THE SETTING OF THE VISIONS IN REVELATION

Revelation 1:9-10

After the introduction (1:1-8), John continues with the prelude by giving us the details of how the book came to be written. It gives the background to the book. It was written because of a vision—the vision of the glorified Christ. Like the Old Testament prophets of Isaiah and Ezekiel, the book opens with great visions of God. John opens with the setting of the vision (1:9-10). In this vision Christ reveals Himself to John. The content of the vision reveals four things: His Command (1:11); His countenance (1:12-16); His comfort (1:17-18); and His clarification (1:19-20).

The setting of the vision reveals four things:

 

• The receiver of the vision—“I, John, your brother and fellow partaker in the tribulation and kingdom and perseverance [which are] in Jesus” (1:9a). The words, I John, are repeated in Rev. 22:8. Thus, the booked is framed with a declaration of authorship. There can be no doubt as to the name of the author, it was John. The phrase reminds us of Daniel and his writings (Daniel 8:15; 9:2; 10:2—“I Daniel”). What Daniel begins in his book of prophecy, concludes in John’s book. There is a close relationship between the two. Walvoord comments, “That which Daniel declared would occur ‘in the latter days’ is here described as ‘shortly’….”[1]

  
There are two keys words that describe John’s relationship with his readers. First, is brother. Evidence from the New Testament is that the difference between minister and laity was that of function, not status. In a day when the trend is to put ministers on a higher status, John correctly opposes such a view. Seiss reminds us, “At the time of the vision, he was the only remaining apostle, and perhaps the only survivor of those with whom Christ had personally conversed…. But he was as humble and meek as he was high in place. He gives himself no titles. He says nothing of his sublime official relations. It was enough for him to put himself on the level with the common brotherhood of believers.”[2] The term brother put him on the same level as his readers.

Second, is the term fellow partaker. The term draws upon the idea of sharing with; fellowship; joint participation. The object of the joint participation is in “the tribulation, and kingdom, and perseverance [which are] in Jesus” (1:9). Some dispensationalist hold the view that John is referring to the Great Tribulation here because of the word the before the word tribulation.[3] While at one time I also agreed with this, I no longer do so. The grammatical context and Sharp’s rule applies here, indicating that the three are interrelated and a conceptual unity. Bullinger calls this a Hendiatris, i.e. three words are used, but only one thing is meant.[4] It is unnecessary at this point to lift the words out of the context of the times in which John was living and writing. John and his readers are going through Roman persecution; John has not been spared from this affliction. It is the cup of suffering Jesus had promised in Matthew 20:23. Even Paul uses similar terms on his own ministry—Acts 12:22. Thomas notes that this reference in Paul gives an instance where “kingdom” is eschatological and “tribulation” is not, and is more general.[5] Although the tribulation or affliction of John and his readers were foreshadowing the end-times, they are not identical. However, the tribulation of their present experience gives them insight and further understanding of the visions that John will communicate about the eschatological tribulation in this book. This is a common occurrence in the life of prophets and their prophecy. Many times in prophecy the surrounding events foreshadowed the eschatological events, thus giving some insight of the coming events. In other words, it is the present events that set the stage for the visions of eschatological events, and at the same time bring comfort to John’s fellow believers who are sharing the struggle of affliction and endurance for the kingdom. It is that struggle that John and his readers share. The primary meaning eschatological, yet it is contemporary to John and his readers in the first century. However, these readers and John foreshadowed the Tribulation saints.  

The term “in Jesus” is a preposition of sphere or location. It gives the location where the tribulation, kingdom, and perseverance are experienced. It marks such experiences as distinctly those of believers. This is true of all believers, for suffering affliction is perceived as participation in Jesus’ suffering, life and glory (Rom. 5:3; 8:17; 2 Cor. 1:5, 4:10; 1 Peter 4:13). 

• The circumstances of the vision—“on the island of Patmos[6] because of the Word of God and the testimony of Jesus” (1:9b). Eusebius, the historian, tells us that John was banished to this island in the fourteenth year of Domitian’s reign (95 AD).[7] The reason he was banished was religious, not civil. Domitian perceived Christians as atheists because they refused to worship or pay homage to Caesar and the Roman gods. Dio Casius records that atheism was identified with those who were adopting the Jewish mode of life, which would have included Christians, since it was seen as a sect within Judaism.[8] It is said he exiled his wife because she was Jewish. Both Judaism and Christians were against Emperor Worship. They refused to worship the emperor. John was neither a civil threat nor enemy of the Roman Empire. He was, as all Christians of his time, being persecuted because of what they believed—“the Word of God and the testimony of Jesus.” It was religious persecution.

