Apocalipse 1

ARC · Chapter 1/22

1Revelação de Jesus Christo, a qual Deus lhe deu, para mostrar aos seus servos as coisas que brevemente devem acontecer; e pelo seu anjo as enviou, e as notificou a João seu servo;

2O qual testificou da palavra de Deus, e do testemunho de Jesus Christo, e de tudo o que tem visto.

3Bemaventurado aquelle que lê, e os que ouvem as palavras d'esta prophecia, e guardam as coisas que n'ella estão escriptas; porque o tempo está proximo.

4João, ás sete egrejas que estão na Asia: Graça e paz seja comvosco da parte d'aquelle que é, e que era, e que ha de vir, e da dos sete espiritos que estão diante do seu throno;

5E da parte de Jesus Christo, que é a fiel testemunha, o primogenito dos mortos e o principe dos reis da terra. Aquelle que nos amou, e em seu sangue nos lavou dos nossos peccados,

6E nos fez reis e sacerdotes para Deus e seu Pae: a elle gloria e poder para todo o sempre. Amen.

7Eis que vem com as nuvens, e todo o olho o verá, até os mesmos que o traspassaram, e todas as tribus da terra se lamentarão sobre elle. Sim. Amen.

8Eu sou o Alpha e o Omega, o principio e o fim, diz o Senhor, que é, e que era, e que ha de vir, o Todo-poderoso.

9Eu, João, que tambem sou vosso irmão, e companheiro na afflicção, e no reino, e paciencia de Jesus Christo, estava na ilha chamada Patmos, por causa da palavra de Deus, e pelo testemunho de Jesus Christo.

10Eu fui arrebatado em espirito no dia do Senhor, e ouvi detraz de mim uma grande voz, como de trombeta,

11Que dizia: O que vês, escreve-o n'um livro, e envia-o ás sete egrejas que estão na Asia: a Epheso, e a Smyrna, e a Pergamo, e a Thyatira, e a Sardo, e a Philadelphia, e a Laodicéa.

12E virei-me para vêr quem fallara comigo. E, virando-me, vi sete castiçaes de oiro;

13E no meio dos sete castiçaes um similhante ao Filho do homem, vestido até aos pés de um vestido comprido, e cingido pelos peitos com um cinto de oiro.

14E a sua cabeça e cabellos eram brancos como lã branca, como a neve, e os seus olhos como chamma de fogo;

15E os seus pés, similhantes a latão reluzente, como se tivessem sido refinados n'uma fornalha, e a sua voz como a voz de muitas aguas.

16E tinha na sua dextra sete estrellas; e da sua bocca sahia uma aguda espada de dois fios; e o seu rosto era como o sol, quando na sua força resplandece.

17E eu, quando o vi, cahi a seus pés como morto; e elle poz sobre mim a sua dextra, dizendo-me: Não temas; Eu sou o primeiro e o derradeiro;

18E o que vivo e fui morto; e eis aqui vivo para todo o sempre. Amen: e tenho as chaves da morte e do inferno.

19Escreve as coisas que tens visto e as que são, e as que depois d'estas hão de acontecer:

20O mysterio das sete estrellas, que viste na minha dextra, e dos sete castiçaes de oiro. As sete estrellas são os anjos das sete egrejas, e os sete castiçaes, que viste, são as sete egrejas.

📖 Chapter study

Summary

John, exiled on the island of Patmos, receives a vision of the glorified Jesus standing among seven golden lampstands, radiant and powerful in appearance. Jesus identifies himself as the first and the last, the one who lives and was dead, and commands John to write everything he sees to the seven churches of Asia.

Explanation

Patmos was a small island the Roman Empire used to exile political and religious prisoners, and it is there that John receives this vision while suffering for his faith. The description of Jesus — hair white as wool, eyes like a flame of fire, a voice like many waters, a sword coming out of his mouth — uses symbolic language common to prophetic visions of the Old Testament (as in Daniel 7 and 10) to convey majesty and divine authority, not a literal physical description. From the very start the book declares itself a 'revelation' (in Greek, apocalypse literally means 'revelation' or 'unveiling'), meant to encourage persecuted Christians by showing that Christ reigns as sovereign even in the midst of suffering. Today's application is that even in exile or extreme hardship, God can reveal himself powerfully and bring purpose to trial.

