout box below lists the seven instances of “Messiah” in Revelation.

Rev 1:2: Bore Witness

who bore witness to the Word of God and to the testimony of Yeshua the Messiah, as much as he saw.

Bore witness/testimony

• John loves courtroom language (witness, testimony, testify, judge, judgment, authority (in the sense of legal standing), etc.). There are over 100 examples of this in John’s writings.
• John uses nearly the identical language in John 3:32-33 as he does in Revelation 1:2
• In the Gospel, John portrayed evidence that Jesus was the proper authority. At the same time, the Jerusalem religious establishment were the usurpers, “bad shepherds,” an illegitimate regime.
• In the Revelation, he’s going to magnify that. The entire corrupt world system, not just the corrupt Jerusalem establishment, will be put on trial by God.
• Also, remember the context: believers in Asia were being betrayed to Roman courts. God grants true justice and righteous judgment.

Rev 1:3: The Blessing

The blessing

• This is the first of seven such blessings in the book (see callout below)
• Revelation is the only book with such an explicit promise.
  • It’s no wonder the enemy tries to tell us it’s difficult to understand, and many have a spirit of fear.
  • Conversely, when believers wonder how they can be blessed by God, a biblical answer is “study Revelation.”
• We aren’t told what form the blessing will be, but ANY gift from God will be great.
  • One such blessing may be that approaching Revelation as a Jewish book means you will read nearly 1000 verses from the Old Testament.
  • Another blessing is that we will walk away with a much more complete picture of our Savior’s person, mission, and destiny than we may have had previously.
• The Greek carries the sense of read-aloud. Most people did not have their own copies of the Bible, so they would have had to hear it read aloud by the reader in the synagogue.
• Note that the blessing is conditional upon the reader understanding and obeying
  • This is very Hebraic. In Hebrew, verbs are action-oriented.
    • In English, we can listen, but we don’t necessarily equate hearing with obedience. In other words, we can listen passively.
    • There is no such thought in Hebrew. If you don’t obey, you aren’t listening.
    • Stern writes, “in Judaism, learning is supposed to lead to doing."²
  • In the 18th century, a Christian Hebraist named Franz Delitzsch translated the New Testament from Greek back into Biblical Hebrew, using forms and idioms the Old Testament uses. It is a highly educated guess on what the original Jewish authors might have said had their works recorded in their original Hebrew.
  • For Revelation 1:3, he used a verb that frequently appears in the Torah of Moses – hear/obey (Shema) – שָׁמַע. This beautiful Hebrew word is rich with meaning and application. Talmidim hear and obey the words of Yeshua. Most notably, the word appears in Deut 6:4, which is the famous “Shema Israel” passage, which Jesus quotes in Mark 12:29.
  • שְׁמַ֖ע יִשְׂרָאֵ֑ל יְהוָ֥ה אֱלֹהֵ֖ינוּ יְהוָ֥ה ׀ אֶחָֽד׃
  • “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one.”
  • Then Deuteronomy verse 5 continues, “You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.”
  • The “hear” is followed by a list of behaviors.

Very soon and for the time is near!

• John believed the fulfillment of all things was very near.
• He did not mean merely within a few years and certainly did not mean two thousand years! He is writing with a sense of urgency.
• In fact, we can defend from Scripture that the New Testament authors didn’t just believe the “end times” were near; they thought the end times were upon them.
  • See 1 Corinthians 10:11 and note that Paul directly connects the Old Testament with the “end times.” Further, the “end times” IS the fulfillment of Old Testament Prophecies."³
  • The above point is critically important to keep in mind.
  • Paul and John weren’t looking to events occurring in the world around them; they were looking to the “fulfillment of the purposes and prophecies of the Old Testament."⁴
• An alternate sense could be once the events commence, they will unfold rapidly;
  • 2 Peter 3:3-4 seems to imply Peter at least suspected there would be some delay.
  • Yet, at the end of the passage (2 Peter 3:10), Peter says every believer should be alert.

Rev 1:4: Grace and Shalom

From Yochanan/John

• While we can’t be 100% certain, most conservative scholars believe this is John the Apostle (see the introductory lesson for more background)
• Whichever John this was, we might say “he needed no introduction.” We are given no further background than “John,” indicating that he was well-known to his audience.
• Several early church writers believed the letter was a forgery and argued that the book should not become part of the New Testament canon.
  • They based this view partly because the Greek of Revelation is borderline substandard quality, particularly compared to the Gospel of John.
  • This may be explained. The Gospel was composed with a translator, someone learned in Greek, which John was not. On Patmos, John was left with his limited Greek skills.⁵

Seven communities/“churches”

