book of Revelation 1:9–20 Catholic Bible study lesson 2

The Revelation of Jesus Christ:
The Faithful Witness

Lesson 2 Behold, I Am Alive for Evermore
the book of Revelation 1:9–20

Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition (RSVCE)*
New American Bible Revised Edition (NABRE)*
Catechism of the Catholic Church
ex libris (in our library)
Verbum Domini (Word of the Lord)
glossary for the book of Revelation
cross references in the book of Revelation
chapter-by-chapter review
next lesson: What the Spirit Says to the Churches

This material coordinates with Lesson 2 on pages 11–16 in The Revelation of Jesus Christ: The Faithful Witness.

“Great and wonderful are your deeds, O Lord God the Almighty! Just and true are your ways,
O King of the ages! Who shall not fear and glorify your name, O Lord? For you alone are holy.
All nations shall come and worship you, for your judgments have been revealed.”
—the book of Revelation 15:3–4

welcome to our in-depth study of the book of Revelation
We invite interested groups and individuals to check out the sample first lesson and video from this 23-lesson Turning to God’s Word Catholic Bible study. Our online pages link to the free lesson videos, a glossary, cross references in the biblical text, and a chapter-by-chapter review page—and they include as well illustrations, maps, additional commentary, and prayers based on the primary Scripture in each lesson. The Revelation of Jesus Christ: The Faithful Witness has been granted an imprimatur. It may be purchased from our website shop. If you have a Bible-study question or comment, click on the “ask us your question” or “what do you think” button on any study page.

open with prayer
It’s always wise to begin any Bible study with prayer, whether reading the Scriptures alone or meeting with others in a discussion study group. You can pray using your own words or use one of the opening prayers on our website. We especially like the following:

Lord Jesus, you promised to send your Holy Spirit
to teach us all things.
As we read and study your word today,
allow it to touch our hearts and change our lives. Amen.

let’s review—the book of Revelation 1:1–8
In Lesson 1 The Ruler of Kings on Earth, a man named John who’s been a witness to the word of God and to the testimony of Jesus is making known a prophecy of what’s soon to take place. An angel sent by Jesus has shown John this vision of the present and the future, and John now is sharing it with seven early Christian churches in Asia. The crux of the prophecy is that Jesus is going to return soon.

can you picture what heaven looks like?
When Matthew and I were leading pilot classes for this Bible study, we quickly discovered how helpful
it could be to review what we’d already discussed before moving forward. Not only did this assist our group in keeping track of the complex images we encountered, it also allowed us to address any new questions that had cropped up after previous classes. As we moved through the study, the review portion of our classes grew longer and longer, sometimes eating up 45 minutes to an hour. Building a similar review into written materials for The Revelation of Jesus Christ: The Faithful Witness posed a special challenge. Turning to God’s Word co-founder Tami Palladino’s illustrations offer a quick visual overview of each lesson. Click on the image (right) to enlarge the illustration, which also appears on page 12 of The Revelation of Jesus Christ: The Faithful Witness. As a further aid to memory, we’re providing a chapter-by-chapter review page that lists the key points from each chapter in the book of Revelation.

map notes—what the world looked like when the book of Revelation was written
The Revelation of Jesus Christ: The Faithful Witness includes maps showing key locations. Most feature the seven churches in Asia to which the author of the book of Revelation is writing. These are named in this lesson. As Turning to God’s Word author Matthew Phelps mentions on the video, the churches that receive the letters represent the larger Church. All are located in roughly the same area near the northeast coast of the Mediterranean Sea. Other important sites in the world of the 1st century A.D. immediately following the death and Resurrection of Jesus include the cities of Rome, Corinth, Antioch, Jerusalem, Alexandria, and Cyrene, and the islands of Crete, Cyprus, and Patmos. The author of the book of Revelation 1:9 writes that he’d been exiled to the penal colony on Patmos because of “the word of God and the testimony of Jesus.” Click on the image (right) to enlarge the map, which is on page 15 as well as in other lessons in The Revelation of Jesus Christ: The Faithful Witness.

what does it mean that John was in the Spirit? (42:09)
In the book of Revelation 1:10, the author shares that he was “in the Spirit on the Lord’s day” when he’s interrupted by a loud voice inviting him into a vision. He’s instructed to describe what he sees in letters to seven early churches. In the video for this lesson, Turning to God’s Word author Matthew Phelps repeats the importance of understanding the significance of the Lord’s day occurring on the eighth day instead of the seventh day of the week, an idea that will show up again. Perhaps the most profound insight related to John being “in the Spirit” is the way this connects the vision he’s about to be shown with visions shown to the Old Testament prophets. The images in John’s vision aren’t new; they’re a re-viewing of the same images seen in the Old Testament—only that prophecy now can be seen more clearly in light of Jesus.

