Revelation 1:17-18

Revelation 1:17-18. The effect of the vision upon the Seer is now described. I fell, he says, at his feet as dead (cp. Exodus 33:20; Isaiah 6:5; Ezekiel 1:28; Daniel 8:17; Daniel 10:7-8; Luke 5:8). The effect upon the present occasion is, however, greater than on any of those referred to in these other passages. It corresponds to the greater glory that has been witnessed. But St. John is immediately restored both by act and word. For the act op. Daniel 8:18; Daniel 10:10; Daniel 10:18; for the word, Matthew 14:27; Luke 5:10; Luke 12:32; John 6:20; John 12:15. The right hand is the all-powerful hand in which the churches are held (Revelation 1:16); and no doubt the Seer is at the same time set upon his feet (cp. Ezekiel 1:28; Ezekiel 2:1-2).

But this was not all. The Redeemer further reveals Himself as the Lord who through humiliation and death had attained to glory and victory. In the words in which He does so, reaching to the end of Revelation 1:18, it seems to be generally allowed that we have three clauses, but commentators differ as to their arrangement. Without discussing the opinions of other., it may be enough to say that the best distribution appears to be as follows: (1) I am the first and the last and the Living One; (2) and I became dead, and behold, I am alive for evermore; (3) and I have the keys of death and of Hades. (1) I am the first and the last (cp. Revelation 1:8; Revelation 2:8; Revelation 22:13). It is the Divine attribute of eternal and unchangeable existence that is spoken of; not I am the first in glory, the last in humiliation, but I am the One preceding all, embracing all, by whom all things were made, in whom all things consist, the same yesterday, today, and for ever (cp. Isaiah 41:4; Isaiah 44:6; Isaiah 48:12), and the Living One. He is not merely alive, but He has life in Himself, self-possessed, absolute life (John 1:4; John 5:26). Thus in these epithets we have the Divine, eternal pre-existence of the Son, what He was before the Eternal ‘Word became flesh, and tabernacled among us.' (2) I became dead. The Divine Son emptied Himself of His glory, and stooped as man to death itself. All this is included in ‘became.'

And behold, I am alive for evermore, words which ought not to be separated from those immediately preceding them; for, according to the conception of St. John, the Resurrection and Glorification of our Lord are to be taken along with His humiliation as parts of one great whole (cp. note on John 20 under Contents). We are thus carried a step further forward than in the previous part of our Lord's declaration of Himself. (3) and I have the keys of death and of Hades. The two words ‘death' and ‘Hades' are combined, as in chap. Revelation 20:13-14, and both are conceived of as a fortress or place of imprisonment. Hence the figure of the ‘keys' (Isaiah 38:10; Matthew 16:18; cp. also chap. Revelation 9:1; Revelation 20:1). Neither ‘death' nor ‘Hades' is to be understood in a neutral sense. The one is not simply death, but death as a terrible power from which the righteous have escaped; the other is a region peopled, not by both the righteous and the wicked, but by those alone who have not conquered death. Both words thus describe the condition of all who are out of Christ, and are not partakers of His victory. Yet, however they may be opposed to Him, He has the keys of the prison within which they are confined; He can Keep them there, or He can deliver them at His will. The third part of the declaration thus carries us further than the second, and introduces us to the thought of Christ's everlasting and glorious rule as King in Zion. All the three parts appropriately follow the words ‘Fear not.' They tell of the Divine pre-existence of the Son; of death endured but conquered in His Resurrection; of irresistible power now exercised over His and the Church's enemies. They are thus supplementary to the description which had been given of the Son of man in Revelation 1:13-16, and they include a revelation of the fact that He who is judgment to His enemies is mercy to His own.