themselves merely by the words _servants_, or _servants of God_. Comp. Notes on Ro. i. 1. 2 Who bare record of the word of God, and of the testimony of Jesus Christ, and of all things that he saw. 2. _Who bare record of the word of God._ Who bore witness to, or testified of (ἐμαρτύρησε) the word of God. He regarded himself merely as a _witness_ of what he had seen, and claimed only to make a fair and faithful _record_ of it. “This is the disciple which _testifieth_ (ὁ μαρτυρῶν) of these things, and wrote these things,” Jn. xxi. 24. “And he that saw it _bare record_”――μεμαρτύρηκε, Jn. xix. 35. Compare also the following places, where the apostle uses the same word of himself: 1 Jn. i. 2; iv. 14. The expression here, “_the word of God_,” is one the meaning of which has been much controverted, and is important in its bearing on the question who was the author of the book of Revelation. The main inquiry is, whether the writer refers to the “testimony” which he bears in this book respecting the “word of God;” or whether he refers to some testimony on that subject in some other book with which those to whom he wrote were so familiar that they would at once recognize him as the author; or whether he refers to the fact that he had borne his testimony to the great truths of religion, and especially respecting Jesus Christ, as a preacher who was well known, and who would be characterized by this expression. The phrase “the word of God”――τὸν λόγον τοῦ Θεοῦ――occurs frequently in the New Testament (comp. Jn. x. 35; {37} Ac. iv. 31; vi. 2, 7; xi. 1; xii. 24); and may either mean the word or doctrine _respecting_ God――that which teaches what God is――or that which he speaks or teaches. It is more commonly used in the latter sense (comp. the passages referred to above), and especially refers to what God speaks or commands in the gospel. The fair meaning of this expression would be, that John had borne faithful witness to, or testimony of, the truth which God had spoken to man in the gospel of Christ. So far as the _language_ here used is concerned, this might apply either to a written or an oral testimony; either to a treatise like that of his gospel, to his preaching, or to the record which he was then making. Vitringa and others suppose that the reference here is to the gospel which he had published, and which now bears his name; Lücke and others, to the revelation made to him in Patmos, the record of which he now makes in this book; Professor Stuart and others, to the fact that he was a teacher or preacher of the gospel, and that (comp. ver. 9) the allusion is to the testimony which he had borne to the gospel, and for which he was an exile in Patmos. Is it not possible that these conflicting opinions may be to some extent harmonized, by supposing that in the use of the aorist tense――ἐμαρτύρησε――the writer meant to refer to a characteristic of himself, to wit, that he was a faithful _witness_ of the word of God