The Scripture ranges for the videos that accompany this Catholic Bible study match the Scripture ranges for the sets of questions in The Revelation of Jesus Christ: The Faithful Witness. You can follow along with the video overview as Turning to God’s Word author Matthew Phelps discusses Lesson 2, “Behold, I Am Alive For Evermore,” on pages 11–16 in the study book.

WHAT DO YOU THINK about communicating with Jesus?
As we move forward, be on the lookout for ways that the biblical text emphasizes Jesus as the Word of God. Besides locating the two direct references to the word of God that appear in the first chapter, think about the ways in which we communicate words to each other.

? How many suggestions or hints of ways that Jesus is the Word of God are present in the book of Revelation 1:9–20?
? What similarities can be seen in the ways in which God communicates his Word?
? Consider how the human author of the book of Revelation appears to view his role in relationship to the Word of God.
? What’s the point of communicating something to another person?
? What does the person doing the communicating hope to achieve?
? What’s the responsibility of the person receiving a communication?
? Describe what an ideal relationship would look like between a Christian and Jesus as the Word of God.
? What kind of communication channels can be used to share information with Jesus?
? What ways does Jesus share information with members of his Church?

the popes inspire us—the culmination of God’s revelation
In “Culmination” on page 14 of The Revelation of Jesus Christ: The Faithful Witness, you can learn what the Church has to say about how God communicates with us. Verbum Domini (Word of the Lord), a post-synodal apostolic exhortation by Pope Benedict XVI, can be read online in its entirety, and we highly recommend it to anyone seriously interested in learning more about Catholic Scripture study. You can find links to other magisterial documents referred to in Turning to God’s Word Catholic Bible studies at ex libris—magisterial documents.

those pesky Son of man images
A few people have been having difficulty with the written images of Jesus that appear in the book of Revelation 1:12–16. The problem seems to be caused by trying to extract more meaning from similar Old Testament images than perhaps the author of the book of Revelation intended. (See questions 5, 6, and 7 on pages 14 and 15 in The Revelation of Jesus Christ: The Faithful Witness.) It may help to look at the bigger picture and ask why John describes Jesus in such detail. What point might the author of the book of Revelation be trying to make by including so many details about how Jesus looks?

Surprisingly enough, the Gospel writers don’t include any descriptions of Jesus’ physical appearance or mention the sound of his voice. In fact, people who encounter the risen Jesus in the Gospels have a hard time recognizing him. When the author of the book of Revelation turns and sees the post-Resurrection Jesus on the island of Patmos, it’s not surprising that he feels compelled to share particulars about Jesus’ appearance. For additional information about people failing to recognize the risen Jesus, see Lesson 24 Woman, Why Are You Weeping? in the Turning to God’s Word Catholic Bible study The Gospel According to John: An Encounter with Grace & Truth.

if it looks like a duck …
One place to start to unravel this mystery is by examining what these images of Jesus have in common: They’re all Old Testament descriptions of God. John piles them up, showing that Jesus has hair like the Ancient of Days, speaks with the voice of God, and has the burnished feet of the long-prophesied Messiah. Jesus looks like God. He sounds like God. He’s even wearing one of God’s outfits. For present-day Christians, that Jesus is God isn’t big news. We’ve been taught this from early childhood. In the 1st century A.D., however, the idea that Jesus is God wasn’t a foregone conclusion. The author of the book of Revelation needed to establish the divinity of Jesus right away. He describes Jesus in terms that leave no doubt for anyone familiar with Old Testament apocalyptic visions of God.

Q&A—how to avoid translation issues
Several participants in this Bible study have encountered difficulty attempting to answer the part of Question 6 on page 15 in The Revelation of Jesus Christ: The Faithful Witness, which cites the Book of Ezekiel 1:27.

