The author introduces himself, I John, your brother. He uses no titles or other identification, which implies he is well known to his readers. He is a brother of all those to whom he writes, that is, a fellow Christian, a fellow believer in Jesus Christ. If the referent of the plural your must be made explicit, something like “all of you to whom I am sending this book” may be used. This becomes clear, of course, in verse 11, and so may not be needed.
Who share with you in Jesus: he states he has had, or is having, the same experiences they have had (see similar language in Phil 4.14). The phrase in Jesus means “as a follower of Jesus,” “as a believer in Jesus,” or even “as a Christian.” Another way of expressing this phrase is “who as a fellow believer in Jesus share….”
The tribulation and the kingdom and the patient endurance: the events or the experiences these nouns represent are of different natures and are not easily or naturally joined together as objects of the verb: “sharing in the suffering and reign and endurance.” The tribulation, or “suffering,” or “persecution,” is that which the followers of Christ are called upon to experience before the coming of Christ (see its use in 7.14). It may also be expressed as a complete clause: “I suffer the same difficulties that you are experiencing,” “I am persecuted just as you are,” or in languages that avoid the passive one may say “People persecute me just as they do you.” The kingdom here has a future reference, the coming Kingdom in which God and Christ will reign completely over the world (11.15; 12.10). Other ways of expressing the clause share … kingdom are “with you who are citizens of (or, belong to) Christ’s (God’s) kingdom” or “with you who have God ruling over you.” John and his fellow believers must wait with patient endurance for the coming of the Kingdom. This quality is praised in the letters to Ephesus (2.2, 3), Thyatira (2.19), and Philadelphia (3.10); see also 13.10; 14.12. Caird (page 20) comments: “Ordeal and sovereignty are obverse and reverse of the one calling; for those who endure with Christ also reign with him, and reign in the very midst of their ordeal.” Patient endurance may be variously rendered as “willingness to put up with for a long time,” “never give up,” “have a big heart towards.” Patient endurance may also be rendered as “endure with long hearts.” In certain languages it will be helpful to join the ideas of tribulation and patient endurance, keeping kingdom separate, and say “I am together with you in God’s kingdom, but also in patiently enduring the suffering.”
Was on the island called Patmos: the past tense was implies that he is no longer there. Good News Translation has “I was put (on the island of Patmos)” on the assumption that he had been sent there as a prisoner (so also Revised English Bible, Bible en français courant, Translator’s New Testament [Translator’s New Testament]). If translators follow this interpretation, in certain languages it will be necessary to avoid a passive expression and say “they put me on the island of Patmos,” where “they” is an unknown agent. Patmos is a small island some sixteen kilometers long and nine kilometers wide (ten miles by six miles), in the Aegean Sea (eastern Mediterranean), about one hundred kilometers southwest of Ephesus. It was used by the Romans as a penal colony.
On account of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus: the same two noun phrases appeared already in Rev. 1.2 (which see). There are several possible interpretations of on account … Jesus, but the most likely one is the one given by Good News Translation (so also Bible en français courant, New American Bible, Revised, Translator’s New Testament, Barclay, Phillips).
The verse is a fairly long and complex sentence in Greek, and it is recommended that a translation have at least two sentences. The following may serve as a model: “I, your Christian brother John, have, like you, patiently endured the suffering that is ours as followers of Jesus as we await the coming of the Kingdom.” Or, less freely, as Biblia Dios Habla Hoy has: “I, John, am your brother, and because of my union with Jesus I share with you in the Kingdom of God, in the sufferings, and in the strength to endure them,” or even “I, John, who am your fellow believer in Christ, am persecuted as you are. I am a citizen of the Kingdom of God as you are, and I must patiently endure my troubles just as you do.”
The second sentence is more easily translated in simple and natural language: “I had been sent to the island of Patmos because I had preached God’s message and the truth revealed by Jesus.” If the passive “I had been sent to (or, put on) the island of Patmos…” raises the question as to who had sent him there, it may be well to avoid it by saying simply “I was on the island…,” or perhaps “I was a prisoner on the island…” (Nova Tradução na Linguagem de Hoje). But in certain languages one may avoid the passive and say “They sent me to the island of Patmos,” where “They” is an unknown agent.
Quoted with permission from Bratcher, Robert G. and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on The Revelation to John. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1993. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .