Revelation 4:3

And he that sat was to look upon like a jasper and a sardine stone: and there was a rainbow round about the throne, in sight like unto an emerald. WAS. So Vulgate Coptic; omitted in 'Aleph (')AB WAS. So Vulgate, Coptic; omitted in 'Aleph (') A B. TO LOOK UPON - `in sight.' JASPER. From , where it is called most precious, which the jasper was not, Ebrard infers it was a diamond. Ordinarily, the jasper is a stone of various wavy colours, somewhat transparent. In it represents crystalline brightness. The sardine, our cornelian, or else a fiery red. As the brightness represents God's holiness, so the fiery red His just wrath. The same union of white brightness and fiery redness app...

1-8 After the Lord Jesus had instructed the apostle to write to the churches "the things that are," there was another vision. The apostle saw a throne set in heaven, an emblem of the universal dominion of Jehovah. He saw a glorious One upon the throne, not described by human features, so as to be represented by a likeness or image, but only by his surpassing brightness. These seem emblems of the excellence of the Divine nature, and of God's awful justice. The rainbow is a fit emblem of that covenant of promise which God has made with Christ, as the Head of the church, and with all his people in him. The prevailing colour was a pleasant green, showing the reviving and refreshing nature of the new covenant. Four-and-twenty seats around the throne, were filled with four-and-twenty elders, representing, probably, the whole church of God. Their sitting denotes honour, rest, and satisfaction;...

Verse Revelation 4:3. _AND HE THAT SAT_] There is here no description of the Divine Being, so as to point out any _similitude, shape_, or _dimensions_. The description rather aims to point out the surrounding glory and _effulgence_ than the _person_ of the almighty King. See a similar description Numbers 24:10, c., and the notes there....

AND HE THAT SAT WAS TO LOOK UPON - Was in appearance; or, as I looked upon him, this seemed to be his appearance. He does not describe his form, but his splendor. LIKE A JASPER - ἰάσπιδι iaspidi The jasper, properly, is “an opaque, impure variety of quartz, of red, yellow, and also of some dull colors, breaking with a smooth surface. It admits of a high polish, and is used for vases, seals, snuff-boxes, etc. When the colors are in stripes or bands, it is called striped jasper” (Dana, in Webster’s Dictionary). The color here is not designated, whether red or yellow. As the red was, however, the common color worn by princes, it is probable that that was the color that appeared, and that John means to say that he appeared like a prince in his royal robes. Compare Isaiah 6:1

EXPOSITION This is the commencement of the second great division, which embraces Revelation 4-22:5, that in which the revelation, properly so called, takes place. Revelation 4:1. and 5. contain the first of the seven visions, which is itself a prelude to the rest. REVELATION 4:1 AFTER THIS; or, _after these things _(μετὰ ταῦτα). There is no good ground for supposing, as some do, that, after the events narrated in Revelation 3:1., an interval occurred in the visions, during which St. John possibly wrote down the matter contained in the first three chapters. Nor is there any justification for assigning what follows to a time after this world.

AND HE THAT SAT WAS TO LOOK UPON LIKE A JASPER,.... For the brightness, glory, and majesty of his countenance, and for his being light itself, clothed with it, and dwelling in it; see Revelation 21:11; and for the various perfections of his nature, as eternity, infinity, immutability, omniscience, omnipotence, omnipresence, wisdom, power, goodness, truth, love, grace, and mercy; for the jasper, at least one sort of them, is of various colours, and spotted with divers spots; that which is most valued is the green, spotted with red or purple h: hence this stone, which is the twelfth in the high priest's breastplate, and on which the name of "Benjamin" was written, is called, by the Chaldee paraphrase of Onkelos on Exodus 28:20, "Pantere", and of ben Uzziel, on the same place, "Apanturin", and on...

III. THE THINGS WHICH ARE AFTER THESE, THE END OF THE AGE, THE CONSUMMATION, AND FINAL MESSAGES (4-22) Chapter S 4-5 _ 1. The open door and the vision of the throne (Revelation 4:1)_ 2. The twenty-four elders and the throne (Revelation 4:4). 3. The four living creatures and the worship (Revelation 4:6) 4. Who is worthy to open the book? (Revelation 5:1) 5. The answer (Revelation 5:4) 6. The vision of the Lamb ...

REVELATION 4. THE VISION OF HEAVEN. In this chapter the real Apocalypse commences. A door is opened in heaven and the seer sees the throne of God, flashing like jewels, and surrounded by a rainbow. Twenty-four elders sit on thrones, and with four living beasts offer continual praise and worship to God. Much of the imagery is traditional, and derived from similar descriptions of heaven and the Divine majesty in OT; _cf._ Isaiah 6:1; Ezekiel 12:4; Daniel 7:9 f. REVELATION 4:1. THE FIRST VOICE: that mentioned in Revelation 1:10....

With the fourth chapter there is. remarkable change in the nature of Revelation. Two parts, the record of the things John _saw_ and the things that _were_ (are) have ended; the third part, the declaration of the things that _shall be hereafter,_ begins with these words: “After this. looked, and behold,. door was opened in heaven: and the first voice which. heard was, as it were, of. trumpet talking to me; which said, come up hither, and. will shew thee things which must be hereafter.” See also chap. 1:19. The prophetic portion, which embraces seventeen Chapter s, is now introduced by imagery of the most striking character. The scene has entirely changed. No longer does John behold Patmos and the sea, or the vision of the Son of Man moving among the golden candlesticks, with the seven stars in his hands, but in the spirit he is permitted to look through the open door of heaven and to beh...

THE OPENING HEAVENS AND THE OPENING DOOR (Revelation 4:1) _ 4:1 After this I saw, and, behold, a door in heaven was standing open, and there came to me the voice that I had heard before, speaking to me like the sound of a trumpet, and the speaker said: "Come up here, and I will show you the events which must follow these things."_ In Revelation 2:1-29; Revelation 3:1-22 we saw the Risen Christ walking amidst his churches upon earth. Now the scene changes to the court of heaven. A door was opened in heaven for the seer. There are two possibilities here: (a) It may be that he is thought of as already being in heaven, and the door is opening into still more holy parts of h