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. Revelation 4-5), or as a glorified rabbi whose angels act as interpreters of the heavenly mysteries for man (cf. Revelation 10 and apocalyptic literature in general with its angelic cicerones). In the seven heavens of Chagiga, 12b, the third is the place where “the millstones grind manna for the righteous” (Psalms 78:23-24, cf. Revelation 2:17), whilst in the fourth are the heavenly Jerusalem (cf. Revelation 21:10) and the temple (Revelation 15:5 f.) and the altar (Revelation 8:3 f.) where the great prince Michael offers an offering, but in the fifth the ministering angels, who sing God's praise by night, are silent by day to let Israel's adoration rise to the Most High (see on Revelation 4:8). ἀνάβα ὧδε (cf. the common phrase, ἀναβαίνειν εἰς τὸν οὐρανόν, of penetration into heavenly mysteries), from Exodus 19:16; Exodus 19:24, φωνὴ τῆς σάλπιγγος ἤχει μέγα … εἶπεν δὲ αὐτῷ Κύριος … ἀνάβηθι. As in the O.T. the revelation is vouchsafed spontaneously, whereas in Iranian theology (e.g., in the Vendidàd) “it is the wish of man, not the will of God, that is the first cause of the revelation” (Darmesteter, S. B. E. iv. p. lxxxv.). The seer does not enter the door till he is called; to know the divine will is the outcome of revelation, not of inquiry or speculative curiosity (similar idea in 1 Corinthians 2:9 f.). Enoch (xiv. 9 f.) also does not enter the palace of God with its fire-encircled walls, but sees through the open portals “a high throne, καὶ τὸ εἶδος αὐτοῦ ὡσεὶ κρυστάλλινον … καὶ ὄρος χερουβίν … and from underneath the great throne came streams of flaming fire so that I could not look thereon. And the great Glory sat thereon and his raiment shone more brightly than the sun and was whiter than any snow.” He is finally called by God to approach but not to enter. Cf. Ap. Bar. Leviticus 11, Test. Levi. v., “and the angel opened unto me the gates of heaven, and I saw the holy One, the Most High, seated on the throne”.