Footnotes

1. uncovering (apokalypsis). This is the proper meaning: an uncovering of something previously hidden. The root verb, kalypto, means to cover, and while by implication the nominal form thus often refers to a veil, this is not universal; we therefore should not translate apokalypsis as “unveiling,” but rather as “uncovering.” To translate this as “revelation” is a considerable stretch, and supremely unhelpful to the modern reader who has already come to associate the “revelation” of Revelation with something opaque and inscrutable—the very opposite of what is meant. To transliterate it (“apocalypse”) is simply insane, given the modern meaning of that word. ↩

2. Yesus. I.e., Jesus. As with all my translation, my conviction remains that mangling the names of God’s holy ones is a violation of the fifth and ninth commandments, and in this case, also of the third. The standard English “Jesus” is a bizarre historical accident, having been received from German and Latin, where the J is (correctly) pronounced as a Y. The Greek is Iesous (“yay-soos”), from Hebrew Yeshua (“yeh-shoowah” = “Yah is salvation”). Since we can easily say the Greek form essentially the same way in English, simply by changing the J to a Y, this is what I have done. I considered Yehsus or Yehsoos to better clarify the pronunciation (lest the reader say “yee-sahs”), but this seems to fall into the other ditch of demanding an unnecessarily foreign-looking spelling. Most readers will find Yesus discomfiting enough without making things harder for them. ↩

3. Anointed (christos). Trad. “Christ,” but christos is not a name; it is an appellative that means “anointed.” Choosing to transliterate rather than translate it is suboptimal because it obscures the crucial motif of anointing in scripture, and replaces it with a “surname” for Yesus that has no actual meaning to the modern reader. ↩

4. The uncovering of Yesus Anointed, that God gave him to show. The sole telos of Revelation is here established in the first few words. Any interpretation that does not actually uncover Christ in it, then, but focuses on his enemies, should be regarded as divergent to the purpose for which God gave it. ↩

5. bound (dei). The proper force of this word is binding, from deo, which is used of prisons, prisoners and fetters. The sense is that these things are under bondage to take place; they cannot do otherwise. ↩

6. promptly (tachos). Literally “in promptness.” Tachos can mean either shortly or quickly, the dual sense of which is best (albeit only adequately) captured in English with “promptly.” The imminence of the fulfillment of Revelation will be repeatedly emphasized, using multiple words; so there can be absolutely no doubt that either it was fulfilled shortly after it was written, or it is a false prophecy—no other interpretive option is exegetically credible. There can therefore be no honest question that Revelation depicts the close of the old covenant age that culminated in the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple. This becomes transparent when one interprets the text according to the rules of prophetic symbolism already laid down in the Old Testament, along with the hermeneutical principles given in the very introduction of Revelation—on all which, see the many notes that follow. For a focused evaluation of the broader evidence that Revelation was written prior to AD 66, see Kenneth Gentry, Before Jerusalem Fell: Dating the Book of Revelation (2017). ↩

7. symbolized (semaino). Or “signed,” but in English this suggests endorsing with a signature. God communicated these things through symbols, which are physical expressions or signs of spiritual realities. ↩

8. angel (angelos). Cf. Hebrews 2:2; Acts 7:53; Galatians 3:19, but although Yoannes does speak with an angel many times in Revelation, it seems to me the initial referent here must be the Holy Spirit himself, for it is Yesus through the Spirit who first speaks with him, not a celestial creature (John 1:10). “Angel” in the New Testament is commonly synonymous with “spirit” (see e.g. my brief essay, Angels and ghosts); and Revelation itself confounds “the” Spirit and “spirits” (verse 4), making it difficult to know sometimes how sharply we should distinguish between God and the angels that communicate his presence. If this seems alarmingly insensitive to the creator/creature distinction, consider that the alternative may be alarmingly insensitive to a hierarchy of being that we have no way of comprehending beyond taking the scriptural data with the utmost earnestness and perhaps not trying to cut it down to fit an established systematic theology. Since we cannot know what spirit even is, I doubt we are on firm ground to lay out ontological rules. The Christian tradition has generally held that angels are at least akin to what would now be called transpersonal agents; and the Eastern Orthodox view in my opinion cannot be lightly dismissed, that distinguishes between the essence and the energies of God. It is well beyond the scope of these notes to draw any firm conclusion on this issue; I am only raising the question as to which “angel” is in view here, or whether perhaps all angels are, starting with The Angel. ↩