• Immediately there is underlying tension we might miss.
  • They are in Asia. Modern Turkey.
  • Jews aren’t supposed to be outside Eretz Israel (the land of Israel)
  • This is a big clue that things are out of order
  • By the end of the book, they will be back in the Land
• We talked about this anachronism of the word “church” during the introduction.
  • The church, either an institution or a gathering of people, did not exist when John wrote.
  • It is hard not to call them “the seven churches.” If we do, we need to be aware of the anachronism.
• The number “seven” is a fingerprint of the Holy Spirit and speaks of completeness and fulfillment. It can also carry a sense of holiness/set apartness-the Shabbat (7th day) is a time to be set apart from the other six days.
• Whatever other interpretations of Revelation may be plausible, we must remember first and foremost it was written to actual first-century congregations with real struggles.
• If we look at a map⁶, the seven cities are in relative proximity. We can easily imagine the letter starting in Ephesus and traveling clockwise to Smyrna, using the Roman road system.

• Of course, there were many more than seven congregations in Asia (one received a letter from Paul, Colossians).
• We don’t exactly know why these seven were called out
  • Indeed, these seven had real problems.
  • The problems are likely typical of what other fellowships were going through at the time.
    • Each letter will end with “hear what the Spirit says to the churches” (i.e., the words are directed to all fellowships, not just the specific one addressed).
• Lancaster speculates that many fellowships likely existed in each town. In other words, there was probably not merely one assembly in Ephesus.
  • He says that although it is unlikely there were separate fellowships for Gentiles (as the Jew/Gentile split in Christianity had not yet occurred, or at best was only in its infancy), there may have been separate meetings for Believers in Messiah that were distinct from other Jewish fellowships.⁷
  • This could explain why some believers had been arrested and martyred, but others in the same town had not.

Grace and Shalom (Peace)

• This could be a combination of the Greek Charis (grace) and the Hebrew shalom (peace)
  • Dr Bolen writes: “the greeting seems to combine a common formulaic openings in Greco-Roman and Semitic letters.” Grace” (Gk. charis, χάρις) is related to the common Greek word “greetings” (Gk. chairein, χαίρειν) as seen in Acts 15:23, 23:26, and James 1:1 (cf. Matt 26:49, Mark 15:18, Luke 1:28, and John 19:3). “Peace” (Gk. eirēnē, εἰρήνη; Heb. shalōm, שָׁלוֹם) is a common Semitic greeting as seen in Luke 10:5, 24:36, and John 20:19."⁸
• Potentially, both meanings are encompassed by the rich Hebrew word shalom.
• Dan Stolebarger says that when we wish someone “shalom,” we are wishing them “peace as it was before the Fall.”
• True Shalom comes when God makes everything right

The Trinity

Verses 4-5 are widely and correctly viewed as the Trinity.

• In this case, the order is Father, Spirit, Son, which is consistent with John’s overall view that Jesus is (somehow) subordinate to the Father. It is the Spirit who empowers the Son.
• Father – John uses an identical phrase as the Septuagint translation of Exodus 3:14.
  • In Hebrew, this is unmistakable. “I am who I am” אֶֽהְיֶ֖ה אֲשֶׁ֣ר אֶֽהְיֶ֑ה (ehyeh asher eheyh).
  • In general terms, God is transcendent. Missler says, “Time is a physical property subject to mass acceleration and gravity. God’s not subject to those. God is not someone with lots of time. He’s outside our time domain altogether. He knows the end from the beginning.”
  • Note that the “Father” is also described as One who…” is coming” – we usually think of Jesus, the Son, as the One who is coming again. Still, in some sense, the Father is also coming.
    • In Zechariah 14:4, Adonai will set His foot upon the Mount of Olives. The text doesn’t say, “Messiah will set foot upon the Mount of Olives.”
• In some places in Scripture, we see some distinction among the roles.
  • Jesus sits at the right hand of the Father (Acts 2:33)
  • Jesus doesn’t pray to Himself or the Spirit, but to the Father, and says His job is to glorify the Father. (John 17:1)
• In others, we see a blurring of roles.
  • Both Adonai, whom we usually view as “The Father,” and Jesus say, “I am the first and the last.” (Father in Rev 1:8, Son in Rev 1:17).
  • Paul says the Spirit caused Jesus to rise from the Dead (Rom 8:11), and he also says it was the Father (Gal 1:1).
  • In several locations, Jesus says He is the “I AM” of our Old Testament.⁹
  • Lizorkin and Shir phrase it like this: “The Son and the Father are distinct, but somehow so connected that they cannot always be distinguished."¹⁰
• One of the better comparisons I’ve heard to describe the Trinity is as three partners in a corporation. Each partner may act independently, but legally the corporation is one unit.
• All models are clumsy because we are trying to describe the infiniteness of God.
• The bottom line is the more we can remain flexible in our concepts of the Trinity, the less befuddling Revelation will be.

