Week # 52 Study Page

Revelation (1-22)

Suggested Daily Reading Breakdown

Sunday: Revelation 1-3
Monday: Revelation 4-5
Tuesday: Revelation 6-8
Wednesday: Revelation 9-11
Thursday: Revelation 12-13
Friday: Revelation 14-16
Saturday: Revelation 17-18
Sunday: Revelation 19-20
Monday: Revelation 21-22

Degree of Difficulty: 3 out of 10. This week’s reading is short, fascinating, and you have two extra days to get it done! Revelation is a famously difficult book to understand. The imagery of John’s vision is wild and leaves the 21st century reader wondering which events/people/places in our modern world or even in the history or future of our world correspond to the spiritual realities to which John is given access. The best way to read Revelation is to recognize this difficulty at the outset and then make a conscious decision that you’re not going to figure out every aspect of each vision as you go. You really need to take the pressure off of yourself to come away from your reading of Revelation with all of the answers. Try to place your attention on the development of John’s vision itself and the characters in it, instead of focusing outside the text on historical or modern figures/events that might correlate to to the beasts or the bowls of wrath and so forth. There will be plenty of time to look back and think about our modern time as it relates to revelation, but if you do so as you’re reading through you stand a good chance of losing track of the surprisingly coherent story line of John’s vision. We’ll do our best below to explore the literary nature of Revelation and provide an introduction to the imagery that you’ll find therein.

About the Book(s)

John

Date of Authorship: There are two viable options for dating the revelation of John. There is considerable support for dating the book either to shortly after the reign of Nero in 68-69 AD. or late in the reign of Domitian around 95-96. The text of Revelation seems to require that certain conditions be present: the persecution of Christians, a practice of emperor worship, and historical conditions that would make sense of the letters to the seven churches in Chapters 1-3. While all of these conditions could be true for either of the dates above, Carson and Moo believe that they would fit best in the later date-range. The persecution of Christians under Domitian was more wide-spread and systematic, Domitian more assertively referred to himself as a deity, ordering that he be addressed as “lord and god,” and finally a later date would make better sense for the 7 Churches in Asia struggling to maintain their “first love” because they had only first been introduced to the Gospel in the 40’s & 50’s AD. Furthermore, the reign of Domitian is the date connected to this book by the notably Early Church fathers Irenaeus, Eusebius, Clement of Alexandria, and Origen. (much of the above info is taken from An Introduction to the New Testament, D.A. Carson & Douglas Moo, and this resource is primary for much of the information in the rest these notes)

Author: John, is the author of Revelation; but which John? Revelation certainly does not sound like the language we read in the Gospel of John or the epistle of 1st John where the themes of light, life, and love play such a prominent role, and readers of the original Greek will tell you that the literary style has definitely changed. This plus the fact that the John of revelation does not claim to be an apostle in the book have lead many to believe that this book was written by a previously unknown “John the Elder” who was a minster to the Roman province of Asia. However the Early Church witness is univocal in attributing this book to John the Apostle (as early as Justin Martyr writing in 150 AD). Many of them would be in a position to know as two of the early church fathers who attribute Revelation to John (Melito and Irenaeus) were from* one of the seven Churches that the book of Revelation is addressed to, and Papais (who also attributes the book to John the Apostle) knew John personally. Carson and Moo conclude with the following

“While the difference in Greek style is a problem… we are inclined to accept the testimony of those who were in a position to know about this matters, (the Early Church fathers), and we attribute both books (the Gospel and Revelation) to John the apostle, “the beloved disciple” (p.705)

Setting: John writes from Patmos, a rocky and rugged island about six miles wide and ten miles long, some forty miles southwest of Ephesus in the Aegean Sea. The island was used by Roman authorities as a place of exile, and John indicates that this was his reason for being there: “because of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus” (1:9). Early tradition (e.g. Origen - writing early in the third century AD) says that the emperor himself condemned John to exile in Patmos, but it is more likely, considering John the Apostle’s extensive ministry in Asia Minor, that it was a local Roman official from this region who sent John to Patmos in order to get him out of the way.

