Notes on Revelation 4

Door in heaven opened—This is a passageway to the Spirit world, an alternative universe that runs parallel to our world.

First voice—This is Jesus, who has not yet been named. This may indicate that this is a separate vision taking place at a later time, because John has to inform us who he was speaking to, as if we weren’t just hearing a long set of speeches from this same voice.

“Come up here”—Some say that this phrase is in the future and it represents the rapture. This could not be, for the following reasons:
a. The end of the sentence is where the spirit-being indicates that he would show “What will happen after this”, thus the prophecy of future times is not yet.
b. The purpose of the sentence is to give prophetic knowledge, not to live in heaven
c. John does not represent the church, but is simply a prophet.
Thus, the statement is not about the rapture, but an invitation to receive spiritual knowledge.

“In the spirit”—This might be the prophetic spirit, indicating an ecstatic trance, or it could be the Spirit World itself (or both). Clearly, John is indicating that what he is seeing is in the spirit world and he is reflecting that in his words.

The Vision—This is a Throne vision, such as was often experienced in the OT (e.g. Isaiah 6, Ezekiel 1-2, I Kings 22:19ff). This passage closely parallels Ezekiel’s vision, but it also gives some changes from that. From this point through much of the rest of the book, all action is centered on the throne. This reflects basic Christian theology that all real political and natural actions come from the authority of God—whether good or evil from a human perspective.

The throne—God is spoken of as the one who sits on the throne, not mentioned directly as is common in the first century. John is seeing the reality on which the ark of the covenant was copied (Hebrews 8:5). Thus there are parallels between the temple/tabernacle and the throne room of God, including cherubim, precious stones, and a sea. (Exodus 28, II Chronicles 3-4). This description is copied from Ezekiel 1:26-28,

Jasper, Carnelian, Emerald—Representing magnificence. All were used in Eden (Eze 28:13). Probably a summary of the full list of stones in Rev 21. The throne room is the seed of the new creation.

Rainbow—Also Eze 1:28. As God promised in Genesis 9, the rainbow would be ever before him, to remind him to keep his promise not to destroy all of humanity.

Twenty four elders, thrones—God’s full people have always been represented by 12 tribes. The original leaders of the tribes were the patriarchs, who are given blessing by Jacob/Israel in Genesis 49 and Moses in Deuteronomy 33. A father is a leader, always, and represents the clan. But Jesus proclaimed that the 12 apostles would sit on twelve thrones and rule over the twelve tribes (Luke 22:30, Matt. 19:28; Rev. 21:12ff). All the promises of God are represented here, giving the ruling of the people of God to both patriarchs and apostles.
They are not angels, because angels are always mentioned separately. They are priests, of a sort (as there are 24 head priests in the early temple—I Chron. 24:4-6), as they lead worship and pray to God. But they are also kings, as they sit on thrones and have crowns. Nor are they the church, for the church is spoken of as multitudes in white robes (7:9-17). It is best to see them as the leaders—as “elders” are always seen as leaders of a clan—of the people of God.


Lightning, sounds, thunder—The kind of voice that came from God during the speaking of the ten words (Exodus 19:16; 20:18; Job 37:2; Job 40:9; Psalm 77:18). This voice of God is the source of later judgments in 8:5, 11:19 and 16:18.

Seven lamps=seven spirits-- See Zechariah 4:2-6. God’s spirit is seen as His power through which He works in the world. Spirit is not ethereal, but super-physical. The “lightning” in Ex 20:18 is in the LXX translated as “lamps” or “torches”—the same word used here. These are certainly seen as representing God’s power.

