Board index ‹ Specific Bible verses, texts, and passages ‹ Revelation

[Kwado]

It says the revelation was given to "show his servants " what will happen. Are the servants God's servants or Jesus's servants?

[jimwalton]

God is the source of the prophecy, and Jesus is the agent of it. Jesus is most likely a subjective genitive: he is the agent through which the prophecy comes, not the object of it. (Source: Marvin Vincent, Word Studies of the NT, Vol. 2 p. 407; Merrill Tenney, Interpreting Revelation p. 29).

God (the subject) gave the revelation (the apocalypse) to "him," to Jesus.

To show to his—God's (the subject)—servants. Though in grammar we typically reference the the pronoun to the nearest anaphoric antecedent unless there is indication to do otherwise, in this case Revelation is consistent in regarding believers as the servants of God: 7.3, 10.7, 11.18, 15.3, 19.2 & 5, 22.6.

[Kwado]

What about Revelation 22:16 it says "I, Jesus, have sent my angel to testify to you about these things..." and Revelation 1:1 "...he made it known by sending his angel to his servant John..." Is it "God's" angel in 1:1 and "Jesus's" angel in 22:16? Thanks for the insight on the "servant of God" in Revelation.

[jimwalton]

It says the revelation was given to "show his servants " what will happen. Are the servants God's servants or Jesus's servants?

Regarding Rev. 1.1, Kittel writes (Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, Vol. 7 p. 264):

"The use of this term ('he made it known') establishes that what is coming is specifically in the category of prophetic discourse. Here 'made it known' and 'gave' are formally parallel, though the subject of 'gave' is God and of 'made it known' is Jesus. Thus we have the chain of the revelation: God the Father, God the Son, then an angel, to John."

Regarding 22.16, again, Kittel (Vol. 7 p. 86):

"No essential distinction need be made between God and Christ.."

A.T. Robertson (Word Pictures in the New Testament, Vol. 6 p. 485):

"The last and most solemn attestation to the book that is from Jesus (the historic Jesus known to the churches), in harmony with 1.1ff. It is the Jesus of history here speaking, who is also the Christ of theology and the Lamb of God."

These commentators see a harmony between the two texts, not a conflict.