Book of Revelation Fr. Thomas Hopko part I

THE BOOK OF REVELATION
by Fr. Richard Andrews
Wednesday’s Theme- The Book of Revelation
Perhaps one of the most mysterious and misunderstood books of the bible, the
Book of Revelation has been studied over the centuries but still seems to have
many unlocked secrets. This series of presentations is based on Fr. Thomas
Hopko’s audio lectures series. It will ground the place of this cryptic book within
the context of the ongoing liturgical life of the Orthodox Church, drawing attention
to the symbols and words originating in the Hebrew Scriptures.
March 12 Introduction: Bible Commentary & Controversy
Protopresbyter Fr. Thomas Hopko, Dean Emeritus of St. Vladimir’s Theological Seminary, Crestwood, NY gave
this series of four lectures on the Book of Revelation at St. Nicholas Church, Jamaica Estates, NY and St. Paul
Greek Orthodox Church in Irvine, California. Rather than focusing on futuristic prophecy and literal exegesis, Fr.
Thomas interprets this biblical book within the context of eternal life in Jesus Christ, here and now in the worship of
the Orthodox Christian Church. In this first lecture Fr. Thomas discusses the authorship of the Book of Revelation,
the allegorical interpretation of the text and the distinction between mystical and chronological time.
Dogmas are Doctrines and Teachings of the Church. They are not a matter for debate. They come from writings of
Scriptures, Sacraments, Liturgy, Fathers, Saints, and Councils. The Book of Revelation within Church History and
the History of the Orthodox Church is a very controversial book. Everything about it is controversial. The material
presented is not ‘ex-cathedra’; it is not presented as the Teaching of the Church. The Orthodox Church is conciliar in
nature. It does not have a magisterium that decrees answers from on high, not even in the episcopacy. Sometimes,
whole councils of bishops have been wrong. Sometimes, one or two people have kept the true Faith and have
suffered for it. At the time of John Chrysostom in Antioch, when the Arian controversy was resolved, the Arians
were expelled by imperial decree. The local governor had to give the Orthodox Cathedral to the Orthodox bishop
and three of them showed up.
One of the open issues for discussion in the Church is the Apocalypse. The material presented is Fr. Hopko’s
opinion with the hope that it is within the realm and teaching of the Orthodox Tradition [1;1;6:04]. We should never
present a personal opinion as the teaching of the Church and we should never present a teaching of the Church as a
personal opinion.
The Book of Revelation, the Apocalypse of John, everything about it is controversial, both in modern scholarship
and in Church history. The Canon of Scripture, those writings considered to be ‘of God’, and true and right, were
written within the community of Faith. They were sealed/canonized by the life of the Church Herself in Her ongoing
Tradition and worship. First the Apostles came with their teaching, prayer and preaching. Then you have the
churches being established upon this tradition of teaching, prayer and preaching. Then within this history, writings
are made about Jesus and the Faith and why He is the Christ, the Lord. The living tradition precedes the written
scripture.
In the Letter to the Thessalonians, which is the earliest written NT scripture, St. Paul says twice, “Keep the
traditions that have been entrusted to you.” In the Apostolic age there were more writings that were considered to be
not true, not Apostolic that did not become part of the scripture of the Orthodox-Catholic Church. The writings that
were canonized are a small sliver/amount of work. The pseudo-epigrapha, the writings considered to be false, is
much larger.
The Apocalypse of John was questioned from the beginning. In certain lists (Council of Laodicea, 4th cent.) of the
scripture it did not exist. Many prominent figures of Church history were against this book. Amphilocios of
Iconium, the cousin of St. Basil the Great and St. Gregory the Theologian, said it was a spurious book and should
not be included in the canon. St. John Chrysostom never mentions or comments on it. The Book of Revelation is
more absent than present, in the early lists of scriptural writings. For some, this can be very problematic.
