Revelation 1:5b-8

To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood and made us a kingdom, priests to his God and Father, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. Behold, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, even those who pierced him, and all tribes of the earth will wail on account of him. Even so. Amen.

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

Τῷ ἀγαπῶντι ἡμᾶς καὶ λύσαντι ἡμᾶς ἐκ τῶν ἁμαρτιῶν ἡμῶν ἐν τῷ αἵματι αὐτοῦ— καὶ ἐποίησεν ἡμᾶς βασιλείαν, ἱερεῖς τῷ θεῷ καὶ πατρὶ αὐτοῦ— αὐτῷ ἡ δόξα καὶ τὸ κράτος εἰς τοὺς αἰῶνας τῶν αἰώνων· ἀμήν. Ἰδοὺ ἔρχεται μετὰ τῶν νεφελῶν, καὶ ὄψεται αὐτὸν πᾶς ὀφθαλμὸς καὶ οἵτινες αὐτὸν ἐξεκέντησαν, καὶ κόψονται ἐπ’ αὐτὸν πᾶσαι αἱ φυλαὶ τῆς γῆς. ναί, ἀμήν.

Ἐγώ εἰμι τὸ Ἄλφα καὶ τὸ Ὦ, λέγει κύριος, ὁ θεός, ὁ ὢν καὶ ὁ ἦν καὶ ὁ ἐρχόμενος, ὁ παντοκράτωρ.

John now provides a brief doxological statement, in which he praises Jesus for His love for His new covenant people, exhibited in the atonement of Christ, for He has freed His people from their sins by His blood. Furthermore, He has made His new covenant people a kingdom of priests, consisting both aspects of reigning together with Christ and also priestly responsibilities in regards to worship to God the Father. Readers are directed to the interesting verb tenses used in verses 5b and 6. To the one who ἀγαπῶντι (agapōnti) us, that is, present and ongoing love for us, and has λύσαντι (lysanti) us, that is, has freed us and is freeing us from our sins, and who has ἐποίησεν (epoiēsen) us, that is, made us (past, accomplished) a kingdom of priests to God. To Jesus be glory and dominion forever and ever for His work of justification, sanctification, and glorification.

John then states that Jesus is “coming with the clouds”, an allusion to Daniel 7:13-14:

Behold, with the clouds of heaven

there came one like a son of man,

and he came to the Ancient of Days

and was presented before him.

And to him was given dominion

and glory and a kingdom,

that all peoples, nations, and languages

should serve him;

his dominion is an everlasting dominion,

which shall not pass away,

and his kingdom one

that shall not be destroyed.

In the OT, the image of “clouds” is used as a sign of judgment. Furthermore, this scene in Daniel describes the Son of Man coming before the Ancient of Days, in order to receive dominion and glory and a kingdom, all of which are mentioned in Revelation 1:5b-6. Daniel describes the kingdom given to the Son of Man as one that is everlasting and which cannot be destroyed. It is fascinating to note that the new covenant people of God are privileged to partake in this everlasting kingdom, and John’s audience in particular would be encouraged that this kingdom cannot be destroyed, unlike the temporal “kingdom” of the Jews which is about to be destroyed, as prophesied throughout Revelation.

Readers will be reminded that Jesus referred to this Danielic prophecy in the Olivet Discourse. In Matthew 24:29-31, Jesus states that:

“Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. Then will appear in heaven the sign of the Son of Man, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And he will send out his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.

In the Olivet Discourse, Jesus is warning His disciples about the coming destruction of Jerusalem, which He connects with the coming of the Son of Man with power and great glory. In fact, Jesus tells them that “this generation will not pass away until all these things take place.” Therefore, the disciples would have been expecting that this scene of the Son of Man coming on the clouds would take place in their life time. Readers can discern a number of overlapping features which John repeats in Revelation 1:5b-6. For example, the “coming on the clouds” is repeated in reference to Christ’s coming in judgment on Israel; all the “tribes of the earth”, or better understood as “the tribes of the Land [of Israel]” will wail or mourn; and they will see the Son of Man, in contrast with John’s every eye will see Him.

When the word φυλαὶ (phylai) is used together with τῆς γῆς (tēs gēs), it more often than not refers to the tribes of the Land of Israel. The ESV also renders the word κόψονται (kopsontai) as “wail” rather than “mourn” in light of the context in which it appears that these people are wailing because of the judgment which the Son of Man brings upon the Land, instead of “mourning” on account of Jesus due to repentant sorrow. This is an ironic reversal of Zechariah 12:10-14, which states:

“And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and pleas for mercy, so that, when they look on me, on him whom they have pierced, they shall mourn for him, as one mourns for an only child, and weep bitterly over him, as one weeps over a firstborn. On that day the mourning in Jerusalem will be as great as the mourning for Hadad-rimmon in the plain of Megiddo. The land shall mourn, each family by itself: the family of the house of David by itself, and their wives by themselves; the family of the house of Nathan by itself, and their wives by themselves; the family of the house of Levi by itself, and their wives by themselves; the family of the Shimeites by itself, and their wives by themselves; and all the families that are left, each by itself, and their wives by themselves.

