Biblion Bible Commentary
Read the introduction to Revelation · About this commentary
The Keys of Death and Hades
Revelation 1:17-20
17 When I saw him, I fell at his feet like a dead man. He laid his right hand on me, saying, “Don’t be afraid. I am the first and the last, · WEB
The seer falls as dead and is raised by a touch, the credential is a death survived, and the mystery is decoded before the letters begin.
When I saw him, I fell at his feet like a dead man.
The response is the Bible's constant one to unveiled glory — Ezekiel on his face, Daniel drained of strength Daniel 10:8–9 — and it is worth registering who fell: the disciple who had known Jesus most familiarly, collapsing before the same person seen as he is. Familiarity had not domesticated him.
What follows is the gospel in a gesture: he laid his right hand on me — the hand holding the seven stars Revelation 1:16 laid on one frightened man — saying, "Don't be afraid." The book of beasts and plagues has do not fear at its foundation, spoken before any of them appear.
The credential offered is a biography in three clauses: I am the first and the last, and the Living one. I was dead, and behold, I am alive forever and ever Revelation 1:17–18. The first and the last is Isaiah's title for God against the idols Isaiah 44:6, claimed outright. And between the eternal titles stands the event: I was dead — the sentence no other god ever spoke. The one comforting John has been through the worst thing the book will describe and stands on the far side of it alive forever.
Then the claim that turns the credential into comfort for every reader since: I have the keys of Death and of Hades Revelation 1:18.
Keys are custody. Death and the grave are pictured as a locked realm, and the lock has changed hands — the one who was inside came out with the keys. Every martyr in this book dies into a jurisdiction administered by their Lord Revelation 20:13; the second death has no power over those he unlocks Revelation 20:6. Nothing the dragon does in the chapters ahead can alter who holds the keys.
The commission is renewed with the book's scope in it — the things which you have seen, and the things which are, and the things which will happen hereafter Revelation 1:19 — the vision seen, the churches' present, and the future unrolling from it: the book's own table of contents.
And the chapter closes by decoding its own symbols, setting the method for everything after Revelation 17:15: the seven stars are the angels of the seven assemblies. The seven lamp stands are seven assemblies Revelation 1:20. The book tells the reader how to read it — symbols have referents, and the unveiling intends to be understood.
settled What this mark means