Fun facts

  • The Greek word 'apokalypsis,' which gives the book its name, literally means 'revelation' or 'unveiling'; it originally had no connection to 'destruction' or 'catastrophe,' the sense the term has come to carry in popular use today.

Verse-by-verse explanation

  1. Apocalipse 1:1“Revelation,” from the Greek “apocalypse,” simply means something hidden that gets uncovered. The verse already traces a chain of transmission - from God to Jesus, from Jesus to an angel, from the angel to John - a common way at the time to guarantee the authority of a vision.
  2. Apocalipse 1:2John presents himself as an eyewitness: everything he is about to describe, he saw firsthand - a way of reinforcing that the book is not speculation, but an account of a lived experience.
  3. Apocalipse 1:3This is the first of seven blessings scattered throughout the book; it also reveals how the text was originally used - read aloud to a gathered community listening together, not just read silently by individuals.
  4. Apocalipse 1:4The number seven appears dozens of times in this book as a symbol of totality and completeness, not as an exact count of separate beings. Here it describes the fullness of the Spirit of God, the same way there are soon seven churches, seven lampstands, and seven stars - everything conceived in blocks of seven.
  5. Apocalipse 1:5This reinforces the greeting from the previous verse with titles for Jesus: faithful witness, the first to rise from the dead never to die again, and someone with authority over the kings of the earth - even though no empire recognized that at the time.
  6. Apocalipse 1:6“Kings and priests” repeats an expression from the book of Exodus, used there for the whole people of Israel: the idea is that the Christian community, even though small and persecuted, carries that same status before God.
  7. Apocalipse 1:7This combines two images from the Old Testament - someone coming with the clouds from the book of Daniel, and a people looking at the One they pierced from the prophet Zechariah - forming a scene of public, universal recognition.
  8. Apocalipse 1:8Alpha and Omega are the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet, a way of saying that something covers everything, from beginning to end. The expression echoes language already found in the prophet Isaiah describing God as the One who existed before everything and continues after everything.
  9. Apocalipse 1:9Patmos was a small rocky island off the coast of present-day Turkey, used by Rome as a place of exile for people considered troublesome. It is from there, alone and set apart because of his faith, that John says he received these visions.
  10. Apocalipse 1:10“In the Spirit” describes the state of visionary rapture in which John receives the revelation; “the Lord's day” probably refers to Sunday, already recognized as a day of worship by the earliest Christian communities.
  11. Apocalipse 1:11The seven cities named were real places in the Roman province of Asia, present-day Turkey, connected by a postal and trade route of the time - the order of the list follows exactly that circular path between them.
  12. Apocalipse 1:12The seven golden lampstands echo a vision of the prophet Zechariah about a symbolic lampstand; here, as the text itself explains later in verse 20, they represent the seven churches mentioned before.
  13. Apocalipse 1:13The figure described among the lampstands wears clothing that recalls both a priest and a king, a deliberate blending of religious and political authority in the same image.
  14. Apocalipse 1:14This description comes straight from the prophet Daniel, who saw God with hair white as wool, on a throne of fire. John uses that same well-established image to show Jesus with eternal authority, without describing a literal physical appearance.
  15. Apocalipse 1:15Feet like polished bronze and a voice like many waters are images borrowed from Ezekiel and Daniel to describe beings with divine authority, without intending a literal physical description.
  16. Apocalipse 1:16A sword coming out of the mouth is not a real weapon: it is an image for the power of the spoken word, the weight of a verdict that cuts and decides. The same figure returns later, in chapter 19, tied to the same idea of authority that judges.
  17. Apocalipse 1:17Falling down as if dead in reaction to this vision is common in prophetic accounts of a direct encounter with the divine; the response “fear not” and the title “the first and the last” echo the same language used by God in Isaiah.
  18. Apocalipse 1:18The declaration of holding “the keys of hell and of death” means total control over that territory, something that only someone who has already died and risen again, as described at the start of the verse, could truly claim.
  19. Apocalipse 1:19This verse works as an outline for the whole book: what John has already seen (chapter 1), what is already happening with the churches (chapters 2 and 3), and what is still to happen in the future (from chapter 4 onward).
  20. Apocalipse 1:20John hands over the key to this riddle right in the verse itself: the stars are the angels, or messengers, of the seven churches, and the lampstands are the churches themselves. It is one of the few symbols in the book that the text explains without leaving any doubt.

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