Sea of glass like crystal—In Genesis 1, the sea is divided between the earthly sea and a spiritual one. Sea monsters (like Leviathan or Satan) frolic in the heavenly sea (Psalm 104). In the Temple, there was a sea which was a giant basin for the priests to wash their hands between sacrifices (II Chron 4:2-10). In the OT, there are two main physical seas—the “Reed” or Red and the “Great” or Mediterrarian. Solomon placed his sea toward the Southeast, so that might represent the Red Sea. But this Sea is unique, clear as crystal, like the water in the final utopia (22:1). Ezekiel also saw an “expanse” of crystal in his vision of the throneroom (Eze 1:22). The spiritual sea is the living space of powerful spirits, many of which are in opposition to God. But God is Lord of all of them, no matter their opposition to God and His creation. Genesis 1 is actually God’s way of separating the powerful spiritual creatures from God’s creation on the earth, so that the earth creatures might be ruled by humans. (Isaiah 51:9-11; Psalm 74:12-15; Eze 32:2)

Four living ones—Not “creatures” as most translations. The term is more generic than that. These are the beings found in both Ezekiel and Isaiah before the throne (Ezekiel 1:5-21; 10:1ff; Isaiah 6). They are called either “cherubim” (Ezekiel) or “seraphim” (Isaiah). They are represented in both the ark of the covenant (2 of them) and statues in the holy of holies of the temple (two of them) (Exodus 25:18ff, II Chron. 3)

Different traditions of the cherubim/seraphim—The number of wings vary (4 in Ezekiel, 2 pairs of three in Isaiah, 6 unpaired ones in Revelation); Their position varies (above the throne in Isaiah, the base of the throne in Ezekiel, “in the midst of the throne” in Revelation); Faces differ (4 faces of each in Ezekiel; one different face on each of the four in Rev.).

In the midst of the throne—The four living ones actually hold up the throne. This is the same in Ezekiel 10.

Four types of cherubim—In rabbinic writings, the lion, ox, eagle and human are the strongest beings, lords over the animal kingdoms. A late rabbinic saying is, “The mightiest of the birds is the eagle, the mightiest among the domestic animals is the ox, the mightiest among the wild animals is the lion and the mightiest of all of these is a human being. God has taken all these and secured them to his throne.”

Six wings—A detail from Isaiah 6.

Full of eyes, eyes all around the wings—Could represent omniscience. Not only do they represent the main groups of animals, they see all within their respective animal kingdoms?

Holy Holy Holy—The word “holy” means the separate, the uniquely pure. In Hebrew, when a word is repeated, it is increased. Thus a thrice repeated “holy” would mean “the most holy”. The congregation could stand in the Holy, the high priest alone could go into the Holy Holy, the presence of God is the Holy Holy Holy. Thrice repeated “holy” is also stated by the seraphim around the throne in Isaiah 6.

Lord God Almighty—Oft used title of God (e.g. Amos 3:13; Hosea 12:6; Nahum 3:5; Zech 10:3; Malachi 2:16). God’s sovereignty and power is emphasized. God is the unlimited ruler of the universe.

He who is and was and is coming—God is sovereign over all ages, past, present and future.

The Living One—The supreme living one, Lord over all other living ones.

Forever and ever—Literally, “to the One Living to the ages of ages” (See Daniel 4:34 and 12:7). Ultimately, this is actually a repeat of the earlier, longer praise.

Notes on Letters in Revelation 2-3 Intro

Pattern of the letters—
Command to write to an angel of a church
Christ’s self description
Commendation of a church’s good works (Except Laodikia)
Accusation due to sin (Except Smyrna and Philadelphia)
Exhortation to repent with a warning of judgment/or an encouragement
“He who has an ear…”
Promise to the victors

Chistic formula:
Ephesus-- Condemned
Smyrna—Approved
Pergamum—Some condemned, some approved
Thyatira—Some condemned, some approved
Sardis—Some condemned, some approved
Philadelphia—Approved
Laodikia-- Condemned

Themes in all the letters:
Angel: The letters are sent to the angel of the church. While “angel” could mean a human messenger, the word is never used in Revelation in this sense. It is always intended as the spirit that represents a particular entity. So the letters are sent to the representative of each city church/Christian synagogue that stands before Christ.

Church as a unit: Although each city church is spoken to as a unit, each individual within the church is judged individually. Most of the churches are of one mind to such a degree that they are either condemned or approved of as a unit. But Thyatira, especially, is divided between those who listen to false teachers and those who do not. While the former are roundly condemned, the latter are completely approved of.