9. Yoannes. I.e., John. The German name Johannes is still very close to the Greek pronunciation. See note on “Yesus” above. ↩

10. testified (martyreo). This word is the origin of “martyr,” though it properly means to testify or witness to something, especially in a court. It is hard to overstate how important the legal connotation of this word is for rightly interpreting Revelation, which is a continuation or recapitulation of the covenant lawsuit begun in John’s gospel by Yesus himself. For a summary of this theme, see Kayser, Divine Guidance for Understanding Revelation, Part 4. In terms of translation, I have chosen “testified” to preserve the connection to the “testimony” (martyria) of Yesus that immediately follows, and I have translated martys not as “witness” but as “testifier” (e.g. Revelation 2#3). This consistency is crucial for the English reader to properly discern this critical motif; I vehemently disagree with the decision of most Bibles to obliterate the connection by alternating between “testimony” and “witness,” as if a smoother English translation were more important than representing God’s words transparently. ↩

11. happy (makarios). See note on Psalm 1#1. An interpretation of Revelation which tends toward pessimism, fear, apprehension, and general un-happiness is contradictory to the hermeneutical principle expressed here. ↩

12. reading (anaginosko). This term generally refers to reading aloud; silent reading was virtually unheard of in antiquity (pun intended, obviously). ↩

13. guarding (tereo). As in Hebrew, “guard” is generally the better translation over “keep,” which in English has lost most of its original force viz. both watchfulness and security, and come to denote merely following or obeying. ↩

14. time (kairos). Or “appointed time.” Greek has two conceptions of time: a quantitative and measurable sense (chronos), and a qualitative “moment” or “season” (kairos). ↩

15. near (engys). Or, more dynamically, “at hand.” Like “near” in English, engys is used to refer to both physical and temporal proximity (e.g., Mt 26:18; Lk 15:1). In some cases it can suggest both, as in Matthew 26:46. In every case it refers to immediate proximity; see especially Luke 12:33; Romans 10:8. ↩

16. congregations (ekklesia). Trad. “churches,” but the word church in English has come to connote a great deal that is not implicit in ekklesia, and obscures the chief meaning, carried over from the Old Testament, of a congregation or assembly. ↩

17. Assia. I have chosen to spell this more phonetically in order to distinguish it from the continent denoted by Asia today. Assia was a Roman province to the west of Phrygia and Galatia, comprising around a third of the south and west of modern Asia Minor. ↩

18. grace (charis). I.e., God’s undeserved favor. ↩

19. peace (eirene). In the LXX, this is consistently used to translate Heb. shalom, and thus should be read as such in the NT context. Whereas we tend to think of peace as merely the absence of hostility, and just one of many fruits of the Spirit, it is actually both central and foundational to the gospel itself, which is described as the “gospel of peace” (Eph 6:15) in a way that exceeds our ability to understand (Phil 4:7). Biblical peace gathers up every blessing of God’s presence, and is a shorthand for heaven itself. See my sermon Repentance, part 5: why peace surpasses understanding. ↩

20. coming (erchomai). Not “to come,” as many translations have it, since this would imply the kind of “becoming” that openness/process theology heretically claims. There is strong evidence that Yoannes’ unorthodox grammar in this phrase is not because he is uneducated in Greek, but because he is using Greek inventively to capture everything implied in the Hebrew of Exodus 3:15, “I am that I am.” This is an indeclinable nominal phrase to match the indeclinable “Yahweh” of the OT. The NT is written in Hebraicized Greek, and one ought not to approach it as anything other than a continuation of OT patterns and thought-forms expressed in a new language. ==Inv. Moses Stuart’s notes.== ↩

21. seven (hepta). This should be understood in the sense of “sevenfold,” but the actual wording is identical to the “seven churches” at the beginning of the verse. Kayser argues that the majority text says “the seven spirits who is in the sight of the throne,” in order to convey the singular sevenness (so to speak). ==Inv. text critical issues== ↩

22. in the sight of (enopion). More dynamically, “before,” but this is a concrete preposition, not an abstract one, being derived from optanomai, “to see.” ↩

23. testifier (martys). Trad. “witness,” but see note on verse 2. Cf. Psalm 89:37. ↩

