*4:1 This is a reference to 1:10 above, so it is the glorified Christ who is speaking—He is continuing His communicating (see 1:1 above), only now He is speaking from Heaven.
†4:1 “After these” opens and closes the verse. ‘These’ is a pronoun, so what is its antecedent? Presumably the churches described in chapters 2 and 3 (“the things that are” referred to in 1:19). Does “after” the churches imply that they are off the scene?
‡4:2 Compare 1:10. The Voice commanded him to “come up here”—it was something John had to do; I take it that his spirit was transported to heaven. (Consider Jesus—Matthew 17:25, John 1:48; Paul—1 Corinthians 5:3-4, Colossians 2:5; Elisha—2 Kings 5:26, 6:12.)
§4:3 The throne, not the One. 15% of the Greek manuscripts do have the One looking like a stone, but I judge that the 85% are correct.
*4:4 Why do we have “the” twenty-four elders the first time they are mentioned? I take it that John found them to be especially impressive or interesting (perhaps he identified with them).
†4:4 Might this picture have any connection with the promise in 3:21 above?
‡4:5 There is no definite article with “seven spirits”. I doubt that they represent the Holy Spirit.
§4:8 The picture seems to be that the throne was not solid—the living beings moved in, through and around it; and they themselves were translucent—at least John could see that they had eyes inside as well as outside.
*4:8 Most of the Greek manuscripts have the elders in chorus with the living beings here, but the best line of transmission has just the living beings repeating ‘holy’ endlessly, which agrees with verse nine.
†4:8 The manuscript evidence is badly divided here, but I take it that two of the tree main lines of independent transmission, including the best one, have “holy” nine times, instead of three. Surely it is more likely that ‘nine’ would be changed to ‘three’ than vice versa. In fact, try reading “holy” nine times in a row out loud—it starts to get uncomfortable! Since in the context the living ones are repeating themselves endlessly, the ‘nine’ is both appropriate and effective. Three ‘holies’ for each member of the Trinity.
‡4:11 ‘O Lord’ as in KJV is found in a very few late manuscripts. Almost all Greek manuscripts have the words “Lord”, “God” and “our”, and some ⅔ of them (including the best group) have “the Holy One”.