Revelation 1:12 - Exposition

To see the voice . As in Genesis 3:8 , "the voice" is put for the speaker. This is the right method in studying the Revelation; we must, like St. John, "turn to see the voice." We must look, not to the events about which it seems to us to speak, but to him who utters it. The book is "the Revelation," not of the secrets of history, but "of Jesus Christ." Seven golden candlesticks. The word λυχνία occurs in Matthew 5:15 ; Mark 4:21 ; Luke 8:16 ; Luke 11:33 ; Hebrews 9:2 ; and seven times in this book. In Exodus 20:1-26 :37 we have seven λύχνοι on one λυχνία , seven lamps on one lamp stand. So also in Zechariah 4:2 . It is by no means certain that a similar figure is not meant here; the seven-branched candlestick familiar to all who know the Arch of Titus. If the Christ stood "in the midst of the candlesticks," his form would appear as that which united the seven branches. But it is perhaps more natural to understand seven separate lamp stands, each with its own lamp; and these, in contrast with the seven-branched stand of the temple, may represent the elastic multiplicity of the Christian Churches throughout the world in contrast with the rigid unity of the Jewish Church of Jerusalem.