24. head (archon). The arch- wordgroup transparently picks up the Hebrew rosh, “head/beginning,” as signaled by John 1:1, “in the arche was the word…” Like rosh it lacks a direct correlate in English, referring both to the origin and integration point of a thing, so we are unfortunately relegated to having to choose “beginning” or “head” depending on context. We do not, however, need to make the problem worse by translating this as “ruler.” ↩

25. trustworthy testifier, firstborn, head of the kings. This captures the essence of Yesus’ threefold office. As a prophet was an officer of God’s court commissioned to bring his covenant lawsuits, so Jesus is the testifier who now heads the heavenly council. As the Levitical priests stood in for the firstborn of Israel (Num 3:11–13), so Jesus is the great priest over the church. As the head of kings, Jesus is high king in the seat of David. ↩

26. land (ge). As with Hebrew erets, I resist translating ge as earth, since its central meaning is the land as opposed to the sky and sea; the face of the world which man inhabits. It does not refer to a “planet” as we tend to conceive it. Its extent must be determined contextually; here it evidently refers to all the land, not merely the land of Israel, since Israel at this time had no king, let alone kings. ↩

27. loosed (lusanti). Other manuscripts say “washed” (lousanti). I find the NET’s argument convincing, which I reproduce now: Internally, it seems that the reading “washed” could have arisen in at least one of three ways: (1) as an error of hearing (both “released” and “washed” are pronounced similarly in Greek); (2) an error of sight (both “released” and “washed” look very similar—a difference of only one letter—which could have resulted in a simple error during the copying of a ms); (3) through scribal inability to appreciate that the Hebrew preposition ב can be used with a noun to indicate the price paid for something. Since the author of Revelation is influenced significantly by a Semitic form of Greek (e.g., 13:10), and since the Hebrew preposition “in” (ב) can indicate the price paid for something, and is often translated with the preposition “in” (ἐν, en) in the LXX, the author may have tried to communicate by the use of ἐν the idea of a price paid for something. That is, John was trying to say that Christ delivered us at the price of his own blood. This whole process, however, may have been lost on a later scribe, who being unfamiliar with Hebrew, found the expression “delivered in his blood” too difficult, and noticing the obvious similarities between λύσαντι and λούσαντι, assumed an error and then proceeded to change the text to “washed in his blood”—a thought more tolerable in his mind. ↩

28. to him the glory. The Greek contains no verb, and one is not strictly needed in English. ↩

29. strength (kratos). Trad. “dominion” or “power,” but kratos seems to be used in the NT identically to Heb. chazaq, which refers either to holding onto something, or to strength, depending on context. See for instance Judges 16#26 and Judges 16#28. While the root indicates perfection or completeness, the actual usage in scripture is clearly connected to the concept of grip. Unfortunately we have no word so subtle in English. ↩

30. to the ages of the ages. With Young, I don’t believe that idioms should be interpreted or explained unless truly incomprehensible. This Greek idiom is far from incomprehensible, and while it generally means “forever,” that is something the reader through the Spirit should discern without the translator deciding it for him. ↩

31. cometh with the clouds. Cf. Daniel 7:13. ↩

32. every eye shall see him. Kayser adduces half a dozen contemporary accounts, most of them historians and hostile witnesses, that attest to the uniquely remarkable signs in the sky over Jerusalem, widely observed in AD 66. These included the beautiful and glorious image of a man, followed by a mighty trumpet blast, fiery soldiers and chariots warring in the clouds, a giant sword hanging over the city, and the glory-cloud leaving the temple. Cf. Matthew 16:28; 24:30; 26:64. ↩

33. and (kai). Many translations capture the sense here with “even.” ↩

34. those who pierced him. Cf. Zechariah 12:10–14. ↩

35. tribes of the land. See note on ge in verse 5. Notice how translating this word consistently, and letting the reader do the work of figuring out its extent, actually makes it much clearer that here the Jews are specifically in view. ↩

36. smite the breast (kopto). I am unclear on why most translations merely say “mourn,” and even Young translates this “wail.” According to every lexicon, and other usage in the NT, it is from the root meaning to strike or cut, and is used in this form to refer specifically to beating the breast in mourning. Here it is referring to repentance, as Zechariah 12:10ff makes clear. ↩

