REVELATION OF ST. JOHN THE DIVINE - Chapter 22 - Verse 16

Verse 16. I Jesus. Here the Saviour appears expressly as the speaker— ratifying and confirming all that had been communicated by the instrumentality of the angel.

Have sent mine angel. Barnes on "Re 1:1".

To testify unto you. That is, to be a witness for me in communicating these things to you.

In the churches. Directly and immediately to the seven churches in Asia Minor, (chapters 2 and 3) remotely and ultimately to all churches to the end of time. Compare Barnes on "Re 1:11".

I am the root. Not the root in the sense that David sprang from him, as a tree does from a root, but in the sense that he was the "root-shoot" of David, or that he himself sprang from him, as a sprout starts up from a decayed and fallen tree—as of the oak, the willow, the chesnut, etc. See Barnes on "Isa 11:1".

The meaning then is, not that he was the ancestor of David, or that David sprang from him, but that he was the offspring of David, according to the promise in the Scripture, that the Messiah should be descended from him. No argument then, can be derived from this passage in proof of the pre-existence, or the divinity of Christ.

And the offspring. The descendant; the progeny of David: "the seed of David according to the flesh." See Barnes on "Ro 1:3".

It is not unusual to employ two words in close connexion to express the same idea with some slight shade of difference.

And the bright and morning star. See Barnes on "Re 2:28".

It is not uncommon to compare a prince, a leader, a teacher, with that bright and beautiful star which at some seasons of the year precedes the rising of the sun, and leads on the day. Compare Barnes on "Isa 14:12".

The reference here is to that star as the harbinger of day; and the meaning of the Saviour is, that he sustains a relation to a dark world similar to this beautiful star. At one time he is indeed compared with the sun itself in giving light to the world; here he is compared with that morning star rather with reference to its beauty than its light. May it not also have been one object in this comparison to lead us, when we look on that star, to think of the Saviour? It is perhaps the most beautiful object in nature; it succeeds the darkness of the night; it brings on the day—and as it mingles with the first rays of the morning, it seems to be so joyous, cheerful, exulting, bright, that nothing can be better adapted to remind us of Him who came to lead on eternal day. Its place—the first thing that arrests the eye in the morning—might serve to remind us that the Saviour should be the first object that should draw the eye and the heart on the return of each day. In each trial—each scene of sorrow—let us think of the bright star of the morning as it rises on the darkness of the night—emblem of the Saviour rising on our sorrow and our gloom.