Revelation 1:8-16

Himitsu Ministries Podcast

At Himitsu Ministries, our mission is to help you cultivate a deeper understanding of God’s Word primarily through bible prophecy and apologetics.

Revelation 1:8-16

byAyo Shosanya

A study of verses 8 to 16 of Revelation 1. This study heavily focuses on John's vision of the glorified Jesus as well as the similarities we see described to us regarding Jesus' appearance and that of a ”messenger” in Daniel 10.

Show Notes: https://himitsustudy.com/revelation-1-verses-8-16

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Episode Summary: A study of verses 8 to 16 of Revelation 1. This study heavily focuses on John’s vision of the glorified Jesus as well as the similarities we see described to us regarding Jesus’ appearance and that of a “messenger” in Daniel 10.

Map of Island of Patmos

Source: https://davebanks.wordpress.com/tag/island-of-patmos/

Scriptural References

1. Lampstand in Zechariah & 7 Golden Lampstands (Zechariah 4:1-2 & Revelation 1:12)
2. Eyes like a flame of fire (Daniel 10:6 & Revelation 1:14, 2:18, 19:12)
3. Voice like many waters (Ezekiel 43:2 & Revelation 1:15)
4. A sharp two-edged sword (Isaiah 11:4, 49:2; Revelation 1:16, 19:15)
5. Feet like bronze/brass & Face shining like the sun (Daniel 10:6 & Revelation 1:15-16)
6. Similarities between Daniel 10 and Revelation 1 (Daniel 10:5-6, 18 & Revelation 1:13-15)

Jesus’ Descriptions Listed with the 7 Churches

1. Ephesus (7 stars in His right hand & Lampstands): “To the angel of the church of Ephesus write, ‘These things says He who holds the seven stars in His right hand, who walks in the midst of the seven golden lampstands.'” (Revelation 2:1)
2. Smyrna (First and Last, who was dead and is alive): “And to the angel of the church in Smyrna write, ‘These things says the First and the Last, who was dead, and came to life.'” (Revelation 2:8)
3. Pergamos (Sharp two-edged sword): “And to the angel of the church in Pergamos write, ‘These things says He who has the sharp two-edged sword.'” (Revelation 2:12)
4. Thyatira (Eyes like a flame of fire, feet like fine brass): “And to the angel of the church in Thyatira write, ‘These things says the Son of God, who has eyes like a flame of fire, and His feet like fine brass.'” (Revelation 2:18)
5. Sardis (Seven stars): “And to the angel of the church in Sardis write, ‘These things says He who has the seven Spirits of God and the seven stars: “I know your works, that you have a name that you are alive, but you are dead.'” (Revelation 3:1)
6. Philadelphia (Key of David/Key of Hades and Death): “And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write, ‘These things says He who is holy, He who is true, “He who has the key of David, He who opens and no one shuts, and shuts and no one opens.'” (Revelation 3:7)
7. Laodicea (Faithful and True Witness): None of the descriptions listed in verses 13-16 are mentioned with the church of Laodicea, but we get a mention of Jesus as “faithful and true witness” which is similar to what we read in verse 5 – “the faithful witness” – and at Christ’s second coming in Revelation 19:11 as He’s called “Faithful and True”. “And to the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write, ‘These things says the Amen, the Faithful and True Witness, the Beginning of the creation of God.'” (Revelation 3:14)

