After the identification of the recipients of his letter at the beginning of Revelation, John gives a benediction that resembles the benedictions of the Pauline letters. He pronounces grace/favor and peace, grace and favor that lead to peace, grace that leads to fullness and harmony that is the biblical definition of peace.
The benediction pronounces in verses 4-6 is complex. On the surface, it looks Trinitarian. Grace and peace have a triple source. There are three prepositional phrases: from . . . from . . . from. The designations are unusual, but we can see that there is an explicit reference to the Spirit and to Jesus Christ. That indicates that the first source of grace and peace, the “one who is, was, comes” must be the Father. Grace and peace flow from a Triune Source.
But the order is unusual: Father, Spirit, Son, not Father, Son, Spirit. This points to the Spirit’s role in conceiving and anointing Jesus (as Joseph Mangina notes in Revelation (Brazos Theological Commentary on the Bible)) and there are links to the tabernacle/temple arrangement: Throne, Lampstand, Altar.
When we talk about grace and peace coming from a Triune source, we are talking about the whole history of Jesus and the Spirit. The Father sent the Son as the incarnation of His eternal favor, as the incarnate Decree of God; and He sent His Son with a sword to war until He made peace. The Father and Son sent the Spirit as the living and lively grace of God, the grace that comes from the exalted grace of Jesus, and He comes to bring peace to the earth, to bring order and harmony to the world. When the Spirit of the Son descends, the peace of God descends.
The benediction isn’t simply Trinitarian, but a Celtic knot of triads. There are three persons, but there is also an internal triad, as it were, within each person. The Father is identified as a triad in Himself, and the Son by two triads, first of titles then of actions. Jesus is a triad, and His word is triadic, quasi-Trinitarian. Mangina suggests that God is “fractal,” in which each person displays the full triunity of the whole divine being.
The Father Himself is not three Persons, but the Father has a triple identity. He is the one who is present, the source of all that is past, and the goal toward which all things move. He is the chiastic structure of history in Himself – source, center, and end. In the beginning, He spoke the world through His Word and Spirit; in the middle of history, He sent the Son by the Spirit, then gave the Son the Spirit to send; and at the end, all things will be delivered up to Him, so that God may be all in all.
The phrasing is defies grammar. After the preposition, we expect a genitive ending, but instead we get a series of three participial phrases in the nominative. Ungrammatically, but accurately, we’d translate, “Grace and peace from he who is and who was and who comes.” The Father is not put into a “object” position; He is subject. He is always the one acting. He is linked with time, not timeless but encompassing all time, but He is not an object in space. He is not put in the genitive or accusative case. Precisely because He encompasses all time, He is never an object, but always the acting subject. To put it grammatically, He conjugates, but He doesn’t decline.
The fact that the phrase is in the nominative also suggests that the title of the Father is a name, a rendering of the Name of Yahweh given at the burning bush, the God who is, I am, Yahweh. But this rendering of the name shows that “I am” is not a name that describes a timelessly present God, but rather a God who embraces and encloses time, and is in some sense identifying Himself with time. He is present, but He is also the great Father and Ancestor, and He is also the One who is coming. The God of the future here is not pictured as a God who is waiting patiently for us at the end, but a God who comes, the future God rushing constantly toward us. Finally, the name puts Jesus and the Spirit right there in the expansion of the name Yahweh. This is what N. T. Wright describes as Jewish Trinitarian monotheism!
Put another way, this shows that God’s activity is inherent in His being or name. He is not merely the one who “is, was, will be”; the verbs are not merely verbs of being. It is not as if God is, and then decides to act. For God, to be is to act, to be is to come. When God comes to us, He’s not doing anything contrary to His nature. He is being who is He, the God who comes. The Name of God, the expanded Name Yahweh, is “God who comes.”
The name of the Spirit is also odd. The Spirit is before the throne of the One who is, was, and comes, but the Spirit is designated as the “seven Spirits.” Wilcock (The Message of Revelation) talks about the sevenfold rhythm of the universe (62-3), and others link this with the seven eyes of the Lord and the lampstand in Zechariah 4, where the lamps are the seven eyes of God and the message of the vision is that the Spirit will enable Israel to rebuild the temple. We are also reminded of Isaiah 11:2’s sevenfold description of the Spirit.
The fact that the seven Spirits are said to be before the throne links the Spirit with other things that are before the throne. Lambs, clearly, in 4:5, but also the sea of glass like crystal (4:6), and the great multitude from every tribe and tongue (7:9), and the angels worshiping before the throne (7:11), and those who have been delivered from the great tribulation (7:15), and the golden altar (8:3), and the harvested saints (14:3), and the dead who are judged before the throne (20:12). Whatever is before the throne of God is brought there by the Spirit. The Spirit is the one who gathers the people, who delivers from tribulation, who causes the prayers to ascend, who brings the dead to life so that they can be judged.
The opening description also links the Spirit with other sevens in the book – the seven churches, the seven lamps, the seven stars, the seven angels who blow trumpets, the seven chalices, and so on. The number also indicates something about the work of the Spirit and character of the Spirit. The Father is not a triple personality, and the Spirit is not seven Persons. But the Spirit is a seven, and he works in rhythms of seven. At the creation, the Spirit formed the world in a sevenfold sequence; when He filled Bezalel to construct the tabernacle, the product was a sevenfold tent. The Spirit works according to a heptamerous rhythm; that is the scale of His music. Seven is the number of Sabbath, the number of rest, completion, and rule, so the sevenfold Spirit is the one who drives things toward their Sabbatical fulfillment.
