The Asia here mentioned was what is called Asia Minor, or the Lydian or Proconsular Asia; the seven Churches were those of Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamos, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea. Of these as they occur. We are not to suppose that they were the only Christian Churches then in Asia Minor; there were several others then in Phrygia, Pamphylia, Galatia, Pontus, Cappadocia, &c., &c. But these seven were those which lay nearest to the apostle, and were more particularly under his care; though the message was sent to the Churches in general, and perhaps it concerns the whole Christian world. But the number seven may be used here as the number of perfection; as the Hebrews use the seven names of the heavens, the seven names of the earth, the seven patriarchs, seven suns, seven kinds, seven years, seven months, seven days, &c., &c.; in which the rabbins find a great variety of mysteries.

Grace be unto you] This form of apostolical benediction we have often seen in the preceding epistles.

From him which is, and which was, and which is to come] This phraseology is purely Jewish, and probably taken from the Tetragrammaton, hwhy YEHOVAH; which is supposed to include in itself all time, past, present, and future. But they often use the phrase of which the o wn, kai o hn, kai o ercomenov, of the apostle, is a literal translation. So, in Sohar Chadash, fol. 7, 1: "Rabbi Jose said, By the name Tetragrammaton, (i.e. hwhy Yehovah,) the higher and lower regions, the heavens, the earth, and all they contain, were perfected; and they are all before him reputed as nothing:- hyhy awhw hwh awhw hyh awhw vehu hayah, vehu hoveh, vehu yihyeh; and HE WAS, and HE IS, and HE WILL BE. So, in Shemoth Rabba, sec. 3, fol. 105, 2: "The holy blessed God said to Moses, tell them:- awbl dyt[l awh ynaw wy�k[ awh ynaw ytyyh� yna ani shehayithi, veani hu achshaiu, veani hu laathid labo; I WAS, I NOW AM, and I WILL BE IN FUTURE." In Chasad Shimuel, Rab. Samuel ben David asks: "Why are we commanded to use three hours of prayer? Answer: These hours point out the holy blessed God:- hyhyw hwh hyh awh� shehu hayah, hoveh, veyihyeh; he who WAS, who IS, and who SHALL BE. The MORNING prayer points out him who WAS before the foundation of the world; the NOONDAY prayer points out him who IS; and the EVENING prayer points out him who IS TO COME." This phraseology is exceedingly appropriate, and strongly expresses the eternity of God; for we have no other idea of time than as past, or now existing, or yet to exist; nor have we any idea of eternity but as that duration called by some aeternitas a parte ante, the eternity that was before time, and aeternitas a parte post, the endless duration that shall be when time is no more. That which WAS, is the eternity before time; that which IS, is time itself; and that which IS TO COME, is the eternity which shall be when time is no more.

The seven Spirits-before his throne] The ancient Jews, who represented the throne of God as the throne of an eastern monarch, supposed that there were seven ministering angels before this throne, as there were seven ministers attendant on the throne of a Persian monarch. We have an ample proof of this, Tobit xii. 15: I am Raphael, one of the SEVEN HOLY ANGELS which present the prayers of the saints, and which go in and out before the glory of the Holy One. And in Jonathan ben Uzziel's Targum, on Gen. xi. 7: God said to the SEVEN ANGELS which stand before him, Come now, &c.

In Pirkey Eliezer, iv. and vii: "The angels which were first created minister before him without the veil." Sometimes they represent them as seven cohorts or troops of angels, under whom are thirty inferior orders.

That seven ANGELS are here meant, and not the Holy Spirit, is most evident from the place, the number, and the tradition. Those who imagine the Holy Ghost to be intended suppose the number seven is used to denote his manifold gifts and graces. That these seven spirits are angels, see chap. iii. 1; iv. 5; and particularly chap. v. 6, where they are called the seven spirits of God SENT FORTH INTO ALL THE EARTH.

John Gill's Bible Commentary

And such a periphrasis of God is frequent in their writings f11 . And from the seven spirits which are before his throne ; either before the throne of God the Father; or, as the Ethiopic version reads, �before the throne of the Lord Jesus Christ�; by whom are meant not angels, though these are spirits, and stand before the throne of God, and are ready to do his will: this is the sense of some interpreters, who think such a number of them is mentioned with reference to the seven angels of the churches; or to the seven last �Sephirot�, or numbers in the Cabalistic tree of the Jews; the three first they suppose design the three Persons in the Godhead, expressed in the preceding clause, and the seven last the whole company of angels: or to the seven principal angels the Jews speak of. Indeed, in the Apocrypha, �I am Raphael, one of the seven holy angels, which present the prayers of the saints, and which go in and out before the glory of the Holy One.� (Tobit 12:15) Raphael is said to be one of the seven angels; but it does not appear to be a generally received notion of theirs that there were seven principal angels.