However, for the Orthodox it is not problematic because the foundational life and teaching of the Church is the
ongoing spiritual life, teaching, tradition, prayer, sanctity and witness of the community. It is not a book, nor a
bunch of books, not even the bible as a book. The scripture and the bible as a book is authoritative for Christians
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because they have affirmed them as in conformity with their life, teaching, practice, prayer and apostolic tradition.
Hopko says that up until today the Canon of Scripture is still an unsettled issue. However, for the Orthodox this had
not been a terrifically important issue. It’s only an important issue if the only authority you have is a bible fallen
from heaven like the Koran, and read in that way. IOW, it’s the only the thing we have from God and it judges
everything. As late as the 14th century in Russia, when St. Sergius was young and wanted to learn how to read so he
could read the scripture, one should read the list that St. Epiphanius compiled for him. It includes the Church
Fathers, the Didache, the Liturgy as well as the biblical books.
There is no doubt, for the Orthodox, that after the 4th century the Apocalypse of John is canonized, it becomes part
of the Church’s official and formal scripture. It received official confirmation at the Trullo Council (694). However,
the Apocalypse has a unique and special place in that is never read publicly in worship. It is not part of our
lectionary. In the Western Church it is part of the lectionary. For example, on St. Michael day, the passage where he
fights with and defeats the devil is read in church. In addition, at some funeral services, one passage that is read is
about the dead being raised, every tear will be washed away; there will be no sickness, sorrow or suffering but life
everlasting. Those familiar with Orthodox liturgy know that we use that text also in the funeral service. It’s part of
the hymnology. In our history, however, the source is not primarily Revelation but it is the Book of Isaiah, whom
Revelation at that point is quoting.
One of the main characteristics of Revelation is that it is filled with references to the rest of the Bible. If you don’t
know the Bible, you will never enter into the world of the Apocalypse. All the imagery of the Apocalypse, the
symbols, words, images, mystic numbers come from Hebrew/Jewish origin. Additionally, the liturgy of the Church
is inspiring the book of Revelation and is taken from it. In order to understand Orthodox liturgy you have to know
the book of Revelation. The main element of the Apocalypse is the celestial liturgy and the worship of the risen
Lamb, who was crucified, together with God through the Holy Spirit. Through this cosmic, celestial liturgy, one has
insight into the deepest mysteries of God and the end of history. It is the liturgical experience of the early Church
that produces the Apocalypse. Once it is written, it becomes a source from which the liturgy of the final covenant
with the Messiah is actually structured and crafted in Church history.
How and why does the Apocalypse become part of the scripture? First, it had some pretty important advocates
from the beginning like Justin the Martyr and Philosopher (2nd cent.) and Irenaeus of Lyons. The biggest advocate
and the one most responsible for it becoming part of scripture was Athanasios the Great because he defended it as
the word of God and a necessary element within the life of the Church. The author of Revelation has been
universally recognized, until modern times, as John the Theologian and Evangelist, the author of the fourth gospel
and the three Catholic Epistles. From the beginning the authorship was questioned. In the text it says the author is
John. Who is this John? The Church has recognized it as the person of John, the one who lain on the Lord’s breast at
the last supper, who was an eye-witness to the resurrection, and who was a prisoner on the island of Patmos. No
modern critic thinks that this John wrote the Apocalypse. The Orthodox would say it comes from John or the
community of John.
Interestingly, the defenders of the Apocalypse come from this community. For example, Irenaeus was a disciple of
and was ordained by Polycarp of Smyrna, who was a direct disciple of the Apostle John. Justin, with his Logos
theology, is definitely in the line of St. John. The Orthodox position on this issue, like many similar issues, can be
summed up this story. A fellow worked on the Apocalypse is whole life. He wondered who wrote it. Who John was?
He studied all the images and words, noticing that the Greek used in Revelation was radically different that that used
in the fourth gospel. He finally died and went to heaven saying, “Ah, now finally is my chance.” He finds John the
beloved disciple and says to him, “John, did you write the Apocalypse or not?” John looks at him and replies, “Yeah,
I think so.”
