intended to describe Israel’s hoped-for Messiah. But at the same time, and thus creating a unique collage of images, John describes his array as that of Israel’s chief priests: he was dressed in a robe reaching down to his feet and with a golden sash around his waist. In so doing, John is deliberately borrowing language from the Septuagint, where it is used exclusively for the full-length tunic of the high priest; thus his readers would readily understand that Jesus, the “son of man,” is also being presented as the great high priest.
As to the particulars, the hair on his head is described as white like wool, as white as snow, language taken directly from Daniel 7:9, where it describes the Ancient of Days. Thus, as in the Gospel that bears his name, John has no difficulty portraying Christ as divine. The imagery in this case is probably intended to picture absolute purity. Christ’s eyes were like blazing fire, language now borrowed from Daniel 10:6, most likely intending to portray him with eyes that are penetrating and all-seeing. The imagery of the feet . . . like bronze glowing in a furnace is also taken from Daniel 10:6, but with some slight modifications. John thus presents Christ with imagery that stands in sharp contrast to that in Daniel 2, which had feet consisting of a mix of clay and iron. Here the picture is of someone absolutely sturdy and unable to be tarnished, and thus not subject to decay or falsehood.
Christ’s voice is likened to the sound of rushing waters, language borrowed from the description of God in Ezekiel 1:24. The picture is that of confluent streams noisily joining and rushing seaward. John next pictures Christ’s right hand as holding seven stars, imagery that no longer describes Christ’s “appearance” as such, and which is also expressed without the “like” comparison of the previous ones. This imagery in fact has no Old Testament background, but did have a long history in astrological mythology (since most ancients believed that human life was influenced by the seven planets). John has thus co-opted pagan imagery and will give it a Christian point of reference—as the “angels” of the seven churches. Their relationship to Jesus lies with their being held by him “in his right hand,” the place of authority.
The most significant features, his mouth and his face, are described at the conclusion. In many ways the mouth is the most significant feature, since what follows concerning the churches is all spoken by Christ himself. As with that of his right hand, the description of his mouth has to do with what is related to it. Thus, in this case echoing Isaiah 49:2 (where the mouth of God’s servant has been made like a sharpened sword), coming out of his mouth was a sharp, double-edged sword. This imagery, also used in 2:12, 16 and 19:15, 21, indicates that Christ will speak words of both salvation and judgment, but especially of judgment. And finally, Christ’s face was like the sun shining in all its brilliance, imagery that most likely anticipates the conclusion of the book (21:11—22:5), where at the eschatological summation of all things the sun is no longer needed for light because of the presence of God and Christ.
Although it is difficult for many people in a verbal culture like ours, having been raised on the sights and sounds of television, to visualize this portrayal of Christ, for John’s readers it would most likely have been readily available to their imaginations. Here stands the true high priest—the heavenly one, Christ himself—and as such he has something to say to the church, two generations after his death and resurrection.
John’s Response and the Lord’s Command (1:17–20)
17When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. Then he placed his right hand on me and said: “Do not be afraid. I am the First and the Last. 18I am the Living One; I was dead, and now look, I am alive for ever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and Hades.
19“Write, therefore, what you have seen: both what is now and what will take place later. 20The mystery of the seven stars that you saw in my right hand and of the seven golden lampstands is this: The seven stars are the angels15 of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands are the seven churches.”
The rest of the opening vision takes the form, first, of response on John’s part (v. 17a), followed by Christ’s own words of identification (vv. 17b–18) and his commissioning of John to write down what he sees for the sake of the seven churches (v. 19), with a concluding interpretation of the key elements of the vision itself (v. 20).
John, who is himself obviously in the vision, first tells his readers of his own response to such an encounter: when I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. As with everything else to this point, this too has its biblical roots, echoing Ezekiel’s response to his theophany in 1:28 (“when I saw it, I fell face down”). What John is describing is the posture of obeisance, which is proper before a deity, but not before a created being, even an angel (see Rev 22:8–9). While John was in this position, Christ placed his right hand on me, the same hand that held the seven stars. At the same time this scene echoes Daniel’s experience in 10:10 and 18. The first words John hears, do not be afraid, are the typical biblical response to one who finds favor in the context of such a vision or encounter. In this case it is almost certainly an intentional echo of Isaiah 44:2 (cf. Dan 10:12; Luke 1:13, 30), given the source of the next phrase.
What immediately follows are words of identification, which at once both echo what God had said of himself in verse 8 and then identify the speaker in terms that can refer only to the risen Christ. Thus Christ begins, I am the First and the Last, language used by Yahweh to identify himself in Isaiah 44:6 (cf. 48:12) and used by John to identify God in verse 8 above as “the Alpha and the Omega.” It is now used by the living Christ as a means of self-identity, again reflecting John’s especially high Christology. The same is true of the second identifier, I am the Living One, which is the ultimate identifier of Israel’s God, Yahweh (see e.g., Deut 32:40; cf. Rev 4:9). But in this case, this language takes on its own special meaning by the next identifiers: I was dead and now look, I am alive for ever and ever! (the latter term also echoing Deut 32:40). Thus, and without attempting to explain the impossible, the One who is both “the First and the Last,” and is therefore “the Living One,” is so in a special sense in the person of the Son of God, since in his humanity he also experienced death and resurrection. In the marvelous language of Charles Wesley, “‘Tis mystery all; the Immortal dies.”16 But for John the emphasis now lies solely on the fact that the one who “was dead” is now “alive for ever and ever!”
But that is not all; the once dead, now living Eternal One, by way of his own death and resurrection now holds the keys of death and Hades. Two matters are being asserted here by John: first, Christ himself has been raised from the dead to live forever; and second, in so doing he has stripped death and hell of their power. As a great preacher in the black tradition once told it on an Easter Sunday, playing the role of Satan, he shouted to the demonic host, “He’s got away! He’s got away! And He’s got the keys!”
One should note finally that everything about this vision is intended to describe a theophany, a divine self-revelation. First, there is the careful collage of images that combine the heavenly and earthly Son of Man, and do so with images used only for God. Second, there is the prostrate John, who is reassured with the “right hand” and the “do not be afraid” that he is safe in the Divine Presence. But especially, third, there is the self-disclosure language of verses 17–18, language that deliberately echoes God’s own language in verse 8. For John all of this is certified by the resurrection: “I was dead, and now look, I am alive for ever and ever!” For John that is the “key” to everything that follows; having experienced death, Christ through his resurrection has stripped Satan of his means of power—death and Hades—and thus “holds the keys” for loosing from Satan’s grip those who are his own.
The christophany itself is then followed by the commission given to John to write . . . what you have seen, which is then elaborated so that his readers will understand that what follows has to do with both what is now and what will take place later.17 The rest of the book then