“He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches”—This phrase is used in every letter. It is a phrase used to call attention to the significance of each letter. It is based on Jesus’ commonly used phrase, “He who has an ear, let him hear.” This means if one has the ability to physically hear then that one should pay attention because this is important. The addition, “what the Spirit says to the churches” makes it clear that this is a prophecy that John is receiving from the Spirit and it is being given to Jesus’ churches.

“Church”—The word used is “ekklesia” which literally means a congregation, and in the OT is often used of the congregation of Israel, namely those who are able to enter the temple. These are speaking of Jesus synagogues (synagogue is a synonym of ekklesia in Semetic Koine). It could be translated as “congregation.”

Notes on Revelation 1

“Revelation” or unveiling or opening—An opening, likely in vision form, of the Spirit world (Daniel 2)
Displaying the “reality behind reality”

Messiah Jesus—Christos is used among early Christians to be a title of the Messiah, the Jewish replacement of Caesar. Jesus, who died and rose again, is revealed in the writing to be that Messiah.

“Slaves”, servants of a king, those bound by a covenant to serve a greater one, although the freedom of that one, apart from the command of the king, is not limited.

“Quickness” or “nearness” Similar to Mark 1:15; Indicating an immediate fulfillment whose fruition might occur later: e.g. Jesus crucifixion -> destruction of Jerusalem.

God to angel to John to churches—This is the same pattern the law was given, with John taking Moses’ place and the churches taking the place of Israel.

John—Probably not John the apostle, certainly not John the elder (writer of John and epistles), nor John the Baptist. John was a common name, used of many leaders of the early church. Hebrew—Yohan. John is a prophet of Asia Minor.

Prophecy—John saw visions and wrote what he saw down. This was common work for a prophet. Often the visions of the spirit world were symbolic in nature (e.g. Jeremiah 1; Zechariah), and they sometimes related to the future. But the point of the visions and the sermons related to them was to re-focus the devotion and ethical behavior of the recipients.

“One who reads” is the one who is reciting the book to any particular church. Some reciters were in a church and would receive a text, more often they would travel from church to church, reciting the text in each church. These are blessed for continually reciting God’s word.

“Keep the words”—The point of prophecy is not so much to believe it, as to obey it. Those who hear it are only blessed if they obey the point of the prophecy.

“Grace and Peace”—Common introduction in Greek epistles to Jewish people. It uses both the common Greek greeting and the common Hebrew greeting.

Him who is and was and who is to come—There is a Greek problem with the grammar here. It indicates that a reference to Exodus 3, where God revealed himself as the “I Am” is in mind. The fact that God is also the God who was and who is to be indicates that all ages are ruled by God—He has never ceased to rule.

Seven Spirits—The seven spirits is a reference to the Holy Spirit, just as Zechariah 4:2-7 also refers to seven items which are really the one Spirit of God. The Spirit is probably seven here to indicate representation of the seven churches, even as there are seven angels and seven lampstands—all probably the same representation of the churches to God.

The Witness, the Faithful—In Greek, this might normally be understood as “the faithful witness”, but this title is repeated in 2:13 of Antipas, with the addition of “my” twice. This indicates that Jesus was faithful in His speaking of God’s word, even to the end, even facing persecution. This is important, as this is what the book insists that the churches do—be a faithful witness to Jesus in the midst of persecution.

Firstborn of the dead—As is stated elsewhere in the NT (such as I Corinthians 15), Jesus is the first one to have been permanently released from the clutches of death. As the “firstborn” He is also the primary inheritor of God’s kingdom, the Son of God—Psalm 88:27-37; II Samuel 7:13-16; Psalm 2:7-8.

King of kings—Also an important NT title. It means “emperor”, just as Caesar was. Jesus IS the ruler, because he sits as king at the right hand of God the Father (Hebrews 1). The kings of the earth are the enemies of the Messiah, as stated in Psalm 2.

All of these titles—“Faithful Witness” “Firstborn” and “Ruler of the Kings of the earth” can be found of David in Psalm 88: 27 and 37. “Faithful witness” is also found in Isaiah 43:10-13.

