Revelation 6

The Seals

6 I watched as the Lamb opened the first of the seven seals. Then I heard one of the four living creatures say in a voice like thunder, “Come!” ² I looked, and there before me was a white horse! Its rider held a bow, and he was given a crown, and he rode out as a conqueror bent on conquest.

³ When the Lamb opened the second seal, I heard the second living creature say, “Come!” ⁴ Then another horse came out, a fiery red one. Its rider was given power to take peace from the earth and to make people kill each other. To him was given a large sword.

⁵ When the Lamb opened the third seal, I heard the third living creature say, “Come!” I looked, and there before me was a black horse! Its rider was holding a pair of scales in his hand. ⁶ Then I heard what sounded like a voice among the four living creatures, saying, “Two pounds^[a] of wheat for a day’s wages,^[b] and six pounds^[c] of barley for a day’s wages,^[d] and do not damage the oil and the wine!”

⁷ When the Lamb opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living creature say, “Come!” ⁸ I looked, and there before me was a pale horse! Its rider was named Death, and Hades was following close behind him. They were given power over a fourth of the earth to kill by sword, famine and plague, and by the wild beasts of the earth.

[it is so easy to take for granted that we have a working economy - but a glance at Venezuela shows how easily a country's economy can shut down. After over-reaching with their welfare programs, once oil prices plumetted the country lost their main source of money, yet people still expected their benefits from the welfare program. The country ran out of money, and now food prices are 100x normal. A can of powdered milk costs the equivalent of $700 USD; a bag of pasta $400+, and that's if you're lucky enough to find it. This lack of money also means they cannot afford medicine, there is no power/rolling black outs, and crime rates are skyrocketing as people get desperate and police coverage is minimal. These all tie together, and could sound like the horsemen -- would it just be in Israel, or world wide? Deaths and Crime, Food Prices, What Went Wrong, Downward Spiral]

⁹ When he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain because of the word of God and the testimony they had maintained. ¹⁰ They called out in a loud voice, “How long, Sovereign Lord, holy and true, until you judge the inhabitants of the earth and avenge our blood?” ¹¹ Then each of them was given a white robe, and they were told to wait a little longer, until the full number of their fellow servants, their brothers and sisters,^[e] were killed just as they had been.

¹² I watched as he opened the sixth seal. There was a great earthquake. The sun turned black like sackcloth made of goat hair, the whole moon turned blood red, ¹³ and the stars in the sky fell to earth, as figs drop from a fig tree when shaken by a strong wind. ¹⁴ The heavens receded like a scroll being rolled up, and every mountain and island was removed from its place.

¹⁵ Then the kings of the earth, the princes, the generals, the rich, the mighty, and everyone else, both slave and free, hid in caves and among the rocks of the mountains. ¹⁶ They called to the mountains and the rocks, “Fall on us and hide us^[f] from the face of him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb! ¹⁷ For the great day of their^[g] wrath has come, and who can withstand it?”

Footnotes:

1. Revelation 6:6 Or about 1 kilogram
2. Revelation 6:6 Greek a denarius
3. Revelation 6:6 Or about 3 kilograms
4. Revelation 6:6 Greek a denarius
5. Revelation 6:11 The Greek word for brothers and sisters (adelphoi) refers here to believers, both men and women, as part of God’s family; also in 12:10; 19:10.
6. Revelation 6:16 See Hosea 10:8.
7. Revelation 6:17 Some manuscripts his

Revelations 2

[The letters to the seven churches all follow a similar pattern (though not all 100%): they use similes relevant to the culture of the area; they start with a  praise of what they do right; a rebuke of what they do wrong; sometimes another praise; a challenge or command with the offer of a reward; and the phrase "Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches," which often is a way of saying, "listen up!  This is important!"]

To the Church in Ephesus

2 “To the angel^[a] of the church in Ephesus write:

These are the words of him [Jesus] who holds the seven stars [this symbol, again, represents the angels/messengers of the churches] in his right hand and walks among the seven golden lampstands [the churches] ² I know your deeds, your hard work and your perseverance. I know that you cannot tolerate wicked people, that you have tested those who claim to be apostles but are not, and have found them false. ³ You have persevered and have endured hardships for my name, and have not grown weary. [praise]

⁴ Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken the love you had at first. ⁵ Consider how far you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first. If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand [your church] from its place. [ouch! That's a threat! To lose your standing with God] [rebuke] ⁶ But you have this in your favor: You hate the practices of the Nicolaitans [who are they and what practices?], which I also hate. [Hate is a strong word - look up Greek meaning.] [praise]

