Background:
Since we are tackling tough verses here, we might as well take on Revelation 22:16. This is a verse that I had to struggle with for quite a while, because it so emphatically appears to be saying that Jesus is the son of David. (CJB) Revelation 22:16,
”I, Yeshua, have sent my angel to give you this testimony for the Messianic communities. I am the Root and Offspring of David, the bright Morning Star.”
Something didn’t seem correct about Revelation 22:16 in the way that we were interpreting it, so I had previously wrote out another discussion about that. Strangely, I had the correct answer within that first evaluation, but later lost my way for it, and I did another evaluation using a different perspective. In either case, it turned out to not be a mistake, because now we have a full evaluation of possibilities. I then picked what to be the correct perspective.
The three possibilities are first, the definition of the word angel (hermeneutics), second possibility goes back to the meaning of Jesus being potentially transliterated incorrectly in that it means the “Lord of our Salvation” and how that could be applied differently elsewhere (hermeneutics), and third is the arrangement of the verses in that how they are tied together for emphasis (syntactical).
As I have said, I went back to choosing option number one in that we have a misunderstanding of who is speaking in Revelation 22:16 when it is mentioned “I am” the branch of David.
Options 1:
“The Angel”: The eighth day is symbolized as rebirth or a new beginning within the context of the Bible. When we look at Revelation 8:3, and right after the seven seals were opened, we see the introduction of the eighth angel. Another definition for angel in Ancient Greek is actually messenger. The blueletterbible.org link is here.
Also, just from a logical observation, anything or any entity that is dwelling in heaven must be in the form of a spirit, which could also be interpreted as an angel. So, a spirit messenger, hence an “angel.” The best part though, is in Revelation 10, where it is speaking like the one who appears in the clouds and similar verbiage of the Sun of Righteousness who roars like a lion. This very much sounds like the Davidic Messiah who is in the form of a spirit. God has an angel who is the Holy Ghost.
Matthew 10:20, “for it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you.”
In the previous verse, we see that the Father has a spirit who is a type of Messenger who speaks God’s truth. Perhaps it is Jesus who has an angel (messenger) within the Union of the Messiah who is the Davidic Messiah in Angelic (spirit) form.
John 17:11-12, “And now I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one, as we are one. While I was with them, I protected them in your name that you have given me. I guarded them, and not one of them was lost except the son of destruction, so that the scripture might be fulfilled.”
For many reasons besides what I am mentioning here, but also to add as in Revelation 22:16, Jesus is sending His angels to testify to what the churches are doing wrong as in the seven angels of the churches. As is noted in the verse directly before Him in Revelation 22:15-16(a),
“Outside are the dogs and sorcerers and sexually immoral and murderers and idolaters and everyone who loves and practices falsehood. “It is I, Jesus, who sent my angel to you with this testimony for the churches.”
John 17:18, “As you have sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world.”
We also have an indirect reference to this speaking to the earthly churches that begins with what is connected in Revelation 4:1,
After this I looked, and there in heaven a door stood open! And the first voice, which I had heard speaking to me like a trumpet, said, “Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after this.”
That verse, and others, connect Matthew 7 and what is being said about the earthly churches such as in Matthew 7:6,
“Do not give what is holy to dogs, and do not throw your pearls before swine, or they will trample them under foot and turn and maul you.”
We see that in previous chapters the earthly churches are under fire while at the same time an individual is tested who is noted as having a lamp stand as in Revelation 2:5-6,
“Remember, then, from where you have fallen; repent and do the works you did at first. If not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent. Yet this is to your credit: you hate the works of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate.”
We can also see here that the Nicolaitans are representing the abominations of the earthly churches as they are trying to rule God’s law by their laws. God knows that most of the earthly churches will not change, but at least He is letting us know the reasons for His disappointment and for a warning to the wise earthly churches to hear.
Revelation 22:11 is telling us to let the sinners be sinners and let the saints be saints, yet we can’t help but to attempt to interfere in what God is planning. As in how a lampstand is representing a church, the eighth lampstand is representing the Union of the Messiah, the Lamb of God, who is becoming the lost light for the ones who have the Seal of God upon their foreheads who nobody can see but them or other Elect ones. To wrap this up, in Revelation 22:16(b)-17 would look like this,
“I am the root and the descendant of David, the bright morning star.” The Spirit and the bride say, “Come.” And let everyone who hears say, “Come.” And let everyone who is thirsty come. Let anyone who wishes take the water of life as a gift.”