Q: For the benefit of readers who don’t have access to the study book, here’s the question as it appears in The Revelation of Jesus Christ: The Faithful Witness:

Question 6 Read the book of Revelation 1:14–16. What might it mean that one like a Son of man has hair as white as wool? If necessary, refer to the Book of Daniel 7:9. Whom does the Book of Daniel 10:5–6 describe with eyes like torches? What might be indicated by the one like a Son of man having feet like burnished bronze? If necessary, refer to the Book of Ezekiel 1:27 and the Book of Isaiah 52:7.

A: In the book of Revelation 1:15, the Revised Standard Version Catholic Editions refer to the son of man (RSVCE) or Son of man (RSV2CE) having feet like burnished bronze, but other translations such as the New American Bible Revised Edition (NABRE) lowercase son of man and specify that his feet resemble polished brass. All of the translations we consulted render the Ezekiel verse in an approximately similar way, emphasizing that the figure on the throne in that Old Testament vision of heaven appears to have feet made of some type of polished metal. The exact metal doesn’t really matter; the point of emphasis in Question 6 in the study book is that the figure in John’s New Testament vision materially resembles the figure in the prophet Ezekiel’s Old Testament vision. You can learn more in Lesson 3 Ezekiel: A Prophet & Priest in Exile in the Turning to God’s Word Catholic study of biblical prophecy, Thus Says the LORD: God Speaks Through His Servants the Prophets—Volume II: Restoration & Redemption.

A separate issue is the way different translations treat the term “son of man.” Turning to God’s Word print studies (except for citations from the Psalms, which are taken from The Abbey Psalms and Canticles) follow the RSV2CE, using a capital letter for “Son” and a lowercase letter for “man” when the term “Son of man” appears to refer specifically to Jesus. Online, all of our studies link to the RSVCE, an earlier RSV translation that doesn’t cap “son.” It’s useful to remember that no distinction was made between capital and lowercase letters when the books of the Bible were written down, so issues of capitalization are left entirely to the judgment of the various translators. This also is true of punctuation.

are you still confused?
Those not using one of the Revised Standard Version Catholic Editions (either the RSV2CE [Second Catholic Edition], which we reprint in our study books, or the RSVCE that preceded it, which we link to online) are certain to encounter instances where translations differ. Most of these variations will be slight—such as varying style decisions regarding capitalization and punctuation. A few instances, however, will reflect significantly different interpretations. We’ll address these issues in the pages of our written study. If you run into a confusing passage, it’s good practice to compare the biblical text with another translation. At the top of all of our online study pages we include links to both the RSVCE and the NABRE.

here’s a major key to understanding the book of Revelation
The most interesting thing about John’s use of all these images is that they set up what happens immediately after John sees Jesus. Completely aware that he’s looking directly at God, the author assumes that he himself is a dead man. This gives Jesus an opportunity to explain one of the key teachings of Christianity: “I died, and behold I am alive for evermore.”

witness & testimony—you could look it up in our archives
In this part of the book of Revelation, the author describes how he’s come to give testimony about his vision of Jesus. To learn about the etymology of “testimony” and other legal terms, read Lost in Translation, an online column in which Turning to God’s Word author Matthew Phelps helps readers connect with ideas expressed in the original languages of the Scriptures. New Lost in Translation entries are posted on Mondays, and past entries are archived on our website. Contact us if you’d like to receive Lost in Translation by email every week.

alpha & omega
Revisit the illustration for Lesson 1 The Ruler of Kings on Earth created by Turning to God’s Word co-founder Tami Palladino, paying attention to the banner over Jesus. It repeats the words in the book of Revelation 1:8 that are attributed to God: “I am the Alpha and the Omega.” Jesus is further identified by the Chi-Rho Greek letters on his robe, and these represent an early monogram for Christ. In addition to symbolizing that Jesus was present at the beginning and the end of time, use of the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet calls attention to Jesus as the Word of God, a concept that will permeate the book of Revelation. To enlarge the computer image, click on it.

