Further, the name does not emphasize so much God’s abstract existence, as it does His permanent covenant relation to His people. Hence the phrase whch ts to come, is to be explained in accordance with the key-note of the book, which is the sec- ond coming of the Son (ch. i. 7; xxii. 20).
The phrase which 2s to come, is often applied to the Son (see on 1 John iii. 5), and so throughout this book. Here it is pre- dicated of the Father, apart from whom the Son does nothing. “The Son is never alone, even as Redeemer” (Milligan). Com- pare “ We will come unto him,” John xiv. 23. Origen quotes our passage with the words: ‘ But that you may perceive that the omnipotence of the Father and of the Son is one and the same, hear John speaking after this manner in the Apocalypse, ‘Who is, etc.” Dean Plumptre compares the inscription over the temple of Isis at Sais in Egypt: “I am all that has come into being, and that which is, and that which shall be, and no man hath lifted my veil.”
The Spirit is designated by
The seven Spirits (rav émta mvevpdtwv). Paul nowhere joins the Spirit with the Father and the Son in his opening salutations. The nearest approach is 2 Cor. xiii.13. The ref- erence is not to the seven principal angels (ch. viii. 2). These could not be properly spoken of as the source of grace and peace; nor be associated with the Father and the Son; nor take precedence of the Son, as is the case here. Besides, angels are never called spirits in this book. With the expression com- pare ch. iv. 5, the seven lamps of fire, “ which are the seven Spirits of God:” ch. iii. 1, where Jesus is said to have “the seven Spirits of God.” Thus the seven Spirits belong to the Son as well as to the Father (see John xv. 26). The prototype of John’s expression is found in the vision of Zechariah, where the Messiah is prefigured as a stone with seven eyes, “the eyes of the Lord, which run to and fro through the whole earth” (Zech. iii. 9; iv. 10). Compare also the same prophet’s vision of the seven-branched candlestick (iv. 2).
Hence the Holy Spirit is called the Seven Spirits ; the per- fect, mystical number seven indicating unity through diversity