37. yea (nai). Modern efforts to capture the force of this word when juxtaposed with amen are very silly when English has just such a word already. The reader who has already internalized how amen is used throughout scripture (assuming the translator has consistently exposed it) should have no difficulty in discerning that here, in combination with “yea,” it is expressing absolute and unequivocal certainty. ↩

38. allstrong (pantokrator). While “almighty” is the traditional rendering, see note on kratos in verse 6 above. ↩

39. coparticipator (sygkoinonos). Or “fellow-sharer.” Greek is full of compound words, and in English sometimes a similar effect is achievable. Koinonia is mutual participation or sharing in; I am not convinced “fellowship” really captures its depth. Here, the preposition syn is added to it, referring to union. “Coparticipant” would also be accurate, but in English “participant” incorrectly suggests a member in a competition. ↩

40. pressing (thlipsis). Trad. “tribulation,” but the word literally means a pressing together or pressure. “Oppression” gets toward the sense, but the head of thlipsis is Matthew 7:14: “for strait (stenos) the gate and compressed (thlipsis) the way that leads to life.” Thlipsis is paired with stenos several times in scripture, as in Romans 2:9 which speaks of “straits and pressing” upon every soul working evil, and 2 Corinthians 4:8: “we are pressed on every side, yet not straitened.” ↩

41. Patmos. A Roman high-security prison facility. ↩

42. in spirit. There is no definite article in the Greek, yet translators continue to add one. The opposite end of the process of being “in spirit” is being “in oneself,” as in Acts 12:11: “and when Peter was in himself,” i.e., when he returned to his own bodily experience again after the vision. ↩

43. the Lord’s day. The term here is very similar to the “day of the Lord” in Acts 2:20; 1 Thessalonians 5:2; 2 Thessalonians 2:2; 2 Peter 3:10. However, in those cases, “Lord” is a noun following “day;” here it is an adjective preceding it. Thus, “Lord’s day” is the better translation, though the same concept is certainly in view, with some adjustments. This is the common term used in first century writings onward for the day set apart to the Lord; i.e., the first day of the week ↩

44. trumpet (salpigx). Or “(war) horn.” This is the same word used in Hebrews 12:19 to speak of the shophar (ramshorn) that sounded at Sinai (Ex 19:16, 19). However, salpigx seems to be a general term for a horn, rather than specifically one from a ram. I have chosen to preserve the traditional rendering of “trumpet” over “horn,” because later in Revelation this is primarily a verb, not a noun, and one cannot speak intelligibly in English of angels “horning.” ↩

45. scroll (biblion). Perplexingly, most translations say “book,” as if modern readers could not know what a scroll was; or, maybe, as if modern readers naturally distinguish between a book and its format. The format for long-form printed material that you will find on a bookshelf today, with printed folios stitched together along the spine—what the Romans called a codex—was not used in the first century. Yoannes wrote on a scroll. ↩

46. Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamos, Thyateira, Sardeis, Philadelpheia, Laodikea. I don’t pretend to understand the arbitrary and capricious whims of traditional transliteration, and neither do I see any benefit to bowing to them. Thus, I have transliterated these names more or less directly. ↩

47. behold (blepo). Not horao, which is by far the more common term, and which I have translated “see,” along with its nominative form. ↩

48. robed (endyo). Or “clothed.” ↩

49. unto (pros). Not “at” or “around,” as most translations nonsensically render it; no girdle, belt, waistband or any other kind of sartorial device—even decorative rather than supporting—is worn about the chest. Pros is a preposition of directionality, and functions as le does in Hebrew. It can almost always be translated “unto,” or occasionally “before” (cf. verse 17). ↩

50. breasts (mastos). An odd way to say it in English, but the only two other occasions this term is used are Luke 11:27; 23:29, and translating the plural faithfully is important for discerning that this is not a diagonal sash, but a horizontal band across the body, up to the chest. ↩

51. girdle (zone). This is a wide belt or waistband (on a woman we would probably say a corset); but the term zone is from the same root as periezosmenon, “girded,” just prior. ↩

52. now (de). Because kai functions like the Hebrew w-, I translate de as “now” to differentiate it. ↩

