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The Risen Christ

Passage: Revelation 1:8-20

John was exiled 'for the word of God'. The book is apocalyptic: full of symbols drawn from the Old Testament.

Overview

John sees the risen Jesus in glory among seven lampstands. Jesus says, 'Fear not; I am the first and the last... I have the keys of hell and of death.'

Going deeper

Symbols are explained: lampstands are churches, stars are angels (messengers) of the churches (v20). The vision draws on Daniel 7 and 10.

Key verses (KJV)

From the commentaries

8. Greek, "I am the Alpha and the Omega." The first and last letters of the alphabet. God in Christ comprises all that goes between, as well as the first and last. the beginning and the ending—omitted in the oldest manuscripts, though found in Vulgate and Coptic. Transcribers probably inserted the clause from Re 21:6. In Christ, Genesis, the Alpha of the Old Testament, and Revelation, the Omega of the New Testament, meet together: the last book presenting to us man and God reconciled in Paradise, as the first book presented man at the beginning innocent and in God's favor in Paradise. Accomplishing finally what I begin. Always the same; before the dragon, the beast, false prophet, and all fo

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown, Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory (1871)

Verse 8 I am Alpha and Omega - I am from eternity to eternity. This mode of speech is borrowed from the Jews, who express the whole compass of things by א aleph and ת tau, the first and last letters of the Hebrew alphabet; but as St. John was writing in Greek, he accommodates the whole to the Greek alphabet, of which Α alpha and Ω omega are the first and last letters. With the rabbins מא ועד ת meeleph vead tau, "from aleph to tau," expressed the whole of a matter, from the beginning to the end. So in Yalcut Rubeni, fol. 17, 4: Adam transgressed the whole law from aleph to tau; i.e., from the beginning to the end. Ibid., fol. 48, 4: Abraham observed the law, from aleph to tau; i.e., he kept i

Adam Clarke, Adam Clarke's Commentary (1810-1826)

Verse 8. I am Alpha and Omega. These are the first and the last letters of the Greek alphabet, and denote properly the first and the last. So in Re 22:13, when the two expressions are united, "I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last." So in Re 1:17, the speaker says of himself, "I am the first and the last." Among the Jewish Rabbins, it was common to use the first and the last letters of the Hebrew alphabet to denote the whole of anything, from beginning to end. Thus it is said, "Adam transgressed the whole law from HEBREW to HEBREW "—from Aleph to Tav. ...

Albert Barnes, Barnes' Notes on the New Testament (1834-1885)

Application

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