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Revelation 22

Chapter 22 in 30 seconds

A river of life flows from the throne, and the tree of life is back. No more curse. Jesus says three times, I am coming soon. The Spirit and the bride say come. And John answers for all of us: Amen. Come, Lord Jesus.

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In this chapterThe Big QuestionWhat Dionysius Wrote · after verse 21 The Big QuestionWhat Dionysius Wrote · after verse 21 The Big QuestionWhat Dionysius Wrote · after verse 21 The Big QuestionWhat Dionysius Wrote · after verse 21 The Big QuestionWhat Dionysius Wrote · after verse 21 The Big QuestionWhat It Tells Us · after verse 21

The River of Life

¹Then the angel showed me a river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb ²down the middle of the main street of the city. On either side of the river stood a tree of life, bearing twelve kinds of fruit and yielding a fresh crop for each month. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations.

REV 22:1[ALLUDES TO]Refers to ← EZK 47:1; ZECH 14:8
REV 22:2[ALLUDES TO]Refers to ← EZK 47:12
REV 22:2[NOTE]LEAVES FOR HEALING. From Ezekiel 47:12. The curse of Genesis 3 is undone, 22:3.

³No longer will there be any curse. The throne of God and of the Lamb will be within the city, and His servants will worship Him. ⁴They will see His face, and His name will be on their foreheads. ⁵There will be no more night in the city, and they will have no need for the light of a lamp or of the sun. For the Lord God will shine on them, and they will reign forever and ever.

REV 22:3[PROPHECY]In the new city there will be no curse, God's people will see His face and reign forever → STILL TO COME
REV 22:5[ALLUDES TO]Refers to ← DAN 7:18, 27

Jesus Is Coming

⁶Then the angel said to me, “These words are faithful and true. The Lord, the God of the spirits of the prophets, has sent His angel to show His servants what must soon take place.”

⁷“Behold, I am coming soon. Blessed is the one who keeps the words of prophecy in this book.”

⁸And I, 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 shown me these things. ⁹But he said to me, “Do not do that! I am a fellow servant with you and your brothers the prophets, and with those who keep the words of this book. Worship God!”

REV 22:8[MIRACLE]John falls at an angel's feet and is told to worship God

¹⁰Then he told me, “Do not seal up the words of prophecy in this book, because the time is near. ¹¹Let the unrighteous continue to be unrighteous, and the vile continue to be vile; let the righteous continue to practice righteousness, and the holy continue to be holy.”

¹²“Behold, I am coming soon, and My reward is with Me, to give to each one according to what he has done. ¹³I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End.”

REV 22:12[PROPHECY]Behold, I am coming quickly, and My reward is with Me... Surely I am coming quickly. Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus! → STILL TO COME
REV 22:13[FULFILLS]The First and the Last ← IS 48:12MEDIUM
REV 22:13[ALLUDES TO]Refers to ← IS 44:6; 48:12

¹⁴Blessed are those who wash their robes, so that they may have the right to the tree of life and may enter the city by its gates. ¹⁵But outside are the dogs, the sorcerers, the sexually immoral, the murderers, the idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices falsehood.

REV 22:14[ALLUDES TO]Refers to ← GEN 2:9; 3:22-24
REV 22:14[NOTE]TEXT. The oldest copies say wash their robes. Later copies and the KJV say do His commandments. The Greek words look alike.
REV 22:15[DEMONIC]Sorcerers, idolaters, and liars — outside the holy city

¹⁶“I, Jesus, have sent My angel to give you this testimony for the churches. I am the Root and the Offspring of David, the bright Morning Star.”

REV 22:16[FULFILLS]Balaam's prophecy: a Star and Scepter to come out of Jacob ← NUM 24:17
REV 22:16[FULFILLS]David's house and throne established forever ← 2SA 7:16
REV 22:16[NOTE]ROOT AND OFFSPRING. Jesus is before David, his root, and after him, his son. Isaiah 11:1 and 11:10.

¹⁷The Spirit and the bride say, “Come!” Let the one who hears say, “Come!” And let the one who is thirsty come, and the one who desires the water of life drink freely.

REV 22:17[NOTABLE]The Bible ends with an open invitation.

Nothing May Be Added or Removed

¹⁸I testify to everyone who hears the words of prophecy in this book: If anyone adds to them, God will add to him the plagues described in this book. ¹⁹And if anyone takes away from the words of this book of prophecy, God will take away his share in the tree of life and the holy city, which are described in this book.

REV 22:18[NOTABLE]John warns against changing the words of this book of prophecy. Many also apply it to the whole Bible.
REV 22:18[NOTE]THIS BOOK. In two verses John says this book four times. He is guarding the words of Revelation. Moses gave the same warning, Deuteronomy 4:2, and God still sent many prophets and books after him. Some cessationists, who believe gifts like prophecy ended with the apostles, use this verse to say God no longer speaks to us directly. But it is about changing the words of this book, not about whether God still speaks. When John wrote, the New Testament had not been gathered into one book; Codex Sinaiticus even puts two more books after Revelation. Cessationists answer that their case rests mainly on other verses, like Ephesians 2:20 and Hebrews 1:1 to 2. All sides agree no one may add to Scripture, and anything said to be from God must be tested by it, 1 Thessalonians 5:20 to 21.
REV 22:19[NOTE]TEXT. The KJV says book of life; the Greek copies say tree of life. Erasmus's only Greek copy of Revelation in 1516 was missing the last verses, so he translated them back from Latin.