⁷ Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who is victorious, I will give the right to eat from the tree of life [reference to the Garden of Eden, the tree being that which gives your soul eternal life], which is in the paradise of God. [challenge and reward]

To the Church in Smyrna

⁸ “To the angel of the church in Smyrna write:

These are the words of him who is the First and the Last, who died and came to life again. ⁹ I know your afflictions and your poverty—yet you are rich! I know about the slander of those who say they are Jews and are not, but are a synagogue of Satan. ¹⁰ Do not be afraid of what you are about to suffer. I tell you, the devil will put some of you in prison to test you, and you will suffer persecution for ten days. Be faithful, even to the point of death, and I will give you life as your victor’s crown.

¹¹ Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches. The one who is victorious will not be hurt at all by the second death.

To the Church in Pergamum

¹² “To the angel of the church in Pergamum write:

These are the words of him who has the sharp, double-edged sword. ¹³ I know where you live—where Satan has his throne. Yet you remain true to my name. You did not renounce your faith in me, not even in the days of Antipas, my faithful witness, who was put to death in your city—where Satan lives.

¹⁴ Nevertheless, I have a few things against you: There are some among you who hold to the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to entice the Israelites to sin so that they ate food sacrificed to idols and committed sexual immorality. ¹⁵ Likewise, you also have those who hold to the teaching of the Nicolaitans. ¹⁶ Repent therefore! Otherwise, I will soon come to you and will fight against them with the sword of my mouth.

¹⁷ Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who is victorious, I will give some of the hidden manna. I will also give that person a white stone with a new name written on it, known only to the one who receives it.

To the Church in Thyatira

¹⁸ “To the angel of the church in Thyatira write:

These are the words of the Son of God, whose eyes are like blazing fire and whose feet are like burnished bronze. ¹⁹ I know your deeds, your love and faith, your service and perseverance, and that you are now doing more than you did at first.

²⁰ Nevertheless, I have this against you: You tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophet. By her teaching she misleads my servants into sexual immorality and the eating of food sacrificed to idols. ²¹ I have given her time to repent of her immorality, but she is unwilling. ²² So I will cast her on a bed of suffering, and I will make those who commit adultery with her suffer intensely, unless they repent of her ways. ²³ I will strike her children dead. Then all the churches will know that I am he who searches hearts and minds, and I will repay each of you according to your deeds.

²⁴ Now I say to the rest of you in Thyatira, to you who do not hold to her teaching and have not learned Satan’s so-called deep secrets, ‘I will not impose any other burden on you, ²⁵ except to hold on to what you have until I come.’

²⁶ To the one who is victorious and does my will to the end, I will give authority over the nations— ²⁷ that one ‘will rule them with an iron scepter and will dash them to pieces like pottery’^[b]—just as I have received authority from my Father. ²⁸ I will also give that one the morning star. ²⁹ Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches.

Footnotes:

1. Revelation 2:1 Or messenger; also in verses 8, 12 and 18
2. Revelation 2:27 Psalm 2:9

Revelations 1

Some study, some speculation, some thoughts on the final book.

Written by John after being exiled to Patmos for his faith.  Traditionally, the writing would be taken to the churches he notes, and read aloud to them.  So does that mean all of the writings are just for the people of that time and place? Or would it transcend the times and cultures to be relevant to us today?  And if relevant, how?  Just in a good message of how to practice faith and to be steadfast? Have the events in this book already happened, or are to come? Are they 100% symbolic, 100% literal, or a combination - and how would one decide?

Time to have some fun :)  I will revisit each chapter as I go, adding more, cleaning up, and digging deeper, so these posts will be ongoing and dynamic, changing as I learn more.  This is not meant to be definitive - I am no scholar.  But I wanted to study this book and others, and this seemed a good place for me to keep my notes and links organized.

Prologue

1 The revelation from Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show his servants what must soon take place. [I learned the original Greek phrase in this verse is "en tachei." Looking at the Strong's Concordance, "en" is mostly meaning "in" or "with," and "tachei" can mean "a brief space of time," "quickly," "speedily," OR "immediately."  So this phrase, unless an idiom, would mean closer to "with swiftness" as in - the events of this will all happen within a short time ONCE THEY START.  Not that they will necessarily start soon.  But, I could see translations either way; this just goes to show the ambiguity of the phrase.] He made it known by sending his angel to his servant John, ² who testifies to everything he saw—that is, the word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ. ³ Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear it and take to heart what is written in it, because the time is near. 