The Revelation of Jesus Christ Quotations

1. “Jesus Christ is the central figure of the opening eight verses of Revelation. As the Source of revelation He is presented in verse 1. As the Channel of the word and testimony of God He is cited in verse 2. His blessings through His revealed word are promised in verse 3. In verse 5 He is the faithful Witness, the Firstborn of the dead, and the Ruler of the kings of the earth. He is revealed to be the source of all grace who loves us and cleanses us from our sins through His shed blood. He is the source of our royal priesthood who has the right to gather in Himself all glory and dominion forever. He is promised to come with clouds, attended with great display of power and glory, and every eye shall see the One who died for men. He is the Almighty One of eternity past and eternity future. If no more had been written than that contained in this introductory portion of chapter 1, it would have constituted a tremendous restatement of the person and work of Christ such as found in no comparable section of Scripture.”¹
2. “John’s statement in verse 10 that he was in the Spirit refers to his experience of being carried beyond normal sense into a state where God could reveal supernaturally the contents of this book. Such was the experience of Ezekiel (Ezek. 2:2; 3:12, 14; etc.), Peter (Acts 10:10-11; 11: 5), and Paul (Acts 22:17-18).²
3. “The expression ‘on the Lord’s day’ has been taken by some to refer to the first day of the week, by others to the day of the Lord…There is no solid evidence, however, that the expression used by John was ever intended to refer to the first day of the week. It is rather a reference to the day of the Lord of the Old Testament, an extended period of time in which God deals in judgment and sovereign rule over the earth.”³
4. “In the Tabernacle and in the Temple one of the items of equipment was a seven-branched lampstand, a single stand with three lamps on each side and one lamp in the center forming the central shaft. It would seem from the description here that instead of one lampstand with seven lamps there are seven separate lamp-stands each made of gold and arranged in a circle.”⁴
5. “His being clothed with a garment to His feet is best explained by the clothing of a priest and judge, like Aaron’s robe being designed ‘for glory and beauty’ (Exodus 28:2). The golden girdle corresponds to that used by the high priest to bind his garments higher on the body than at the loins…The golden girdle corresponds to the girdle of the high priest which has golden thread in it, but here it is made entirely of gold. The somber presence of Christ in His role as judge and priest in the midst of the churches is a significant introduction to chapters 2 and 3.”⁵
6. “The fact that His head and His hair are as white as snow corresponds to the vision of God described in Daniel 7:9, where ‘the ancient of days did sit, whose garment was white as snow, and the hair of his head like the pure wool.’…The Ancient of Days in Daniel’s vision (Dan. 7:13-14) is represented to be the Father or the First Person of the Trinity to whom the Son of Man, that is, Christ, comes to receive power and authority over the entire world. The attributes of the Father, however, are also attributes of the Son to whom power and authority have been given and who with the Father possesses all the attributes of God.”⁶

Notes on Revelation Quotations

1. “‘Alpha’ and ‘omega’ are the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet, and they signify here God’s comprehensive control over all things, including time…This is probably a merism, a figure of speech in which two extremes represent the whole. God strengthened this point further with present, past, and future references…God is the originator and terminator of all things.”⁷
2. “John ‘was on the island called Patmos’ as a result of his witness (‘because of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus’). He was there as an exile, not primarily to receive this revelation from God…According to the writings of several early church fathers (i.e., Irenaeus, Clement of Alexandria, Eusebius, and Victorinus), the Romans sent John as a prisoner from Ephesus, where he pastored, to the island of Patmos in A.D. 95. There he worked in the mines (quarries)…Evidently it was for his faith that John had been sent to Patmos by the Roman authorities. Patmos stood in the Aegean Sea just southwest of Ephesus. It was 10 miles long and six miles wide at its widest northern side. John remained there until shortly after the Emperor Domitian died in A.D. 96. Domitian’s successor, Nerva, allowed John to return to Ephesus, where he died.”⁸
3. “He described himself to his readers as their “brother” in Christ and as a “fellow participant” with them in three things. These were, first, the religious persecution (“tribulation”) they were presently experiencing as a result of their faith in Jesus Christ. This “tribulation” is a reference to the general tribulations that all Christians experience (cf. Matt. 20:22-23; John 16:33; Acts 12:2; 14:22; Rom. 8:17; 2 Tim. 2:12; 3:12), not to the Tribulation yet future…He continues by saying “Second, they shared in the present and future ‘kingdom’ of Jesus Christ…Third, they shared the experience of ‘perseverance in Jesus’ as they remained steadfast in the midst of tribulation and persecution.”⁹
4. “The Lord’s day’ probably refers to Sunday. But it could refer to the future day of the Lord referred to frequently elsewhere in Scripture. The New Testament writers never called Sunday the Lord’s day elsewhere in Scripture. This term became common after the apostolic age.”¹⁰
5. “The person that John saw looked like a human man. His clothing was similar to that of a priest. He wore a long ‘robe reaching to the feet’ with ‘a golden sash’ around it (‘wrapped around the chest’; cf. Exod. 28:4; Lev. 16:4). Jesus Christ’s present office is that of our High Priest (Heb. 4:14). However this long robe (Gr. poderes) and its high sash were also signs of rank and/or dignity in those who wore them (cf. 1 Sam. 18:2-4; 24:5, 12; Ezek. 9:2; 26:16; Dan. 10:5). Messengers also wore such garments (Dan. 10:5).”¹¹
6. “Using this combination of imagery, which originally referred to two figures in Dan 7:9-14, one ‘like a son of man’ (Dan. 7:13) and the Ancient of Days (Dan. 7:9), the author has virtually equated the two figures…John referred the images of God the Father in the Old Testament to Jesus Christ, thus granting to Jesus the attributes and titles previously reserved for the Father (cf. v. 18; 2:8; 5:12; 22:13). This was one way of stressing the equality of Jesus with the Father, here specifically His eternal pre-existence and sinlessness.”¹²
7. “The titles of Jesus Christ found in the introductions to six of the seven messages in chapters 2 and 3 are drawn largely from this vision of 1:12-20 and its descriptive phrases. Only the message to Laodicea (3:14-22) is devoid of one of these. One of the titles is used in two messages (cf. 2:1 and 3:1)…It is apparent that the appearance of Christ in this vision is designed to emphasize the aspects of His nature that are most relevant to the needs and circumstances of the seven churches who are the primary recipients of this book.”¹³
8. “The only other place in the whole Bible where we have anything like it is in Daniel 10:5, 6, where in every particular the resemblance is the same. His girdle is of gold; his eyes fire; his feet as brass; his voice as many waters (Rev.) and as a multitude (Dan.); his countenance as the sun (Rev.), and appearance as lightning (Dan.)” (Bullinger).”¹⁴

