Write the things which thou hast seen
The Alexandrian copy and some others, and the Complutensian
edition, read, "write therefore the things" meaning what he had
now seen, the vision of one like to the son of man, amidst the
golden candlesticks, with seven stars in his right hand, and as
above described; this was what he had seen ( Revelation
1:12 Revelation
1:13 Revelation
1:16 ) ; for it does not refer to what he had seen of Christ
in the days of his flesh, but to what he had now seen in this
representation of him:
and the things which are;
the state of the churches of Christ in the apostolic age, and at
that time signified by the Ephesian church, and that part of the
Smyrnean which John lived to see:
and the things which shall be hereafter;
from hence unto the end of the world, in successive generations,
signified by the rest of the churches, and in the visions of the
seals, trumpets, and vials.