I The Prologue, Ch. 1:1-3:22
The introductory and epistolary portions of the book which occupy the first three chapters, consist of four parts, viz. the superscription, the salutation, a vision of the exalted Redeemer, and messages to the seven churches in Asia. These give the source and authority of the Revelation, convey a greeting to the seven churches that are named, set forth the present activity of Christ in his redemptive work with the certainty of his personal return, and then present particular messages to each of the churches in Asia, which through their general condition afford a perspective view of the continuous and varied experience of the whole church in the process of redemption. These preliminary parts of the book, also, serve to introduce the great theme which is to occupy the subsequent revelation, viz. Christ and the Church through Time to Eternity. The style is at once that of Apocalyptic, though the form is less characteristic in the second and third chapters than in the first and subsequent ones; the literary construction is marked by obvious and sustained artistic skill; and the subject-matter shows a profound inner connection of thought with the visions that follow, affording a clear indication of the unity of the whole work that should not be overlooked in our study of the book.[300]
1 The Superscription, Ch. 1:1-3
In the superscription the book is described, its history and contents are given (v. 1-2), and a blessing is pronounced (v. 3) upon those who read it, i. e. aloud before the congregation (ἀναγινώσκων), and those who hear and keep the things written therein, an indication that they were expected to be understood. This blessing is the first of seven beatitudes found in the book (see [App'x C]), and serves to show that the office of public reader in the primitive church was established in the first century, evidently because of a general lack of education among the early converts. The book is declared to be the Revelation or Apocalypse of things about to happen,—not a revelation which has Jesus Christ for its subject,[301] but “the things which must shortly come to pass”, a phrase that is best interpreted as a prophetic formula for the uncertain future which is always near with God (cf. Lu. 18:8), and not to be taken in the stricter sense of limiting the prophecy to the immediate future,[302]—to have been given of God (v. 1), and to have been made of, i. e. through or by, Jesus Christ as the communicating witness,[303] to have been sent by the instrument of an angel, and to have been testified to by John, who witnessed concerning the word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ[304] which he received through the visions that are herein recorded. These introductory verses (v. 1-3) are usually regarded as an integral part of the book, though they are thought by some to have been added afterward as an introduction and authorization by the church, probably by the elders at Ephesus.[305]
2 The Salutation, Ch. 1:4-8
The salutation is an address and greeting of grace and peace to the seven churches in Asia from John, in the [pg 094] name of each person of the triune God, viz:—(1) in the name of the Father, who is designated as “him who is and who was and who is to come”,[306] i. e. whose existence is alike present, past, and future, the Eternal One, and expansion of the sacred name Jehovah, the I AM, or the I WILL BE, of Hebrew historic faith (cf. Ex. 3:14, Am. R. V., marg.); (2) in the name of the Holy Spirit, who is typified by “the seven Spirits that are before his throne” as being seven-fold in his operation, i. e. complete and perfect (cf. Isa. 11:2);[307] and (3) in the name of Jesus Christ, who is presented as “the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth”, whose redemptive work is declared in a doxology of praise (v. 5b and 6) which is rendered unto him as the one “that loveth us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood”,[308] and whose coming again is notably heralded—a pivotal thought throughout the book.[309] The descriptive phrase “the firstborn of the dead” is an evident recognition of Christ as the first to conquer death by resurrection. The closing part of the salutation (v. 7-8) is exclamatory and parenthetical, and forms a kind of prelude to all that follows, affirming the certainty of the second advent as if already present, and introducing at this point the divine witness, which is generally attributed to Christ who speaks as God, affirming himself to be the source and end of all things, the Eternal and All-Ruler, whose word stands as surety for the fulfilment of the visions. The fact of God as All-Ruler (Παντοκράτωρ, “the Almighty”),[310] and the realization of that fact in history, “constitutes the deep undertone which pervades every part of the Apocalypse, and rises here and there into its loftiest [pg 095] strains”. Terms like this, never applied to any but God in the Old Testament, and well understood as belonging only to the Divine Being, are freely used of Christ in the Revelation, showing how fully his divine nature was realized in that stage of the church's experience. The connection of the eighth verse may properly be considered as the answering voice of Christ to the cry of John in the seventh, “Behold he cometh”!