The present dimension of victory is the resurrection of Jesus Christ, “the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler over the kings of the earth” (1:5). The next verse describes the Christian reader using the language of Exodus 19:6 (“kingdom, priests”), thereby implying a victorious status akin to Israel after the demise of Pharaoh’s army. And the chapter ends (Rev 1:12–20) with a vision of the Son of Man, who—unlike in Daniel 7—is here in the present, instead of being a future expectation.
