Revelation 1:17

17. Saw him Instantly as his sight takes in the whole person and the sun-like countenance, our seer falls as dead; just as he and his fellows fell into a stupor at the transfiguration; and just as Daniel fell into lethargy, Daniel 10:9. We all know with what tremor often the bravest man thinks of encountering even an apparition from the spirit world. The blood curdles at the idea of meeting the shade of even the dearest departed friend. Such are the dread relations in which we stand to that world into which we soon must enter. Still more dread seem to be the sensations of meeting a being in its resurrection power.

Laid his right hand upon me By gentle touch and voice the seer is wakened and brought into sympathy and communion with his heavenly visitant.

The divine person now (Revelation 1:17-20) identifies himself as Jehovah-Jesus, the ever-living, who by his death and resurrection has attained dominion over the domains of death and hades. He thereupon commissions the seer for his work, symbolized by the significance of the stars and candlesticks. This self-annunciation we translate thus: Fear not! I am the first and the last and the living one; and I became dead; and lo! living am I unto ages of ages, and I have the keys of death and of hades. Write, therefore, etc.

Fear not Same consoling address as to Isaiah, Isaiah 6:7; to Daniel 10:12; and at the transfiguration, Matthew 17:7.

I am the first and the last Jehovah’s own self-assertion in Isaiah 48:12. “Hearken unto me, O Jacob and Israel, my called; I am he; I am the first, I also am the last.” Also Isaiah 41:4; Isaiah 44:6. He is first, as originating all things; he is the last, as eternal and enduring, even though all created and contingent things should fail. “First,” says St. Victor, “because no God existed before me; last, because no other shall be after me.”