Purpose: John’s revelation depicted the reality and severity of evil, and of the demonic forces that are active in history, to believers in the Roman province of Asia who were facing persecution and struggling to maintain the fervency of their faith. John’s visions also place in clear relief the reality of God’s judgement, promising a coming day when His wrath will be poured out, when sins will have to be accounted for, and when the fate of every individual will depend on whether or not his or her name is “written in the Lamb’s book of life.” Equally clear, of course, is the reward that God has in store for those who persevere and resolutely stand against the devil and his earthly minions, even at the cost of life itself. John’s visions are a source of comfort and motivation for suffering and persecuted believers in all ages.

In other words, the purpose of the book of Revelation is to persuade its hearers and readers, both ancient and contemporary, to remain faithful to God in spite of past, present, or possible future suffering—whatever form that suffering might take, and whatever source it may have—simply for being faithful. In spite of memory, experience, or fear, Revelation tells us, covenant faithfulness is possible because of Jesus and worthwhile because of the glorious future God has in store for us and for the entire created order. Revelation, we might say, provides us with a vivid, imaginative, and prophetic call to an “anti-assimilationist” and life-giving Christian witness to, against, and within an immoral and idolatrous imperial culture of death. (Michael Gorman, Reading Revelation Responsibly: Uncivil Worship and Witness: Following the Lamb into the New Creation)

As You Read Notes:

Future / present in Revelation

Part of reading the Bible well, as we have discussed all year, is attempting to understand the words from the perspective of the people to whom the words were being spoken/written to in the immediate historical context of the book’s authorship. This is never more true than in the book of Revelation. The Bible Project video above does a good job of stating this directly. While it is true that the book of Revelation has a lot to tell us about the future of heaven and earth and the return of Christ, BUT in order to understand those truths correctly, you must read these words through the lens of what they communicated in/to the present reality of the seven Churches in Asia Minor to whom the letter is addressed.

“The peculiar eschatological stance of the early church (their belief that the return of Christ was immanent and they were living in the last days) demands that we not ignore the degree to which John pictures this eschatological (related to the end-times) climax against the backdrop of events in his own day. It is likely, for instance, that Johns depiction of the “great prostitute,” “Babylon,” that is doomed to fall (18:1-4), has some reference to the Roman Empire of his own day and that the terrible persecution described in Revelation would remind John’s readers of their own oppression. To some extent then, John, While describing the end, describes it against the background of his first-century situation. But this is typical of Biblical prophecy in both Old and New Testaments. While revealing his plan for history, God has not often revealed its timing; and Biblical prophets have always pictured “the day of the Lord,” the eschaton, in terms of their own time. Moreover, it is clear that history itself contains many prefigurements of that end; John himself reminds us that, while “the antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come” (1st John 2:18)” (Carson & Moo P. 720-721)

The literary character of John’s revelation

Revelation is a combination or synthesis of three genres: apocalypse, prophecy, and epistle.

Apocalypse is a literary style that we see glimpses of in parts of Daniel and Zechariah. This style became very popular in 2nd century BC Jewish literature as a response to persecution and oppression. Apocalypses pass on heavenly mysteries revealed to them by an angel or some other spiritual being, for the purpose of translating or revealing the reality behind or beyond what the readers are currently experiencing.
Prophecy is communication from God through a human agent which typically looks for God’s salvation to be manifested through* the processes of this world rater than a breaking in of a new world as you might find in apocalypse. another way in that prophecy contrasts with apocalypse is the directness of divine communication which is typically delivered explicitly instead of in visions. We certainly see John functioning as a prophet in the beginning and the end of the book of revelation, and we may also consider how this literary style to what we read in between as well.
- “John is recording visions and auditions (things seen and heard) that were given to him by God, just as God had done with biblical prophets (e.g., Ezekiel and the valley of dry bones in Ezekiel 37) and with other leaders in the early church, such as Peter (Acts 10). He has seen what others have not; indeed, he has seen Truth—invisible and future Truth—about the cosmos as it really is and really will be. The reports of what he has seen do what Old Testament scholar Ellen Davis describes prophets as doing: they “instruct our weak religious imagination by means of ‘visual enhancement’; they enable us to see the present moment of history in divine perspective.”23 And Peterson notes that “[t]he power to wake us up is the most obvious use of the Revelation.”24” (Michael J. Gorman. Reading Revelation Responsibly: Uncivil Worship and Witness: Following the Lamb into the New Creation)
Epistle is a letter from an inspired author to a church for the purpose of instruction, criticism, and/or encouragement. Revelation 1-3 certainly fall into this genre and it is my opinion that this is the primary genre for the book of revelation, and that the utilities of apocalypse and prophecy are employed for this purpose.

