I'm working on editing the Gumawana version of Revelation and also doing a Bible study on the book at the same time. So I've been getting into a lot of books about Revelation and thinking about it. Just looking at the first few verses the word "testimony" or "testify", which have the same root in the Greek martyr, occur twice. This is where we get our English word "martyr" from. John was to testify or bear witness to what the angel showed him.
In a commentary on Revelation by Brian K. Blount, he states the following about this key word that occurs many times in Revelation:
"In the phrase 'witness of Jesus Christ,' the genitive noun is subjective; when John speaks of the 'witness of,' he means 'the witness proclaimed by.' So the revelation of Jesus as John defines it in this transmission chain is the revelation-the witness-proclaimed by Jesus Christ. In the twenty-first century, martys, the Greek term for 'witness,' means something quite different than it did for John and his hearers and readers. The confusion is contextual. When contemporary interpreters transliterate the Greek letters of martys into their corresponding Roman letters, we see and hear the word martyr. H. Strathmann testifies that for John and his hearers, 'The proper sphere of martyrs is the legal, where it denotes one who can and does speak from personal experience about actions in which he took part and which happened to him, or about persons and relations known to him' (Strathmann, TDNT 4:476). Allison Trites offers corroboration: 'The idea of witness in the Apocalypse is very much a live metaphor and is to be understood in terms of Christians actually bearing witness before Roman courts of law' (72). It is a word of provocative testimony and therefore active engagement, not sacrificial passivity. Martyr language, as John introduces (martyreo, testify, 1:2; martyria, testimony, 1:2, 9; martys, witness, 1:5) and develops it, is language preoccupied not with dying, but declaration."*
*(Brian K. Blount. Revelation: A Commentary (NTL) (New Testament Library) (Kindle Locations 614-621). Kindle Edition.)
As I was thinking about these first few verses of Revelation and what Blount states above, I thought of the people whom I have heard say or write something along the lines of "my religion is personal." The implication being, "I don't talk about this in public," or "It's none of your business what I believe." My question is why is that? Are they embarrassed to testify that Jesus is Lord? I can't imagine John here in revelation saying something like that or Paul writing such a thing in his letters. The testimony we have is that Jesus is Lord. In its first century context that implied that Caesar was not. Emperor worship was growing throughout the Roman empire. The Christians had to take a stand. It was not a matter of "my faith is personal, so leave me alone." Today we see many Christians in Iraq who can't say such a thing. They are told that they must profess Allah, the Muslim God, is ruler or die. There is no making it a personal matter or hiding it. Each person is either for or against Him. They must testify to Jesus' Lordship and receive death, or deny it and possibly live.
So it seems to be a Western idea that one's religion is something you keep to yourself. This fits the individualistic thinking of Westerners and how they tend to compartmentalize their faith. In other words, their faith is merely a part of their lives. For Paul, John and the rest of the disciples, faith or trust in Jesus was their life. There was no breaking their lives up into parts: political, religious, work, home, etc. I heard a Christian convert from Islam explain that for a Muslim Islam can be displayed as a box. Within the box is the Muslim and his faith. In contrast, the Western Christian's life can be displayed with the same large box, but it represents not Jesus or Christianity, rather it represents his life. Within the larger box of his life is a smaller box that represents his faith. Another box represents his work and another represents his politics. The point being that the Muslim's entire life is subsumed under Islam, but the Westerner's faith is subsumed under his personal life. It's only a part. This means it does not govern his overall life.
Jesus seems to take a very different take on this. He says ""But whoever denies Me before men, I will also deny him before My Father who is in heaven" (Matthew 10:33). Paul uses the phrase "in Christ" to capture the idea that one's life is wrapped up completely in his relationship with Jesus.
We continue to bear witness today that Jesus is Lord. That means our president is not, and neither is any other human on the planet. Our allegiance is to Him alone.