Once a writing or a book is canonized by the Church, there is not a big care about who wrote it or didn’t write it.
Usually, you have two things: 1) the traditional interpretation that is followed by the Church, 2) the assured results
of scholarship which is not so assured after all and they change every ten years. When Hopko was a student,
Revelation was believed to be a stoic, Hellenistic text written in the late 2nd cent. John A.T. Robinson, who wrote
“Honest to God” and launched the “God is dead” movement in 1960s, came out with a book recently that says the
Book of Revelation, because of the Qumran texts, is in fact Jewish (not Hellenistic) in origin.
How do we understand the Book of Revelation? First, we must ask what kind of writing is this. The title tells us.
It’s an Apocalypse, of John. That’s its official name. What is an apocalypse? What is apocalyptic writing? The term
‘apocalypse’ literally means ‘revelation’ or ‘disclosure’. That’s why it’s called, in English, the Book of Revelation.
An apocalypse is a very peculiar type of revelation. It is a revelation to people capable of understanding it because
they live within a certain spiritual, theological, liturgical, traditional world which has its own history, language and
mystical experience. Thus, this revelation (which is a revelation of God; a disclosure of insight into truth; IOW it is
insight into God’s version/vision of the truth—what is happening) is given to those who have eyes to see and ears to
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hear; to those who have minds willing and capable to understand. That’s why it’s written in cryptic language with
images and symbols that only initiates can understand. It is not written for the world. It is written for insiders, those
who belong, and those within God’s realm so they can know and understand what’s happening to them. An
apocalypse, using this type of language, purpose and setting, is a revelation of what is happening to them. This then
has application larger, wider, deeper and ultimate that just to them. IOW, it becomes an archetypal vision that has a
historical reality being used as a sign/way of interpreting the totality of reality.
In the Book of Revelation we have a prophetical, mystical, symbolical, archetypical logical book where, what is
happening to the Christians at that time, is telling what is happening to Christians all the time until the end of time
when Christ returns in glory. So, when you read this book, and you have to be in the community to read and
understand it because it is written according to the experience and language of the community (it’s a parable in that
sense- it is written to help you understand if you’re in a position to understand; if you’re not, it’s just an enigma to
you and you’ll never understand it; this is even going on in the gospels; for example, the parable of the sower Jesus
“to you is given to know the mysteries and kingdom of God, to those outside I speak in parables lest they believe
and be saved”; so there is a mystery in the parable; Jesus says three times in the passage, “He who has ears let him
hear.” This is said again and again in the Apocalypse). Therefore, we can state forcefully a dogmatic principle for
Orthodox: Unless you are within the Orthodox-Catholic Tradition you will not understand the Book of Revelation,
you cannot. Even being in the Tradition you may not but being outside you certainly will not understand. You
cannot without the context of the living tradition, spiritual and liturgical world within which the disclosure is
possible.
[Disk 1, Track 3] Given what we Orthodox do, how we believe, pray, build our churches, celebrate our liturgy,
and how we understand our faith, we are within the best possible condition on anyone to understand this book. IOW,
if we cannot understand it, nobody can, because we still live in that world that it bears witness to. The book of the
Apocalypse is our world. In the early Church, the Apocalypse was not commented on much, it’s not in the
lectionary, and it’s in the canon. One might ask, “Is there anything written about the Apocalypse in the Orthodox
Tradition?” The answer is, “a great deal/amount that varies and requires discernment and study.” Many are
controversial characters (who seem to commonly comment on controversial books). In the 20th century, the three
most prominent commentators are Apostolos Makrakis in the Greek Church (excommunicated?), Sergius Bulgakov
dean of St. Sergius in Paris who was a sophiologist and under a cloud of suspicion regarding his teachings, and
Bishop Averky (ROCOR, former abbot of Jordanville Monastery).