The Chaldee paraphrase on ( Genesis 11:7) is misunderstood by Mr.

Mede, for not �seven�, but �seventy angels� are there addressed. It was usual with the Jews only to speak of four principal angels, who stand round about the throne of God; and their names are Michael, Uriel, Gabriel, and Raphael; according to them, Michael stands at his right hand, Uriel at his left, Gabriel before him, and Raphael behind him f12 . However, it does not seem likely that angels should be placed in such a situation between the divine Persons, the Father and the Son; and still less that grace and peace should be wished for from them, as from God the Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ; and that any countenance should be given to angel worship, in a book in which angels are so often represented as worshippers, and in which worship is more than once forbidden them, and that by themselves: but by these seven spirits are intended the Holy Spirit of God, who is one in his person, but his gifts and graces are various; and therefore he is signified by this number, because of the fulness and perfection of them, and with respect to the seven churches, over whom he presided, whom he influenced, and sanctified, and filled, and enriched with his gifts and graces.

Matthew Henry Commentary

Greek Textus Receptus

Seven. Among every ancient people, especially in the East, a religious significance attaches to numbers. This grows out of the instinctive appreciation that number and proportion are necessary attributes of the created universe. This sentiment passes over from heathenism into the Old Testament. The number seven was regarded by the Hebrews as a sacred number, and it is throughout Scripture the covenant number, the sign of God's covenant relation to mankind, and especially to the Church. The evidences of this are met in the hallowing of the seventh day; in the accomplishment of circumcision, which is the sign of a covenant, after seven days; in the part played by the number in marriage covenants and treaties of peace. It is the number of purification and consecration (Lev. iv. 6, 17; viii. 11, 33; Num. xix. 12). "Seven is the number of every grace and benefit bestowed upon Israel; which is thus marked as flowing out of the covenant, and a consequence of it. The priests compass Jericho seven days, and on the seventh day seven times, that all Israel may know that the city is given into their hands by God, and that its conquest is a direct and immediate result of their covenant relation to Him. Naaman is to dip in Jordan seven times, that he may acknowledge the God of Israel as the author of his cure. It is the number of reward to those who are faithful in the covenant (Deut. xxviii. 7; 1 Sam. ii. 5); of punishment to those who are froward in the covenant (Lev. xxvi. 21, 24, 28; Deut. xxviii. 25), or to those who injure the people in it (Genesis iv. 15, 24; Exod. vii. 25; Ps. lxxix. 12). All the feasts are ordered by seven, or else by seven multiplied into seven, and thus made intenser still. Thus it is with the Sabbath, the Passover, the Feast of Weeks, of Tabernacles, the Sabbath-year, and the Jubilee."

Similarly the number appears in God's dealing with nations outside the covenant, showing that He is working for Israel's sake and with respect to His covenant. It is the number of the years of plenty and of famine, in sign that these are for Israel's sake rather than for Egypt's. Seven times pass over Nebuchadnezzar, that he may learn that the God of his Jewish captives is king over all the earth (partly quoted and partly condensed from Trench's "Epistles to the Seven Churches").

Seven also occurs as a sacred number in the New Testament. There are seven beatitudes, seven petitions in the Lord's Prayer; seven parables in Matthew 13; seven loaves, seven words from the cross, seven deacons, seven graces (Rom. xii. 6-8), seven characteristics of wisdom (James iii. 17). In Revelation the prominence of the number is marked. To a remarkable extent the structure of that book is molded by the use of numbers, especially of the numbers seven, four, and three. There are seven spirits before the throne; seven churches; seven golden candlesticks; seven stars in the right hand of Him who is like unto a son of man; seven lamps of fire burning before the throne; seven horns and seven eyes of the Lamb; seven seals of the book; and the thunders, the heads of the great dragon and of the beast from the sea, the angels with the trumpets, the plagues, and the mountains which are the seat of the mystic Babylon, - are all seven in number.