²⁰He who testifies to these things says, “Yes, I am coming soon.” Amen. Come, Lord Jesus!

REV 22:20[PROPHECY]Behold, I am coming quickly, and My reward is with Me... Surely I am coming quickly. Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus! → STILL TO COME
REV 22:20[NOTE]MARANATHA. Come, Lord Jesus. The early church prayed it in Aramaic, Maranatha, 1 Corinthians 16:22.

²¹The grace of the Lord Jesus be with all the saints.

Amen.

The Big Question

What Dionysius Wrote

Who Wrote Revelation?

Eusebius, Church History 7.25 · Revelation 1:1 · 1:4 · 1:9 · 22:8

WHY THIS IS HERE: Revelation names its writer only as John. Most of the early church said John the apostle. One bishop looked closely at the Greek and disagreed, and his words survive.
WHO DIONYSIUS WAS: Dionysius was bishop of Alexandria in Egypt from about AD 248 to 264, a student of Origen. Some Christians near him were teaching an earthly thousand year kingdom of feasting from Revelation, and he wrote two books On Promises to answer them.
WHAT HE WROTE: Eusebius copied his comments on Revelation into his Church History. Here is the whole of book 7, chapter 25, McGiffert translation, 1890. Quote marks hold Dionysius's own words; where Eusebius sums up, there are none.
CHURCH HISTORY 7.25: Afterward he speaks in this manner of the Apocalypse of John. For they say that it is not the work of John, nor is it a revelation, because it is covered thickly and densely by a vail of obscurity. And they affirm that none of the apostles, and none of the saints, nor any one in the Church is its author, but that Cerinthus, who founded the sect which was called after him the Cerinthian, desiring reputable authority for his fiction, prefixed the name. For the doctrine which he taught was this: that the kingdom of Christ will be an earthly one. And as he was himself devoted to the pleasures of the body and altogether sensual in his nature, he dreamed that that kingdom would consist in those things which he desired, namely, in the delights of the belly and of sexual passion; that is to say, in eating and drinking and marrying, and in festivals and sacrifices and the slaying of victims, under the guise of which he thought he could indulge his appetites with a better grace. “But I could not venture to reject the book, as many brethren hold it in high esteem. But I suppose that it is beyond my comprehension, and that there is a certain concealed and more wonderful meaning in every part.

The Big Question

What Dionysius Wrote

Continued

Eusebius, Church History 7.25

CHURCH HISTORY 7.25, CONTINUED: For if I do not understand I suspect that a deeper sense lies beneath the words. I do not measure and judge them by my own reason, but leaving the more to faith I regard them as too high for me to grasp. And I do not reject what I cannot comprehend, but rather wonder because I do not understand it.” After this he examines the entire Book of Revelation, and having proved that it is impossible to understand it according to the literal sense, proceeds as follows: Therefore that he was called John, and that this book is the work of one John, I do not deny. And I agree also that it is the work of a holy and inspired man. But I cannot readily admit that he was the apostle, the son of Zebedee, the brother of James, by whom the Gospel of John and the Catholic Epistle were written. For I judge from the character of both, and the forms of expression, and the entire execution of the book, that it is not his. For the evangelist nowhere gives his name, or proclaims himself, either in the Gospel or Epistle.” Farther on he adds: Then he writes also an epistle: ‘John to the seven churches which are in Asia, grace be with you, and peace.’ But the evangelist did not prefix his name even to the Catholic Epistle; but without introduction he begins with the mystery of the divine revelation itself: ‘That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes.’ For because of such a revelation the Lord also blessed Peter, saying, ‘Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my heavenly Father.’ But neither in the reputed second or third epistle of John, though they are very short, does the name John appear; but there is written the anonymous phrase, ‘the elder.’ But this author did not consider it sufficient to give his name once and to proceed with his work; but he takes it up again:

The Big Question

What Dionysius Wrote

Continued

Eusebius, Church History 7.25

CHURCH HISTORY 7.25, CONTINUED: ‘I, John, who also am your brother and companion in tribulation, and in the kingdom and in the patience of Jesus Christ, was in the isle that is called Patmos for the Word of God and the testimony of Jesus.’ And toward the close he speaks thus: ‘Blessed is he that keepeth the words of the prophecy of this book, and I, John, who saw and heard these things.’ “But that he who wrote these things was called John must be believed, as he says it; but who he was does not appear. For he did not say, as often in the Gospel, that he was the beloved disciple of the Lord, or the one who lay on his breast, or the brother of James, or the eyewitness and hearer of the Lord. For he would have spoken of these things if he had wished to show himself plainly. But he says none of them; but speaks of himself as our brother and companion, and a witness of Jesus, and blessed because he had seen and heard the revelations. But I am of the opinion that there were many with the same name as the apostle John, who, on account of their love for him, and because they admired and emulated him, and desired to be loved by the Lord as he was, took to themselves the same surname, as many of the children of the faithful are called Paul or Peter. For example, there is also another John, surnamed Mark, mentioned in the Acts of the Apostles, whom Barnabas and Paul took with them; of whom also it is said, ‘And they had also John as their attendant.’ But that it is he who wrote this, I would not say. For it not written that he went with them into Asia, but, ‘Now when Paul and his company set sail from Paphos, they came to Perga in Pamphylia and John departing from them returned to Jerusalem.’ But I think that he was some other one of those in Asia; as they say that there are two monuments in Ephesus, each bearing the name of John. “And from the ideas, and from the words and their arrangement, it may be reasonably conjectured that this one is different from that one.

