Introductory Issues#

Theme#

The Apocalypse (Greek for “uncovering”), or book of Revelation, contains more extended prophecies about the future than any other part of the New Testament. These prophecies focus on the eschatological triumph of Christ over the anti-Christian forces of the world — beginning with the tribulation, climaxing with the second coming, and reaching completion with the full realization of God’s kingdom — all to the great encouragement of Christians who face worldly allurements and the antagonism of an unbelieving society.

Canonicity and Authorship#

Revelation is strongly attested as canonical and apostolic in the earliest post-New Testament period of church history, from The Shepherd of Hermas in the early second century through Origen, a church father in the first half of the third century. Doubts arose later, largely because of Dionysius’s argument that differences between Revelation and the Gospel and Letters of John exclude common authorship: The Apostle John cannot therefore have written Revelation.

It is true that from a grammatical and literary standpoint the Greek style of Revelation is inferior to that of the Gospel and Letters. But in part the “bad grammar” may be deliberate, for purposes of emphasis and allusion to Old Testament passages in Hebraic style, rather than due to ignorance or blundering. In part the “bad grammar” may also stem from an ecstatic state of mind, due to John’s having received prophecies in the form of visions. Or writing as a prisoner on the island of Patmos in the Aegean Sea, he did not have the advantage of an amanuensis to smooth out his rough style, as he probably did have for his Gospel and Letters.

Date#

Concerning the date of writing, one view maintains that Nero’s persecution of Christians after the burning of Rome in A.D. 64 evoked Revelation as an encouragement to endure the persecution. Supporting this view is the observation that when added up, the numerical value of the Hebrew letters spelling Nero Caesar comes to 666, the very number that appears in Revelation 13:18 as symbolic of “the beast.” Technical problems cast some doubt on the numerical value of Nero’s name and title; but, more seriously, an allusion to Nero Caesar in 666 need not imply a writing at the time of Nero. It could refer back to him from a later date.

Another argument in favor of an early (Neronian) date is that the smoother literary style of the Gospel and Letters of John exhibits an improvement in his command of the Greek language and thus implies that Revelation dates from an earlier period when he was still struggling with Greek as a language not very familiar to him. But there are other explanations for the rough style in Revelation (as noted above); and archaeological discoveries and literary studies have recently demonstrated that along with Aramaic and Hebrew, Greek was commonly spoken among first-century Palestinians (see pages 517-18). Thus John must have known and used Greek since his youth.

More often, Revelation has been dated during the reign of Domitian (A.D. 81-96). Though Domitian did not persecute Christians on a wide scale, his attempt to enforce emperor worship presaged the violent persecutions to come. Revelation is designed, then, to prepare Christians for resistance. The early church father Irenaeus explicitly dates the writing of Revelation during Domitian’s emperorship.

On the other hand, if against the usual interpretation of Revelation 17:9-11 we start numbering the heads of the beast with Nero because he was the first emperor to persecute Christians, then the sixth, during whose reign John writes Revelation, is Titus, the predecessor of Domitian (A.D. 79-81). Then Revelation reflects the Neronic persecution and anticipates later persecutions.

Apocalyptic Style#

In a style typical of apocalyptic literature, Revelation uses highly symbolic language for the description of visions. The visions portray the end of history when evil will have reached its limit and God will intervene to commence his reign, judge the wicked, and reward the righteous. All this is presented, not to satisfy idle curiosity about the future, but to encourage the people of God to resist and endure in a world dominated by wickedness. Very often John borrows phraseology from the Old Testament, especially from Daniel, Ezekiel, and Isaiah.

The extravagant figures of speech used throughout the Apocalypse may sound strange to modern ears, but they convey the cosmic proportions of the described events far more effectively than prosaic language could ever do. The strange figures compare in style to the creations of our own contemporary cartoonists, which we readily accept and understand.

Schools of Interpretation#

1. Idealism#

Idealism, which strips the symbolic language of any predictive value and reduces the prophecy to a picture of the continuous struggle between good and evil, the church and the world, and of the eventual triumph of Christianity. This approach contains a kernel of truth but arises mainly from a predisposition against genuinely predictive prophecy and from embarrassment over the extravagance of apocalyptic language.

2. Preterism#

Preterism, which shares the predisposition behind idealism but limits Revelation to describing the persecution of Christianity by ancient Rome and to what was expected to happen by way of the destruction of the Roman Empire and the vindication of Christians at the supposedly near return of Christ. Of course, under this view Revelation turns out to be mistaken: Jesus did not return quickly, though the Roman Empire did fall and Christianity did survive. Consequently, preterists may try to salvage the significance of the book for modern times by resorting also to idealism. Preterists are prone to infer a use of pagan mythology throughout Revelation.