So there are four living creatures round about the throne, four angels at the four corners of the earth, holding the four winds; the New Jerusalem is foursquare. Authority is given to Death to kill over the fourth part of the earth, and he employs four agents.

Again the use of the number three is, as Professor Milligan remarks, "so remarkable and continuous that it would require an analysis of the whole book for its perfect illustration." There are three woes, three unclean spirits like frogs, three divisions of Babylon, and three gates on each side of the heavenly city. The Trisagion, or "thrice holy," is sung to God the Almighty, to whom are ascribed three attributes of glory.

Seven Churches. Not all the churches in Asia are meant, since the list of those addressed in Revelation does not include Colossae, Miletus, Hierapolis, or Magnesia. The seven named are chosen to symbolize the whole Church. Compare chapter ii. 7. Seven being the number of the covenant, we have in these seven a representation of the Church universal. In Asia. See on Acts ii. 9.

Grace - peace. For grace (cariv), see on Luke i. 30. Both words are used by Paul in the salutations of all his Epistles, except the three Pastorals.

From Him which is, and which was, and which is to come (apo tou o wn kai o hn kai o ercomenov). The whole salutation is given in the name of the Holy Trinity: the Father (Him which is, and was, and is to come), the Spirit (the seven spirits), the Son (Jesus Christ). See further below. This portion of the salutation has no parallel in Paul, and is distinctively characteristic of the author of Revelation. It is one of the solecisms in grammatical construction which distinguishes this book from the other writings of John. The Greek student will note that the pronoun which (o) is not construed with the preposition from (apo), which would require the genitive case, but stands in the nominative case.

Each of these three appellations is treated as a proper name. The Father is Him which is, and which was, and which is to come. This is a paraphrase of the unspeakable name of God (Exod. iii. 14), the absolute and unchangeable. JO wn, the One who is, is the Septuagint translation of Exod. iii. 14, "I am the oJ wn (I am):" "oJ wn (I am), hath sent me unto you." The One who was (o hn). The Greek has no imperfect participle, so that the finite verb is used. Which is and which was form one clause, to be balanced against which is to come. Compare xi. 17; xvi. 5; and "was (hn) in the beginning with God" (John i. 2). Which is to come (o ercomenov). Lit., the One who is coming. This is not equivalent to who shall be; i.e., the author is not intending to describe the abstract existence of God as covering the future no less than the past and the present. If this had been his meaning, he would have written oJ ejsomenov, which shall be. The phrase which is to come would not express the future eternity of the Divine Being. The dominant conception in the title is rather that of immutability.

Further, the name does not emphasize so much God's abstract existence, as it does His permanent covenant relation to His people. Hence the phrase which is to come, is to be explained in accordance with the key-note of the book, which is the second coming of the Son (chapter i. 7; xxii. 20). The phrase which is to come, is often applied to the Son (see on 1 John iii. 5), and so throughout this book. Here it is predicated of the Father, apart from whom the Son does nothing. "The Son is never alone, even as Redeemer" (Milligan). Compare "We will come unto him," John xiv. 23. Origen quotes our passage with the words: "But that you may perceive that the omnipotence of the Father and of the Son is one and the same, hear John speaking after this manner in Revelation, 'Who is, etc.'" Dean Plumptre cornpares the inscription over the temple of Isis at Sais in Egypt: "I am all that has come into being, and that which is, and that which shall be, and no man hath lifted my veil."

The Spirit is designated by

The seven Spirits (twn epta pneumatwn). Paul nowhere joins the Spirit with the Father and the Son in his opening salutations. The nearest approach is 2 Cor. xiii. 13. The reference is not to the seven principal angels (chapter viii. 2). These could not be properly spoken of as the source of grace and peace; nor be associated with the Father and the Son; nor take precedence of the Son, as is the case here. Besides, angels are never called spirits in this book. With the expression compare chapter iv. 5, the seven lamps of fire, "which are the seven Spirits of God:" chapter iii. 1, where Jesus is said to have "the seven Spirits of God." Thus the seven Spirits belong to the Son as well as to the Father (see John xv. 26). The prototype of John's expression is found in the vision of Zechariah, where the Messiah is prefigured as a stone with seven eyes, "the eyes of the Lord, which run to and fro through the whole earth" (Zech. iii. 9; iv. 10). Compare also the same prophet's vision of the seven-branched candlestick (iv. 2).