Sevenfold Spirit

• This could also be rendered “seven spirits.”
• The number seven represents completeness. Therefore “sevenfold Spirit” is likely simply describing the Spirit as the complete and perfect Spirit.
• Jewish tradition sees seven archangels.
  • Lancaster and Lizorkin/Shir dive into this in their commentaries and believe this is potentially in John’s view, given his Jewish background. They connect this verse with the seven angels that repeatedly appear in the book.
    • Lancaster notes the parallel in the description of the person giving the revelation between Revelation 1:9-18 and Daniel 10. In Daniel 10, the messenger is clearly a supernatural angel, not a member of the Trinity. We will discuss this further in the next lesson.
    • Lizorkin and Shir are also skeptical of the connection to Isaiah 11:2, which is often cited as a parallel passage. “This does not explain why there are seven spirits mentioned in Revelation."¹¹
  • They caution that we may be force-reading our view of the trinity into this passage when that may not be what John intended.
  • “Seven angels” appear repeatedly in Revelation.

Rev 1:5-6: Sevenfold Description of Yeshua

Firstborn of the dead

• This is not to say that Jesus was the first ever to be raised from the dead.
• In Judaism, “firstborn” is a title of inheritance.
• The firstborn would receive a double-portion.
  • While usually, this was the eldest son, the eldest son could forfeit the title of firstborn.
  • Joseph was the 11th of Jacob’s 12 sons, yet was the titular Firstborn who received a double portion of Jacob’s inheritance.
• The Jewish feast of firstfruits is also in view (always on Sunday after Passover).
• This title is synonymous with victory .
• Because Jesus conquered death, we can (and will!) too.

Ruler of the Earth’s Kings/One who loves us/Freed us/Caused us to be Cohanim (priests)

• In 1 Corinthians 15 (the “resurrection chapter”), Paul connects the dots – since Jesus is the firstborn of the dead, He will come again and “hand over the Kingdom to God the Father, after having put an end to every rulership, yes, to every authority and power.” (1Co 15:24)
• To an audience fearful of persecution, these words remind them who is truly in charge.
• Conversely, the challenge for us is whether we have indeed submitted to his kingship, or are we still telling Him, “I got this”?
• When we submit to Him, it’s good to know that He loves us.
• Revelation tells the outcome for those who tell God, “I got this.”
• Exodus 19:5-6: Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine; and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.' These are the words that you shall speak to the people of Israel.
• All of this has to do with how we spend our time in this life.

Rev 1:7: He Comes In The Clouds

Look! Behold He comes

• The Hebrew word for “behold” is “hinei” and it frequently appears in the Old Testament
  • You may have learned that the word “therefore” is a clue, particularly in Paul’s writings. The saying goes, “whenever you see a ‘therefore,’ you always want to ask, ‘what is it there for?'”
  • Conceptually the same is true for “behold” in the Old Testament. The author is calling something to our attention in the narrative. We want to make sure we know what is we are beholding.

Clouds

• Compare Acts 1:11 – He will return very similar to how He ascended.
• Daniel 7 talks about the Messiah emerging from clouds and going before the Ancient of Days. There the Father gives the Son all things.
• A minor note that whoever is speaking switches to the 3rd person in verse seven, and then God will take over in Verse 8. Figuring out who is speaking is not nearly as important as the truth of the words spoken. Still, it’s interesting to notice.

The tribes will mourn

• Protestant/Pre-tribulation theology holds that once these events happen, there may be little, if any, hope for any unbeliever to repent, least of all traditional Jews who are cursed for rejecting their Messiah and forfeited all of their promises to the Church. This view stems from Replacement Theology. See the callout note below for additional information.
• Zechariah 13:11 tells a different story. They will mourn him but that not the end of the story.
  • The people specifically from the House of David will be cleansed from their sins.
  • Therefore a “terminal” judgment may not be what John is communicating in verse 7.
  • The mourning may be that of a repentant heart; the same heart we should have when we ponder the price He truly paid for us. Through his sacrifice, all the families of the Earth shall be blessed.

Rev 1:8: The Aleph and the Tav

Alpha and Omega/A and Z/Aleph and Tav

• We typically think of Jesus as saying He is the Alpha and the Omega, but note here, we would say it is “God the Father” speaking.
• The phrase also appears in Rev 21:6 and Rev 22:13.
• In Hebrew, the first and last letters are Aleph א and Tav ת.
  • The word אֵת (et) has a unique function in Hebrew. See the callout box if you are interested in learning more.
• Note again that the Father says He “is coming.”
• Another one of God’s names in the Hebrew Bible is El Shaddai - which is God almighty in the sense of the protector.

