The Wrap-Up (or Epilogue) (Revelation 22:6–21)
REVELATION 22:6–21
The Wrap-Up (or Epilogue)
John’s essential story has now been told, so it is time for him to sign off. This he does in a variety of ways, all of which help to bring his story to a conclusion both as a letter and as an Apocalypse. Nonetheless, the somewhat rambling nature of this material suggests that perhaps he himself was somewhat reluctant to let the story go. At any rate, this epilogue comes to us in three basic parts: in verses 6–11 John offers his conclusion to the “tale of the second city” (see pp. 228–29); verses 12–16 then offer his readers the “last words of Christ”; and verses 17–21 serve as a final invitation and warning to his readers.
JOHN AND THE ANGEL (22:6–11)
6The angel said to me, “These words are trustworthy and true. The Lord, the God who inspires the prophets, sent his angel to show his servants the things that must soon take place.”
7“Look, I am coming soon! Blessed are those who keep the words of the prophecy in this scroll.”
8I, John, am the one who heard and saw these things. And when I had heard and seen them, I fell down to worship at the feet of the angel who had been showing them to me. 9But he said to me, “Don’t do that! I am a fellow servant with you and with your fellow prophets and of all who keep the words of this scroll. Worship God!”
10Then he told me, “Do not seal up the words of the prophecy of this scroll, because the time is near. 11Let those who do wrong continue to do wrong; let those who are vile continue to be vile; let those who do right continue to do right; and let those who are holy continue to be holy.”
With these words John begins a series of items, each necessary to bring the entire narrative to its rightful conclusion, but which to some readers may not seem to be especially related. The series begins with the revealing angel speaking to John once more, whose pronouncement includes the key word “soon.” That in turn triggers a direct word from the risen Christ himself with regard to his coming, followed by another beatitude, plus a (needed) reminder that the revealing angel is not himself to be worshiped, and a final word about what to do with what John has been writing.
The first word (v. 6) comes as something of a disclaimer from the revealing angel, one of the seven angels from chapter 16 who has been speaking with John. Very much in keeping with what the angel told John at the conclusion of the “tale of the first city” in 19:9–10, the affirmation once more is that these words are trustworthy and true. To this assertion is added the evidence for it: that words come from the Lord, who is then identified in such a way as to validate the content of the book. But “the Lord” here, in a case unique to the book, is not Christ but the God who inspires the prophets, who is further identified as the source of the content of what John has written. Thus God sent his angel to show his servants the things that must soon take place, referring now, of course, not to what John will yet write, but to what he has written thus far. Although the word “soon” can be ambiguous in some settings, John seems to be referring not to the final events, about which he has just written, but to those that will soon overtake the believers in Asia Minor to whom John is writing.
This is then followed by an indirect affirmation from Christ himself, the one who, according to the opening words of the book, has received this “revelation” from God the Father and has been giving it to John, by way of several angels. Look, the risen Christ says to the readers of the book, I am coming soon! This affirmation thus takes the reader back to verse 7 in the introduction and serves as a kind of inclusio for the book as a whole. But whereas in the first instance John is citing Daniel 7:13, and thus puts it in the third person, here Christ himself speaks in the first person. But now the adverb “soon” is a bit more difficult for readers at a much later time in history. Here it seems quite ambiguous as to whether the emphasis is on the soon-ness” of Christ’s appearing (a temporal referent) or on its “suddenness” (when least expected), or in this case perhaps a combination of both nuances.
He then follows the affirmation with the sixth of the seven beatitudes in the book.1 The affirmation also serves as a further inclusio with the content of the opening beatitude in 1:3. There the blessing was for those “who hear [the words of this prophecy] and take to heart what is written in it”; here it is blessed are those who keep the words of the prophecy in this scroll. “Keep,” of course, is the crucial verb, but it is also as nicely ambiguous in Greek as it is in English, since it can mean either “preserve” these words or “live in obedience to” them. Most likely John is here concerned about the latter, since by the very nature of things that would also include the former.
