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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comRobertson Word Pictures - Revelation 1:9 - 1:9
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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
1 John (Egō Iōanēs). So Rev 22:8. In apocalyptic literature the personality of the writer is always prominent to guarantee the visions (Dan 8:1; Dan 10:2).
Partaker with you (sunkoinōnos). See note on 1Co 9:23. “Co-partner with you” (Rom 11:17). One article with adelphos and sunkoinōnos unifying the picture. The absence of apostolos here does not show that he is not an apostle, but merely his self-effacement, as in the Fourth Gospel, and still more his oneness with his readers. So there is only one article (tēi) with thlipsei (tribulation), basileiāi (kingdom), hupomonēi (patience), ideas running all through the book. Both the tribulation (see Mat 13:21 for thlipsis) and the kingdom (see Mat 3:2 for basileia) were present realities and called for patience (hupomonē being “the spiritual alchemy” according to Charles for those in the kingdom, for which see Luk 8:15; Jam 5:7). All this is possible only “in Jesus” (en Iēsou), a phrase on a par with Paul’s common en Christōi (in Christ), repeated in Rev 14:13. Cf. Rev 3:20; 2Th 3:5.
Was (egenomēn). Rather, “I came to be,” second aorist middle indicative of ginomai.
In the isle that is called Patmos (en tēi nēsōi tēi kaloumenēi Patmōi). Patmos is a rocky sparsely settled island some ten miles long and half that wide, one of the Sporades group in the Aegean Sea, south of Miletus. The present condition of the island is well described by W. E. Geil in The Isle That Is Called Patmos (1905). Here John saw the visions described in the book, apparently written while still a prisoner there in exile.
For the word of God and the testimony of Jesus (dia ton logon tou theou kai tēn marturian Iēsou). The reason for (dia and the accusative) John’s presence in Patmos, naturally as a result of persecution already alluded to, not for the purpose of preaching there or of receiving the visions. See Rev 1:2 for the phrase.