53. white, as white wool, as snow. Many translations, including the KJV, play fast and loose with matching the adjectives to the nouns here, rendering it along the lines of, “white as wool, white as snow.” This is inattentive to the gender of the adjectives and nouns, which must match; the first white is feminine, attached to the hair, which is a feminine noun; the second white is neuter, attached to the wool, which is a neuter noun; the snow is feminine and has no adjective attached to it. ↩

54. whitebronze (chalkolibanon). Or, more dynamically, “white-hot bronze.” I am mystified by the mystification that translators profess over this word, which is unique in the NT. It is a compound of chalkos and libanos. The former standardly translates Heb. nechoshet, “bronze” (not brass; no one had zinc back then). The latter is a loanword from Hebrew, laban, “white.” It typically refers to frankincense, which was a white resin that produced white smoke. What Yoannes is depicting is bronze, a copper-colored metal, that is glowing from the heat of a furnace. ↩

55. voice (phone). Perplexingly, even Young translates this “sound,” though it is the same word both times in the verse, and clearly corresponds to Heb. qol, which first appears in Genesis 3#8. ↩

56. from (ek). I take this to translate Heb. min, which is generally better rendered “from” than “out of.” ↩

57. two-mouthed (distomos). See note on Judges 3#16. ↩

58. countenance (opsis). Not “face” (prosopon); this is a rare word, used only here and in John 7:24; John 11:44. ↩

59. shining in its power. More dynamically, “shining at full power.” The word here is dynamis, the root of which refers to ability rather than strength. It is the same word that refers to the “powers of the heavens” being shaken, and to the Son of Man sitting at the “right hand of Power” (Mt 24:29; 26:64). Curiously, this word is never used in the gospel of John. ↩

60. I became dead. It is difficult to capture the nuance of Greek tense in English, but this seems preferable to “was dead,” which over-simplifies the aorist middle indicative here. This is an action Jesus himself performed, rather than something that happened to him. ↩

61. living. This is a present active participle; “alive” turns the verb into a predicate adjective, which changes the meaning fundamentally. ↩

62. underworld (hades). The Greek equivalent of Heb. sheol, but although these words seem to be widely known in the church, I am not sure they are accurately understood. For example, how many Christians think that hades and hell are interchangeable? How many of those who are aware of the distinction are also aware that hades (and sheol) were places that both the righteous and the wicked went before Yesus opened the way to heaven? Translating these terms is preferable in my view, to help clarify some of these issues. ↩

63. about (mello). I cannot fathom why most translations do not translate this word. There are two verbs here; not simply ginomai, “to be,” but also mello, “about” to be. Mello refers not merely to something coming, but something on the very cusp of happening, as in Matthew 2:13 where Herod is not merely intending at some point in the future to seek the young Yesus to kill him, but is “about to seek the child,” or Acts 18:14 when Paul was “about to open his mouth” to defend himself, and Gallio cut him off. A less charitable man might suspect that translators don’t actually believe these events were really about to happen, but are still going to happen at some far distant date. It is hard to fathom how such a view has become so widespread given the use of three distinct terms to emphasize the immediate imminence of what Revelation prophesies (see notes on vv. 1 and 3). ↩

64. mystery (mysterion). Or “secret.” The word refers to especially a religious or mystical secret which must be revealed to the initiate, not to a head-scratcher or puzzle that can be solved by following the clues. I tend to prefer “mystery” as it retains a shade of the word “mystical,” and I think in “church lingo” it still has this connotation, though I fear less than it used to. ↩

65. upon (epi). Not “in,” as with verse 18. I take this to mean that Yesus does not only hold the churches, but is adorned with them. ↩

66. the seven stars are the angels…seven congregations. As Kayser correctly emphasizes, the congregations here referred to, which will be addressed in the next two chapters, are not local churches, but presbyteries. Each of these cities were really regions named for the city, and each in turn had enormous numbers of Christians in them by AD 66, who certainly did not meet as only one church. The lampstand is a fitting symbol of this arrangement: the individual lamps are the local congregations, and the stand is the larger covenantal body that binds and supports them. There is thus no mystery as to who the “angels” of these presbyteries are: they are what would today be called moderators in American Presbyterianism. An angelos is a messenger, and these men are the appointed messengers of their presbyteries, maintaining communication between the local bodies. (Part of the work of modern reformation should include changing the awful and confusing technical/legal term “moderator” to the biblical term “angel.”) ↩