Doxology—Jesus loved us so much, he sacrificed himself for our sins. This makes him both priest and sacrifice. This self-sacrifice established the kingdom of God, which we may all enter in due to the forgiveness of our sins. The Passover lamb is alluded to.

Kingdom, priests—Due to Jesus’ work, His people make up a kingdom, specifically, THE kingdom of God. Jesus’ people function as priests, mediating for the world before God through the Spirit. Jesus’ people is elsewhere designated as a kingdom of priests (I Peter 2:5-10), as are the people of God in general (Exodus 19:6). Because we are sprinkled with His blood, we have become priests (Exodus 29:10-21), even as the ancient Israelites were (Exodus 24).

Glory and Power—Due to this work of redemption, God deserves all the respect and the authority over all the kingdom. Jesus did the footwork, but the Father offered the plan. Jesus, in the doxology, remains submitted to the Father throughout.

“Of the ages”—Meaning all the glory and power of all ages, thus for all eternity.

“He comes in clouds”—From Daniel 7:13, which is about the Messiah’s enthronement over all the nations after God’s judgment. “Who they have pierced”—From Zechariah 12:10, which speaks of God’s judgment over all nations after they rejected God and his messenger. The two passages were also used together in Matthew 24:30. Daniel 7:13 is also used in reference to Jesus in Mark 13:26 and 14:62. The fact that it is all the nations of the earth who rejected Jesus and not just Israel is emphasized here.

“Mourning”—This mourning could speak of a rejection of Jesus, i.e. mourning that Jesus has come to take over their nations. Or it could mean a process of repentance due to Jesus’ death, i.e. a realization that Jesus died for them and so weeping over their own sin. Probably the first, since that seems to be the context of Daniel, Matthew and Mark.

Alpha and Omega—In Jewish literature the whole of the law could be described as being from “aleph to tau”, the first and last letters of the Hebrew alphabet. God’s complete authority is described by the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet, probably since the lingua franca of rulers from Alexander’s time was Greek. This Greek phrase is also used in Greek magic literature to describe certain gods.

The Almighty—This phrase is used in Haggai, Zechariah and Malachi to describe God’s unending authority.

The suffering, the kingdom, the endurance—All three of these are connected, and John and those he was writing to share in all three.

Patmos—An island off the coast of Turkey. Tradition states that John was in exile there. There are a couple marks against that idea—first of all, the text doesn’t say it. All it says is that he was there due to his testimony of Jesus, but this may be because he was called to proclaim the gospel there. Secondly, Patmos wasn’t a place of exile. It is possible that other, smaller islands near Patmos were places of exile, but Patmos was a part of the Roman Empire. This is not to deny the tradition, but the tradition could be a misreading of the text.

The Lord’s Day—This phrase isn’t clear. It is used to refer to God’s judgment in the OT, but since the phrase is used as a temporal indicator, that meaning doesn’t do it. It might be the Sabbath (Friday night to Saturday), but we have no indication that Christians or Jews used this phrase for the Sabbath at that time. This could be Sunday, although the phrase wasn’t used for Sunday until long after Revelation, although the Epistle of Barnabas indicates that Sunday (“the eighth day”) was a day for Christian celebration. It just isn’t clear.

“In the Spirit”—This is a phrase used in Ezekiel to indicate a prophetic trance.

Seven—Seven, in Scripture, is a number of fulfillment or completeness.

Voice like a trumpet—A really loud voice. Possible allusion to Exodus 19.

The seven cities—There is no particular order to the cities, although all of them are in Asia Minor, modern-day Turkey. Seven churches of John’s ministry were chosen to indicate a complete number, which represents all churches in the world. There is nothing to indicate that they each represent a different church age.

Seven lampstands—Lampstands were part of the Temple’s “furniture”, representing the people of God before the throne in God’s court (Exodus 25, 37, Numbers 8). These lampstands are also the seven spirits in Rev. 1:4, which is the presence of the church before God. This is a reference to Zechariah 4:2-6. It might be that the light itself emanating from the lampstands is the Spirit. Lampstands as temple furniture: I Kings 7:49; I Chron 28:15; II Chron 4:7, 20; Jeremiah 52:19-- lampstands taken away along with other utensils;

Among the lampstands—Jesus is among the lampstands as a priest, tending the lamps so that the light doesn’t go out.