Greetings and Doxology

<sup>[Several books of the Bible (most notably Genesis) follow the format of good ol' essays: tell them what you're going to say, say it, tell them what you said.  In this case, these versus seems likely a summary of the whole book to come: there are letters to the churches, all will acknowledge God, then all will SEE God in the clouds, then He will reign. There is much that happens between these steps, but this is the brief outline.]

 4</sup> John, [this is not a letter To John, as we often begin letters today.  Instead, John is writing his name at the top to indicate these are his words here.]

To the seven churches in the province of Asia: [most theories agree these were actual churches in the area of John's ministry.  Some think these letters are only for those churches; some think these churches represent styles of churches still present today.  I think these letters are literally to those actual churches, but Christians can all learn from the words, across all times.  They're fairly generic.]

Grace and peace to you from him who is, and who was, and who is to come, and from the seven spirits^[a] before his throne, ⁵ and from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth. [Why the sevenfold spirit, and not the holy spirit here?  Who or what is the sevenfold/seven spirits?]

To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood, ⁶ and has made us to be a kingdom and priests to serve his God and Father—to him be glory and power for ever and ever! Amen.

⁷ “Look, he is coming with the clouds,”^[b]
    and “every eye will see him,
even those who pierced him”;
    and all peoples on earth “will mourn because of him.”^[c]
So shall it be! Amen.

⁸ “I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “who is, and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty.”

[thus ends the intro summary, and now on to the meat!]

John’s Vision of Christ

⁹ I, John, your brother and companion in the suffering and kingdom and patient endurance that are ours in Jesus, was on the island of Patmos [came under Roman rule around 200 BC; was used as a place to exile people, CITE] because of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus. [John was exiled for his teachings and ministry] ¹⁰ On the Lord’s Day [typically Sundays] I was in the Spirit [possessed by? Meditating?], and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet, [typically through the rest of this book, the voice like a trumpet seems to be referring to God] ¹¹ which said: “Write on a scroll what you see and send it to the seven churches: to Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia and Laodicea.” [John is exiled - how does he send it?  Who carries the scroll around and reads on his behalf?]

¹² I turned around to see the voice that was speaking to me. And when I turned I saw seven golden lampstands, [the seven churches, per v20] ¹³ and among the lampstands was someone like a son of man,^[d]  [likely Jesus] dressed in a robe reaching down to his feet and with a golden sash around his chest.[later, this same clothing description is seen on angels] ¹⁴ The hair on his head was white like wool, as white as snow, [indicating purity, wisdom, or age? Purity usually symbolized as white robes, not hair though] and his eyes were like blazing fire. [Literal? Anger? Gloriousness?] ¹⁵ His feet were like bronze glowing in a furnace, [or all of these - bright white hair, eyes of light, glowing feet - may simply indicate radiance and glowing] and his voice was like the sound of rushing waters. [Loud? Powerful?] ¹⁶ In his right hand he held seven stars, [the "angels" of the 7 churches, per v 20, more there] and coming out of his mouth was a sharp, double-edged sword. [words of the four gospels often described as a double-edged sword because it cuts and divides] His face was like the sun shining in all its brilliance. [again matches the idea of the glowing feet, white hair, eyes of fiery light, like v14-15]

¹⁷ When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. [fainted?] Then he placed his right hand on me and said: “Do not be afraid. I am the First and the Last. ¹⁸ I am the Living One; I was dead, and now look, I am alive for ever and ever! And I hold the keys [keys also refer to power in the Greek - so, he holds not literal keys, but the power of or over] of death [often considered to mean the "second death" or final death of the soul, not the "first death" of the body] and Hades. [need to do more reading on Hades vs. Hell vs. Outer Darkness -- many different studies on these details]

¹⁹ “Write, therefore, what you have seen, what is now and what will take place later. [when in human time is this happening? John seems to see into the past, to the battle in heaven before man was even made, and into the future when it all ends according to Christian belief] ²⁰ The 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 angels^[e] [some think there many be literal angels watching over each church; others think since Angel means Messenger, this could refer to the one who speaks to the churches - the pastor or leader] of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands are the seven churches.

Footnotes:

[a] Revelation 1:4 That is, the sevenfold Spirit 

[b]Revelation 1:7 Daniel 7:13
[c]Revelation 1:7 Zech. 12:10
[d]Revelation 1:13 See Daniel 7:13.
[e]Revelation 1:20 Or messenger