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Rev_1:5. As from the seven spirits of God, as the Spirit of God and of the Lamb beheld in living concretion, comforting, warning, strengthening believers, but judging the world, grace and peace are wished; so also, finally (Rev_1:5-6), from Jesus Christ, since he is ὁ μάρτυς ὁ πιστὸς , κ . τ . λ . The construction with the genitive is not abandoned in order to indicate “the immutability of the testimony,”[589] neither is it aided by supplying ὅς ἐστίν :[590] but the importance of the ideas breaks through the limitations of regular form; the abrupt mode of speech makes prominent the intense independence of all three predicates. Compare the energetic change of construction in the sentences immediately following. All three predicates of Jesus Christ stand in pragmatic connection with the contents of the entire ἀποκάλυψις communicated through him, but not[591] in correspondence with the three themes of the ascription of praise, τ . ἀγαπῶντι , λύσαντι , and ἐποίησεν ἡμ . βασιλ ., κ . τ . λ . Inconsistent with the conception and reference of the three predicates, is also the opinion that in them Christ “is characterized according to the consecutive series of his works, and therefore according to his threefold office.”[592]
Christ exalted to his majesty is first ὁ μάρτυς ὁ πιστός , i.e., the trustworthy[593] witness, and not because in his earthly life he testified, in general, to the divine truth,[594] and maintained it even unto death;[595] nor because what he has threatened and promised in the flesh[596] he will execute: but also, not alone because of the attestation to apocalyptic truth,[597] which reference, of course, must not be omitted, but absolutely as the very one through whom each and every divine revelation occurs, who communicates predictions not only to the prophets in general,[598] as at present to the writer of the Apoc.,[599] but also testifies to the truth[600] by reproving, admonishing, and comforting the churches. That, just on this account, Christ was the faithful witness in the flesh, is self-evident, but lies here beyond the sphere of the visions.
ὁ πρωτότοκος τῶν νεκρῶν . This figurative expression[601] agrees, as to its essential meaning, with the figure, ἈΠΑΡΧΗ ΤῶΝ ΚΕΚΟΙΜΗΜΈΝΩΝ , 1Co_15:20.[602] The figure is obliterated if ΠΡΩΤΌΤΟΚΟς ,[603] without any thing further, be received like ἀρχή , the first.[604] Grot. already justly remarks, “The resurrection is a birth.”[605] Yet the view according to which the resurrection to a new life[606] appears as a birth is to be maintained in its simplicity, and not, as with Ebrard, to be further portrayed.[607] But, since Christ is the ΠΡΩΤΌΤ . Τ . ΝΕΚΡ ., he may represent himself as in Rev_1:18; Rev_2:8; and that applies to him as returning, which Rev_1:7 represents as the fundamental thought of the book. [See Note XX., p. 123.] ΚΑῚ Ὁ ἌΡΧΩΝ ΤῶΝ ΒΑΣΙΛΈΩΝ Τῆς Γῆς . This, Christ—to whom, as the Messiah, and that too as one dead and risen again, the dominion over all things belongs[608]—will prove himself to be, in the judgment, at his advent.[609]
[589] Grot., Stern.
[590] Er. Schmid, Schöttg.
[591] According to Ebrard.
[592] Ebrard. Cf. also Coccej., Vitr., Calov.
[593] Because true. Cf. Rev_3:14, Rev_19:11, Rev_21:5, Rev_22:6.
[594] Cf. Joh_3:11; 1Ti_6:13; Andr., Areth., Par., Coccej., Vitr., Grot., Calov., Eichh., Züll.
[595] Ebrard.
[596] Ewald compares Joh_7:7; Hengstenb., in addition to Joh_3:11; also Joh_16:33, etc.
[597] Rev_1:2, De Wette; cf. Heinr., Ew. ii.
[598] Rev_19:10.
[599] Rev_1:2; Rev_22:20; Rev_22:16.
[600] Rev_3:14.
[601] Cf. Col_1:18, πρωτότοκος ἔκ τ . νεκρ .
[602] Where also the partitive genitive denotes the mass to which Christ belongs.
