EXPOSITION
THE TITLE. The simplest form of this, as of other books of the New Testament, is the oldest: 'The Revelation of John' ( αποκάλυψις ιωάννου). Other forms worth noting are: 'The Revelation of John the Apostle and Evangelist;' 'The Revelation of the holy and most glorious Apostle and Evangelist, the virgin, the beloved, that leaned on the breast, John the Divine.' 'The divine' as a title for St. John, which is retained here in both the Authorized Version and the Revised Version, is certainly as old as Eusebius ('Praep. Evan.,' 11.18). Recent discoveries at Ephesus have shown that "divines" ( θεολόγοι) was a title of the chief priests in the temple of Artemis at Ephesus. It is possible, but hardly probable, that this suggested the title for St. John. It probably points to his witness to the Divinity of the Logos or Word. Eusebius ('Hist. Eccl.,' III. 24.13) remarks that John omitted the human genealogy of the Saviour, and began with his Divinity δὲ θεολογίας ἀπάρξασθαι
THE INTRODUCTION. Most writers agree that the first three chapters are introductory. They may be thus subdivided:
Revelation 1:1-3, the superscription;
Revelation 1:4-8, the address and greeting;
Revelation 1:9-20, the introductory vision;
Revelation 2:1-29; Revelation 3:1-22, the epistles to the seven Churches of Asia.
The earliest systematic commentator on the Apocalypse in the Greek Church, Andreas of Caesarea, in Cappadocia (A.D). 450-500), divides it into twenty-four λόγοι, or narratives, to correspond with the twenty-four elders; and each of these into three κεφάλαια, or chapters, to correspond with body, soul, and spirit, making seventy-two chapters in all.