Revelation 19:12; His Eyes, Crowns and Name
Revelation 19:12 (KJV) His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on his head were many crowns; and he had a name written, that no man knew, but he himself.
His eyes were as a flame of fire. To judge rightly he must see through and through, search all depths, look beneath all masks, penetrate all darkness, and try everything to its ultimate residuum. Hence this flaming vision, which likewise tells of the fierceness of His wrath against His enemies. There is often something wonderfully luminous, penetrating, overawing, in the human eye. Men have been killed by the look of kings. Its like the living intellect made visible, which seems to read all secrets at a glance, and before which the beholder cowers. It is this infinitely intensified, flashing like a sword of fire from the visual orbs, that the holy apostle here beheld in this Warrior Judge. It is an eye-flame of Omniscient perception and out-breaking indignation and wrath, which seizes and unmans the foe before he feels the sword.
On His head were many crowns. He is not only Judge and General, but at the same time the King Himself. When David conquered the Ammonites, he put the crown of the vanquished king on his own head, in addition to the crown he already had (2 Samuel 12:30).
2 Samuel 12:30 (KJV) And he took their king’s crown from off his head, the weight whereof was a talent of gold with the precious stones: and it was set on David’s head. And he brought forth the spoil of the city in great abundance.
When Ptolemy entered Antioch, he set two crowns upon his head, the crown of Asia, and the crown of Egypt.
The Beast has ten crowns on his ten horns, as combining ten sovereignties.
Revelation 13:1 (KJV) And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy.
In all these cases, the accumulation of crowns expresses accumulated victory and dominion. It is the same in this case. Christ comes against the Beast and his confederates as the conquerer on many fields, the winner of many mighty battles, the holder of many sovereignties secured by his prowess and power. He comes as the One anointed and endowed of heaven with all the sovereignties of the earth as His rightful due and possession. He comes now as the Warrior, Judge, and King against combined usurpers in arms, against those who dispute His right to the dominion purchased with His blood, and He puts on all His royal rights.
He had a name written, that no man knew, but He Himself. John saw it written, and was awed with its splendour; but it was too much for him, or any other man, to understand or know. Jesus once said, “No man fnoweth the Son but the Father.” (Matthew 11:27); and here He appears in all those unrevealed and unknowable wonders, which connect Him with incomprehensible Godhead. The Beast is full of names, great, high, and awful names; but they are false names – “names blasphemy.” This Warrior, Judge, and King has a name ineffable and unknowable, but it is a true and rightful name, – a name ineffable “which is above every name.” We do not yet know all the majesty of attributes or being which belong to our sublime Saviour; and when He comes forth out of heaven for the war upon the Beast, He will come in vast unknowableness of greatness, – in heights of majesty and glory, “which no one fnoweth but Himself” (Judges 13:18; Revelation 2:17).
Judges 13:18 (KJV) And the angel of the LORD said unto him, Why askest thou thus after my name, seeing it is secret?
Revelation 2:17 (KJV) He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the hidden manna, and will give him a white stone, and in the stone a new name written, which no man knoweth saving he that receiveth it.
[Joseph A. Seiss, The Apocalypse – An Exposition of the Book of Revelation, Kregel, 1987, 436]