The Father is given a triple title, the Spirit is a seven, and then there are three titles given to Jesus: faithful witness, firstborn of dead, ruler of the kings of the earth. That makes a sevenfold name: Triple title for the Father, Spirit, triple title for the Son. Or, if you include the seven of the seven Spirits, then we have a 13.
In addition to Jesus’ name and title as “anointed one,” He is given three titles, taken from Psalm 89, a Psalm about the Davidic dynasty. As Gregory Beale (The Book of Revelation) points out, Psalm 89 (LXX 88) is in the background. Verses 27-28 say that Yahweh makes David his “firstborn” (prototokon) and the “highest of the kings of the earth” (upselon para tois basileusin tes ges). This is very close to the phrases of Revelation 1:5 (ho prototokos ton nekron kai ho archon ton basilewn tes ges). The Psalm also speaks of the witness of the sky is faithful (ho martus en ourano pistos), referring to the certainty of the Lord’s covenant with David that he would have a permanent dynasty. His throne will be like the sun before Yahweh, and the dynasty will be established like the moon, the faithful witness in the sky or heavens. The cash value of this is that it shows that John is thinking in terms of Jesus as the final Davidic king, the fulfillment of the oath that Yahweh swore to David.
“Firstborn” is royal language as well, but the important modification of Psalm 89 is that the Jesus is not just designated as firstborn, but is the firstborn from the dead. (Paul uses this description of Jesus in Colossians 1:18. He is the firstborn of all, begotten before all things by the Father, begotten eternally by the Father. He is preeminent in everything, though, not just in the past but in being the first to come from the dead.) Given the roots of this phrase in Psalm 89, this is not just a reference to the resurrection, but a reference to the restoration of the Davidic dynasty that took place in the resurrection. The resurrection of Jesus is testimony to the Lord’s faithfulness to His promises to David, His determination to keep a scion of David’s line on the throne. “Firstborn from the dead” is a new way of saying “branch from the stump of Jesse,” a sign of new life springing from the dead stump of Jesse. Psalm 89 is again relevant here, since it is not only a review of Yahweh’s promise and oath to David, but also a lament over the destruction and casting off of the David line (vv 38-51). Where is the former lovingkindness to David? the Psalm asks, but never answers. That lovingkindness is what Revelation is about.
In Psalm 89, the kings of the earth over which David rules are adversaries that are crushed before Him (vv. 21-23). Beale argues that the “kings of the earth” are also subdued enemies in Revelation, pointing out that the phrase “kings of the earth” in the remainder of Revelation typically refers to enemies of Jesus (6:15; 17:18; 18:3, 9; 19:19). By the end, though, the kings of the earth have become allied with Jesus, and they are bringing tribute into the new Jerusalem (21:24). At the same time, Revelation also teaches that Jesus has made the saints a kingdom and priests who will reign on earth (5:10). Jesus rules the kings of the earth in both senses – He is Lord of all political authorities, and He is chief of a nation of kings.
Jesus is the faithful witness. The word here is the same as John has used for himself, and the fact that Jesus is described this way shows us what faithful witness looks like in Revelation. Jesus is faithful to death, and testifies to the truth of God by that faithful witness, and that is the witness that He calls the church to (2:10, 13; 3:14).
Finally, He is ruler of the kings of the earth. There is a sequence here. “Faithful witness” describes His earthly ministry. He presented the Father’s case, and presented that even at the cost of His life. He witnessed to death, and so became the firstborn from the dead. Because of His faithful witness, it was just that the Father justify Him in the resurrection. And having raised Him from the dead, making Him firstborn from the dead, He has also made Him ruler of the kings of the earth.
This is a triple title, but John is also playing with sevens. Apart from articles, the triple title of Jesus contains seven words: witness, faithful, firstborn, dead, ruler, kings, earth. The Spirit is a sevenfold Spirit, but Jesus is also a seven. Besides, after the titles are three descriptions of Jesus’ actions on our behalf, and then a doxology: Three titles, plus three actions, plus a doxology constitutes another 7.
Jesus sets the pattern for the saints in the book of Revelation: Those who are faithful unto death will be brothers of the Firstborn and will receive a crown of life. Kingship through death – that is Jesus’ story, and it’s ours. But there is also demonic inversion of Jesus. Jesus is the firstborn of the dead, but there is a parody of resurrection later in the book. When the beast is first introduced in chapter 13, his head has been slain (like the Lamb) but the fatal wound was healed. He died and rose again, a false resurrection. Jesus is also the true witness, but there is a false witness, the false prophet of chapter 13, the beast from the land who performs wonders and makes everyone worship the first beast from the sea. In 17:18, the Harlot is described as the one who has basileia over the kings of the earth, and here Jesus has that designation. Jesus is the true form of all the enemies that appear later on in Revelation. Jesus is the true beast (Lion and Lamb), the true prophet, the true head of the bride.
The benediction ends with three descriptions of Jesus’ work. Behind the whole is an exodus typology. The Father has been identified with the name “I am,” and now Jesus’ work is expounded in terms of an exodus typology. He loves us, not just loved us in the past but loves us now, and that love was expressed in His deliverance. He delivers us, releases or looses us, by His blood. And having loved us and come to our rescue and dying to deliver us and loose us, He makes us a kingdom, a ruling people, and priests, palace servants to God. Election, Passover, Sinai: that same sequence is fulfilled in Jesus.
Peter J. Leithart is President of Trinity House.