Revelation 1:13

1:12-20 The churches receive their light from Christ and the gospel, and hold it forth to others. They are golden candlesticks; they should be precious and pure; not only the ministers, but the members of the churches; their light should so shine before men, as to engage others to give glory to God. And the apostle saw as though of the Lord Jesus Christ appeared in the midst of the golden candlesticks. He is with his churches always, to the end of the world, filling them with light, and life, and love. He was clothed with a robe down to the feet, perhaps representing his righteousness and priesthood, as Mediator. This vest was girt with a golden girdle, which may denote how precious are his love and affection for his people. His head and hairs white like wool and as snow, may signify his majesty, purity, and eternity. His eyes as a flame of fire, may represent his knowledge of the secrets of all hearts, and of the most distant events. His feet like fine brass burning in a furnace, may denote the firmness of his appointments, and the excellence of his proceedings. His voice as the sound of many waters, may represent the power of his word, to remove or to destroy. The seven stars were emblems of the ministers of the seven churches to which the apostle was ordered to write, and whom Christ upheld and directed. The sword represented his justice, and his word, piercing to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, Heb 4:12.

His countenance was like the sun, when it shines clearly and powerfully; its strength too bright and dazzling for mortal eyes to behold. The apostle was overpowered with the greatness of the lustre and glory in which Christ appeared. We may well be contented to walk by faith, while here upon earth. The Lord Jesus spake words of comfort; Fear not. Words of instruction; telling who thus appeared. And his Divine nature; the First and the Last. His former sufferings; I was dead: the very same whom his disciples saw upon the cross. His resurrection and life; I have conquered death, and am partaker of endless life. His office and authority; sovereign dominion in and over the invisible world, as the Judge of all, from whose sentence there is no appeal. Let us listen to the voice of Christ, and receive the tokens of his love, for what can he withhold from those for whose sins he has died? May we then obey his word, and give up ourselves wholly to him who directs all things aright.

{8} And I turned to {k} see the voice that spake with me. {9} And being turned, I saw seven golden candlesticks; (8) The exposition, declaring the third and last point of the proposition (for the other points are evident of themselves) in which is he first speaks of the author of his calling (till verse 17), and secondly, of the calling itself Re 1:17-20. First of all the occasion is noted in this verse, in that John turned himself towards the vision, and after he sets down the description of the author, in the following verses, Re 1:13-16. (k) To see him whose voice I had heard. (9) The description of the Author, who is Christ: by the candlesticks that stand about him, that is, the churches that stand before him, and depend upon his direction. In Re 1:13 he is described by his properties, that he is provided with wisdom and dexterity for the achieving of great things, and in Re 1:14 with ancient gravity and most excellent sight of the eye. In Re 1:15 he is described with strength invincible and with a mighty word, and in Re 1:16 by his ruling of the ministry of his servants in the Church by the sword of his word, and enlightening all things with his countenance, and mightily providing for everyone by his divine providence.

Seven. Omit. The Son of Man The article is wanting in the Greek Rev., "a son of Man." But the reference is none the less to the Lord, and is not equivalent to a man. Compare John 5:27; Revelation 14:14. A garment down to the foot (ποδήρη) Compare Daniel 10:5. From πούς, the foot, and ἄρω, to fasten: hence that which connects head and foot. The word is properly an adjective, reaching to the foot, with χίτων garment, understood. Xenophon speaks of the heavy-armed soldiers of the Persians as bearing wooden shields reaching to their feet (ποδήρεσι ξυλίναις ἀσπίσιν) "Anabasis," i., 8, 9). The word occurs only here in the New Testament, but several times in the Septuagint; as Ezekiel 9:2, Ezekiel 9:3, Ezekiel 9:11, where the A.V. gives merely linen; Exodus 28:4, A.V., robe; of the High-Priest's garment, Leviticus 16:4; of Aaron's holy linen coat. The long robe is the garment of dignity and honor. It may be either royal, or priestly, or both. Compare Isaiah 6:1. Girt about the paps (περιεζωσμένον πρὸς τοῖς μαστοῖς) Rev., more correctly, "girt about at (πρὸς) the breasts." Compare Revelation 15:6. The ordinary girding was at the loins. According to Josephus, the Levitical priests were girded about the breast. A golden girdle The girdle is an Old Testament symbol of power, righteousness, truth (Isaiah 22:21; Job 12:18; Isaiah 11:5).

Compare Ephesians 6:14, where the girdle of the Christian panoply is truth, which binds together the whole array of graces as the girdle does the upper and lower parts of the armor. The girdle suits equally Christ's kingly and priestly office. The girdle of the High-Priest was not golden, but only inwrought with gold. See Exodus 28:8 : "curious girdle:" Rev., "cunningly woven band." So Exodus 29:5.