The next word in this set of conclusions is the author’s own, which is first of all an affirmation: I, John, am the one who heard and saw these things. These two verbs, “heard” and “saw,” cover all the ground in the preceding narrative, and often, as here, occur together. “These things” in this case almost certainly includes all the visions that have preceded, which are now condensed into a panoramic vision of the whole. Then, with a near repetition of 19:10 (q.v.), John does it again—he offers worship at the wrong place and to the wrong being. Thus, after he had heard and seen them, he once more fell down to worship at the feet of the angel who had been showing these things to him. And once more he gets the same response from the angel: Don’t do that!, followed again by I am a fellow servant with you; but this time, instead of “and with your brothers and sisters,” the angel adds, and with your fellow prophets, to which he further adds, and of all who keep the words of this scroll, concluding again with the command to worship God. Thus the angel recognizes his own role as “a fellow servant” with John and (reaching out to John’s readers) with “all who keep the words of this scroll.”
To this the angel adds yet a further word, which at the same time anticipates the rest of the epilogue. John is first commanded, Do not seal up the words of the prophecy of this scroll, the reason being because the time is near. Here is a word (“near”) that has tended to fall on bad days among later interpreters, who tend to read it in light of what has most recently preceded (19:11–20:15 plus the eschatological pictures of 21:1–22:5). But in light of the whole book, that seems to be a misreading. What is near are the events prophesied throughout the book, that in light of what followers of the Slain Lamb are currently experiencing at the hands of the Empire, matters for them are going to continue to get worse, far worse, before God makes them better.
Hence the concluding admonition is to the wicked, first regarding their conduct (let those who do wrong continue to do wrong), and then regarding their character (let those who are vile continue to be vile), since their future is spelled out 20:7–15: they are headed for the Last Battle, after which they will join Satan and the Empire in the lake of fire. This is followed by similar words to believers, having to do first with their conduct (let those who do right continue to do right) and then with their character (let those who are holy continue to be holy); all of which is quite in keeping with John’s Gospel, where the true followers of the Lamb live in keeping with the life and character of the Lamb.
THE LAST WORDS OF CHRIST (22:12–16)
12“Look, I am coming soon! My reward is with me, and I will give to everyone according to what they have done. 13I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End.
14“Blessed are those who wash their robes, that they may have the right to the tree of life and may go through the gates into the city. 15Outside are the dogs, those who practice magic arts, the sexually immoral, the murderers, the idolaters and everyone who loves and practices falsehood.
16“I, Jesus, have sent my angel to give you this testimony for the churches. I am the Root and the Offspring of David, and the bright Morning Star.”
Before John’s own final wrap-up of his Apocalypse, the “last words” in the narrative itself belong to the Risen Savior, which are also the first words he has spoken since 1:17–20. As with the immediately preceding materials, these “words” also come to us in three parts. In verses 12–13 Christ announces his coming, part of the reason for which now is to reward his own. Verses 14–15 then offer the final beatitude, which in this case has inherent in it the final curse as well. Verse 16 then returns the readers (“you” in this verse is plural) to two of the earlier identifications of Christ: as the one who sent his angel to John for this vision (1:1), and as the Davidic Messiah in 1:3 and 2:28.
Christ begins with the now familiar imperative look, which in this case is followed by the equally familiar announcement I am coming soon, words spoken earlier in 3:11 to one of the two faithful churches (Philadelphia). As before (in v. 7, q.v.) the adverb “soon” is quite ambiguous as to whether John intends “soon-ness” or “suddenness.” In any case, and now echoing Isaiah 40:10, Christ announces that my reward is with me, which as in the Isaiah passage is (almost certainly) spoken to the faithful, since later (v. 15) they stand in contrast to those on the outside. Also in keeping with the perspective throughout, the “reward” is given to everyone according to what they have done. This is followed by two further inclusios with the vision of Christ in chapter 1. First, and thus once more indicating John’s very high Christology, Christ declares in the language used by God the Father in 1:8, I am the Alpha and the Omega. This is followed appositionally with language used previously by Christ in 1:17, “I am the First and the Last,” to which John adds somewhat redundantly, the Beginning and the End.
