Christian church may be represented as a light standing in the midst of surrounding darkness. 13 And in the midst of the seven candlesticks [84]_one_ like unto the Son of man, clothed with a garment down to the foot, and girt about the paps with a golden girdle. 13. _And in the midst of the seven candlesticks._ Standing among them, so as to be encircled with them. This shows that the representation could not have been like that of the vision of Zechariah (Zec. iv. 2), where the prophet sees “a candlestick all of gold, with a bowl upon the top of it, and his seven lamps thereon.” In the vision as it appeared to John, there was not _one_ lamp-bearer, with seven lamps or branches, but there were _seven_ lamp-bearers, so arranged that one in the likeness of the Son of man could stand in the midst of them. ¶ _|One| like unto the Son of man._ This was evidently the Lord Jesus Christ himself, elsewhere so often called “the Son of man.” That it was the Saviour himself is apparent from ver. 18. The expression rendered “like unto _the_ Son of man,” should have been “like unto {52} _a_ son of man;” that is, like a man, a human being, or in a human form. The reasons for so interpreting it are, (a) that the Greek is without the article, and (b) that, as it is rendered in our version, it seems to make the writer say that he was _like himself_, since the expression “_the_ Son of man” is in the New Testament but another name for the Lord Jesus. The phrase is often applied to him in the New Testament, and always, except in three instances (Ac. vii. 56; Re. i. 13; xiv. 14), by the Saviour himself, evidently to denote his warm interest _in_ man, or his relationship to man; to signify that he was a man, and wished to designate himself eminently as such. See Notes on Mat. viii. 20. In the use of this phrase in the New Testament, there is probably an allusion to Da. vii. 13. The idea would seem to be, that he whom he saw resembled “the Son of man”――the Lord Jesus, as he had seen him in the days of his flesh――though it would appear that he did not _know_ that it was he until he was informed of it, ver. 18. Indeed, the costume in which he appeared was so unlike that in which John had been accustomed to see the Lord Jesus in the days of his flesh, that it cannot be well supposed that he would at once recognize him as the same. ¶ _Clothed with a garment down to the foot._ A robe reaching down to the feet, or to the ankles, yet so as to leave the feet themselves visible. The allusion here, doubtless, is to a long, loose, flowing robe, such as was worn by kings. Comp. Notes on Is. vi. 1. ¶ _And girt about the paps._ About the breast. It was common, and is still, in the East, to wear a girdle to confine the robe, as well as to form a beautiful ornament. This was commonly worn about the middle of the person, or “the loins,” but it would seem also that it was sometimes worn around the breast. See Notes on Mat. v. 38‒41. ¶ _With a golden girdle._