[603] Cf. also Col_1:15, where Christ as the first-born is distinguished from that created by him.
[604] Hengstenb.
[605] Cf. also Ew.
[606] Cf. the ἔζησεν , Rev_2:8.
[607] That the expression ὠδῖνες , Act_2:24, properly has not been derived by Luke from the LXX. of Psa_18:5 (cf. Rev_1:6), but that Peter actually spake of the “bands” of death, is inferred from the fact that it is said that Christ could not have been held by it, viz., by death. That “the birth-pangs of death” could not have held Christ, that Christ forced his way through “these birth-pangs of death,” and therefore is to be understood as the first who “opened the womb,” is the inference of Ebrard.
[608] Psalms 2; cf. Act_13:33; Psalms 110, Psa_72:10 sqq., Psa_89:28; Isa_52:13 sqq.; Php_2:9; Mat_28:18.
[609] Cf. Rev_6:15, Rev_17:14, Rev_19:16.
If the three predicates of Christ just mentioned are presented without formal opposition, because in this way the unconditional objectivity of the ideas is the more forcibly marked, the subjective references in the following expressions, τ . ἀγαπ . ἡμᾶς , λυσ . ἡμας ἐκ τ . ἁμαρτ . ἡμῶν , ἐποιησ . ἡμῶν βασιλ ., require that they be made in the form of a doxology. The new clause, τῷ ἀγαπῶντι ἡμ ., looks from the very beginning to the close ( ἀυτῷ ) ἡ δόξα , κ . τ . λ .; the ἀυτῷ restoring the original form of the sentence after it had been interrupted, after a Hebraistic manner, by the finite tense, καὶ ἐποίησεν .[610]
The present, Τ . ἈΓΑΠῶΝΤΙ , is neither to be accounted for by the false reading ἈΓΑΠΉΣΑΝΤΙ , nor to be explained in the sense of an imperfect participle; but, on the contrary, the certainty that Christ continues to love his people is just as significant in the connection of the book as that of his being the faithful witness.[611] The bride is comforted, and rejoices in the coining of Him whom she loves.[612]
ΚΑῚ ΛΎΣΑΝΤΙ ἩΜᾶς ἘΚ ΤῶΝ ἉΜΑΡΤ . ἩΜ ., Κ . Τ . Λ . The loosing which Christ has accomplished[613] by means of his blood[614] [see Note XXI., p. 124] represents our sins as a power enchaining us.[615] For the thought, cf. the similar conception of ἈΓΟΡΆΖΕΙΝ , Rev_5:9.[616] The reading ΛΟΎΣΑΝΤΙ [617] yields, according to another figure,[618] essentially the same idea, in both of which[619] the forgiveness of sins and liberation from their power[620] are comprised. Yet, even in an exegetical respect, the reading λύσαντι is preferable. As in Rev_5:9 the allied idea of the ἀγοράζειν , so also here the λύσαντι ἡμ . is followed by the declaration which, in most forcible opposition to the bondage of the sins from which we are delivered, ascribes to us a royal dominion and holy priesthood with God.
[610] De Wette, etc.
[611] Cf. Rev_3:19.
[612] Rev_22:17; cf. also Rom_8:37 sqq.
[613] In regard to the meaning of the aor. λύσαντι and ἐποίησεν , cf. Rev_5:10; Heb_7:27; Gal_2:20.
[614] Cf., concerning this meaning of the ἐν , Rev_6:8; Winer, p. 363.
[615] Rev_20:7, where also the ἐκ , Rev_9:14-15, Rev_20:3; cf. Mat_16:19; Mat_18:18.
[616] 1Co_6:20; Gal_3:13; Act_20:28; 1Pe_1:18; Eph_1:7; Mat_20:18.
[617] Cf. Critical Notes.
[618] Psa_2:4; Isa_1:16; Isa_1:18; Rev_7:14.
[619] Cf., on the other hand, De Wette.
[620] Cf. the καθαρίζειν of 1Jn_1:7.
XX. Rev_1:5. ὁ πρωτότοκος
XXI. Rev_1:5. καὶ λὐσαντι