This presentation will be a summary of the line-by-line interpretation of these writers, relying heavily on Averky,
who basically ignores the mystagogical and liturgical character of Revelation, hoping to share the gathering
Orthodox consensus on the book. One must know the bible generally in order to interpret the Book of Revelation.
One must certainly know the gospels and how the synoptics refer to Christ. Even within Matthew 24, Mark 13 and
Luke 21, there are apocalyptic passages. Mark 13 is read in preparation of Holy Week. It discusses the destruction of
Jerusalem as an apocalyptic image of the end of the world. One never knows which one the author is writing about.
This is a classic example of an apocalyptic way of speaking—use the destruction of Jerusalem and it becomes a type
for the end of the world. An apocalypse sheds light on the ultimate, final reality. Every apocalypse is
eschatological—focusing on the end of time. Jude and 2Peter are apocalyptic books focusing on the end of time and
its meaning in Christ. For the Christian, Christ’s crucifixion & resurrection is the key mystery of God that reveals
everything including the origins and end of our human existence. When the Messiah comes into the world again,
that will be the end of time, history has been fulfilled. Therefore, Christians consider themselves to be living in the
end, because the Messiah has already come, been glorified, enthroned, made head over all. The Lordship and victory
of Christ fulfills history. The primary purpose of this time is to bear witness to the Kingship and Lordship of Christ,
waiting for Him to establish what he has already accomplished. The absolute finality of Christ’s death and
resurrection, the reason for which the world was created and is fulfilled is central to the Christian Faith. It is how
this applies to those who live in this world until He comes again in glory is what the Book of Revelation is about.
IOW, how do those who belong to Christ continue to live in this world? For those who hold Christ as King and
Lord, how do they relate to what’s going on around them?
First, it is the revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave to Him to show to His servants/slaves (not outsiders)
about what was soon to take place. It says, “Blessed is he who reads aloud the words of this prophecy.” It also says
how blessed are those who hear and keep what is written fort the time is near. In the early Church, the expectation
was that the return of Christ was imminent. There was incredible interest about it and when He would come. It is
very clear in the scriptures and in the Apocalypse that Jesus is coming soon and that Christians are living in the light
of His coming. “He was, He is and He is coming.” The question is it chronologically (day, time, and month) soon?
Throughout the scriptures, Jesus refuses to tell when the end is. In the synoptic gospels, Jesus claims that even He
doesn’t know when the end is. When people ask Him, the reply is “this is not for you to know.” (This created
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problems for many who asked, “Was it possible for Christ not to know certain things? The answer is yes. He didn’t
know how to speak Russian and probably didn’t know to speak Greek. In being human, there a lot of things Christ
didn’t know.) It is for you to live in function of the immediate coming. You don’t know when the Son of Man is
coming. It’s like a thief in the night, the Wise Virgins and the Servants in Luke 12. So, soon is not about chronology.
Peter says, “With the Lord a 1000 years is as a day and vice versa.” In Psalm 90 it says, “With the Lord a 1000 years
is like yesterday when it’s passed.” So, the Lord looks differently at time than we do. In apocalyptic liturgy,
references to time have nothing to do with chronology. The Book of Revelation has nothing to do with chronology,
about temporal, historical time. It has to do with God’s time, mystical time.