The Spirit and the bride are stating the merger of heaven and earth, the spirit is being represented as heaven and the bride is being represented as earth. It could also mean that the joining of the Godhead to the Union of the Messiah who is being represented as the Lamb of God. Anyone who becomes a Son of God (makes the sacrifice) is a Lamb of God and who represents God’s name as the Son. So, the Angel in Revelation 22:16 is the Davidic Messiah who is transformed from being the glorified Son of Man to the Lamb of God. What is also interesting is that the Holy Spirit carries the son’s name.
John 14:26, “But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything and remind you of all that I have said to you.”
Now compare this to Revelation 3:12, “If you conquer, I will make you a pillar in the temple of my God; you will never go out of it. I will write on you the name of my God and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem that comes down from my God out of heaven, and my own new name.”
For those who think that Revelation is only about a message being given to the earthly churches, I wish for you to ponder these verses in Revelation 21:22-23,
“I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb. And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God is its light, and its lamp is the Lamb.”
There is only one church, and it is in Heaven, but for a time, we can see the light from its lampstand. To summarize this though, lets ponder how we can attach Matthew 7 to the corruption of the earthly churches. It is also very interesting that while we are pulling verses out of the Book of John for verification of how the Holy Spirit and of the Davidic Messiah are being tasked, it is John himself who is the one who is having the visions in the Book of Revelation.
Option 2:
Meaning of the word “Jesus”: I don’t normally do critical text theory for the Book of Revelation, but I’m noticing one peculiar item in that the passage uses the word “Churches” instead of the word Church. This is peculiar because in the Book of Revelation, most context is in the Church of God, which is singular or one Church. I love that the CJB version calls it by its intended name to mean “Messianic communities.”
If we are within the Messianic community, at least we are very close to the correct ideal of the Church. The other thing that I like about the CJB translation is that it does not try to state that the Root and Offspring of David is different than the bright Morning Star. It is stating that they are both of the same entity or being or person.
If we are to keep to the methodology that there is another King Messiah to come who is not Jesus, then we have an issue with the verse stating that Jesus is the Root and Offspring of David. Another reason why I like this CJB translation is that it takes the original word, English version, Jesus, and sets it into its original Hebrew translation of Yeshua. This is significant because in Hebrew we can also highly consider the word’s deeper meaning as the definition of the word.
The deeper meaning of Yeshua being transliterated as “The Lord our Savior.” In fact, I’m going to just jump right ahead and actually put this into the verse for effect and it literally would have the same meaning as was intended by the definition of the word Yeshua. (Prophetic) Revelation 22:16,
” I, the Lord our Savior, have sent my angel to give you this testimony for the Messianic communities. I am the Root and Offspring of David, the bright Morning Star.”
It fits, it makes sense, now how do we tie this to it symbolizing more than one (two) saviors. First, we must remember that all of this is in the context of the Union of the Messiah, else what would be the point of all the words “Jesus Christ” or “Christ Jesus” or “Christ?” We would just say Jesus, Joshua, or Yeshua, if it were just about a single person, entity, or deity. Ultimately only God the Father is our actual Savior, so the entities are just the mediators or conduits for this to happen.
Yet God recognizes these mediators as being representatives of Himself and representing His Name via the attached Covenants. There are a few places in the Bible where we can tie the Messiahs together, but we don’t have many opportunities to tie the Sons of God together. Another reason that I say Sons of God is that it is inferred that one has to be a part of a sacrifice or be greatly willing to sacrifice one’s own life to the cause, in order to be called a Son of God. Which one’s sacrifice would also label this person as a Savior; hence Son of God can mean the same thing as the Lord our Savior.
Now, all we have to do, is to show the themes where there is more than one Son of God in order to prove the concept that the name Yeshua could be referring to more than one person, being, entity. Very interestingly we get a word play of the name Jesus and His sacrifice by connecting Leviticus chapters 14 and 16 to the New Testament verses, such as Mark 15:15, that compare Jesus to the sacrifice for the “scapegoat” that was let go to compensate for the “curse of the law,” Mark 15:15,
”So Pilate, wishing to satisfy the mob, set Bar-Abba (Barabbas) free for them; but he had Yeshua whipped and then handed him over to be executed on the stake.”
As some of you know, but I didn’t, Barabbas’s first name is also Jesus or Yeshua, and his last name means “son of the father.” Hence Pilate had to decide between Jesus the son of the father and Jesus the son of the father. Hence, Jesus was not the one executed, because they both were Yeshua, but the (mockingly) “King of the Jews” was the one who was executed, and BOTH were representing the Sons of the Father. Now we can go back to either Leviticus 14 or 16 and see how the significance of the “model” sacrifice was set up and how it would eventually occur.