Rev 1:9: Patmos

Exiled to Patmos

• John is positioning himself as an equal, not a superior; an empathizer not a sympathizer.
  • We discussed how John came to be at Patmos during our background lesson.
    • Patmos is a relatively small Greek island (17.5 sq mi) about 35 miles off the coast of Turkey.
    • There were two levels of Roman exile¹².
      • The first was actual deportation (deportatio in insulaim), in which the prisoner lost all rights; this was permanent.
      • The second was what we might call a relegation (relegation ad insulam), which was a temporary banishment.
      • It appears John fell into the second group. In any case, the Romans did not want the Gospel going out.
    • Surrounded by water, it is no surprise that the sea is a dominant image throughout the book.
    • Since the fifth century, the “Cave of the Apocalypse” has been venerated to mark the site where John received visitation.

Photo credit:¹³

Proclaimed the message of God

• This will be a recurring theme as many believers will be martyred for this reason.
• We believe John wasn’t directly martyred but died of natural causes.
• However, if we believe the tradition, Domitian ordered John boiled in oil, yet John was spared.
• A Jewish mind would say that John was martyred, and then he was delivered by God.

Daniel 10 as parallel passage

• There is a parallel of Revelation 1:9-20 and Daniel 10, which we will explore next lesson.
• For now, note the similarities of 1:9 to Daniel 10:2-4.
  • They both have a “double” introduction for emphasis (“I, John” and “I, Daniel”).
  • Both can be said to be physically suffering for God (John externally and Daniel internally through a three-week fast).
  • Both are in exile (John at Patmos, Daniel on the bank of the Tigres in Babylon).

Rev 1:10: In the Spirit on the Day of the Lord

I came to be, in the Spirit, on the Day of the Lord; and I heard behind me a loud voice, like a trumpet

I came to be in the Spirit

There are three primary options, each of which is a conjecture:

1. John’s received a vision but was not physically transported anywhere, like a dream (and it was not uncommon for people to receive messages from God via dreams)
2. John had what we might call an “out of body experience”; his body remained on Patmos, but he was otherwise transported to the heavenly throne
3. John was physically present

In 2 Corinthians 12:2, Paul says, “whether in the body or out of the body, I do not know.” Maybe John himself didn’t know either.

Day of the Lord/Lord’s Day

• Was this a weekday or a moment in time? The possibilities discussed below are conjecture.
• A Sunday
  • While this is the day we honor the resurrection, there is no biblical evidence that the first day of the week was ever referred to as “The Lord’s day.”
• A Saturday
  • According to Genesis 2, Exodus 16, and Exodus 20, if there is one day of the week that God holds holy, it’s Saturday.
  • There is a direct connection between the Sabbath and the kingdom.
  • However, the Bible never refers to Shabbat as “the Lord’s Day” either.
  • This view is further rendered unlikely since John was told to write, a creative activity widely considered prohibited on Shabbat.
• John was not referencing a specific day of the week, but a particular moment in time: the fulfillment and restoration of all things.
  • There are NUMEROUS biblical references for the “Day of the Lord” to support this view: (Is. 2:12; 13:6-9; Ezek. 13:5, 30:3; Joel 1:15; 2:1-31; 3:14; Amos 5:18-20; Obad. 15; Zeph 1:7-14; Zech 14:1; Mal 4:5).
  • This is where I tend to land.
  • John wasn’t telling us the day of the week so much as he told us the moment in time.
  • As Stern comments, for John to note the day of the week would be a minor if not an entirely insignificant detail. For John to say he was present for the final judgment is monumentally significant.¹⁴

A loud voice like a trumpet

• Hebrew for loud voice kol gadol – this is also how the Bible describes thunder or a deafening noise.
• In Daniel 10:6, “the sound of his words were like the sound of a multitude.” (photo credit¹⁵). John hears the same sound, but it is “loud voice, like a trumpet” to him.
  • The Greek does not indicate whether the trumpet is a shofar (a ram’s horn made into a trumpet) or a brass trumpet.
  • A brass trumpet would connote a call to battle, while a shofar would connote a call to worship. Either may be applicable.
• Later in chapter 1, John will more clearly describe a menorah, so precisely, a shofar, also used in the Jewish Temple service, looks likely here.
• In any case, when a Jew such as John heard a trumpet, he knew it was a call to assemble and prepare.

Rev 1:11: Write!

Write down what you see

• John wrote the vision down right away not just to remember it but also so it would function as a testimony.
• The person receiving an apocalypse was often told to “seal up” the words. Not so with John. This is to be an “open” book.

Photo credit: ¹⁶

• We will discuss the background of the seven cities when we get to chapters 2-3.

Conclusion

Verse 12 will begin a very unusual description of Jesus (or perhaps a blurring of the entire Godhead). We will pick this up next time, but there is one crucial point to make. The picture of Jesus in our minds may be quite different from the Jesus of Revelation. We must be conformed to his image and not force God to conform to our image. As we have been saying, we need not cling too tightly to any preconceptions. Revelation may challenge a lot of them. Part of the blessing from reading Revelation comes with our own unveiling; that is, when our biases and bloodspots are exposed and resolved.