This is a great chapter. It identifies the narrator (John), the Author of the vision (Jesus), and when it pertains to ("the Lord's day" or "the end of the world"). The first chapter is deep - it refers to many other visions to other prophets, so I will do my best to identify them as we go through:
The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto Him, to shew unto His servants things which must shortly come to pass; and He sent and signified it by His angel unto His servant John, who bare record of the word of God, and of the testimony of Jesus Christ, and of all things that he saw. Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein: for the time is at hand.
Some critics have a hard time believing that the "John" that wrote this book is Jesus' disciple, John, who also wrote the Gospel of John. The reason most often cited is that the writing styles are different. I'm not a fan of this argument, since writing styles are inherently going to change over the period of one's life. If I were to look back on something that I had written many years ago, I'm pretty sure that my style would have changed quite a bit as well - it's inevitable. One thing I do note is that the disciple John never directly referred to himself in any of the other writings (in his Gospel or Epistles) whereas he does in Revelation. That may be, however, because Jesus specifically instructs John to write this book of Revelation, and John may have felt it necessary to identify himself, whereas he didn't in other writings. One thing that supports the same authorship is the language that is used: many of the Greek words in the text are quite commonly only found in John's writings, and not in any other New Testament author's. Nevertheless, John says above that he "bare record" of the word, being Jesus, and of His testimony - meaning to me that he saw it first hand. If we can't believe this is the disciple John, then the author's baring eyewitness to Jesus becomes less believable, and the revelation itself becomes less believable because of shaky credibility to the author. Therefore, I believe that this was John, the beloved disciple, that wrote the book, and the credibility stays intact.
John to the seven churches which are in Asia: Grace be unto you, and peace, from Him Which is, and Which was, and Which is to come; and from the seven Spirits which are before His throne; and from Jesus Christ, Who is the faithful Witness, and the First Begotten of the dead, and the Prince of the kings of the earth. Unto Him That loved us, and washed us from our sins in His own blood, and hath made us kings and priests unto God and His Father; to Him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.
The seven churches are the different churches of the end times. The geographical area that John is describing is in modern day Turkey. These seven churches actually form a perfect circle, as much as is possible from the highway structure. The circle is the earth, and the number seven represents spiritual completeness. This view that the message is given to the whole earth is supported by the fact that the vision is opened up to anyone "who has an ear to hear", which is repeated seven times in chapters 2 and 3.
The passage above also refers to three earth ages ("aeons") by saying "Which is, Which was, and Which is to come". The first is when Satan rebelled, which is written in the story of the stars in chapter 12. The second is the age that we are in now. And the third is when God creates the "new heaven and new earth", also known as the eternity. The "kings and priests" refers to the fact that God's followers are a "kingdom of priests" as He declared in Exodus 19:6, "and ye shall be unto Me a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation."
Behold, He cometh with the clouds; and every eye shall see Him, and they also which pierced Him: and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of Him. Even so, Amen.
There's actually a lot being said in this little bit. "Behold, He cometh with the clouds" is referred to many times in Scripture. However, sometimes it says he comes with the clouds, and sometimes it says he comes with many angels, or saints. They both mean the same thing - the clouds are the "cloud" of saints or witnesses. Paul teaches us this in Hebrews 12:1. This expression, then, refers to two very prominent prophets: Enoch and Daniel. Enoch's story of can be found in Genesis 5:22, in that he walked with God and God took him off of the earth in the same way that He took Elijah (see 2 Kings 2). Elijah and Enoch were the only two people ever recorded to have this honour... and they were both very dedicated prophets. Paul gives a bit more background on Enoch in Hebrews 11:5, "By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death; and was not found, because God had translated him: for before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God." Jude speaks further of the testimony in Jude 1:14, "And Enoch also the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, 'Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of His saints, to execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him." Jude is directly quoting from the Book of Enoch 1:9. (This is a book that was considered to be Scriptural around the time of Christ, but was soon after considered "apocryphal" by the church fathers and excluded from the canon as we see it today.) The image of Jesus coming with the clouds is found in Daniel 7:13. This is what Jesus refers to in Matthew 24:30, Matthew 26:64, Mark 13:26, and Mark 14:62. It's also what the angel is referring to in Acts 1:11. Much of the imagery in Revelation comes from Daniel, as we will see.
The way that we know that "He comes with the clouds" is the same as "He comes with ten thousands of His saints" is explained later in Revelation 19:14, when Jesus returns on His white steed, and the "armies of heaven" are coming with Him.
The later part of the short passage above, about all kindreds of the earth wailing, is a reference to Zechariah 12:9-13, which reads, "And it shall come to pass in that day, that I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem. And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications: and they shall look upon Me Whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for Him, as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for Him, as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn. In that day shall there be a great mourning in Jerusalem, as the mourning of Hadarimmon in the valley of Megiddon. And the land shall mourn, every family apart..." The "that day" here is the Lord's day, the time that John was transported to when he saw the Revelation. Hadarimmon, or "Hadad rimmon" means "mighty of the pomegranates". The word pomegranate, "rimmon", comes from the root "ramam", which means "exalted", or "lifted up". Megiddon, the place known for the famous battle of the end times (Armageddon), means "gathering place of the crowds." This is where Armageddon will take place. It was also where king Josiah, "healed by Jehovah", was killed (2 Chronicles 35:22-25) and all the people of Israel mourned for him there.
"I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending," saith the Lord, "Which is, and Which was, and Which is to come, the Almighty."
This is the declaration of His eternal nature. He is with us always, from beginning to end, in all three earth ages. We must trust in Him.
It looks like I'm going to split this chapter up into two sections due to length. The next part of the chapter also holds many references to other Scritpures, and has some truly fantastic imagery. God bless.