Remember back in Leviticus 16 we had to solve the puzzle of who the Bull represented, who the first goat represented, and who the escape goat represented, but in Barnabas 8:2 (pays to read other books) we get,
”Understand ye how in all plainness it is spoken unto you; the calf is Jesus, the men that offer it, being sinners, are they that offered Him for the slaughter. After this it is no more men (who offer); the glory is no more for sinners.”
We can see that it says that the calf or bull is Jesus, now we’re free to decide who the goat was a sacrifice for. If we infer that the goat that was let go was for the freeing of the Spirit of the Messiah, then the goat that was sacrificed was the “flesh” of the Messiah. See most Calvinists, evangelicals, Paulist’s or Catholics’ would say that Jesus was the goat that was sacrificed, and that Jesus was the goat that was let go. Jesus was both goat and goat, alight. Now we know for sure that since Jesus was the bull, that there are TWO Sons of God.
Wow, I know my mind is blown too, AND potentially both are called Messiahs, Sons of God, and the Lord our Savior. So, to conclude this entire passage in “brevity,” I’ll circle back and say that when we see a passage such as Revelation 22:16 or John 20:31, we don’t have to buy an expansion pack for our brains. All we have to do is reconsider the context and of who it could be for and not have to assume that it is only applying to first resurrected Savior (Jesus).
When the scribes decided to use the Nomina Sacra, they did a considerable amount of damage, because to do it correctly they had to make assumptions, or it shows that they didn’t know what was what, hence the need to use the nomina sacra and then piece what they didn’t know back together again? That still does not make sense. Let me close with John 20:31 using the same concept and see how it looks.
” But these are written so that you may come to believe that the Lord our Savior is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name.”
This verse fits very well in two ways, first the NRSVUE translation actually uses the word “Messiah” instead of Christ for further emphasis as to who this person is representing. Also, another translation for Yeshua is “Lord, I live.” We can see this in the last part of the verse where it is saying “life in his name.” His name is also a representation of the Son of God. We can then pair that with this lovely verse from Psalm 2:7,
”I will tell of the decree of the Lord: He said to me, “You are my son; today I have begotten you.”
Option 3:
Context of Scriptures: Apparently the Holy Spirit saw me struggling with this and showed me something else about Revelation 22:16. We have to remember that in the original Scriptures there were not any chapters, numbers, capital letters, or quotes. So, what I was just now shown was that Revelation 22:15 and 22:16(a) belong together, and then 22:16(b) should begin the closing chapter Revelation 23. It should look like this.
Revelation 22:15-16(a), “Outside are the dogs and sorcerers and sexual immoral and murderers and idolaters and everyone who loves and practices falsehood.“It is I, Jesus, who sent my angel to you with this testimony for the churches.”
Revelation 22:16(b)-17, “I am the root and the descendant of David, the bright morning star.” The Spirit and the bride say, “Come.” And let everyone who hears say, “Come.” And let everyone who is thirsty come. Let anyone who wishes take the water of life as a gift.”
This actually makes more sense, because Jesus is speaking about the corruption of the churches, and it relates to Matthew 7. The second part appears to go together better, because the “bride” is the human (Son of Man) Messiah. It also flows with the patterns found in verses such as Revelation 2:1 where it opens up with who the person is who is speaking (Jesus) and then it goes to tell how this test given to an individual is related to the punishment to the churches. Then in Revelation “23” we begin again with the one who passed the test (King Messiah) and how he is taking an active role and putting everything back together again.
Conclusion:
Those were the three choices that we had to solve the mystery of Revelation 22:16, but I personally went with option 1 in that we are not fully interpreting the context of the word angel and not seeing that angel can also mean messenger. We see the word angel and know that we are not supposed to worship angels, so we just shut it off as it being Jesus who is saying that He is the son of David, but very interestingly it is the angel (messenger) himself who says not to worship him in Revelation 22:8-9. So, we will close with that.
Revelation 22:8-9, ”I, John, am the one who heard and saw these things. And when I heard and saw them, I fell down to worship at the feet of the angel who showed them to me, but he said to me, “You must not do that! I am a fellow servant with you and your brothers and sisters the prophets and with those who keep the words of this book. Worship God.”
We can also see here that the angelic messenger is telling John that he is a “fellow servant.” That would not be a fellow servant like John if it were an angel. It’s a fellow servant who is like John, a mortal being who has ascended.
