Bird's-eye view
The first three verses of the Apocalypse serve as the grand inscription over the entrance to the whole book. They tell us what kind of book it is, who it's from, who it's for, and, crucially, when it's about. This is the Revelation, the unveiling, of Jesus Christ. It is not, as many have supposed, the Great Obfuscation of Jesus Christ. It was written to be understood by its immediate audience, the seven churches in Asia Minor. The central message is that the climactic events it describes were to happen "soon," for "the time is near." This is not a book about 21st-century politics, Russian helicopters, or European barcodes. It is a covenant lawsuit, a prophetic declaration of judgment against first-century, apostate Israel, which culminated in the destruction of the Temple in A.D. 70. This prologue establishes the book's authority, its central character (Jesus), its genre (prophecy), and its time frame (imminent). To miss these foundational verses is to wander off into the interpretive wilderness before even taking the first step.
John is the messenger, but the message originates with God the Father, is given to the Son, transmitted by an angel, and delivered to the servants of God. This chain of command establishes the divine authority of the prophecy. And a blessing is pronounced, not on the one who successfully deciphers a complex cryptogram about the distant future, but on the one who reads, hears, and keeps what is written. This implies a practical, ethical, and immediate application for the original audience. They were to hear and obey because the events were hard upon them. The entire book is a battle cry and a comfort, a declaration that though the world was about to be turned upside down, Jesus Christ is on the throne, and His kingdom is advancing.
Outline
- 1. The Divine Inscription (Rev 1:1-3)
- a. The Origin and Subject of the Revelation (Rev 1:1a)
- b. The Imminent Time Frame (Rev 1:1b)
- c. The Chain of Divine Transmission (Rev 1:1c-2)
- d. The Blessing of Prophetic Obedience (Rev 1:3)
Context In Revelation
These three verses are the prologue to the entire book of Revelation. They set the stage for everything that follows. Immediately after this, John will deliver the opening greeting to the seven churches (1:4-8), which is then followed by the magnificent vision of the glorified Christ walking among the lampstands (1:9-20). The letters to the seven churches in chapters 2 and 3 apply the book's central themes to the specific situations of those congregations. The prologue's emphasis on imminence ("soon," "the time is near") is the interpretive key that unlocks the rest of the book. Without it, interpreters are untethered from the historical context and are free to make the symbols mean anything they want. But with this prologue firmly in place, we are forced to ask how the original audience would have understood these prophecies of judgment and vindication in their immediate future. This historical anchor grounds the seals, trumpets, and bowls in the great covenantal conflict between the Church and apostate Israel, between the New Jerusalem and the Great City, Babylon.
Key Issues
- The Meaning of "Revelation" (Apokalypsis)
- The Imminence of the Prophecy ("soon," "near")
- The Identity of the "Slaves" or "Servants"
- The Nature of Prophecy
- The Preterist vs. Futurist Interpretation
- The Chain of Divine Authority
The Unveiling
The very first word of the book is Apokalypsis, which means an "unveiling" or a "disclosure." It is a crying shame that the word "apocalypse" has come to mean, in popular parlance, a cataclysmic, world-ending disaster. That is not its primary meaning. The book was written to reveal, not to conceal. G.K. Chesterton once quipped that John saw many strange monsters in his vision, but none so strange as any of his commentators. This is because so many commentators come to the book assuming it is a secret code about far-flung events, and so they proceed to make it one. But the book says what it is right on the tin. It is an unveiling. It is pulling back the curtain so that the servants of God can see what is happening on the stage of history from the perspective of the throne room of heaven. It is a book meant to bring clarity, not confusion; comfort, not consternation. If our interpretation makes the book more confusing than it was before we started, we are doing it wrong.
Verse by Verse Commentary
1 The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave Him to show to His slaves the things which must soon happen; and He indicated this by sending it through His angel to His slave John,
The book begins by establishing its origin and its subject. This is first the Revelation of Jesus Christ in two senses. It is a revelation that belongs to Him, which God the Father gave to Him. And it is a revelation about Him. Jesus Christ is not only the revealer; He is the one revealed. He is the central figure of the entire drama. This unveiling was given for a purpose: to show His slaves, His douloi, what must soon happen. The Greek phrase here, en tachei, means quickly, speedily, without delay. This is the first of two time markers in this prologue that anchors the prophecy to the first century. These are not events for the distant future; they are on the very doorstep of the original audience. The message was then signified, shown through signs and symbols, and sent via an angel to John. This is a heavenly message, with a clear chain of custody from the Father to the Son to the angel to the prophet, establishing its unimpeachable authority.
2 who bore witness to the word of God and to the witness of Jesus Christ, even to all that he saw.
John here identifies his role. He is a witness. He is not the author of the message, but its faithful courier. His testimony consists of two things that are essentially one: the word of God and the witness of Jesus Christ. This is the consistent testimony of Scripture. To bear witness to God's Word is to bear witness to Jesus. John is simply reporting what he was shown. He is passing on the heavenly vision, the divine testimony, without addition or subtraction. His authority as an apostle undergirds the authority of the book itself. He saw these things, and he is telling us what he saw. This is not speculation or religious fiction; it is eyewitness testimony to a divine revelation.
3 Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of the prophecy and keep the things which are written in it, for the time is near.
This verse contains the first of seven beatitudes in Revelation. A special blessing is pronounced on those who engage with this book in the right way. Notice the three-fold action: reading, hearing, and keeping. In the ancient world, most people were illiterate. One person would read the letter aloud in the church gathering, and the congregation would hear it. But it doesn't stop there. They were to keep it, to obey it, to guard it. This is a book that demands a response. It is a prophecy, which means it is a word from God for the people of God, demanding repentance and faith. And why the urgency? The reason is given plainly: for the time is near. The Greek ho kairos engus means the appointed time, the decisive moment, has drawn close. This reinforces the imminence stated in verse one. The original audience was blessed for keeping these words because the events prophesied were about to break over their heads. They needed to understand the times so they would know how to live. The judgment on Jerusalem was at hand, and with it, the vindication of the church.
Application
While the specific historical fulfillment of most of Revelation is in our past, the application of its message is perennial. First, we must learn to read the Bible on its own terms. If the text says "soon" and "near," we have no right to make it mean "thousands of years from now." We must submit to what the Word says, not try to make it fit our preconceived notions, whether they come from newspaper headlines or dispensational charts. Honest exegesis must always begin with what the text meant to its original audience.
Second, this book is designed to reveal Jesus Christ in His glory. We should read it, not to satisfy our curiosity about the future, but to heighten our worship of the ascended and reigning King. He is the one who holds the keys of death and Hades, who walks among His churches, and who is orchestrating all of history for His glory and the good of His people. Revelation should make us bold, not fearful. It shows us that even when the world is convulsing in judgment, God is on His throne, and the Lamb has already conquered.
Finally, the blessing is for those who keep what is written. This book is a call to faithful endurance. The first-century Christians were facing intense persecution and the temptation to compromise with the pagan culture or to shrink back into a dead Judaism. Revelation was written to steel their spines, to encourage them to hold fast, to be faithful unto death. We too are called to be overcomers. We are called to keep the word of God and the testimony of Jesus in our own generation, which has its own beasts and its own Babylons. The time for the final consummation of all things may not be "near" in the same way it was for them, but the time for our own faithfulness is always now. And the blessing for that faithfulness remains.