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Rev 1:10. Ἐγενόμην) A sentence consisting of three members: ἐγενόμην· ἐγενόμην· καὶ ἤκουσα: Rev 1:9-10.-ἐν τῇ κυριακῇ ἡμέρᾳ, on the Lord’s day) That there is a Lord’s day, and that it is so called, is plain even from this passage: moreover, that the Lord’s day is that day which was called by the Gentiles the day of the Sun, which is the first day of every week, and which is opposed to the Sabbath, the seventh day of the week, is clear from the universal stimony of Christian antiquity. We may also learn the reason of this title from the Scripture itself of the New Testament. Many seek the origin of the title in the fact of the Lord’s Resurrection on that day. This indeed is true, but it cannot have been the principal or the only reason. The days of the Lord’s Nativity, of His Baptism, Transfiguration, Cross, Resurrection, Ascension, and Coming in glory, are all remarkable. Which of these is in the highest sense the Lord’s day? The Lord’s Supper is the supper of the Lord: the Lord’s day is the day of our Lord Jesus Christ; under which name the style of the apostle denotes the one day of His coming, which also is spoken of absolutely as the day, or that day. The opinion of the ancient Christians is not at variance with this view; respecting which opinion these things are read in Jerome on that passage, at midnight, Matthew 25 : Let us say something, which perhaps may be useful to the reader. There is a tradition of the Jews, that Christ will come at midnight, in consonance with the time in Egypt, when the passover was celebrated, and the destroying angel came, and the Lord passed over the tents [of Israel]: the door-posts of our foreheads, too, have been consecrated with the blood of a Lamb. Whence I suppose, also that the apostolical tradition has continued, that on the eve of the passover it is not permitted to dismiss the people before midnight, expecting the coming of Christ: and when that time shall have passed, security being now presumed upon, all keep the festival. The Lord was expected on every Lord’s day, although the solemn expectation of His Coming was especially celebrated before the Paschal Lord’s day. The seventh day is a memorial of the creation: the first day is a memorial of the final consummation. The former is the day of Jehovah: the latter, the day of the Lord. Undoubtedly, whoever perceives beforehand in his mind, that the first day of the week is called the Lord’s day, because that is the day of the Lord’s coming, he then, and not till then, perceives with what remarkable propriety it happened to John, that he should, on the Lord’s day, both see and describe the Lord as coming.
I once thought that the vision, which Ezekiel relates from ch. 40, was on the day of the Sabbath, and that that day of the Sabbath might be compared with the Lord’s day mentioned in this passage; but I now of my own accord give up that idea. For indeed, in the year of the world 3374, in which Calvisius places that vision, the first day of Tisri was the Sabbath; but the vision was three years afterwards, on the tenth day of Tisri, in the middle of the week. The Lord’s day opens another inquiry. Irenæus, nearly a contemporary writer, affirms that the Apocalypse was seen Πρὸς τῷ τέλει, at the end of the reign of Domitian; and, besides others, Newton vainly opposes him, in his Observ. on the Ap. p. 163. See Exeg. Germ. p. 174. But Domitian was slain in the 96th year Dion., on the 18th Sept., on the Lord’s day: and since Irenæus thus accurately marks the time of the vision by the well-known death of the persecutor, it will be most safe to depart as little as possible from the very day. But what if that Lord’s day in that year was the 3d April, that is, the paschal feast; or the 19th June: comp. Ord. Temp. p. 389 [Ed. ii. p. 334, sq.]; or the 18th of September itself? I define nothing: I follow the footsteps of Irenæus. At any rate, the fact of the Apocalypse being given before the death of Domitian supplies another observation. Apollonius of Tyana was addressing the people at Ephesus, and in the middle of his speech he exclaimed, Strike the tyrant; and again, Be of good courage, the tyrant is slain. And on that day, and at that hour, Domitian was slain at Rome. Whether Apollonius had been aware of the conspiracy against Domitian, or perceived from any other source what was taking place, the Apocalypse at the same time supplied the Ephesians with a much greater discovery of future events, to check the followers of Apollonius, and to vindicate the glory of Jesus Christ.-ἤκουσα ὀπίσω μου, I heard behind me) John’s face had been turned towards the east; and in like manner the Lord, while He appears to him, directed His face to the east, towards Asia, to which the writing was to be sent.