Vincent Word Studies - Revelation 1:4

Vincent Word Studies - Revelation 1:4 - 1:4

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Vincent Word Studies - Revelation 1:4 - 1:4

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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
John

Note the absence of all official titles, such as are found in Paul; showing that John writes as one whose position is recognized.

Seven

Among every ancient people, especially in the East, a religious significance attaches to numbers. This grows out of the instinctive appreciation that number and proportion are necessary attributes of the created universe. This sentiment passes over from heathenism into the Old Testament. The number seven was regarded by the Hebrews as a sacred number, and it is throughout Scripture the covenant number, the sign of God's covenant relation to mankind, and especially to the Church. The evidences of this are met in the hallowing of the seventh day; in the accomplishment of circumcision, which is the sign of a covenant, after seven days; in the part played by the number in marriage covenants and treaties of peace. It is the number of purification and consecration (Lev 4:6, Lev 4:17; Lev 8:11, Lev 8:33; Num 19:12). “Seven is the number of every grace and benefit bestowed upon Israel; which is thus marked as flowing out of the covenant, and a consequence of it. The priests compass Jericho seven days, and on the seventh day seven times, that all Israel may know that the city is given into their hands by God, and that its conquest is a direct and immediate result of their covenant relation to Him. Naaman is to dip in Jordan seven times, that he may acknowledge the God of Israel as the author of his cure. It is the number of reward to those who are faithful in the covenant (Deu 28:7; 1Sa 2:5); of punishment to those who are froward in the covenant (Lev 26:21, Lev 26:24, Lev 26:28; Deu 28:25), or to those who injure the people in it (Gen 4:15, Gen 4:24; Exo 7:25; Psa 79:12). All the feasts are ordered by seven, or else by seven multiplied into seven, and thus made intenser still. Thus it is with the Sabbath, the Passover, the Feast of Weeks, of Tabernacles, the Sabbath-year, and the Jubilee.”

Similarly the number appears in God's dealing with nations outside the covenant, showing that He is working for Israel's sake and with respect to His covenant. It is the number of the years of plenty and of famine, in sign that these are for Israel's sake rather than for Egypt's. Seven times pass over Nebuchadnezzar, that he may learn that the God of his Jewish captives is king over all the earth (partly quoted and partly condensed from Trench's “Epistles to the Seven Churches”).

Seven also occurs as a sacred number in the New Testament. There are seven beatitudes, seven petitions in the Lord's Prayer; seven parables in Matthew 13; seven loaves, seven words from the cross, seven deacons, seven graces (Rom 12:6-8), seven characteristics of wisdom (Jam 3:17). In Revelation the prominence of the number is marked. To a remarkable extent the structure of that book is molded by the use of numbers, especially of the numbers seven, four, and three. There are seven spirits before the throne; seven churches; seven golden candlesticks; seven stars in the right hand of Him who is like unto a son of man; seven lamps of fire burning before the throne; seven horns and seven eyes of the Lamb; seven seals of the book; and the thunders, the heads of the great dragon and of the beast from the sea, the angels with the trumpets, the plagues, and the mountains which are the seat of the mystic Babylon, - are all seven in number.

So there are four living creatures round about the throne, four angels at the four corners of the earth, holding the four winds; the New Jerusalem is foursquare. Authority is given to Death to kill over the fourth part of the earth, and he employs four agents.

Again the use of the number three is, as Professor Milligan remarks, “so remarkable and continuous that it would require an analysis of the whole book for its perfect illustration.” There are three woes, three unclean spirits like frogs, three divisions of Babylon, and three gates on each side of the heavenly city. The Trisagion, or “thrice holy,” is sung to God the Almighty, to whom are ascribed three attributes of glory.

Seven Churches

Not all the churches in Asia are meant, since the list of those addressed in Revelation does not include Colossae, Miletus, Hierapolis, or Magnesia. The seven named are chosen to symbolize the whole Church. Compare Rev 2:7. Seven being the number of the covenant, we have in these seven a representation of the Church universal.

In Asia

See on Act 2:9.

