One Like a Son of Man: The Identity of Jesus in Revelation 1

The question “who is Jesus?” is a significant one. The Bible, especially the New Testament, presents the answer to this question throughout. Understanding the identity of Jesus Christ is not just an exercise in philosophical speculation or religious scholarship however. It is a question with eternal implications for each and every person. One can either embrace or ignore what the Bible says about who Jesus is but one must accept that what one does with Jesus is foundational.

The book of Revelation presents Jesus Christ in a number of ways, including the lamb that takes away sin (see Revelation 5). However, in this article, I’d like to spend some time examining how Jesus is presented right away in Revelation 1.

One fundamental thing to note before proceeding is the significance of the Old Testament in the book of Revelation. All the New Testament authors utilize the Old Testament to one degree or another and one can find traces, allusions, and quotations of the OT in all the NT books. However, despite no direct stated quotations of the OT in Revelation, the final book of the Bible is pervasively filled with allusions and references to the OT. In fact, some estimate that there are hundreds of OT allusions in Revelation.

This is a fundamental interpretive reality to note because we always ought to do our best to use Scripture to interpret Scripture. Understanding John’s use of the Old Testament in Revelation is key to interpreting the book correctly.

By my own count, Revelation 1 contains scores of OT allusions, close to fifty in chapter one alone. This article will not cover all of these in-depth but we will draw from these OT echoes and allusions as we seek to answer the question of who Jesus is, as presented in Revelation 1.

David’s Greater Son

First, we see how Jesus is presented to us as David’s greater son, that is the Son of David and the one who brings the Davidic covenant to fulfillment.

The Davidic covenant is established in 2 Samuel 7:12-16. It is also referenced in Psalm 89:3-4 and Psalm 132:11-12. In this covenant, God promises to give David an everlasting kingdom ruled by his (David’s) son.

The first indication we get in Revelation that Jesus is the ultimate fulfillment of this great son of David is in Revelation 1:5a, “and from Jesus Christ the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of kings on earth.”

Here, Jesus is given three designations: 1) the faithful witness, 2) the firstborn from the dead, and 3) the ruler of kings on earth. All three of these phrases are found in Psalm 89:

• “And I will make him the firstborn, the highest of the kings of the earth.” (Ps. 89:27)
• “Like the moon it [the King’s throne] shall be established forever, a faithful witness in the skies.” (Ps. 89:37)

In Psalm 89, the Davidic king is consistently the thematic character. Therefore, for John to describe Jesus using these words is to identify Him with David and as David’s greater Son, the fulfillment of the Davidic covenant.

Another allusion that supports this identification of Jesus is in 1:18 where Jesus Himself says, “I died, and behold I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of Death and Hades.” This calls to mind Isaiah 22:22 where God says of Eliakim, “And I will place on his shoulder the key of the house of David. He shall open, and none shall shut; and he shall shut, and none shall open.” (This OT passage is further and more explicitly developed in Rev. 3:7.)

In Isaiah, Eliakim is established as the steward of Israel who will rule the kingdom. G.K. Beale also notes a number of parallels between Eliakim in Isaiah 22 and the coming messianic ruler of Isaiah 9.¹ Given that Eliakim is given the key of the house of David, he is presented as a ruler over David’s house (i.e. dynasty). Jesus Christ is given the keys of Death and Hades in Revelation 1:18 and the key of the house of David in Revelation 3:7. In 1:18, this is also specifically connected with His victory over death: He died and now is alive forevermore (never to die again). Elsewhere in the New Testament, Jesus’ resurrection and ascension is viewed by the apostles as fulfilling the Davidic covenant and beginning Christ’s reign as the Davidic king (c.f. Acts 2:34-35, 13:32-38).

The Son of Man

Another identification of Jesus found in Revelation 1 is that He is the Son of Man from Daniel 7.

Daniel 7:13-14 speaks of “one like a son of man” who receives an everlasting dominion over all peoples and nations. The references to this vision of Daniel’s are numerous in the first chapter of Revelation alone.

For starters, “glory and dominion forever and ever” are ascribed to Jesus in Revelation 1:6, referring back to the “[everlasting] dominion
and glory and a kingdom” in Dan. 7:14. Furthermore, John tells us in the very next verse that Jesus is “coming with the clouds” (Rev. 1:7) which is also drawn from Dan. 7:13.

Then, in Revelation 1:13, John writes that he sees “one like a son of man” in the midst of the seven golden lampstands. This of course is also from Daniel 7:13.

It is clear that John is identifying Jesus with the messianic ruler of Daniel’s son of man. However, things take an interesting turn in Revelation 1:14 when we read that John sees Jesus and the “hairs of his head were white, like white wool, like snow”. The reason that this is striking is that this language is used in Daniel 7:9 to describe, not the one like a son of man, but the “ancient of days” before whom the one like a son of man comes in v. 13. This is YHWH!

John is not only saying that Jesus is the one like a son of man in Daniel’s prophecy. He is also saying that Jesus is YHWH Himself! This leads us to our final point about Jesus identity in Revelation 1.

Jesus is God

John’s identification of Jesus in Revelation ultimately reveals that Jesus is God Himself. In John’s vision of the resurrected Christ in Revelation 1:13-20 we are given language that draws on multiple passages of the Old Testament where theophanies, visions of God, occur. Examples include Daniel 7:9; Ezekiel 1:24, 43:2; Isaiah 6:1, 48:12, 44:6, and 41:4. In these passages, the OT prophets either see a vision of YHWH and use language to describe which is picked up by John in Revelation, or they record YHWH’s self-revelatory words (e.g. “I am the first and the last”) which John also attributes to Jesus in Revelation.

Regardless, it is clear from John’s use of the Old Testament, that he is presenting the resurrected Jesus as God Himself. He is clothed with a long robe (Rev. 1:13) just as Isaiah sees the robe of YHWH filling the temple (Isa. 6:1). His hair is white as wool (Rev. 1:14, cf. Dan. 7:9). The sound of Christ’s voice is like the “roar of many waters” according to John (Rev. 1:15), just as Ezekiel reports that the “sound of many waters” is the sound of “the Almighty” (Ezek. 1:24, cf. 43:2). John records Jesus’ words: “I am the first and the last” (Rev. 1:17), an echo of YHWH’s own words in Isaiah (Isa. 41:4, 44:6, 48:12).

There can be no doubt that Jesus is YHWH. The Christ of the New Testament is the same as the God of the Old Testament. Indeed, God Himself has dwelt among men and we have seen His glory (John 1:14).

Conclusion

Believe it or not, we have not exhausted what could be said about Jesus’ identity from Revelation 1. We have not, for example, touched on Jesus’ identity as our great High Priest or the one who leads His people in the greatest exodus. Perhaps these will be issues for another day. For now, it is sufficient to look at this chapter of Revelation and see how John presents Jesus Christ as David’s greater Son, the Son of Man with everlasting dominion over all the earth, and indeed, as God Himself.

We ought to worship Christ with these images in mind. He is a lamb, gentle and lowly in heart (cf. Matt. 11:29). But He is also glorious and awesome. By grace we can approach the throne of God with confidence (cf. Heb. 4:16) but we also ought to approach with respect, fear, and awe because of God is glorious, holy, and His face shines like the very sun (Rev. 1:16).

Footnotes

¹ G.K. Beale, Revelation: A Shorter Commentary, (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2015), 83-84.