3. Historicism#

Historicism, which interprets Revelation as a symbolic prenarration of church history from apostolic times until the second coming and the last judgment. Thus, the breaking of seven seals represents the fall of the Roman Empire, locusts from the bottomless pit stand for Islamic invaders, the beast represents the papacy (according to the Protestant Reformers), and so on. But the explanations of individual symbols vary so widely among interpreters of this school that doubt is cast on the interpretive method itself.

For though prophetic language is somewhat opaque before the predicted events come to pass, the fulfilling events should clarify the language well enough to prevent the breadth of interpretive variation that exists among historicists. Generally, historicists hold to postmillennialism, the belief that Christ will return after a lengthy golden age (the millennium) resulting from conversion of the world to Christianity (a view popular in the nineteenth century); or they hold to amillennialism (the more usual view today), which denies a future thousand years’ reign of Christ over the earth and transmutes that reign into his present rulership while seated at God’s right hand in heaven.

4. Futurism#

Futurism, which holds that Revelation describes a coming painful and chaotic time called “the tribulation” immediately followed by the return of Christ, the advent of God’s kingdom, the last judgment, and the eternal state. Futurists usually calculate the tribulation, or Daniel’s seventieth week, as seven years in length, with perhaps only the latter three and one-half years intensely distressing. Also, they usually hold to the premillennial view that on his return Christ will rule the world with the saints for one thousand years, crush a satanically inspired rebellion at the close of this millennium, and preside at the last judgment before the eternal state begins.

The Rapture Question#

Disagreement exists among futurists (or pre-millennialists) over whether the nation of Israel will enjoy restoration during the tribulation and the millennium (dispensationalism) and whether the church will stay on earth throughout the tribulation (posttribulationism), will be evacuated from the earth by a preliminary coming of Christ before the tribulation (pretribulationism) or at its halfway mark (midtribulationism), or whether only the godly part of the church will be evacuated beforehand.

Broadly speaking, the more strictly an interpreter separates God’s dealings with the church from his dealings with Israel, the more inclined that interpreter is to see the church removed from earth before the tribulation. Entire loss (or nearly so) of a distinction between the church and Israel usually results in historicism, the denial that there will be a future period of seven years’ tribulation, so that it becomes meaningless to ask whether the rapture will occur before, during, or after the tribulation. But some historicists believe in a millennium following Jesus’ return.

Perspective#

The view adopted here blends preterism with futurism: John writes for the Christians of his own time. They might have turned out to be the last generation. But since they did not, what John writes will apply to the generation that does turn out to be the last; and every generation of Christians should read Revelation with the possibility in mind that they will be that one. More particularly, the ancient struggle between Christianity and the Caesars corresponds to the struggle between God’s people and the antichrist in the coming tribulation.

Origin, Address, and Contents#

After an address, the first chapter of Revelation contains an account of John’s vision of Christ on a certain Sunday (“Lord’s Day,” 1:10) while John was in exile on patmos because of his Christian testimony. Early church tradition seems to imply that he was later released from Patmos and spent his last years in Ephesus.

Chapters 2-3 contain seven messages dictated to John by Christ and addressed to seven churches in Asia in and around Ephesus. (As before in the New Testament, “Asia” refers to a Roman province in western Asia Minor.) These messages are somewhat incorrectly called “letters,” since that designation implies separate communications to each church, whereas John is to write and send the entire contents of Revelation with the seven messages embedded in it (1:11).

Then follows a vision of God, his heavenly court, and an appearance of Christ (chapters 4-5). For the most part, chapters 6-19 describe plagues that will take place during the tribulation and the subsequent return of Christ. Finally, John tells about the reign of Christ and the saints for a thousand years, the last judgment, and the New Jerusalem (chapters 20-22).

Summary#

In the book of Revelation, also called the Apocalypse, John records visions that he received as an exile on the island called Patmos. The visions contain messages to local churches in seven cities of the province of Asia and information concerning what will happen during the tribulation and at the second coming and following.

The visions shift back and forth between earth and heaven, and chronologically forward and backward as well. The date of writing is disputed, but it is generally agreed that the language is often symbolic. Disagreement persists, however, over the meaning of the symbols and over larger questions of interpretation.

It is nevertheless clear that emphasis falls on the need of Christians to resist worldly allurements, to suffer willingly for Christ’s sake, and thus to gain a victorious reward in the end — over against the temporal and eternal judgments to which the wicked will fall prey.