The Name manifested in Glory
Summary
The opening vision of Revelation presents Christ in overwhelming, transcendent glory — white hair, eyes like flame, feet like polished bronze, voice like many waters. This chapter identifies each element of that vision in its Old Testament context, and shows how the name “Alpha and Omega” connects to Isaiah’s declarations of Yahweh as first and last, revealing that the glorified Christ manifests in himself the fullness of the divine name.
Revelation opens with Jesus Christ revealing things that must shortly come to pass. The opening greeting links three titles: he who is, who was, and who is to come; the seven Spirits before the throne; and "Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler over the kings of the earth." (Revelation 1:5)[1] The vision that follows gives the risen Christ in his full unveiled glory.
"Behold, he is coming with clouds, and every eye will see him, even they who pierced him." (Revelation 1:7)[2] Moses had seen the glory of Yahweh in the cloud; "the ten thousands of saints" would come with Yahweh at the last day. (Deuteronomy 33:2)[3] Jude confirmed: "Enoch prophesied... 'Behold, the Lord comes with ten thousands of his saints.'" (Jude 14)[4]
God declares himself: "I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End." (Revelation 1:8)[5] Isaiah had given the same declaration centuries earlier: "I am the First and I am the Last; besides me there is no God." (Isaiah 44:6)[6] The name manifest in glory is the same name proclaimed to Moses — the eternal self-existence of Yahweh now concentrated in and expressed through his Son.
John's vision of the glorified Son of man is spectacular: hair white as wool or snow, eyes like a flame of fire, feet like fine brass as if refined in a furnace, voice like the sound of many waters, holding seven stars, with a two-edged sword proceeding from his mouth. (Revelation 1:14–16)[7] The voice like many waters echoes Ezekiel's vision of the cherubim (Ezekiel 1:24)[8] and Daniel's vision of the heavenly man. (Daniel 10:6)[9]
In Revelation 7, a great multitude stands before the throne in white robes, palms in their hands. (Revelation 7:9)[10] These are those who have washed their robes in the blood of the Lamb — the community who bear the name, having been transformed into the character the name declares. The name manifested in glory is both his and theirs, for they have been made one with him.