Revelation 4:1 - Exposition

After this ; or, after these things ( μετὰ ταῦτα ). There is no good ground for supposing, as some do, that, after the events narrated in Revelation 3:1-22 ., an interval occurred in the visions, during which St. John possibly wrote down the matter contained in the first three chapters. Nor is there any justification for assigning what follows to a time after this world. It would be pressing ταῦτα very far to make it apply to these present things of the world; and μετὰ ταῦτα certainly need not mean "the things after this world." The expression is used here in its ordinary, natural sense: "After having seen this, I saw," etc.; introducing some new phase or variety of spectacle. I looked ; or, I saw ( εἷδον ). No fresh act of looking is signified. I saw in the Spirit, as formerly ( Revelation 1:10 , Revelation 1:12 ). And, behold, a door; or, and, behold, a door, and the first voice. Such is the construction of the Greek. Was opened in heaven ; or, an open door, in heaven. St. John did not see the action of opening the door, but he saw a door which had been set open, through which he might gaze, and observe what passed within. Alford contrasts Ezekiel 1:1 ; Matthew 3:16 ; Acts 7:56 ; Acts 10:11 , where "the heaven was opened;" and supposes that the seer is transported through the open door into heaven, from which position he sees heaven, and views all that happens on the earth. Victorinus aptly compares the open door to the gospel. And the first voice which I heard, as it were, of a trumpet talking with me . Omit the "was" which follows, as well as the colon which precedes, and repeat "a voice," as in the Revised Version: And, behold, an open door in heaven, and the first voice which 1 heard, the voice which was, as it were, of a trumpet. The voice signified is not the first, but the former voice; viz. that already heard and described in Revelation 1:10 . The possessor of the voice is not indicated. Stier ('Reden Jesu') attributes the voice to Christ; but it seems rather that of an angel, or at any rate not that of Christ, whose voice in Revelation 1:15 is described as "of many waters, "not as" of a trumpet." Which said . The voice ( φωνή ) becomes masculine ( λέγων ). Though whose voice is not stated, yet the vividness and reality of the vision causes the writer to speak of the voice as the personal being whom it signifies. Come up hither. That is in the Spirit—for the apostle "immediately was in the Spirit" ( Revelation 1:2 ). He was to receive a yet higher insight into spiritual things (cf. 2 Corinthians 12:2 , where St. Paul was "caught up into the third heaven"). And I will show thee . It is not necessary, with Stier (see above on Revelation 1:1 ), to infer that these words are Christ's. Though from him all the revelation comes, he may well use the ministry of angels through whom to signify his will. Things which must be hereafter ; or, the things which must happen hereafter. The things which it is right should happen, and which, therefore, must needs happen ( δεῖ ). "Hereafter" ( μετὰ ταῦτα ); as before in Revelation 1:1 , but in a somewhat more general and less definite sense—at some time after this; but when precisely is not stated. The full stop may possibly be better placed before "hereafter;" in which case "hereafter" would introduce the following phrase, exactly as before in this verse. There is no "and;" καὶ , though in the Textus Receptus, is omitted in the best manuscripts.