[Disk 1, Track 4] The duration of the end time, chronologically, is not told to us. It is not revealed to us. It is
specifically not told to us when we specifically ask about it. We ask the Lord to tell us and He says, “No! It is not for
you to know. You are to be faithful to me and live in the eminent presence of My coming and My going. The icon of
the Ascension you see the Lord enthroned and you do not know if He is coming or going. In the biblical account the
angel says, “As you see Him going, you will see Him coming.” That’s why in the icon Jesus is small and the Church
is big. We live under Him, His rule/reign, and His glory. For us it’s already the End, Jesus is already in His
kingdom, He is already enthroned, He is already worshipped by all the angels and He is coming soon. But when
soon is, is His business. For us soon is now, ‘semeron’ and ‘vuv’. That’s how speak in our liturgy, ‘today’ and
‘now’. For Orthodox who celebrate the celestial liturgy and receive the Eucharist, Jesus is coming. Every Saturday
night we make vigil to meet Him. Every Sunday, Jesus comes and speaks to us from heaven in His Word and gives
Himself as Food for the faithful and we enter into His kingdom. We say, “Remember us O Lord, when you come in
Your kingdom.” BTW, that’s the correct translation. It’s not “into” Your Kingdom. It’s “when You come, (being) in
Your kingdom”, ‘ev basilea’ not ‘eis tnv basilean.’ It’s dative not accusative because Christ is already in His
kingdom. He is already ruling and He is going to bring that kingdom to us. We pray, “Thy Kingdom come.” If we
die and are raised with Him, as we’ll see in Revelation, we already belong to that kingdom. We already live in that
kingdom. That’s the condition of our life in this world.
When John receives this Revelation, it’s very important to understand that what is said in the first chapter is
repeated throughout the rest of the book.
4John, to the seven churches which are in Asia: Grace to you and peace from Him who is and who was
and who is to come, and from the seven Spirits who are before His throne, 5and from Jesus Christ, the faithful
witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler over the kings of the earth. To Him who loved us and washed
us from our sins in His own blood, 6and has made us kings and priests to His God and Father, to Him be glory
and dominion forever and ever. Amen. 7Behold, He is coming with clouds, and every eye will see Him, even
they who pierced Him. And all the tribes of the earth will mourn because of Him. Even so, Amen. 8“I am the
Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End,” says the Lord, “who is and who was and who is to come,
the Almighty.” 9I, John, both your brother and companion in the tribulation and kingdom and patience of Jesus
Christ, was on the island that is called Patmos for the word of God and for the testimony of Jesus Christ.
Much of the language is liturgical and doxological. In verse 9, we see that the Christian shares with Jesus the
‘kingdom’ and the ‘tribulation’. After Jesus is crucified, risen, glorified and sends the Holy Spirit, the content of life
in this world, that is given to us, is ‘the tribulation’. We are in it until He comes again. ‘Tribulation’ is a technical
term for the End time because tribulation characterizes it, including temptation, trial, and affliction. During the
tribulation, we are also in the kingdom because we belong to Christ. So, we are in two worlds, spiritually,
mystically, sacramentally, liturgically, baptismally, and eucharistically. We are in the kingdom but we are in historythe
time of tribulation. The End time is when the children of the kingdom get nailed by the children of this world.
We must stand fast in the tribulation.
The Lord’s Prayer is given for the End time. In Matthew 6:9-13, it says:
9In this manner, therefore, pray: Our Father in heaven, Hallowed be Your name.
10Your kingdom come, Your will be done; On earth as it is in heaven.
11Give us this day our daily bread 12And forgive us our debts, As we forgive our debtors.
13And do not lead us into temptation, But deliver us from the evil one.
For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.
IOW, You are already glorified; we belong to Your kingdom. The bread given is not daily but “the bread of the
kingdom.” We are forgiven as we forgive because the last day is a judgment. Lead us not into ‘tribulation’ but
deliver us from the ‘evil one.’ This is what Christians pray every day. We are in the tribulation and evil is all around
us. Every age and generation has its evil one, the beast with 666. We are in the midst of that and we are asking, as
children of the kingdom, to be faithful to the Lamb. [1;4;6:11] To be in this world, since Christ is crucified is to be
in the tribulation. So, Jesus shares with us the kingdom and the tribulation.
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He also shares with us the patient endurance which is Book of Revelation is about. It’s comforting the faithful to
patiently endure the tribulation as children of the kingdom. This patient endurance, the co-suffering with Christ,
being crucified and dying with Him, as the book quotes Esdras and Enoch, “these are they who have come out of
great tribulation, who have washed their robes in the blood of the lamb.” This is what the Christian is.
