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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comVincent Word Studies - Revelation 1:12 - 1:12
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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
To see the voice
The voice is put for the speaker.
That spake (ἥτις)
The compound relative has a qualitative force: of what sort.
With me (μετ' ἐμοῦ)
The preposition implies conversation and not mere address.
Candlesticks (λυχνίας)
See on Mat 5:15. We are at once reminded of the seven-branched candlestick of the tabernacle (Exo 25:31; Heb 9:2; compare Zec 4:2). Here there is not one candlestick with seven branches, but seven candlesticks, representing the Christian Church. The Jewish Church was one, as being the Church of a single people. The Christian Church, though essentially one, is a Church composed of many peoples. It is no longer outwardly one or in one place. According to the literal meaning of the word, lampstand, the several lampstands are bearers of the light (Mat 5:14, Mat 5:16), “holding forth the word of life” (Phi 2:15, Phi 2:16).
The epithet golden, so common in Revelation, indicates the preciousness of all that pertains to the Church of God. Trench observes that throughout the ancient East there was a sense of sacredness attached to this metal, which still, to a great extent, survives. Thus, golden in the Zend Avesta is throughout synonymous with heavenly or divine. Even so late as the time of David gold was not used as a standard of value, but merely as a very precious article of commerce, and was weighed. In the Scriptures it is the symbol of great value, duration, incorruptibility, strength (Isa 13:12; Lam 4:2; 2Ti 2:20; Job 36:19). It is used metaphorically of Christian character (Rev 3:18). In the Earthly Paradise, Dante describes trees like gold.
“A little farther on, seven trees of gold
In semblance the long space still intervening
Between ourselves and them did counterfeit.”
“Purgatorio,” xxix., 43-45