Adopting a Hebraic literary technique, Revelation 1:9-20 repeats key words.

“Voice” (phone) is used four times. John hears a voice (v. 10), turns to see it (v. 12), and the central feature of the glorified being he sees is a “voice” like the “voice” of many waters (v. 15), the voice of Jesus resounding like the voice of God, anticipating the oceanic voice of the saints (19:6).

The verb “write” (grapho) frames the entire scene (vv. 11, 19), indicating that this is a commissioning scene, Jesus authorizing John to write to His churches. 

Jesus “right hand” (dexios cheir) receives a lot of attention. John notices seven stars in his right hand (v. 16). When John calls down dead at Jesus’ feet, Jesus revives him with a touch of the “right {hand, implied]” (v. 17).  Of the features of Jesus’ person, only the stars in the right hand are explained (v. 20).

The right hand holds seven stars (aster; v. 16), which are explained as the “angels of the seven churches” (v. 20, 2x). “Seven stars” mentioned three times hints at a Triune fullness, a 3 x 7, the angels of the churches sustained in the hand of Jesus whose eyes are like the seven Spirits and who is the Son of the He who is, was, and is to come.

John’s first glance at Jesus reveals “lampstands” (luchnia), with Jesus the Son of Man in the midst (vv. 12-13). Those lampstands are explained at the end of the passage as the seven churches to which John writes (v. 20, 4x). There are seven lampstands, but they are mentioned four times, suggesting a four-corner catholic spread of the church as well as a seven-fold sabbatical life.

Jesus wears a robe that reaches to his feet (paderes; v. 13) feet (podes)that are later described as glowing like bronze in a furnace (v. 15), like an altar with flame, and when John has taken Jesus’ glory in, he is struck dead at those glowing feet (v. 17). He is at the foot of the altar, like the saints revealed in the fifth seal (6:9). John, who partakes of the suffering and perseverance that come with the Word of God and the testimony of Jesus, is the first “martyr” to be raised from the dead, made to ascend from the foot of the altar to the presence of Jesus, made to rise and write, rise and rule. Later, John calls at the feet of two angels (19:10; 22:8), but they refuse his homage. As a raised witness, John is no longer lower than the angels, but a fellow-servant.

John calls as a dead man (how nekros; v 17), but he won’t stay dead because the one who touches Him was “dead (nekros) and is alive” (v. 18), and having passed through death he has the keys of death (thanatos; v. 18). The living one (ho zon) is alive forever (zon . . . eis tous aionas ton aionon). He is the living “I am” (v. 18).