Revelation 1:1

Revelation 1:1: “The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto him, to shew unto his servants things which must shortly come to pass; and he sent and signified it by his angel unto his servant John:”

There are a lot of issues wrapped up in this one verse that we need to address.

First of all, the word ‘revelation’ is the the same Greek word that we get ‘apocalypse’ from (“apokalupsis”). It means ‘unveiling’. Another translation of verse 1 is “The unveiling of Jesus Christ”. What we miss is that Jesus Christ is the one who is being revealed! In Revelation we see a picture of Jesus that is unlike anything we’ve seen in the rest of the Bible. It is a breathtaking portrait of Jesus. It is easy to get caught up in the events of the book and miss the way that this book reveals the character and person of Christ. Whatever you do, don’t lose sight of Jesus.

Also, notice what this verse says. God gave this revelation to Jesus, who then sent it to John by way of an angel. This is the revelation to John, not the revelation of John. John is the recipient, and he is passing it along to us so that we can know things “which must shortly come to pass”. This is a book of prophecy.

Finally, don’t get too hung up on the phrase “must shortly come to pass”. Revelation describes the “day of the Lord”, and the Old Testament often says that this “day of the Lord” is near at hand or about to take place. Since both the Old Testament and the New Testament (written centuries apart!) describe the day as being “near”, then there is no need to force an interpretation that requires the prophecies to have been fulfilled in 70 AD (especially when the text itself does not support that, which is something I have discussed here). These events are near from God’s perspective, not from ours. They will come to pass, and God wanted His servants (that would be us) to be aware of them. That is the point.