Passage

Revelation 1.17

Book: Revelation · ASV / WEB / KJV / YLT

Immediate context (±2 verses)

ASV

15. and his feet like unto burnished brass, as if it had been refined in a furnace; and his voice as the voice of many waters. 16. And he had in his right hand seven stars: and out of his mouth proceeded a sharp two-edged sword: and his countenance was as the sun shineth in his strength.

17. And when I saw him, I fell at his feet as one dead. And he laid his right hand upon me, saying, Fear not; I am the first and the last,

and the Living one; and I was dead, and behold, I am alive for evermore, and I have the keys of death and of Hades. 19. Write therefore the things which thou sawest, and the things which are, and the things which shall come to pass hereafter; (Revelation 1:15-19, ASV)

WEB

15. His feet were like burnished brass, as if it had been refined in a furnace. His voice was like the voice of many waters. 16. He had seven stars in his right hand. Out of his mouth proceeded a sharp two-edged sword. His face was like the sun shining at its brightest.

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,

and the Living one. I was dead, and behold, I am alive forever more. Amen. I have the keys of Death and of Hades. 19. Write therefore the things which you have seen, and the things which are, and the things which will happen hereafter; (Revelation 1:15-19, WEB)

KJV

15. And his feet like unto fine brass, as if they burned in a furnace; and his voice as the sound of many waters. 16. And he had in his right hand seven stars: and out of his mouth went a sharp twoedged sword: and his countenance was as the sun shineth in his strength.

17. And when I saw him, I fell at his feet as dead. And he laid his right hand upon me, saying unto me, Fear not; I am the first and the last:

I am he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death. 19. Write the things which thou hast seen, and the things which are, and the things which shall be hereafter; (Revelation 1:15-19, KJV)

YLT

15. and his feet like to fine brass, as in a furnace having been fired, and his voice as a sound of many waters, 16. and having in his right hand seven stars, and out of his mouth a sharp two-edged sword is proceeding, and his countenance [is] as the sun shining in its might.

17. And when I saw him, I did fall at his feet as dead, and he placed his right hand upon me, saying to me, 'Be not afraid; I am the First and the Last,

and he who is living, and I did become dead, and, lo, I am living to the ages of the ages. Amen! and I have the keys of the hades and of the death. 19. 'Write the things that thou hast seen, and the things that are, and the things that are about to come after these things; (Revelation 1:15-19, YLT)

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Setting

Speaker: the risen Christ, "one like unto a son of man" (1:13), who goes on to say "I was dead, and behold, I am alive for evermore" (1:18); John narrates
Audience: John, and through him the seven churches of Asia (1:4, 11)
Location: Patmos, an island in the Aegean, where John was "for the word of God and the testimony of Jesus" (1:9)
Time period: most commonly c. AD 95, late in the reign of Domitian, following Irenaeus (Against Heresies 5.30.3); some scholars date the book before AD 70

Theological reading

"And when I saw him, I fell at his feet as one dead. And he laid his right hand upon me, saying, Fear not; I am the first and the last." John has just seen the glorified Christ among the seven lampstands (1:12-16).

Who is speaking. The speaker is not in doubt. The next verse identifies him: "and the Living one; and I was dead, and behold, I am alive for evermore, and I have the keys of death and of Hades" (1:18). Only the Son died and rose. The title he takes, "the first (Strong's G4413) and the last (G2078)," is Jehovah's in Isaiah: "I, Jehovah, the first, and with the last, I am he" (Isaiah 41:4); "I am the first, and I am the last; and besides me there is no God" (Isaiah 44:6); "I am he; I am the first, I also am the last" (Isaiah 48:12).

The Witness reading. Witness publications commonly explain the title in Revelation 1:17 differently from Isaiah: Jesus is "the first and the last" as the first human raised to immortal heavenly life and the last raised directly by Jehovah. The Christian reply is that John's readers knew the title from Isaiah, where it marks the one God over against every other god, and Revelation itself joins it to "the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end," which God speaks of himself (1:8; 21:6) and Christ speaks of himself (22:13, with 22:16). Jehovah's Witnesses vs the Christian God pairs Isaiah 44:6 with this verse for that reason.

"Fear not." John falls "as one dead," as Ezekiel fell on his face before the glory of God (Ezekiel 1:28). Christ does not refuse the posture, as the angel later does (19:10; 22:8-9). He lays his hand on John and comforts him, the words God speaks to his servants in Genesis 15:1 and Isaiah 41:10. See Cumulative Case for the Deity of Christ.

Key words

Theologically-loaded Greek or Hebrew words in this verse may have entries in the lexicon. Curated to roughly 100 contested terms across the corpus, not every word; see Lexicon Roadmap.

G3498 - nekros, nekros, Strong's G3498
G1510 - eimi, eimi, Strong's G1510
G1492 - oida, oida, Strong's G1492
G4314 - pros, pros, Strong's G4314
G3004 - lego, lego, Strong's G3004

Quoted in

Arguments and defeaters:

Concepts:

Why these four translations

ris3n chose ASV, WEB, KJV, and YLT for two reasons together. They are the most literal English translations available (formal-equivalence: word-for-word renderings that preserve the Hebrew and Greek grammar rather than smoothing it into modern dynamic-equivalence idiom). And they are in the public domain in the United States, which means fair-use quotation at any length requires no publisher license. Modern licensed translations (NASB95, ESV, NIV) restrict volume of quotation under their copyright terms, so they are not used at stub-level coverage here. NASB95 appears only on hand-curated rich passage hubs under Lockman Foundation's fair-use allowance.

The four:

ASV (American Standard Version, 1901). The basis of the modern critical-text English tradition.
WEB (World English Bible, contemporary). Public-domain revision in the ASV line, in current English.
KJV (King James Version, 1611). Reformation-era, Textus Receptus base.
YLT (Young's Literal Translation, Robert Young, 1862). Hyper-literal preservation of Hebrew and Greek grammar; useful for word-study work even where English reads stiff.

See Bibles for the full per-translation history, translators, textual basis, strengths, and weaknesses.