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Rev_1:11. ὃ βλέπεις . The present is neither to be changed into the future,[732] nor to be explained by the fact, that, with the hearing (Rev_1:10), the seeing, in the wider sense, has already begun;[733] but is without relation to time, i.e., it is not formally noted that the visions upon which the presentation depends[734] are yet to follow. There is a similar use of ἀποστέλλω , Mat_23:34. The book into which John, according to the command, wrote what he had seen,[735] is the entire Revelation before us.[736]
The πέμψον in no way necessitates the conception, conflicting with the double ἐγενόμην ,[737] that the book was written on Patmos;[738] but rather the sending of the book is explained in accordance with the epistolary superscription, Rev_1:4 sqq., even if one of the seven cities—perhaps Ephesus—must be regarded the author’s place of abode, from the preponderating consideration shown it above the other cities. It is, of course, in itself improbable that John wrote long after the reception of the revelation, but he rather wrote “while the ἐν πνεύματι still continued in effective operation:”[739] but it would have been impossible[740] for him to write while in the condition which he designates by ἐγεν . ἐν πνεύματι ; for an essential element of this condition is the cessation of the activity of the νοῦς , upon which nothing less than every thing pertaining to the literary form and character of the book throughout depends.
The seven cities named are clearly introduced according to their geographical situation. According to the adjustment of vision from the standpoint of one directing the sending of the book,—not of the one writing,—two lines moderately direct appear from Patmos, in which the cities lie. In the first line, from south to north, are Ephesus, Smyrna, and Pergamos; in the second line, which extends from north to south,—since Thyatira, which is in the neighborhood of Pergamos, naturally stands first,—lie Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea. (See on Rev_1:20.)
[732] Ew., De Wette.
[733] Hengstenb.
[734] Winer, p. 249 sqq.
[735] Cf. Rev_5:3.
[736] Against Hengstenb.; cf. on Rev_5:4.
[737] See above.
[738] Hengstenb., Ebrard, Klief.
[739] Lücke, p. 814.
[740] Cf. Ebrard himself vs. Hengstenb.