Revelation is filled* with imagery related to the Old Testament. The form of John’s vision reflects that of similar visions which we read in Daniel, Zechariah, Zechariah, Joel, and Isaiah. Each of these Old Testament authors anticipated a coming day of the lord in which Justice would be wrought and God’s people (at least those escaping judgment) would be delivered. John draws on the form of these OT passages to teach realities about our present world, and to, himself, anticipate the coming day of the Lord.

Meaningful imagery in John’s revelation

The following are charts provided by Michael Gorman in his book, Reading Revelation Responsibly, that will help you understand tome of the symbolic significance that colors and numbers take in Revelation. (you can click on each one to open the full chart)

The structure of Revelation:

Chapters 4-5 are essentially an inaugural vision that sets the tone for what follows in the book of Revelation. Then chapters 6-16 are structured by the series of seven seals, trumpets, and bowls. I believe that this section tells and re-tells the spiritual reality behind the story of history and the world. For instance, I think that John believes all the beasts (there are 4) described in revelation to reflect the present reality of the evil and wickedness behind the forces of the world. Chapters 17-22 are a retelling that focuses sharply on the end-times when Christ is victorious and God’s new creation arrives - when the vision that John had seen in heaven in chapter 4, will be true in the world as well.

Revelation 20:1-10: The MILLENNIUM:

When the victory of Christ is being described in chapters 19-20, a “thousand year reign” (i.e. millennium) is part of John’s vision. I believe that this reign is one that began with Christ’s resurrection and is continuing through our present time. The thousand-year reign does not refer to a precise amount of time, but a long and complete period of the kingdom of Christ (the Church).

“Revelation 20:1-6 simply reminds us that the positive spiritual blessings experienced continually by the Church far outweigh any negative circumstances… Every event described here took place, or began to take place as the result of Christ’s earthly ministry, death, resurrection, and ascension to God’s right hand. His thousand-year reign began at that point, and still continues today. the millennium is now…
- Revelation 20:1-3 thus symbolically represents Christ’s present control over Satan and his works, and the consequent limitation of his power… this does not men that Satan is doing nothing today. He still roams about like a roaring lion, seeking to defour us (1st Peter 5:8). But Christ has established a safety zone, as it were, a place where Satan has no power. It is the Church, which is the realm over which Christ reigns in his millennial kingship, a haven from the forces of death (Matthew 16:18). Anyone who accepts the truth of the gospel and surrenders to the Lordship of Christ is rescued from captivity to Satan and set free to live beyond the reach of his lying mouth and slashing claws…
- When Revelation 20:6 says “Blessed and holy are those who share in the first resurrection,” it refers to a specific event that happens in the life of every Christian convert, and event that happens on the earth but which has eternal consequences. It is the event known as regeneration, the resurrection from spiritual death that happens when one is baptized into Christ…
- Those who take part in the first resurrection also reign with Christ for the thousand years (age of the Church). Not only does Christ now reign over us, but also when we are in Christ, we reign with him over all our common enemies such as Satan, sin, and death.

(Jack Cottrell, The Faith Once for All, p. 494-502)

Week #52 - Revelation (1-22)