Biblion Bible Commentary
Read the introduction to Revelation · About this commentary
Behold, He Comes with the Clouds
Revelation 1:7-8
7 Behold, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, including those who pierced him. All the tribes of the earth will mourn over him. Even so, Amen. · WEB
The book's theme-verse fuses Daniel and Zechariah, every eye includes the piercers, and the Almighty signs the announcement himself.
Behold, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, including those who pierced him. All the tribes of the earth will mourn over him. Even so, Amen.
This is the book's announcement of its theme, and it is built by fusing two prophets. From Daniel: one like a son of man coming with the clouds of heaven Daniel 7:13 — the enthronement vision, dominion given that will not pass away. From Zechariah: they will look to me whom they have pierced, and the tribes mourning Zechariah 12:10. The fusion does what the whole book does with Scripture — two streams joined into one claim: the pierced one is the cloud-rider; the victim of the empire is its returning judge.
Every clause universalizes. Every eye will see him — the coming is public, visible, and global; nothing in this book knows a secret arrival. Including those who pierced him — the piercers singled out from among the seers: the coming intersects with responsibility, and no participant in the crucifixion, near or far, is exempt from the viewing. All the tribes of the earth will mourn — Zechariah's mourning was Jerusalem 's, family by family, and it was the grief of grace poured out; stretched worldwide, the mourning holds both notes the book will keep sounding — the grief of the guilty Revelation 6:16 and the grief that turns Revelation 14:7.
And the double affirmation seals it in two languages: even so — the Greek yes — Amen — the Hebrew one. The whole church, Gentile and Jewish, says so be it to the same coming.
Then a voice that has not spoken until now speaks over the announcement: "I am the Alpha and the Omega," says the Lord God, "who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty" Revelation 1:8.
God signs the book near its opening the way he will sign it near its close Revelation 22:13. Alpha and Omega — the alphabet's first and last letters: every word that can be written is written inside his span. The tensed name returns from the greeting, and the title the Almighty — the book will use it nine times — plants the flag under which every following vision marches. Before a single seal is opened or beast described, the outcome has been notarized by the only signature that guarantees anything.
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