“One like the Son of Man”—This is a description used of two different people in Daniel. In Daniel 7, it describes the Messiah receiving authority from the Ancient of Days. In Daniel 10, it describes an archangel who struggled to visit Daniel. Both passages are used to describe Jesus.

White hair—This description is borrowed from Daniel 7:9-10, which is describing the Ancient of Days, God the Father, judging the world.

Feet, tunic, sash, eyes—These descriptions are that given to the archangel in Daniel 10: 5-9.

Feet of polished bronze—The kind of bronze indicates that they have been worked on. This could indicate purity or endurance through suffering.

Clothing—The white clothing with a golden sash could either be priestly or kingly clothing, perhaps highlighting the ambiguity between Jesus’ kingly and priestly functions over the church. This clothing is described in Zechariah 4:3, 11-14; I Maccabees 10:88-89; 14:30, 32-47. In all of these passages, the rulers are both authoritative as a king and has a priestly function.

Stars—Stars are often associated with spirits in the OT (e.g. Daniel 8:10). However, in Daniel 12, “stars” are used to describe the chosen of Israel who would be resurrected in God’s kingdom. These stars are used to describe the church, as represented by spiritual beings. Jesus has them in his hand to indicate his rule over them.

Sword from the mouth—This is based on Isaiah 11:4 and 49:2, and the image is repeated in Revelation 2:16 and 19:15. This indicates that Jesus’ weapon against his enemies is his words, and his words will destroy them completely.
Voice like many waters—This is based on Ezekiel 43:2, where God comes to judge the nations. This is a similar image to the previous one, where his voice is used as a weapon. “Many waters” is often used in the OT as a description of terrible wrath (Psalm 18:16; Psalm 93:4)

Face as the sun—This is somewhat described in Daniel 10 of the archangel, but it is an exact quote about the Israelite warrior of Judges 5:20. Thus, Jesus is seen as a victorious warrior.

Description of Jesus—Put together, the description of Jesus is that of an all-powerful spirit, similar to both God and the most powerful of angels. He is a king, ruling over the church. He is a priest, tending the church. And he is a warrior, victorious against the enemies of God.

Falling on his face—John follows Daniel’s pattern, falling in fear before the powerful being before him (Daniel 8 and 10). Even as Daniel, John is told to be strong and given further instructions.

“Do not fear”—Jesus speaks the words of all spirits, for the one gazing upon the spirit not to be afraid, because the spirit intends the one seeing him no harm. But more than this, Jesus tells John that he need not be afraid of death at all. Jesus himself passed through death, came out on the other side and is now in charge of death itself.

Death and Hades—Death and Hades (also called Sheol in Hebrew) are often personified in the Bible, and also a description of a place. It is the final authority over humanity, where complete justice is given, and separation from life is complete. Jesus, however, has taken authority over this god and this realm, determining himself who lives and who dies after death.

What you have seen…-- This statement is difficult to interpret, and many commentators have looked at it different ways. While “what is to come” is not best understood as “what is in the future”, it is still not clear. I prefer to simply understand it as the whole of the visions that John has and will experience.

The mystery—Jesus gives John an indication that what he is seeing is not all literal. The stars are not literally stars and the lampstands are not literally lampstands. Rather they represent other things. Some things in the visions are explained, while others are not. We are to be wise in making determinations about what means what, but we need to remember—what is seen is not always what is real.

Angels—Do angels mean spirits or messengers? Since “angel” in the book of Revelation means “heavenly spirit” in the other 60 uses of the word in the book, then it would make sense that it means so here. But what is the relationship between a church and their angel? The spirits are often rebuked for the actions of the churches in the next couple chapters. But this seems to be the identity responsibility of the mediator—the spirit represents God to the church and the church to God. Thus the church might often speak to the angel as God—not to worship the angel, but to bring to God the message—and Jesus might speak to the angel as the church—again, not to blame the angel, but as a representative of the church.