John is on Patmos because he was preaching the word of God for the testimony of Jesus Christ. Historically, we
know Patmos was a penal colony for Christians in the Roman Empire during the end of the 1st century. So the author
is a prisoner for Christ on the island of Patmos. Verse 10 “I was in the spirit on the Lord’s day.” This is a loaded
sentence. To be ‘en pneumati’ means to be caught up in a state of worship. The Spirit is the ‘aravon’ or ‘betrothed’
of the kingdom according to St. Paul. The Church Fathers identify the Spirit with the kingdom. So, Jesus is the King
and the Spirit is the Kingdom. Jesus is the ‘Christos/Anointed’ and the Spirit is the ‘chrisma/anointing’. Jesus is the
Truth and the Spirit is the spirit of Truth. Jesus is the Life and the Spirit is the spirit of Life. Christians are sealed,
marked, and branded with the image of the Spirit. The Lord’s Day ‘tn kyriake emera’, everyone knows this means
‘Sunday.’ That is the word/reference for the Eucharist. So, being in the Spirit on the Lord’s Day means being at the
Eucharist and being at the Liturgy.
The day of the Lord in prophetic literature is the day when Yahweh reigns, when everything is judged and
revealed. On that day, the Lord is coming, the dead are raised, the just are vindicated and the evil are punished.
That’s what Sunday is for a Christian. Every Sunday we go to church to experience the day of the Lord. In the
Gospels and the Book of Acts, this day of the Lord is called the day after the Sabbath. That’s very important in the
Book of Revelation because it’s the one after the seven. The Sabbath day is Saturday, not Sunday. Sunday is the first
day and in Jewish apocalyptic literature, the eighth day or the day of the kingdom—the day not of this world.
In verse 11-16, “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last,” and, “What you see, write in a book and
send it to the seven churches which are in Asia: to Ephesus, to Smyrna, to Pergamos, to Thyatira, to Sardis, to
Philadelphia, and to Laodicea.” 12Then I turned to see the voice that spoke with me. And having turned I saw seven
golden lampstands, 13and in the midst of the seven lampstands One like the Son of Man, clothed with a garment
down to the feet and girded about the chest with a golden band. 14His head and hair were white like wool, as white
as snow, and His eyes like a flame of fire; 15His feet were like fine brass, as if refined in a furnace, and His voice as
the sound of many waters; 16He had in His right hand seven stars, out of His mouth went a sharp two-edged sword,
and His countenance was like the sun shining in its strength.
The number seven is very prominent and important in the book of Revelation. There are seven visions of seven
elements. What does ‘seven’ mean in the bible and the Christian Tradition? Seven is the image and symbol of
absolute fullness and completion. In the book of Revelation many numbers will be written. They are all apocalyptic
and mystigogical which means they are all symbolic. They are not about arithmetic but about revelation of meaning.
The book begins with seven letters to seven churches with seven spirits and seven stars and seven words. Then there
is a vision of the celestial, glory of God in heaven. Then there are seven seals, seven trumpets, seven visions of the
dragon’s kingdom, seven visions of the worshippers of the Lamb, seven visions of the bowls of wrath and seven
visions of the fall of Babylon. Seven times seven means absolute perfection—the ultimate revelation. That’s why the
ultimate mystery will have seven seals because it means the mystery of all mysteries. So, the book has seven
apocalyptic visions coming together with seven mysteries. Thus, it is the ultimate insight into God’s revelation
concerning the state of the world and Christians in this age.
The book has variations on the seven. For example, the six which means absolute poverty, absolute evil and
lacking, this is why the image of the beast will be 666, because it’s super evil and super nothing and super nonseven.
There are places where it will say three and a half that means ‘not ultimate, it’s just for a time, it will be
over’. Pentecost is seven weeks of seven days after Pascha (7x7) plus one. Thus, Pentecost is the perfection, ultimate
fullness of the Kingdom. You cannot go beyond it. That’s what could be said about the book of Revelation.