The Big Question

What Dionysius Wrote

Continued

Eusebius, Church History 7.25

CHURCH HISTORY 7.25, CONTINUED: For the Gospel and Epistle agree with each other and begin in the same manner. The one says, ‘In the beginning was the Word’; the other, ‘That which was from the beginning.’ The one: ‘And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father’; the other says the same things slightly altered: ‘Which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes; which we have looked upon and our hands have handled of the Word of life,—and the life was manifested.’ For he introduces these things at the beginning, maintaining them, as is evident from what follows, in opposition to those who said that the Lord had not come in the flesh. Wherefore also he carefully adds, ‘And we have seen and bear witness, and declare unto you the eternal life which was with the Father and was manifested unto us. That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you also.’ He holds to this and does not digress from his subject, but discusses everything under the same heads and names some of which we will briefly mention. Any one who examines carefully will find the phrases, ‘the life,’ ‘the light,’ ‘turning from darkness,’ frequently occurring in both; also continually, ‘truth,’ ‘grace,’ ‘joy,’ ‘the flesh and blood of the Lord,’ ‘the judgment,’ ‘the forgiveness of sins,’ ‘the love of God toward us,’ the ‘commandment that we love one another,’ that we should ‘keep all the commandments’; the ‘conviction of the world, of the Devil, of Anti-Christ,’ the ‘promise of the Holy Spirit,’ the ‘adoption of God,’ the ‘faith continually required of us,’ ‘the Father and the Son,’ occur everywhere. In fact, it is plainly to be seen that one and the same character marks the Gospel and the Epistle throughout. But the Apocalypse is different from these writings and foreign to them; not touching, nor in the least bordering upon them; almost, so to speak, without even a syllable in common with them. Nay more, the Epistle—for I pass by the Gospel—does not mention nor does it contain any intimation of the Apocalypse, nor does the Apocalypse of the Epistle.

The Big Question

What Dionysius Wrote

Continued

Eusebius, Church History 7.25

CHURCH HISTORY 7.25, CONTINUED: But Paul, in his epistles, gives some indication of his revelations, though he has not written them out by themselves. “Moreover, it can also be shown that the diction of the Gospel and Epistle differs from that of the Apocalypse. For they were written not only without error as regards the Greek language, but also with elegance in their expression, in their reasonings, and in their entire structure. They are far indeed from betraying any barbarism or solecism, or any vulgarism whatever. For the writer had, as it seems, both the requisites of discourse,—that is, the gift of knowledge and the gift of expression,—as the Lord had bestowed them both upon him. I do not deny that the other writer saw a revelation and received knowledge and prophecy. I perceive, however, that his dialect and language are not accurate Greek, but that he uses barbarous idioms, and, in some places, solecisms. It is unnecessary to point these out here, for I would not have any one think that I have said these things in a spirit of ridicule, for I have said what I have only with the purpose of showing clearly the difference between the writings.”

The Big Question

What It Tells Us

One John or Two?

Revelation 1:1 · 1:9 · 22:8 · John 21:24 · 2 John 1:1

HIS ARGUMENT: The Gospel and 1 John never give the writer's name; Revelation names John again and again. The Gospel and letter share words like life, light and truth; Revelation sounds different. And the Gospel's Greek is smooth, while Revelation's breaks grammar rules. So, he says, a different John.
HE STILL HONORED IT: He would not throw out the book. He said its writer was a holy and inspired man who truly saw a revelation, and that it holds a meaning too deep for him.
TWO TOMBS: He mentions two tombs of John in Ephesus. Papias also seems to name two Johns, the apostle and John the Elder; see What Papias Wrote in 2 John.
THE OTHER SIDE: Justin Martyr, about AD 155, and Irenaeus said the apostle wrote it. Many scholars say the rough Greek fits a man writing in a hurry, in exile, without a helper, while thinking in Hebrew. And Revelation shares big ideas with John's Gospel: Jesus as the Word, 19:13 and John 1:1; the Lamb, 5:6 and John 1:29; living water, 22:17 and John 7:37 to 38; the pierced one, 1:7 and John 19:37.
WHAT ALL SIDES AGREE ON: The writer was a well known leader named John, in exile on Patmos, writing to churches he knew. And the church received his book as Scripture.

Revelation 22

The River of Life

Jesus Is Coming

Nothing May Be Added or Removed

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