Revelation 1:19

Revelation 1:19. Write therefore, not simply in continuation of the ‘write' of Revelation 1:11, or because the apostle has recovered from his fear, but ‘Write, seeing that I am what I have now revealed Myself to be.' The following clauses of this verse are attended with great difficulty, and very various opinions have been entertained regarding them. Here it is only possible to remark that the things which thou sawest, although most naturally referred to the vision of Revelation 1:10-18, are not necessarily confined to what concerns Jesus in himself. In these verses He is described as the Head of His Church, as One who has His Church summed up in Him; and we are thus led not merely to the thought of His individuality, but to that of the fortunes of His people. This being so, the following clauses of the verse are to be regarded as a resolution of the vision into the two parts in which it finds its application to the history of the Church, so that we ought to trans late both the things which are, and the things which shall come to pass after these things. ‘The things which are' then give expression to the present condition of the Church, as she follows her Lord in humiliation and suffering in the world; ‘the things which shall come to pass after these things' to the glory that awaits her when, all her trials over, she shall enter upon her reward in the world to come. The verse, therefore, consists of two parts rather than three, although the second part is again divided into two. There appears to be no sufficient reason for rendering the second clause of the verse ‘what they are' instead of ‘the things which are.' The plural verb in that clause is better accounted for by the thought of the mingled condition, partly sorrow and defeat, partly joy and triumph, of the Church on earth, while hereafter it shall be wholly joy and wholly triumph.