Dogmatically, Christ is the definitive revelation of God. St. John Chrysostom said, “In Christ and in the Church of
Christ, everything that can be revealed is revealed. Nothing is left unrevealed.” To go deeper into the mystery and to
actualize better is always possible but from God’s side, nothing has been held back. Everything has been disclosed.
If that’s true, and it is, then we can say that the Apocalypse is the ultimate revelation about the Revelation. IOW, it’s
the ultimate insight into the meaning of the Christ event, the Christ victory, which itself is the definitive act of God
in history. God is revealing it to those who are in the mystery. So, it is the most intimate revelation to those who are
most capable of understanding it.
It is given in the context of the Lord’s Day in worship. When John has the vision all the things he sees are
symbolic images. Fire is the biblical image of the presence of God [1;4;15:18] like the burning bush and the flames
of Pentecost. This comes from Daniel 7
9“I watched till thrones were put in place, And the Ancient of Days was seated; His garment was white as snow,
And the hair of His head was like pure wool. His throne was a fiery flame, Its wheels a burning fire; 10A fiery
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stream issued, And came forth from before Him. A thousand thousands ministered to Him; Ten thousand times
ten thousand stood before Him. The court was seated, And the books were opened.
13“I was watching in the night visions, And behold, One like the Son of Man, Coming with the clouds of heaven!
He came to the Ancient of Days, And they brought Him near before Him.
14Then to Him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, That all peoples, nations, and languages should
serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, And His kingdom, the one
which shall not be destroyed.
In the synoptic gospels, Jesus identifies Himself with that heavenly Son of Man. St. Paul and John do also but not as
much. See Matthew 27:62-66
62And the high priest arose and said to Him, “Do You answer nothing? What is it these men testify against
You?” 63But Jesus kept silent. And the high priest answered and said to Him, “I put You under oath by the
living God: Tell us if You are the Christ, the Son of God!”
64Jesus said to him, “It is as you said. Nevertheless, I say to you, hereafter you will see the Son of Man sitting at
the right hand of the Power, and coming on the clouds of heaven.”
65Then the high priest tore his clothes, saying, “He has spoken blasphemy! What further need do we have of
witnesses? Look, now you have heard His blasphemy! 66What do you think?” They answered and said, “He is
deserving of death.”
The whole NT theology is saying to us that Jesus is that Son of Man, sitting at the right hand of the Father, to whom
is due all dominion, honor, worship and glory, because He has been crucified and shed His blood to save the world.
This Son of Man is identified with the very Word of God. In the book of Revelation the two main titles used for
Jesus as the Son of Man are: 1) The Logos tou Theou, ‘the Word of God’ and 2) Amnos tou Theou, ‘the Lamb of
God’. Lamb of God is the main title used 28 times. Anyone familiar with Orthodox Liturgy knows that during it,
Jesus offers Himself to us in two forms: 1) as the Word of God and 2) as the Lamb of God. He comes and speaks to
us from heaven. On the Holy Altar Table we do not put the whole bible there, nor the NT but just the Gospels to
show that it is Christ who is the center of the Church. At the Paschal liturgy, we do read passage about the
Resurrection. Rather, we read the Prologue of John (Chap.1): 1In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was
with God, and the Word was God. 2He was in the beginning with God.
In Revelation 19:16 it says, “16And He has on His robe and on His thigh a name written: KING OF KINGS AND
LORD OF LORDS.” In the liturgy, we call the Eucharistic bread, ‘the lamb.” In the West, ‘hostea’ was used. ‘Host’
meant sacrificial lamb, that which is slain/killed. So, Christ is presented to us always as the lamb that is slain, the
one who was dead and is alive. It says it right in Rev.1:18 18I am He who lives, and was dead, and behold, I am alive
forevermore. Amen. And I have the keys of Hades and of Death.

Source:
http://www.stgeorgegoc.org/sermons/revelation%20intro%20and%20bible%20commentary.pdf