Gift of Apocalypse

Revelation (1:1) opens by describing the conduit by which the apocalypse of Jesus gets to His slaves. There are two processes, fractally related.

First, God the Father gives apocalypse to Jesus, who in turn gives it to the slaves: Father – Son – slaves. Apocalypse, unveiling, is the Father’s gift to the Son. The Father gives the Son the gift of self-disclosure. The Son receives the gift in order to show it; He possesses to dispossess. It is an unveiling of Jesus, but this unveiling of Jesus shows “what must shortly take place.”

Second, the text focuses in on the middle term of that initial triad, the Son, and when we open up this term, we find another triad. The Son does what He has seen the Father doing; the Father sends and gives, and so the Son mimetically sends and gives by signifying/communicating. As the Father’s gift of apocalypse is mediated to the slaves through the Son, so the Son’s communication to the slaves is mediated by an angel to a particular slave, John. Son – Angel – John echoes Father – Son – slaves. The whole process is Father – Son ( – Angel – John) – slaves.

Inner Trinitarian communication and gifting opens out in sending and communication, a communication of the Son through the Son and His angel.