Next comes the seventh and final beatitude in the book, which in this case is a finely woven combination of language from earlier in the book. Thus the blessed in this case are those who wash their robes, echoing 7:14, where the robes are “washed … and made white in the blood of the Lamb.” Having done so, they now may have the right to the tree of life, echoing the promise made to the church in Ephesus in 2:7. This in turn gives them entrance into the eternal city itself, described in the immediately preceding passage (21:9–28): and may go through the gates into the city.
In keeping with the tenor of the entire book, the “blessed” redeemed ones are then set out in immediate contrast to all the others who do not “have the right to the tree of life.” In doing so John echoes the similar, and singular, contrast presented in verse 8 in the vision that introduces these final matters (the renewed heaven and earth, renewed Jerusalem, and restored Eden). Thus outside the New Jerusalem in its restored Eden are the dogs, the scavengers who live outside most of the walled cities of antiquity and eat whatever garbage they can find. “The dogs” are then described in language nearly identical to that used in 21:8, at the end of the opening vision of a “new heaven and a new earth.” Now, however, John begins with those who practice magic arts, and follows with those who in turn break commandment seven (the sexually immoral), six (the murderers), two (the idolaters), and nine (everyone who loves and practices falsehood).
These “last words” of Christ conclude first with an explicit identification, I, Jesus, and then with a deliberate recall from the very beginning of the book, have sent my angel to give you this testimony for the churches. The plural “you” in this sentence, thus pointing to the believers in the seven churches, is the giveaway that John understands what Jesus is saying to him is intended for the churches themselves. What the readers are to hear is that John is only the scribe of this great vision, and that the vision itself comes to them ultimately from the living and reigning Christ Jesus. This identification is then made explicit by way of the two (or three) appositional identifiers. First, Jesus identifies himself as the Root and the Offspring of David, where the two nouns, typically, are intended to correspond to each other; that is, John is here returning to the metaphor “root of David” from 5:5, where it was preceded by “the Lion of the tribe of Judah,” and thus was a clear referent to the Davidic Messiah. But at this distance from the earlier clear referent John now makes sure his readers understand what “root of David” means; it means “the Offspring of David.” With this language the risen and ascended Jesus affirms what the early church had come to believe about him: that he was God’s Messiah for the redemption and healing of the nations.
With the final identifier, the bright Morning Star, John returns to the one that first appeared in Jesus’ message to the fourth church, the middle one of the seven, located in Thyatira. There Christ promised that they would be given “the morning star,” and as was pointed out earlier, this puzzling identifier remains as something of a mystery. Its only Old Testament appearance is in Isaiah 14:12, where its immediate referent is also a puzzle to Old Testament scholars, although its most likely referent is to the fall of the king of Babylon. In any case, one can hardly read the Isaiah passage as something positive. Very likely this is yet another instance where John has taken over imagery that formerly had negative connotations and “baptized” it as something altogether positive.
INVITATION AND WARNING (22:17–21)
17The Spirit and the bride say, “Come!” And let those who hear say, “Come!” Let those who are thirsty come; and let all who wish take the free gift of the water of life.
18I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this scroll: If anyone adds anything to them, God will add to that person the plagues described in this scroll. 19And if anyone takes words away from this scroll of prophecy, God will take away from that person any share in the tree of life and in the Holy City, which are described in this scroll.
20He who testifies to these things says, “Yes, I am coming soon.”
Amen. Come, Lord Jesus.
21The grace of the Lord Jesus be with God’s people. Amen.
With these several items John now brings the book to its conclusion, with a variety of words that tumble out in dramatic fashion. He begins with another invitation (v. 17), which he then follows with a final warning (vv. 18–19), which echoes Deuteronomy 4:1–2 and 29:19–20. That in turn, and again typically, is followed by a final word of assurance (v. 20a), to which John then responds (v. 20b) before signing off with a grace that concludes the Revelation as a letter.