ex libris—a theologian’s view of how Jesus changes time
Most readers find it difficult to relate to the way in which the author of the book of Revelation handles time, which is based on the statement in the book of Revelation 1:8 describing the Lord God as one “who is and who was and who is to come.” It’s easy to pay lip-service to the idea of God operating outside of time and space. It’s harder to put ourselves in that picture and try to imagine heaven as a human destiny that exists—like God—outside of time and space. Gerhard Lohfink, a German priest, theologian, and prolific Catholic author, devotes the second chapter—16 pages—of his book No Irrelevant Jesus to a discussion of how Jesus revolutionizes the way in which we think about the construct of time. Visit ex libris—main bookshelf to read an excerpt from Lohfink’s work, which includes essays on a number of other fascinating ideas about Jesus and his Church.

read the Catechism—first & last
Question 9 on page 16 in The Revelation of Jesus Christ: The Faithful Witness refers to paragraph 359 in the Catechism of the Catholic Church, which explains the Son of man’s statement in the book of Revelation 1:17: “I am the first and the last” in connection with the first man, Adam.

359 “In reality it is only in the mystery of the Word made flesh that the mystery of man truly becomes clear.”

St. Paul tells us that the human race takes its origin from two men: Adam and Christ …. The first man, Adam, he says, became a living soul, the last Adam a life-giving spirit. The first Adam was made by the last Adam, from whom he also received his soul, to give him life …. The second Adam stamped his image on the first Adam when he created him. That is why he took on himself the role and the name of the first Adam, in order that he might not lose what he had made in his own image. The first Adam, the last Adam: the first had a beginning, the last knows no end. The last Adam is indeed the first; as he himself says. “I am the first and the last.”

Reading other sections of the Catechism can shed light on the biblical text for this Bible study, especially the section on the sacrament of Baptism, beginning with paragraph 1213 in the Catechism.

Q&A—looking at the number seven
A participant in one of our groups has asked about the significance of the number seven.

Q: We know that the number seven will be coming up again and again in the book of Revelation. Is there something more that you can tell us at this point about the seven churches mentioned in the first chapter?

A: In the first two lessons, we see several sets of seven: lamp stands, spirits, messengers, and stars. All of them are centered on Jesus. In general, we see that Jesus draws all of these objects together and completes them—he represents an eighth item in every set.) In the case of the seven spirits, we see that they’re located around Jesus and before the throne. The throne is an object typically associated with God the Father, so one way of thinking about this passage is that it could be a Trinitarian image with Father, Son, and Spirit all represented. Another compelling explanation is that the same stars that represent messengers or angels also represent spirits, making these spirits the angels of the seven churches. Although Matthew and I prefer the second of these two interpretations, we can see a case for either—and other ideas may also fit the biblical text.

The number seven will continue to be significant throughout the book of Revelation. The author of this final book of the New Testament appears to consider seven as a number representing completion but not perfection. The idea of seven as an image of perfection is borrowed from the Greeks, who based their thinking on the idea that the heavenly bodies known to the ancient world numbered seven (the sun, the moon, and five planets). This was thought to be the sum total of heavenly bodies, so the number seven was seen in spatial terms as symbolic of perfection in nature. The Hebrews, on the other hand, viewed seven temporally in connection with the seven days of Creation, which are best understood in connection with the repeating seven-day week. In Scripture, seven represents the completion of the recurring week and points ahead to something more to come (such as the next week). In this sense seven can represent completion but not perfection. It’s significant that Jesus rose on the first day of a new week, which the Easter liturgy refers to as “the first and eighth of days.” Numbers in the book of Revelation build on this concept.

Q&A—more about the seven lamp stands
A couple of participants in this study are wondering how the seven lamp stands might be related to the Jewish menorah.

Q: I just met with someone else in this study to talk about Lesson 2. We had some discussion about the seven lamp stands being menorahs or not. Turns out the menorah used at Hanukkah these days actually has nine candles (for the eight days of Hanukkah and one for lighting the other eight candles). Also interesting is the high altar used for the Latin Mass having six candles on each side of the tabernacle and Jesus being the seventh light in the center. We’ve noticed that the “high altar” in one of our parishes has it like that—three candles on each side of the tabernacle. An interesting thing is that the sanctuary lamp is there, too, so if you count that with Jesus in the Tabernacle, there are eight lights there. But not all churches have the sanctuary lamp right there. We also wondered whether the illustration should show menorahs, but we looked at a bunch of other artistic renditions and most don’t have menorahs.

