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REVELATION CHAPTER 1
Rev_1:1-3 The preface.
Rev_1:4-6 John's salutation to the seven churches of Asia.
Rev_1:7 The coming of Christ,
Rev_1:8 his eternal majesty.
Rev_1:9-20 John relateth his vision of the Son of man with the
seven stars and the seven golden candlesticks.
The Revelation of Jesus Christ; the Apocalypse, (as this book is sometimes called), that is, the discovering or unveiling of some hidden things; so the word revelation signifieth. The Greek word is often used in the New Testament, and is ordinarily translated so. It is called The Revelation of Jesus Christ because Christ received it from his Father, as the next words show.
Which God gave unto him, as he was Mediator: by God, here, is to be understood the Father, not exclusively to the Son, as if he were not God, but to show the order of working in the Holy Trinity, Joh_7:16 Joh_14:10. Christ in his state of humiliation is said to learn of the Father; in his state of exaltation, to receive from the Father.
To show unto his servants; to John, and by him to all saints that will be studious of things revealed.
Things which must shortly come to pass; a dei genesyai en tacei. This phrase puts us out of doubt, that this book is not a relation or narrative of things past, but a revelation or prediction of things to come: see also Rev_22:6,16. Which makes me wonder at the confidence of a learned annotator of our that all things here relate, either to the siege of Jerusalem (which was past more than twenty years before this Revelation to St. John), or to pagan Rome, which, indeed, continued two hundred and odd years after this. But his notion is contrary to the general sense of all interpreters, whether the ancient fathers or modern writers. The phrase, indeed, signifies shortly, but never what was past, nor always what shall in a few days come to pass; see Luk_18:8 Rom_16:20; though indeed sometimes it signifies the time immediately following a command, as Act_12:7 Act_22:18: and considering it is God's phrase, to whom a thousand years are but as yesterday, Psa_90:4, and who calls the things that are not as if they were, and who manifestly calls all those years between Christ's coming and the end of the world (almost one thousand seven hundred of which are past already) the last days, we may allow him to say, those things should be shortly, which soon after should begin to be effected, though not finished till Christ's second coming. Though therefore we may allow this verse the key to open the whole Apocalypse, yet we must judge the learned author hath turned it the wrong way. Christ had foretold the ruin of Jerusalem, Mat_24:1-51, nor was it now the matter of a prophecy, but history. The first six seals plainly show the state of the Christian church under Rome pagan; what shall we say to all things represented under the seventh seal, &c.?
And he sent and signified it by his angel; first by one angel, and then by another, or (possibly) constantly by the same.
Unto his servant John: who this John was, we shall declare further, Rev_1:2,4.