Revelation 4:1

After {1} this I looked, and, behold, a door was opened in heaven: and the first voice which I heard was as it were of a trumpet talking with me; which said, Come up hither, and I will shew thee things which must be hereafter. (1) Hereafter follows the second part of this book, altogether prophetical foretelling those things which were to come, as was said in Re 1:19. This is divided into two histories: one common to the whole world, till Chapter 9 and another unique to the Church of God, till Chapter 22. These histories are said to be described in several books Re 5:1,10:2. Now this verse is a passage from the former part to this second: where it is said, that heaven was opened, that is, that heavenly things were unlocked and that a trumpet sounded in heaven, to stir up the apostle, and call him to the understanding of things to come. The first history has two parts: one the causes of things done and of this whole revelation in this next chapter, another of the acts done in the next four chapters. The principal causes according to the economy or dispensation of it, are two: One the beginning, which none can approach, that is, God the Father, of whom is spoken in this chapter. The other, the Son, who is the secondary cause, easy to be approached, in that he is God and man in one person; Re 5:5-9.

Revelation 4:1 . The former vision which John saw, contained in the foregoing chapters, represented the state of the church at the time when the vision was given, or the things that then were, ( Revelation 1:19 ,) and gave suitable directions to the churches, with their pastors, to encourage their faith and patience, and excite them to constancy and perseverance. Now the apostle records a second vision, in which the things were revealed to him that should be afterward, namely, to the end of time: or the things which were to come to pass, in successive order, from the time of the vision till the mystery of God should be finished. In order to raise the greater attention of the church, and to represent the certainty and great importance of the things revealed, both to the glory of God and the salvation of mankind, God himself is represented as seated on his heavenly throne, in the midst of his saints, and the whole general assembly of his church, and the glorious majesty and infinite perfections of God are set forth by very lively, expressive, and beautiful images, together with the high regard which the churches ought always to have for the counsels, designs, and dispensations of divine providence, declared and published in so solemn a manner.

After this — That is, after I had seen the foregoing vision, and had written as I was directed, the seven letters to the seven churches, from the mouth of Christ; I looked — Being directed so to do; and, behold, a door was opened in heaven — So it appeared to me, and hereby I understood that other heavenly discoveries, such as had not been made before, were about to be communicated to me, and that I should obtain a further insight into the divine counsels. Other openings like that here spoken of are successively mentioned. Here a door is opened; afterward, the temple of God in heaven, Revelation 11:19 ; Revelation 15:5 ; and, at last, heaven itself is opened, Revelation 19:11 . By each of these openings, St. John gains a new and more extended prospect. He saw and heard, and then, it seems, immediately wrote down one part after another. By the particle and the several parts of the prophecy are usually connected: by the expression after these things, they are distinguished from each other, Revelation 7:9 ; Revelation 19:1 ; and by that expression, And after these things, they are both distinguished and connected, Revelation 7:1 ; Revelation 15:5 ; Revelation 18:1 .

After this (μετὰ ταῦτα) Rev., literally, after these things. Not indicating a break in the ecstatic state of the seer, but only a succession of separate visions. I looked (εἶδον) Rev., better, I saw. Not of the directing of attention, but of the simple reception of the vision. A door was opened (θύρα ἀνεῳγμένη) Rev., rightly, omits was. A door set open. The A.V. implies that the seer witnessed the opening of the door. In Heaven Compare Ezekiel 1:1; Matthew 3:16; Acts 7:56; Acts 10:11. In all these heaven itself is opened. Was Omit. Render, as Rev., "a voice as of a trumpet." A trumpet (σάλπιγγος) See on Matthew 24:31. Properly a war-trumpet, though the word was also used of a sacred trumpet, with the epithet ἱερά sacred. Speaking - saying (λαλούσης - λέγουσα) See on Matthew 28:18. The former verb indicates the breaking of the silence, the latter the matter of the address. continued...

Heaven opened Chap. Revelation 4:1-9 1 . I looked ] Better, I beheld, and lo! as Revelation 5:6 ; Revelation 5:11 &c.; Daniel 7:6 ; Daniel 7:11 &c. The purport of the word is rather that he continued looking at what he had seen before, than that he looked in another direction. There is a transition: henceforth he goes to another point of view, and sees no more the Son of Man in the midst of the seven candlesticks: but the transition is not indicated in this word. [ was ] opened ] The participle is used without any verb: he saw the door standing open, he did not see the fact of its opening. [ was ] as it were ] Here the insertion of the verb is even more misleading. The true construction and sense is, “Behold a door set open in Heaven, and [behold] the first voice which I had heard, as of a trumpet [ Revelation 1:10 ] saying.…” which said ] The participle does not agree with the substantive “voice,” and perhaps we ought to render “one saying.” hereafter ] Lit., after these things , as in Revelation 1:19 : i.e. after the state of things described in the Epistles to the Seven Churches. See note l.c.