In the Zechariah passage, it appears that the tribes [families in Israel] are mourning for the one who was pierced, whereas John changes it so that the tribes are wailing on account [because] of the one who was pierced and who is now coming in judgment against them. How do we know that the Son of Man is coming in judgment? Readers are directed to Mark 14:61-62, which states:

But he [Jesus] remained silent and made no answer. Again the high priest asked him, “Are you the Christ, the Son of the Blessed?” And Jesus said, “I am, and you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of Power, and coming with the clouds of heaven.”

In the above passage, Jesus tells the high priest that (1) He is the Christ, and (2) they will see the “Son of Man… coming with the clouds of heaven.” John appears to have this interaction in mind when he states in Revelation that “every eye will see him, even those who pierced him“. The καὶ (kai) which is translated as “even” in the ESV is best understood as an explicative conjunction, meaning that it explains further what came before, that is, “every eye will see him“. In other words, John is stating that those who pierced Jesus will see Him coming on the clouds, which is consistent with the Olivet Discourse and Jesus’s statement to the high priest. Therefore, readers can now understand the reason for interpreting most of Revelation as having taken place in AD 70, when the Son of Man appears to have come in power and in judgment against those who pierced Him.

It is fascinating to note at this time that even non-preterist commentators recognize the clear meaning of these verses in that Jesus must have come in some sense in the near-term, immediate future of John’s audience. For example, Beale admits that the text is so clear on this matter that he proposes that there must have been multiple “unseen comings” of Jesus in judgment against evil nations throughout human history since His ascension until the end-time final return of Christ. This is in line with Beale’s “mountain-range” fulfillment interpretative framework, in which he sees the events of Revelation as possibly being fulfilled multiple times throughout the church age, culminating in a consummate, ultimate fulfillment at the final coming of Christ.

Contra Beale, I believe it makes more sense to adopt a dual-fulfillment interpretative framework rather than an indefinite multiple-fulfillment interpretative framework for the book of Revelation. It is unfortunate that since Beale rejects the AD 60s dating of Revelation (before the destruction of the temple), he has to reject the proposition that most of Revelation has been primarily fulfilled in AD 70. If he did accept the AD 60s dating of Revelation, I believe that Beale would at the least admit that the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70 was one of his proposed “unseen comings” of Jesus in judgment against evil-doers. Furthermore, it makes a lot more sense to argue that AD 70 is the primary historical fulfillment of Revelation, whereas the end-time judgment on the unbelieving world at the final coming of Christ is an application of Revelation and is foreshadowed by Revelation, that is, the judgment on apostate Israel is a type of the future judgment on the unbelieving world (antitype).

God is then self-described as “the Alpha and the Omega” and the one “who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty”. Expressions such as “the Alpha and the Omega” are called merisms. A merism is a rhetorical device in which the parts are used to represent the whole. Merisms are used to emphasize totality or completeness by referencing extremities or opposites to encompass the entire concept. As such, the expression “the Alpha and the Omega” describes the timelessness and fullness of God. Similarly, the expression “who is and who was and who is to come” also refers to the timelessness of God, though with a slight additional emphasis on the near-term “coming” of God which will be described further in Revelation.

The title of Παντοκράτωρ (Pantokratōr), the “Almighty”, literally means “ruler of all”. This title emphasizes the all-powerful nature of God, such that He rules over all and is sovereign over all that takes place in His creation. This is the One from whom this revelation has been given to Christ to show to His servants. The awe-inspiring, all-powerful God is the One who is in control of human history, and He is the author of the impending judgment that is to come upon apostate Israel for crucifying His Son. Recall what Jesus taught in His parable of the evil tenants in Matthew 21:37-41:

Finally he sent his son to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ But when the tenants saw the son, they said to themselves, ‘This is the heir. Come, let us kill him and have his inheritance.’ And they took him and threw him out of the vineyard and killed him. When therefore the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?” They said to him, “He will put those wretches to a miserable death and let out the vineyard to other tenants who will give him the fruits in their seasons.”

God sent His Son to the tenants of the Land, and not only did the Jews kill all the servants of Yahweh (the prophets) who were sent in the past, but the Jews committed the ultimate crime in murdering the Son of God. Therefore, it is now time for the Owner, God Himself, to come in judgment against the tenants of the Land, and to “put those wretches to a miserable death”, as is depicted in the book of Revelation.

Soli Deo gloria!