<p>1:2 <i>Who testified of the word of God and of the testimony of Jesus Christ, even of all things that he saw</i>- The aorist suggests the testimony was made once in the past; and John uses this idea of his testimony about the Lord in explaining that his Gospel record is his testimony about Him. In addition to that, he is testifying of the Lord's testimony, which consists in all things he saw in the visions he is now going to describe. This is in line with how the testimony of the Comforter, the spirit of Christ, was the testimony of the believers who had received that Spirit (Jn. 15:26,27). Here as a parade example of that, John testifies of the Lord's testimony.</p><p>The apostles bore witness to the Lord Jesus (e.g. Acts 26:22; 1 Cor. 15:15 s.w.), and He in turn bore witness to the preaching of the word of his grace (Acts 15:8). In their witness lay His witness. Revelation begins with John witnessing / testifying to the Word made flesh, i.e. Jesus, and concludes with Jesus testifying (1:2 cp. 22:20 s.w.).<br />Beholding the cross and the water and blood that flowed from it, John struggled with the inadequacy of human language: &ldquo;He that saw it bare record, and his record is true: and he knoweth that he saith true&rdquo; (Jn. 19:35). Years later he described himself, in allusion to this, as he &ldquo;who bare record in the past tense of the word of God, and of the testimony of Jesus Christ&rdquo; (Rev. 1:2). He had earlier commented that the Spirit, water and blood of the cross bore witness (1 Jn. 5:8). John seems to be saying that the Lord&rsquo;s final death which he had witnessed was the word of God, the testimony of Jesus Christ. And as he had been a faithful witness to this, so now he would be of that further revelation he had now seen in the Apocalypse. Because he had beheld the Lord&rsquo;s witness on the cross, he witnessed. For he was in Christ, part of Him, of His life and death. And so are each of us. Paul puts our thesis in so many words, by saying that his preaching to the Galatians had been a placarding forth of Christ crucified before their eyes (Gal. 3:1 Gk.). His witness to them had been a living out of the Lord in His time of dying.</p>