And in the midst of the seven candlesticks; that is, of the churches, resembled by the golden candlesticks. One like unto the Son of man: we say, no like is the same; but Christ, who was the Son of man, and who ordinarily calls himself so throughout the gospel, is undoubtedly here meant, as appeareth by Revelation 1:17,18 , which description can agree to him alone. He is said to have come in the likeness of sinful flesh, though he came in true human flesh; and Philippians 2:7 , he was made in the likeness of men. John saw one who appeared to him as a man in the midst of seven golden candlesticks, which was Christ in the midst of his churches; placed in the midst, partly to let us know his observation of them all, and partly to let us know his being at hand to them all, to help, protect, and defend them. Clothed with a garment down to the foot; podhrh the word signifieth a long garment reaching to the feet, whether of linen or woollen, or what other material, is not expressed; so as it seemeth to me hard to determine, whether it was to signify his priestly or kingly office, or neither. It is a habit of gravity. And girt about the paps with a golden girdle; nor dare I determine the significancy of the golden girdle about his loins. It was a habit like that in Daniel’s vision, Daniel 10:5 . They were both symbols of majesty, authority, and dignity, and the appearance agreed very well to him, who was both a High Priest and a King.

13 . one like unto the Son of man ] There is no article with either noun, while in the title of our Lord “the Son of Man” in the Gospels and in Acts 7:56 it is expressed with both. The inference is, not that our Lord is not intended, but that the title is taken, not from His own use of it, but direct from the Greek of Daniel 7:13 —where also the art. is absent. Whether we should translate “a son of man” is a question rather of taste than of grammar: the words of themselves mean no more than “I saw a human figure,” but their associations make it plain to anyone acquainted with the Book of Daniel, that it was a superhuman Being in human form; and to a Christian, of St John’s days as of our own, Who that Being was. a garment down to the foot ] Certainly a garment of dignity (as Sir 27:8 ; Daniel 10:5 ; Ezekiel 9:2 ; Ezekiel 9:11 ): probably in particular of priestly dignity, as Exodus 28:31 (where the next verse suggests comparison with John 19:23 ). The same word as here is used in the so-called Epistle of Barnabas (c. 7) of the scarlet robe in which the Lord will appear when coming to judgement: some suppose that the writer had in his mind this passage, and perhaps Revelation 19:13 . girt about the paps ] So Revelation 15:6 , of angels. We therefore can hardly press the distinction of this from Daniel 10:5 (and Ezekiel 9:2 , LXX.), where the angels wear the girdles of gold or gems, as men would, on the loins.

Revelation 1:13 . The churches are inseparable from their head and centre Jesus, who moves among the cressets of his temple with the dignity and authority of a high priest. The anarthrous ὑ . ἀ . is the human appearance of the celestial messiah, as in En. xlvi. 1–6 (where the Son of man accompanies God, who, as the Head of Days, had a head “white as wool”) and Asc. Isa. xi. 1. The difficult ὅμοιον is to be explained (with Vit. ii. 127, 223, 227) as = ὡς ( Revelation 2:18 , Revelation 6:14 , Revelation 9:7-8 ; Revelation 9:11 ) or οἶον , “something like,” a loose reproduction of the Heb. (“un être semblable à nous, un homme”). The whole passage illustrates the writer’s habit of describing an object or person by heaping up qualities without strict regard to natural or grammatical collocation. ποδήρης (sc. χιτὼν or ἐσθής ), a long robe reaching to the feet, was an oriental mark of dignity ( cf. on Revelation 1:7 , and Ezekiel 9:2 ; Ezekiel 9:11 , LXX), denoting high rank or office such as that of Parthian kings or of the Jewish high priest who wore a purple one. High girding (with a belt?) was another mark of lofty position, usually reserved for Jewish priests, though the Iranians frequently appealed to their deities as “high-girt” ( i.e. , ready for action = cf. Yasht 15:54, 57, “Vaya of the golden girdle, high-up girded, swift moving, as powerful in sovereignty as any absolute sovereign in the world”).

The golden buckle or πόρπη was part of the insignia of royalty and its φίλοι ( 1Ma 10:8-9 ; 1Ma 11:58 ). The author thus mixes royal and sacerdotal colours on his palette to heighten the majesty of Christ’s appearance. New, golden (as in Iranian eschatology), shining, white —are the usual adjectives which he employs throughout the book for the transcendent bliss of the life beyond and its heavenly tenants; “golden” had been used already in Greek as a synonym for precious, excellent, divine.

(13) In the midst of the seven candlesticks (the word “seven” is omitted in some of the best MSS.) one like unto the Son of man.—“He who kindled the light to be a witness of Himself and of His own presence with men was indeed present.” He was present the same as He had been known on earth, yet different—the same, for He is seen as Son of Man; the same as He had been seen on the Resurrection evening; the same as He appeared to Stephen; the same Jesus, caring for, helping and counselling His people: yet different, for He is arrayed in the apparel of kingly and priestly dignity. He is robed to the foot with the long garment of the high priest. St. John uses the same word which is used in the LXX. version of Exodus 28:31 , to describe the robe of the Ephod. (Comp. Zechariah 3:4 .) It has been understood by some, however, to indicate the “ample robe of judicial and kingly power.” There is in the vision a combination of both thoughts. He is the King-Priest who is seen by the Evangelist, the Melchisedec whom the Epistle to the Hebrews had so gloriously set forth ( Hebrews 5:9-10 ; Hebrews 6:20 ; especially Hebrews 7:1-17 ). He is girt about the breasts with a golden girdle. The girdle is not around the loins, as though ready for action and toil ( Luke 12:35 ), but it is worn as by one who rests from toil in the “repose of sovereignty.” So, according to Josephus ( Ant. iii. 7, § 2), the Levitical priests were girdled.