Revelation 1:5Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

For although after us He became man for our sake and our brother in the likeness of the body, He is nevertheless also called the firstborn among us, and truly is such. After Adam’s transgression all men were perishing. His flesh, before all others, was saved and set free, because it had become the body of the Word Himself. We are then saved after it, as those who share the body of the Word. For in this body the Lord becomes our guide into the Kingdom of Heaven and to His Father, saying, “I am the way” (Jn 14:6), and the door, and “by Me” all must enter. See Jn 10:9. Therefore He is also called the firstborn from the dead, not because He died before us, for we died before Him.

Thus God the Father was filled with mercy. He sent the creative Word, who came to save us and dwelt in the same place and among the same conditions in which we had lost life. He destroyed the bonds of those fetters. His light appeared and scattered the darkness of the prison. He sanctified our birth and abolished death, breaking the fetters in which we sat captive. At the same time, He showed the Resurrection, Himself becoming the firstborn from the dead. In Himself He raised fallen man, leading him upward to the highest part of heaven, at the right hand of the Father’s glory. God promised this through the prophet, saying: “I will raise up the fallen tabernacle of David” (Amos 9:11), that is, the body descended from David. Our Lord Jesus Christ truly fulfilled this, gloriously completing our salvation. As the firstborn from the dead, the Head and source of life in God, He grants us truly to rise to life in the Father.

For He who bore witness before Pontius Pilate is faithful in all His words (Ps 144:13). As Life and Resurrection, He is the firstborn from the dead (1 Cor 1:18; 1 Cor 15:20). Those over whom He rules will not see death as those who died and rose before Him did, but will live eternally. He is the Master of kings, as King of those who reign and Lord of those who exercise lordship (Ps 2:6; Col 2:10), equal in power to the Father and consubstantial with Him (Jn 10:30; Jn 14:20). Or otherwise: He is King of earthly kings and of kings over earthly desires. If blessed Gregory the Theologian refers the expression “He who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty,” to Christ, then it is by no means improper to refer to Him the similar sayings that follow below.

Since John earlier mentioned that Word who, before taking flesh, abode with the Father in glory, he necessarily adds the humanity of the assumed flesh, saying: "And from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness."

That is, by His works He offered faithful witness to His Godhead through the assumed flesh. By His suffering and blood, He redeemed our sins and cleansed us from every iniquity.

Thus, in place of our corruption and weakness, He brings faithful witness to God the Father, with whom there is no variation or shadow of change (Jas 1:17).

Paul also bears witness concerning Him when he says: “He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead” (Col 1:18). He calls Him the firstborn from the dead because He anticipated the general resurrection and opened for us again “a new and living way through the veil, that is, His flesh” (Heb 10:20), according to what is written. For all those who rose from the dead before the Lord were overtaken by death again. Their resurrection was not true resurrection, but a postponement of the hour of death. Therefore none of them was proclaimed firstborn from the dead. Only the Lord is so called, because He was the beginning and cause of the true resurrection. In a certain manner, He became the first fruit of the resurrection of men. He became like them and passed, as from a bridal chamber, from death to life.

One may understand that there is a special reason why the Lord is called the firstborn, as John says of Him in Revelation. The Apostle Paul also writes: “For those whom He foreknew He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren” (Rom 8:29). He is the firstborn among many brethren because to those who received Him, He gave power to become children of God (Jn 1:12). Among them He is rightly called the firstborn, since by dignity He goes before all the adopted, even those whose birth in time preceded His Incarnation. Therefore they can truly testify with John: “He who comes after us has come before us” (cf. Jn 1:15). This means: He was born into the world after us, but by the power of His virtue and Kingdom, He is rightly called the firstborn among us all.

Nothing good can be done without grace and peace of soul. The seven spirits signify the Third Person of the Most Holy Trinity, the Holy Spirit. In the prophet Isaiah this Spirit, resting upon the rod from the root of Jesse, is also described sevenfold: “And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon Him,” that is, upon the rod from the root of Jesse, “the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and piety” (Isa 11:2). The number seven appears here as mysterious and highly significant. Although there were many churches in the world, John sent epistles to only seven of them, signifying in the sevenfold number the mystical destiny of the whole Church.

“And from Jesus Christ.” Jesus Christ is placed after the angels not because He is lower than the angels, but because this ordering was closer to the Apostle’s thought. Here He is called the faithful witness. The name witness, μάρτυς, in ordinary usage means a person present at the occurrence of an event or conversation, who can confirm before a court or society the truth of what happened or was said. In the Christian Church it is applied to John the Forerunner, who was sent to bear witness to Christ (Jn 1:7; Jn 5:33). It is applied to the Apostles (Acts 1:8), as eyewitnesses and ministers of Jesus Christ (Lk 1:2), called to confirm by their word, deeds, whole life, and sometimes by their blood, the truth of Christ’s teaching and works.

First, what does it mean that St. John addresses his prophetic word to the seven churches of Asia Minor? This does not shake the universal purpose of the Apocalypse for all Christians. But because St. John the Theologian had especially close and frequent relations with the above-mentioned churches, the Lord Himself commands him (Rev 1:11) to communicate first to these very churches the revelation of which he was deemed worthy. These churches are taken here as a part in place of the whole, that is, in place of the whole Church. In her totality, the Church could of course present the same picture as the seven churches under the Apostle of Christ’s immediate care. Nor should one forget that in Scripture the number seven is usually taken to express fullness in various respects.