A: It’s great that you’re thinking outside the box. Our instinct in this instance, however, is to avoid any mention or depiction of the menorah, even though it’s a Jewish symbol and Christianity comes straight out of Judaism. The idea of using a lamp stand in worship space first shows up in the book of Exodus 25:31–40, where God instructs Moses about how to construct the tabernacle so that the LORD can travel with his people in the wilderness. The menorah comes out of a much later Hanukkah tradition and is related to the dedication of the Temple by the Maccabees when a very small amount of oil burned for the full eight days of the feast. Although this tradition is honored in Judaism, there’s no description of it in the Old or the New Testament, including the deuterocanonical works of the First and Second Books of the Maccabees, where one would expect to find it.

what Matthew says:
Matthew’s response to this is brief: “I agree that the seven lamps mean something in the Temple that is appropriate and not anything to do with the feast of dedication.”

While it makes sense within the Jewish tradition that present-day menorahs have nine candles, that’s irrelevant to what’s going on in the book of Revelation. The book of Exodus 25:31–40 is clear that there are to be seven lamps in the lamp stand in the tabernacle. All of those instructions for how to build that tabernacle come directly from God and are based on the plan of heaven. The author of the first chapter in the book of Revelation seems far more interested in what he’s “seeing” in his vision of heaven than in how the feast of Hanukkah developed (although we will look at Hanukkah later in this study). For now, we’re content to stick with illustration and commentary that we have: There are seven sources of light, and Jesus in the middle makes eight.

The lamp stands undoubtedly are related to the original plan given to Moses in the book of Exodus 25:31–40. That they’re paired with the seven stars in this passage from the first chapter in the book of Revelation indicates they represent something spiritual rather than historical. They point to liturgical worship as a means of religious enlightenment, just as the stars point to the necessity of the Church. These two images both are linked to Jesus, the light of the world, without whom the Church wouldn’t exist. The author of the book of Revelation is using these images to emphasize just that. All of the stuff about the menorah and Hanukkah and high altars in our churches is irrelevant in this instance, and to show menorahs in the illustration for Lesson 2 would just muddy the waters, making it considerably more difficult to “see” what the author of the book of Revelation is getting at.

a study leader shares her thoughts
The following exchange veers from our standard question-and-answer format, but others may find it helpful. It comes from a study leader in a group planning to tackle one of our other studies.

comment: Thank you for your online study pages. They’re such a bonus. In our Bible study more questions come up in our leaders’ group than in my individual group about why you ask a certain question, or what you might be thinking, or where you’re leading us with your questions. I’ve often been able to point to the online study pages for direction and clues. I need to remind the other group leaders and myself that you’re trying to get us to think and pray about Scripture and its impact in our lives rather than limiting Bible study to an assignment that can be completed with a single academic answer.

response: We appreciate your comments, especially since we know that these online study pages aren’t everyone’s cup of tea. We go to some effort to provide optional information here and in the videos for participants who might be interested.

Matthew, Tami, and I feel that it’s important for people to know that sometimes asking the right questions is more valuable than having all the answers. It took us at Turning to God’s Word some time to get to this idea. The bottom line is that no one is able to hold onto information that they’re spoon-fed the same way that they can remember and live it when they have to dig concepts out for themselves. This is a big departure from the popular scholarly model of Bible study where everyone expects an expert to tell them what Scripture means, what’s important, and why. Sometimes when one of us sits in with a group, someone will ask what we were going for with a particular question. People almost always find it shocking when they’re told that we were thinking we wouldn’t mind hearing a discussion about what others think about the passage in question.

Studying the book of Revelation presents some special stumbling blocks. This book introduce images and ideas that we might or might not recognize as also occurring in the Old Testament. There’s a danger that we become so concerned with understanding the images in Old Testament terms that we miss noticing that everything that happens in the Old Testament points toward Jesus. Then there’s the other side of that danger, in which we concentrate so much on a Christian interpretation that we miss important historical information that can shed light on Jesus and what he came to do. Finally, there’s a very real danger that we begin to view Jesus as the end point and miss seeing that the work of the Church only begins with Jesus’ death and Resurrection.