Revelation 1-7: An Exegetical Commentary Quotations

1. “The biblical force of this simile is sometimes that of fierceness against adversaries (e.g., Dan. 10:6), a meaning common in classical writers. It can also convey the notion of penetrating vision and the associated idea of supernatural intelligence in regard to what is seen. This penetrating intelligence, which was associated with quick intelligence and, when appropriate, with righteous wrath, is now attributed to the risen and glorified Christ (cf. Mark 3:5, 34; 10:21, 23; 11:11; Luke 22:61) (Swete; Charles; Beckwith).”¹⁵
2. “The specific source of the present words is the Hebrew text of Ezek. 43:2…In the OT passage Ezekiel sees and hears the glory of the God of Israel returning to His Temple in Jerusalem. Christ’s voice is here described in exactly the same terms as the voice of God. In the Hebrew of Dan. 10:6…the messenger’s voice is compared to the sound of a multitude…He moves to Ezekiel at this point, however, so he can identify the speaker with God and the power of His utterance as He returns to dwell with His people (Swete; Charles).”¹⁶

The Old Testament in Revelation Quotations

1. “The ‘sharp two-edged sword’ proceeding from Jesus’ mouth is based on the prophecies of Isa. 11:4 and 49:2, which adds further to his depiction as an eschatological judge and as the one beginning to fulfill this messianic expectation…That this is the primary meaning is clear from the use of the same metaphor in 2:16 and 19:15; in particular, 19:15 shows that Isa. 11:4 is uppermost in mind here, since there ‘in order that he should strike the nations’ from Isa. 11:4 is added directly following ‘and from his mouth proceeds a sharp sword.'” The use of Isa. 11:2-3 in Rev. 1:4 and 5:5-6 confirms this.”¹⁷
2. “The combination of the ‘sharp two-edged sword’ and ‘sword of my mouth’ has suggested to many commentators that John is combining two important texts from Isaiah. The first is Isa. 11:4b, which reads, ‘he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips he shall kill the wicked’. The LXX speaks of the ‘word of his mouth’ rather than ‘rod of his mouth’. The second is Isa. 49:2a, which reads, ‘He made my mouth like a sharp sword’. The two are combined in the inaugural vision, ‘and from his mouth came a sharp, two-edged sword’ (Rev. 1:16b). They also occur in the parousia vision, once again combined with other Scripture allusions (Rev. 19:15, 21)…”¹⁸

Referenced Materials

1. The Revelation of Jesus Christ, John F. Walvoord ↩︎
2. Ibid ↩︎
3. Ibid ↩︎
4. Ibid ↩︎
5. Ibid ↩︎
6. Ibid ↩︎
7. Notes on Revelation, Dr. Thomas L. Constable ↩︎
8. Ibid ↩︎
9. Ibid ↩︎
10. Ibid ↩︎
11. Ibid ↩︎
12. Ibid ↩︎
13. Ibid ↩︎
14. Ibid ↩︎
15. Revelation 1-7: An Exegetical Commentary by Robert L. Thomas,  pg 101 ↩︎
16. Ibid, pgs 102-103 ↩︎
17. The Old Testament in Revelation by Dr. Michael Heiser, pg 35 ↩︎
18. Ibid, pgs 35-36 ↩︎

The Gospel

We’ve all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God (Psalm 51:5, Romans 3:23). Because God is Holy he must judge sin. The penalty of this sin is death and ultimately the Lake of fire (Romans 6:23, Revelation 20:11-15). There’s nothing we can do to save ourselves (Isaiah 64:6).

But God, in his love has provided a way to escape his wrath through Christ (John 3:16-18, John 14:6). Jesus paid for our sin penalty by taking God’s wrath in our stead on the cross (Romans 5:8). He died for our sins, was buried, and rose again 3 days later (1 Corinthians 15:1-5).

You can accept this free gift of salvation by believing in Christ (Acts 16:30-31, Romans 6:23, Ephesians 2:8-9). Make sure you’ve made the right decision about Jesus today (2 Corinthians 6:2)! It will be the most important decision of your life, for eternal life.