St. John is ordered to write to the seven churches in Asia. The manner of Christ’s appearing to him.

¹ The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave to him, in order to make known to his servants the things that must soon occur, and which he signified by sending his Angel to his servant John;¹

1. 1:1The things which must shortly come;: and again it is said, ver. 3, “The time is at hand” This can not be meant of all the things prophesied in the Apocalypse, where mention is made also of the day of judgment, and of the glory of heaven at the end of the world. That some things were to come to pass shortly, is evident, by what is said to the Seven Churches, chap. 2 and 3, Or that the persecutions foretold should begin shortly. Or that these words signified, that all time is short, and that from the coming of Christ, we are now in the last age or last hour. See 1 John 2.18.(Challoner)

² he has offered testimony to the Word of God, and whatever he saw is the testimony of Jesus Christ.

³ Blessed is he who reads or hears the words of this Prophecy, and who keeps the things that have been written in it. For the time is near.¹

1. 1:3Here is an example where the meaning of ‘et’ clearly corresponds to the English word ‘or’, not to the word ‘and’. These first three verses appear to have been added afterward by John’s disciples, when they were translating this book from the original Aramaic, in which John wrote, into Greek.(Conte)

⁴ John, to the seven Churches, which are in Asia. Grace and peace to you, from him who is, and who was, and who is to come, and from the seven spirits who are in the sight of his throne,

⁵ and from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, the first-born of the dead, and the leader over the kings of the earth, who has loved us and has washed us from our sins with his blood,

⁶ and who has made us into a kingdom and into priests for God and for his Father. To him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.¹

1. 1:6Here the word ‘et’ is translated as ‘and’ but actually has a slightly different meaning; it does not mean that God and the Father are two completely different things. It means ‘God and [especially/specifically] his Father.’(Conte)

⁷ Behold, he arrives with the clouds, and every eye shall see him, even those who pierced him. And all the tribes of the earth shall lament for themselves over him. Even so. Amen.¹

1. 1:7Christ will return bodily, descending visibly from the sky, just as at his Ascension he ascended visibly into the sky and then invisibly into Heaven. His return will not be in secret. When Christ returns, all will see and know, throughout the world, even those who pierced him by crucifying His Church.(Conte)

⁸ “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End,” says the Lord God, who is, and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty.¹²³

1. 1:8John originally wrote the Book of Revelation in Aramaic (see my article on this point). And when Christ spoke to John saying ‘I am the Alpha and the Omega’ he probably did not speak in Greek, but in Aramaic or Hebrew. So the words Alpha and Omega are a translation. So this sentence becomes either, in Aramaic, “I am the Alap and the Tau,” or, in Hebrew, “I am the Aleph and the Tof.”(Conte)
2. 1:8I am Alpha and Omega: These are the names of the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet, and signify the same as what follows: The beginning and the end: the first cause and last end of all beings.(Challoner)
3. 1:8Who is, and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty: These words signify the true God only, and are here applied to our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, who is to come again to judge the living and the dead.(Challoner)

⁹ I, John, your brother, and a sharer in the tribulation and in the kingdom and in patient endurance for Christ Jesus, was on the island which is called Patmos, because of the Word of God and the testimony to Jesus.¹

1. 1:9John was on Patmos, in my chronology, in the early A.D. 80’s, beginning about A.D. 82, for about 2 or 3 years or so. He was put there by the emperor Domitian, who had first tried to have John killed. John was placed in a pot of boiling oil. All the other 11 of the 12 Apostles (Matthias replacing Judas) had already been martyred. But John was not martyred. When he came out of the boiling oil, he was unharmed and looked refreshed, as if he had just taken a bath in water, rather than boiling oil. So the emperor, unaffected by this miracle, exiled John to Patmos, where other Christians also had been exiled, working in the copper mines there. John became a target of Domitian because John had, some years earlier, written the Gospel of John.(Conte)

¹⁰ I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day, and I heard behind me a great voice, like that of a trumpet,

¹¹ saying, “What you see, write in a book, and send it to the seven Churches, which are in Asia: to Ephesus, and to Smyrna, and to Pergamus, and to Thyatira, and to Sardis, and to Philadelphia, and to Laodicea.”

¹² And I turned around, so as to see the voice which was speaking with me. And having turned around, I saw seven golden lampstands.

¹³ And in the midst of the seven golden lampstands was one resembling the Son of man, clothed to the feet with a vestment, and wrapped to the breast with a wide belt of gold.

¹⁴ But his head and hair were bright, like white wool, or like snow; and his eyes were like a flame of fire;

¹⁵ and his feet resembled shining brass, just as in a burning furnace; and his voice was like the voice of many waters.

¹⁶ And in his right hand, he held the seven stars; and from his mouth went out a sharp two-edged sword; and his face was like the sun, shining with all its might.

¹⁷ And when I had seen him, I fell at his feet, like one who is dead. And he laid his right hand upon me, saying: “Do not be afraid. I am the First and the Last.

¹⁸ And I am alive, though I was dead. And, behold, I live forever and ever. And I hold the keys of death and of Hell.

¹⁹ Therefore, write the things which you have seen, and which are, and which must occur afterward:

²⁰ the mystery of the seven stars, which you have seen in my right hand, and of the seven golden lampstands. The seven stars are the Angels of the seven Churches, and the seven lampstands are the seven Churches.”