It’s easy to get derailed in one area and miss the big picture, which is why group discussion of the questions is so helpful. If one person is focusing on Old Testament history, someone else may be looking at the way the writing points to Jesus. Another person may be concentrating on how these ancient books are relevant in today’s world. Combining these different points of view gives us a clearer picture of what God is saying to us in Scripture.

more about the online study pages & videos
We hope that some people will find Bible study so compelling that they’ll want more information than realistically fits in the study books. We want to provide a vehicle for extra material and an easy way for people to ask questions and make comments, especially with so many contradictory views floating around on the Internet and elsewhere—particularly about the book of Revelation.

It’s also our intent that the books, the online study pages, and the videos each can stand alone if need be. We don’t want financial concerns or the lack of a compatible group to prevent anyone from reading and praying with the Bible. We know that there are people in our groups who never look at the website or never watch the videos, just as there are people who do those things and more. The only really necessary part of studying the Bible, however, is reading the Bible. Everything else is secondary.

The caution we would add is that if you’re limiting your Bible study experience to reading the Bible—and you’re aware that you don’t understand what you’re reading—you probably should take a look at the commentaries in the study book and on the online study pages, and also listen to any related videos. The study book and online pages are designed to be helpful, and Turning to God’s Word author Matthew Phelps frequently addresses some of the more obvious difficulties with the biblical text on the videos. If you’ve read all of our related commentaries and watched our related videos and still have questions, shoot us an email. We’re always happy to discuss Scripture. Some of our most cherished insights have come about in conversation with others.

the best Catholic commentary about Scripture
To find out more about how Church teaching is supported by Scripture passages in The Revelation of Jesus Christ: The Faithful Witness, check out the Index of Citations in the Catechism of the Catholic Church. Links (Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition [RSVCE*]) to the primary Scripture passages in the lesson and relevant paragraphs in the Catechism are provided here. Not every passage in the biblical text for this Catholic Bible study is referenced in a Catechism paragraph, however.

the book of Revelation 1:17—paragraph 612
the book of Revelation 1:18—paragraphs 625, 633, 635, 2854

ways our glossary might prove helpful
In addition to providing extra information about geographical locations, our glossary also points out persons and places mentioned in the biblical text under multiple names or spellings. If you can remember a name but aren’t sure in which lesson it shows up, you can find it in the glossary, which lists every proper noun in the primary biblical text for The Revelation of Jesus Christ: The Faithful Witness.

to learn more, read more Scripture
If you’re having difficulty with a passage of Scripture, it can be helpful to read the cross references pertaining to it—but looking these up can take time. To make that easier, we’ve compiled the cross references from the Revised Standard Version Second Catholic Edition (RSV2CE)—the translation that we reprint in our study books. That list can be found at the top of every online study page, and it includes links to cross references in the primary biblical text for The Revelation of Jesus Christ: The Faithful Witness.

review previous lessons
As we progress through the book of Revelation, the images become more complex, increasing the potential for confusion. To help participants in our study keep track of what’s happening in the Scripture, we’ve prepared a chapter-by-chapter review of key events and images in the book of Revelation. A link can be found at the top of every online study page that accompanies The Revelation of Jesus Christ: The Faithful Witness.

don’t forget about our indexes & extra online material
If you’re trying to locate information about a specific Scripture passage, you can look it up in the index at the back of the study book or sample lesson. If you want to find a particular commentary, you can look up its title in the topics index. To learn more about another book of the Bible for which there’s a Turning to God’s Word study, visit the online study directories to read the commentaries and watch any accompanying videos. Finally, if you have a question or would like to make a comment about any of our studies, you can use one of the “ask us your question” or “what do you think” buttons to email our authors.

ex libris—Church documents & books about religious topics
Link to magisterial documents referred to in our Bible studies at ex libris—magisterial documents. This listing includes significant recent encyclicals as well as a number of historical Church documents. Recommended books related to Scripture study can be found at ex libris—main bookshelf.

wondering how to pronounce some of these words?
The following link is to a reading from the New International Version (NIV) Bible. To listen, click on the audio icon above the printed text. Although not taken from the translations used in our study materials, the NIV reading provides an audio guide to pronunciation of words in this lesson’s primary biblical text. A close online version of the translation of the Bible used in Catholic liturgy in the United States as well as an audio guide for daily Mass readings for the current month can be found on the website of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB).

the book of Revelation 1:9–20 (NIV)

close with Bible-based prayer related to this lesson
Many of our Catholic study groups like to conclude their discussions with a prayer based on the scriptural focus of their lesson, and some participants include Scripture-specific prayer in their individual study. If you’re uncomfortable composing your own Bible-based prayers, you can follow our four easy steps. If you prefer, you can use the following short prayer based on this lesson’s text from the book of Revelation.

