Saint John immediately describes Jesus...
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Saint John immediately describes Jesus as the one "who is and who was and who is to come" in the opening of his Revelation. He takes his idea from Exodus 3:14, where God reveals to Moses his name: "I am who I am." Of course, in Hebrew this is not a name at all, but the present tense of the verb "to be." God's being includes all the tenses of the verb "to be" in it: present, past, and future. God embraces the past, present, and future; all there is between Alpha and Omega.
Eugene Peterson, in his book Reversed Thunder (p. 193), points out that John starts out following the Exodus name tradition but then does something very surprising. "We expect 'he who is, he who was, and he who shall be.' But that is not what we get. Instead of the future tense of 'to be,' we get the present tense of come -- he who comes. The unknown future (he who shall be) is traded for a recognizable arrival (he who comes, which is to say, the Christ who promised to come, comes). The emphasis shifts from the metaphysics of time to the history of salvation."
-- Bolton
Eugene Peterson, in his book Reversed Thunder (p. 193), points out that John starts out following the Exodus name tradition but then does something very surprising. "We expect 'he who is, he who was, and he who shall be.' But that is not what we get. Instead of the future tense of 'to be,' we get the present tense of come -- he who comes. The unknown future (he who shall be) is traded for a recognizable arrival (he who comes, which is to say, the Christ who promised to come, comes). The emphasis shifts from the metaphysics of time to the history of salvation."
-- Bolton
