Testimony

 Revelation 1:2:  “Who bare record of the word of God, and of the testimony of Jesus Christ, and of all things that he saw.”

             The original form of the book of Revelation may have been a Hebrew Psalm, as indicated by the use of the word ‘testimony’.

            The word translated ‘bare record’ and ‘testimony’, from the Greek word martureo, is found here and in 1:9; 6:9; 11:7; 12:11, 17; 19:10; 22:16 and 20.  It is translated in 1:2 as ‘bare record,'(KJV), and in 22:16 and 20 as ‘testify’.  A form of the word is also found in 15:5: “tabernacle of the testimony“.

            Strong (#3140) gives the lexical meaning as “…to be a witness, i.e. testify…bear record….”  In 22:18: “I testify unto every man…” (KJV), the form of the word means “to testify jointly, i.e. to corroborate by (concurrent) evidence”, indicating that John became one of the required “two or three witnesses”, the Lord Jesus Christ being the other Witness.  (Deut. 19:15 and Matthew 18:16)

            A possible Hebrew word corresponding to the Greek word martureo is ‘êdûth.  From the same root we have ‘êd one sense of which is ‘a recorder, i.e. prince’.  John was the official recorder with the authority of a prince.[1]

            Another meaning of ‘êdûth is: “Revelation, hence a revealed psalm, Psalm 60:l; 80:l….Others consider it to mean a lyric poem, one to be sung to the lyre” (ibid., 608).[2]  If this was the word in the short title of the book of Revelation, (i.e. “The ‘êdûth ‘Revelation’ of John“), it would then correspond to the title of Psalm 80, translated by the RSV as “A Testimony of Asaph.”  The title of the book could then be translated: “A Psalm (or Testimony) of John.”  If it were part of the long title of verses one and two, it would probably indicate that John was the recorder of “The Psalm, (or Testimony), of Jesus Christ.”

            If this were indeed the Hebrew word used in the title, it would indicate that the literary form of the book is an inspired, prophetic Psalm.  (It might be both a Psalm and a prophecy, for prophecy was often given in the form of a Psalm and the Psalms are often prophecies).  If it is indeed a Psalm, we should expect to find traces of literary form and language characteristic of Hebrew poetry and indeed some of these are still discernable even in translation.  R. H. Charles says that “The Seer”, (i.e. John), wrote in poetic form, using parallelism and strophe and anti-strophe.”  He says that the book is a “Book of Songs, dirges and threnodies.”[3]  “See Introductory Articles: “Genre: Poetry”)

            One unique form of Hebrew poetry in the Old Testament is the alphabetic acrostics found in many Psalms, most notably Psalm 119.  The entire book of Lamentation as well as portions of the prophets are also written in this alphabetic form.[4]  Some indications that the book of Revelation may have been written in this pattern may be found in the repeated phrase: “I am Alpha and Omega,” (i.e. the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet, translating the Hebrew Aleph and Tau.)  There is also the equivalent phrase: “I am the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End.”

            Another possible fossil trace of the alphabetic pattern may be found in the fact that the book has twenty-two chapters, the number of letters in the Hebrew alphabet.  The original divisions into chapters and verses, however, has probably been altered considerably in transmission of the text and the alphabetic pattern has been impossible to preserve in translation just as it was in the Old Testament passages, and as many other features of poetry are impossible to translate adequately.

            While the foregoing is speculative, there is textual evidence for it and the cumulative evidence from other features of the book adds to its credibility.