• John’s condition—“I was in the Spirit…” (1:10). The text simply reads “in Spirit,” the article is not in the text. In the book of Revelation this is a common expression (4:2; 17:3; 21:10). In each case, it is clearly a state which John found himself. The Greek word egenomen (I was), means “I came to be,” indicating a change of state. What state? “In Spirit.” But what does that mean? It could refer to John’s human spirit, but all indicators of the text and context rule this out. It is rather a reference to the power or agency of the Holy Spirit.[9] Osborne calls it a prophetic/apocalyptic state.[10] The Old Testament gives vivid examples of this prophetic state. We first meet it in Numbers 24:2 with Balaam where “the Spirit of God came upon him,” when he received his prophecy. The phrase is especially connected with Ezekiel where, like John, it involves more than inspiration, but also transportation (see Ezekiel 3:12, 14; 8:3; 11:1, 24; 37:1; 43:5). Ezekiel, like John, was transported by the instrumentality of the Spirit into the perspective scenes (cf. Rev. 17:3, 21:10). While this transportation may have been visionary, it is no less a real transporting into the future (Ezekiel 11:24, 16-20). This prophetic experience is that “of being carried beyond normal sense into a state where God could reveal supernaturally”[11] the prophecy.

• When—“on the Lord’s day” (1:10). This is the only time the phrase is used in the New Testament. There are two major views as to what this means. First and most popular view is that it refers to Sunday.[12] Those who hold this view believe that John received these visions while he was super spiritual on a Sunday morning, even some suggest it was on an Easter Sunday. They also grant this is the first use of referring to Sunday as the Lord’s Day. We do know that this term had become customary use in this area of Asia Minor by the end of the Second century.[13] The weakness of this view is that in John’s day it was not customary to call Sunday the Lord’s day. In Scripture Sunday is always referred to as “the first day of the week” (Matt. 28:1, Mark 16:2, 9; Luke 24:1; John 19:7, 1 Cor. 16:2). The phrase predates its use among Christians as Sunday being the Lord’s Day.[14] If that is the case it is hard to understand why more of a definition would not have been found indicating the new use. How would the readers understand this new meaning? There is no indication that they would understand it as Sunday, the first day of the week.

The second view holds that it refers to the Day of the Lord, the eschatological event that the Revelation describes.[15] Walvoord concisely expresses this view; 

“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. The adjective form can be explained on the ground that in the Old Testament there was no Hebrew adjective form for “Lord,” and therefore the noun had to be used. The New Testament term is therefore the equivalent to the Old Testament expression “the day of the Lord.”[16] The voice like a sound of a trumpet has eschatological significance (cf. 1 Cor. 15:54; 1 Thess. 4:16).

In light of the eschatological subject of the book of Revelation and the visions given John, this seems the best view. The day of the Lord covers both the Tribulation and the Messianic Kingdom that John describes in Revelation. It is the imperial day of the Lord. There can be little question he was transported to that time (Rev. 17:3; 21:10). The readers would be familiar with the day of the Lord, and it is doubtful that they would know that Sunday was the Lord’s Day, without some indication or redefinition of the term. By reading the book they would not likely understand the term as referring to the first day of the week without some prior understanding, of which there is no evidence; but they would understand it in the eschatological terminology of the day of the Lord since it was a common Old Testament term. That is the difference between the first century readers and modern readers. We tend to read our understanding back into the text, which is wrong. To us it is normal to read the phrase as meaning Sunday, to them it would be normal to understand it as the day of the Lord. The setting is best understood as the coming Tribulation period and the coming of the Kingdom of God.

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[1]  Walvoord, REVELATION, 35.

[2]  Seiss, THE  APOCALYPSE, 35-36.

[3]  William Root, COMMENTS ON COMING THINGS, 7.

[4]  Bullinger, APOCALYPSE, 149.

[5]  Thomas, REVELATION, 1:86.

[6]  Patmos is a small island, 10 miles long and 6 miles wide, thirty-seven miles southwest of Miletus, the harbor city of Ephesus. The historian Tacitus refers to it as a place for political banishment. Eusebius says John was there during the rule of Domitian, only to be released after Domitian’s death by the emperor Nerva.

[7]  Eusebius, ECCL. HISTORY, 3.18-20.

[8]  Garland, REVELATION, 183.

[9]  Bullinger, 152.

[10]  Osborne, REVELATION, 82.

[11]  Walvoord, 42.

[12]  Held by Newell, Mounce, Osborne, and Garland, to name a few.

[13]  Bullinger, 10-11. He observes that it is strange that the first reference in the Church Fathers from the first day of the week is to call it Sunday by Justin Martyr (114-165), not the Lord’s day. His work is still probably the best defense of the Day of the Lord view, the second view.

[14]  Garland, 184.

[15]  Held most notably by Bullinger, Pentecost and Walvoord.

[16]  Walvoord, 42. Also see Bullinger, 9-15.