The final invitation now comes from the Spirit and the bride—the Spirit who has inspired the whole book, and “the bride”2 being imagery for the chief participants in the story. The latter refers to John’s own churches who first appear as the bride of Christ in the anticipatory vision in 19:7–9, where she is the star attraction at the “wedding supper of the Lamb,” and again in 21:3 above (q.v.). Thus the Spirit and the church offer the first invitation, Come! Then, in keeping with the reading-hearing phenomenon pointed out in 1:3, John invites not the “readers,” as we would tend to do, but those who hear to invite others with a second Come! Finally, in a culture where water is as precious as food itself, John himself offers the invitation, Let those who are thirsty come, which is followed by the ultimate drink, the free gift of the water of life.
The invitation is then followed by the strictest of warnings regarding the content of the book, in this case a warning that comes from the author himself: I warn; and again the warning is directed toward everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this scroll. Thus the book ends as it began, as declaration that it is to be understood as a prophetic word, which at the outset is set forth as coming to John from the risen Christ himself. The warning is against either adding to or subtracting from the prophetic words written here. Thus in typical lex talionis (“an eye for an eye”) fashion, If anyone adds anything to these “words of prophecy,” the divine arbiter, God, will add to that person the plagues described in this scroll. The “anyone,” of course, refers to John’s own readers, those who will read these words aloud to any given community of believers. Here is a much-abused passage that has been made by many to refer to all of Scripture,3 but where John is himself following one of the features of the apocalyptic genre itself, where such warnings are a regular feature.
Similarly, and typically, John adds the (much less likely) opposite warning: And if anyone takes words away from this scroll of prophecy, God will take away from that person any share in the twofold eschatological glory, namely, the tree of life and the Holy City. To this twofold divine reward John also adds, which are described in this scroll. This is apocalyptic rhetoric, of course, and has less to do with individual words as such (so that later scribes who add or omit for the sake of clarity are not thereby condemned!), and everything to do with content. Thus John concludes with a very strong sense that what he has written is indeed what he had received from Christ himself by the Spirit; and therefore these are words to be heard and thus heeded.
The final affirmation regarding the content of the “scroll” comes from the risen Christ himself, who as the One who testifies to these things affirms the ultimate divine source of the Apocalypse. In keeping with the theme of the entire book, his testimony is, Yes, I am coming soon. As before (see on v. 7 above), the final Greek word, rendered “soon,” is much more difficult to put into English than the English adverb indicates. Its primary sense has to do with the suddenness or swiftness in which an event occurs; nonetheless at the same time it carries a temporal sense as well, so that one can be led by this word to think that John expected the “coming” to be in the near future. And very likely that is what he did indeed understand by it; after all he is probably the last living link to Christ himself, and the earliest churches apparently looked on the Christ’s return as an event “just around the corner,” as it were. And thus it continues to be “just around the corner” for all of us who believe. For this reason, our continuing response should be that of the apostle himself: Amen [so be it!]. Come, Lord Jesus.
With everything regarding the prophetic and apocalyptic nature of the book now written, John concludes with the very common Christian sign-off for letters: The grace of the Lord Jesus be with God’s people. Amen. As always, “grace” is the basis of Christian faith and experience, and therefore is what is desired for those to whom one writes, as was the case regularly with the Apostle Paul, who signed off his earliest letter (1 Thessalonians) with “The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you,” and the latest one attributed to him (2 Timothy) with “Grace be with you all.” And so too does the writer of this commentary, to any who would take the time to read this far into it. “May the grace of the Lord Jesus be with all of God’s people. Amen.”
1. For the others see 1:3; 14:13; 16:15; 19:9; 20:6; and 22:14.
2. In one of those wonderful serendipitous moments of one’s life, I was writing this part of the commentary the day before being one of the officiants at a wedding, where the bride and groom are young friends in our church house group.
3. Indeed, one of the ironies of my own personal context as a New Testament textual critic is to read the rhetoric of the “King James only” people, who are using an English translation based on a very late Greek text to which hundreds of words had been added over the first five Christian centuries.