Revelation 4:1 . Μετὰ ταῦτα , after these things ) In this passage there is a great division of interpretations into two paths. For the question arises, Whether the event of the seals began immediately after the writing of the book, or whether it is still altogether future? The celebrated D. Lange, besides others, maintains the latter opinion; the former is plainly shown even by the particle, after these things , repeated in this verse. The former expression ( after these things ) connects the vision [with what has preceded], the other connects with the same the result itself. After these things , that is, after those things, which ARE, which relate to the seven churches and their angels, must come to pass the things, which the Lord will now show. The past and the present and the future, Revelation 1:19 (from which verse the expression, after these things , is here repeated), comprise the whole of the book which follows: and, as the past and the present are so joined together, that the present, in Revelation 1:11 , what thou seest , passes into the past, which thou sawest , Revelation 1:20 ; and again the past, which thou sawest , passes into the present, are, are , in the same verse; so the present and the future immediately cohere, without any hiatus, and the connection between the past and the present is only subservient to the connection between the present and the future.

Not only is there no trace of delay from the age of John until the last times, but delay is even openly excluded. Future things, the quick approach of which is evidently declared, Revelation 1:1 ; Revelation 22:6 , are closely connected with the present by the expression, after these things . D. Lange so explains the particle, after these things , that, according to the prophetical meaning of the seven epistles, after the lapse of the same number of periods of the Church, the seals are completed, etc. Comm. Apoc. f. 62, 73. I reply: I. We have refuted such a prophetical meaning of the seven epistles, in ch. Revelation 2:1 . II. If the historical meaning of the epistles is preserved, the particle, after these things , has its limits within the events of the churches in Asia; and this would be the case, even if these churches had a prophetical meaning affixed to them. III. If they were periods, they would not be interrupted by the destruction of the Whore and the Beast, as D. Lange imagines, but they would rather extend beyond the millennium and the short time of the loosing of Satan to the end of the world, together with the time of the Church itself being a wayfarer, the change in the condition of which he also makes too great in the millennium (see below, on ch. Revelation 19:11 , Revelation 21:2 ), and thus they would run out beyond the seals, and trumpets, and vials. He says, that the CHIEF subject of the Apocalypse is the mystery of the last times, ch.

Revelation 4:1 . μετὰ … ἰδού introducing as usual in an independent clause (instead of a simple accus., Vit. ii. 8 f., 31, 173, 174, to which he reverts in Revelation 4:4 ) some fresh and weighty revelation; lesser phases are heralded by the simpler καὶ εἶδον . The phrase indicates a pause, which of course may have covered days as well as hours in the original experience of the seer, if we assume that his visions came in the order in which they are recorded. He is no longer in the island but up at the gates of heaven. In his trance, a heavenly voice comes after he has seen—not heaven opened (the usual apocalyptic and ecstatic symbol, e.g. Acts 10:11 = a vision, Revelation 11:5 , Ezekiel 1:1 , Matthew 3:16 , Ap. Bar. xxii. 1) but—a door set open (ready, opened) in the vault of the mysterious upper world which formed God’s house. Then follows the rapture (which in Revelation 1:9 precedes the voice). The whole vision is composed by a man familiar with O.T. prophecy, in Semitic style: short clauses linked by the monotonous καί , with little or no attempt made at elaboration of any kind. Traits from the theophany of God as a monarch, surrounded by a triple circle ( cf. the triple circle surrounding Ahuramazda), are blended with traits drawn from the theophany in nature. The ordinary Jewish conception (Gfrŏrer, i. 365 f.) tended to regard God as the royal priest, to whom angels rendered ceaseless levitical praise and service ( cf.

(1) After this (better, these things) I looked (literally, I saw; not “I looked,” as though the prophet turned his gaze then towards it), and, behold a door was opened (or, set open) in heaven.— He did not look and see a door opening; he saw, and lo! the door stood open. There are differences as well as similarities between this vision and others where glimpses into heaven were given to prophets and saints. In Ezekiel’s vision, and in the scene of Matthew 3:16 (comp, also Acts 7:56 ; Acts 10:11 ) the heavens divide; in this a door stands open. The way into the presence of God lies open ( Hebrews 10:19-20 ); all who have faith may enter; in the minds of such the thoughts of the heavenly will mingle with the sorrows of the earthly, and the calm of security will be theirs ( Psalm 46:5 ). But the scenes of earth’s troubles will always be dispiriting to those who cannot reach the heavenly view-point. And the first voice (or, behold, the first voice) which I heard was as it were of a trumpet talking with me; (even one) which said, Come up hither, and I will shew thee (the) things which must be hereafter.—The first voice here spoken of is the voice which the Apostle had heard in the opening vision (Revelation 1:10); he heard, and recognised that trumpet-like voice again. It is strange that any should have maintained that this is not the voice of Christ.