Grace - peace

For grace (χάρις), see on Luk 1:30. Both words are used by Paul in the salutations of all his Epistles, except the three Pastorals.

From Him which is, and which was, and which is to come (ἀπὸ τοῦ ὁ ὢν καὶ ὁ ἦν καὶ ὁ ἐρχόμενος)

The whole salutation is given in the name of the Holy Trinity: the Father (Him which is, and was, and is to come), the Spirit (the seven spirits), the Son (Jesus Christ). See further below. This portion of the salutation has no parallel in Paul, and is distinctively characteristic of the author of Revelation. It is one of the solecisms in grammatical construction which distinguishes this book from the other writings of John. The Greek student will note that the pronoun which (ὁ) is not construed with the preposition from (ἀπό), which would require the genitive case, but stands in the nominative case.

Each of these three appellations is treated as a proper name. The Father is Him which is, and which was, and which is to come. This is a paraphrase of the unspeakable name of God (Exo 3:14), the absolute and unchangeable. Ὁ ὢν, the One who is, is the Septuagint translation of Exo 3:14, “I am the ὁ ὢν (I am):” “ὁ ὢν (I am), hath sent me unto you.” The One who was (ὁ ἦν). The Greek has no imperfect participle, so that the finite verb is used. Which is and which was form one clause, to be balanced against which is to come. Compare Rev 11:17; Rev 16:5; and “was (ἦν) in the beginning with God” (Joh 1:2). Which is to come (ὁ ἐρχόμενος). Lit., the One who is coming. This is not equivalent to who shall be; i.e., the author is not intending to describe the abstract existence of God as covering the future no less than the past and the present. If this had been his meaning, he would have written ὁ ἐσόμενος, which shall be. The phrase which is to come would not express the future eternity of the Divine Being. The dominant conception in the title is rather that of immutability. Further, the name does not emphasize so much God's abstract existence, as it does His permanent covenant relation to His people. Hence the phrase which is to come, is to be explained in accordance with the key-note of the book, which is the second coming of the Son (Rev 1:7; Rev 22:20).

The phrase which is to come, is often applied to the Son (see on 1Jo 3:5), and so throughout this book. Here it is predicated of the Father, apart from whom the Son does nothing. “The Son is never alone, even as Redeemer” (Milligan). Compare “We will come unto him,” Joh 14:23. Origen quotes our passage with the words: “But that you may perceive that the omnipotence of the Father and of the Son is one and the same, hear John speaking after this manner in Revelation, 'Who is, etc.'” Dean Plumptre cornpares the inscription over the temple of Isis at Sais in Egypt: “I am all that has come into being, and that which is, and that which shall be, and no man hath lifted my veil.”

The Spirit is designated by

The seven Spirits (τῶν ἑπτὰ πνευμάτων)

Paul nowhere joins the Spirit with the Father and the Son in his opening salutations. The nearest approach is 2Co 13:13. The reference is not to the seven principal angels (Rev 8:2). These could not be properly spoken of as the source of grace and peace; nor be associated with the Father and the Son; nor take precedence of the Son, as is the case here. Besides, angels are never called spirits in this book. With the expression compare Rev 4:5, the seven lamps of fire, “which are the seven Spirits of God:” Rev 3:1, where Jesus is said to have “the seven Spirits of God.” Thus the seven Spirits belong to the Son as well as to the Father (see Joh 15:26). The prototype of John's expression is found in the vision of Zechariah, where the Messiah is prefigured as a stone with seven eyes, “the eyes of the Lord, which run to and fro through the whole earth” (Zec 3:9; Zec 4:10). Compare also the same prophet's vision of the seven-branched candlestick (Zec 4:2).

Hence the Holy Spirit is called the Seven Spirits; the perfect, mystical number seven indicating unity through diversity (1Co 12:4). Not the sevenfold gifts of the Spirit are meant, but the divine Personality who imparts them; the one Spirit under the diverse manifestations. Richard of St. Victor (cited by Trench, “Seven Churches”) says: “And from the seven Spirits, that is, from the sevenfold Spirit, which indeed is simple in nature, sevenfold in grace.”