O God, you rule over all life and death.
Help us to embrace tribulation with patient endurance.
Enable us to hear your Son’s testimony
ringing like a loud trumpet in our own lives.
We ask this in the name of Jesus Christ,
who died, and behold, is alive for evermore. Amen.

Lesson 3 What the Spirit Says to the Churches, the book of Revelation 2:1–29
Lesson 1 The Ruler of Kings on Earth, the book of Revelation 1:1–8

you also may like our study of the Gospel According to John
The Gospel According to John: An Encounter with Grace & Truth, a 25-lesson Catholic Bible study with an imprimatur, examines the Fourth Gospel’s view of Jesus Christ as the Son of God, with special emphasis on the institution of the sacraments of the Church as the means by which Christians are purified and made holy. This recently revised study includes maps and additional commentary, and takes a closer look at the way in which Jesus relates to individual men and women. Click on the book’s cover to view a sample lesson.

start a Turning to God’s Word Bible study
Thank you for your interest in The Revelation of Jesus Christ: The Faithful Witness. Information about beginning a Turning to God’s Word Bible study can be found at start a Bible study. Tami, Matthew, and I are available to answer questions and offer support. Contact us if you’d like to start one of our studies or have your schedule listed with other TtGW study groups on our website. —Jennifer

*There are seven deuterocanonical books in the Old Testament—the Books of Tobit, Judith, Wisdom, Sirach, Baruch, and First and Second Maccabees, as well as some passages in the Books of Esther and Daniel. Protestants usually refer to these works as “apocryphal,” a word that means “outside the (Protestant) canon” because they’re excluded from most Protestant Bibles. The word “deuterocanonical” means “second canon”; Catholics use that word to refer to any section of the Catholic Old Testament for which there are no extant, or existing, Hebrew manuscripts. All of the deuterocanonical books appear in the Septuagint, the earliest remaining versions of which date to the 1st century B.C. This Greek translation of the Old Testament was in common use by Jews at the time of Jesus—but the same books aren’t found in existing Hebrew manuscripts, which aren’t as old as the oldest version of the Septuagint. Learn more by reading How Do Catholic & Protestant Bibles Differ?

Turning to God’s Word printed Bible studies use the 2006 Revised Standard Version Second Catholic Edition (RSV2CE) translation for all Scripture references except those to the Psalms, which are taken from The Abbey Psalms and Canticles, prepared by the Benedictine monks of Conception Abbey and published in 2020 by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB). All Scripture links for the online pages of The Revelation of Jesus Christ: The Faithful Witness are to the 1966 Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition (RSVCE) translation. The New International Version (NIV) audio recordings follow the same chapter and verse numbering as the RSV Catholic translations, but the NIV translation doesn’t include the deuterocanonical books and passages.

The 1966 RSVCE uses archaic pronouns and verb forms such as “thee,” “thou,” “didst” in the Psalms and in direct quotations attributed to God. The 2006 RSV2CE replaces those with more accessible English. The few significant translation changes in the RSV2CE include rendering almah as “virgin” in the Book of Isaiah 7:14 and restoring the term “begotten” in the Gospel According to John 3:16.

Numbering varies for some passages in this Bible study. Turning to God’s Word studies (print and digital) follow the numbering in the Revised Standard Version Catholic translations (RSV2CE and RSVCE). Discrepancies in the New American Bible Revised Edition (NABRE) are noted in the Index of Scripture Citations in the study book and the online sample.

You can learn more about the Psalms by viewing a sample lesson from the Turning to God’s Word Catholic Bible study Sing a New Psalm: Communicating with God Through the Prayers of the Church—Volume I: Lauds & Vespers. The second part of that study, Sing a New Psalm: Communicating with God Through the Prayers of the Church—Volume II: Vigils, Day Prayer & Compline, is scheduled for publication in 2025. Some verse numbers may vary in different translations of the Psalms.