How Should We Read the Book of Revelation?
We misread the book of Revelation when we do not take into consideration its original author, audience, historical situation, or literary genres. As it has often been said, “A text without a context is a pretext for a prooftext.”
Genre refers to the “form of a passage.” Different genres have different rules for interpretation. For instance, we do not interpret poetic literature in the same way that we interpret legal literature. There are certain rules and expectations that the author of the passage expects his readers to be familiar with when they read his material. At times, authors will tell us the type of genre that they are using in their material In the case of the book of Revelation, John refers to three genres of literature present in his work. The book of Revelation consists of three different genres of literature, making it a hybrid of sorts.
The first genre is found in the first verse – “the revelation of the Jesus Christ.” In Greek, the term that is translated here as “revelation” is the word, apokalypsis.[1] In the weeks to come, we are going to study this more, but for now, we need to realize that apokalypsis refers to a distinct type of ancient Jewish and Christian literature, which has certain rules for governing its interpretation. We are not allowed to make apocalyptic literature mean whatever we want it to mean for us. John had a certain usage in mind when he referred to the apokalypsis of Jesus Christ. I believe that much of the confusion associated with the book of Revelation is related to a misunderstanding of its apocalyptic genre. Concerning a definition, Craig Koester states, “Apocalyptic literature is “literature with a narrative framework, in which a revelation of transcendent reality (How Things Really Are) is given by an angel or otherworldly being to a human recipient. Usually, the revelation unveils a supernatural world and points to salvation at the end of time.”
The second type of genre is mentioned in Revelation 1:3, when John writes, “Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy.”[2] Prophecy is a little more accessible to us in that we are familiar with predictive or forth-telling literature. Some aspects of the book of Revelation are predictive, but that does not mean that every aspect of Revelation is predictive or that some aspects of the prophecy in the document have not already been fulfilled. As Alan Bandy writes, “As a book of prophecy, it certainly forecasts future expectations of the final consummation associated with the return of Christ, the Day of Judgment, and the renewal of creation. Yet, prophecy is also like a barometer gauging the present situations of its original audience coupled with appeals to behave a certain way in response. The challenge is balancing the historical and future aspects of the message in this highly symbolic book.”[3] Another scholar notes that prophetic literature is not “exclusively or even primarily about making pronouncements and predictions concerning the future. Rather, prophecy is speaking words of comfort or challenge, on behalf of God, to the people of God in their concrete historical situation.”[4] As such prophetic literature must be understood as “literature that its primary purpose is to give words of comfort and challenge to God’s people then and now, not to predict the future, and much less to do so with precise detail.”
The third and final genre demonstrated in Revelation is that of epistolary literature. The ancient-letter form typically consisted of the following elements:
- A Letter Opening – Consists of a statement of sender and recipient, a salutation, and a thanksgiving.
- A Letter Body – Consists of the central message of the letter.
- A Letter Closing – Consists of a final greeting, a wish for good health, and a farewell.
All three of these elements are present in the book of Revelation. An additional aspect of John’s letter is that it is circular in nature. Notice how it is written to the “seven churches that are in Asia.” John, most likely, only produced two documents. The custom of ancient letter writers was to produce a document to send to the recipient and a document to keep as an original. This is largely true with all New Testament documents. Thus, John kept a copy of his document and sent the other document to be circulated among the seven churches in Asia. The letter would have been read to the entire church in one meeting, copied, and then sent to the next church. So, if taken all together, the book of Revelation is an Apocalyptic, Prophetic Circular letter to “seven churches in the Roman province of Asia.”[5]
Taken all together, we could say with Frank Matera, “As an apocalypse, it reveals what ‘must soon take place (1:1). As a prophecy, it testifies to the Word of God and Jesus Christ (1:2). As a letter, it addresses seven churches in the Roman province of Asia (1:4).
So now we return to the question of “How do we read the book of Revelation?” When we read the book of Revelation, we must begin by asking how it relates to the Christians to whom John was writing before we ever ask how it relates to the headlines in our newspapers.
But what are we to do about all the Imagery?
Multiple tributaries feed John’s imaginative repertoire. He not only knows the Old Testament well, but he knows ancient history, and he knows the images and signs of the Roman Empire. Therefore, to understand something about the imagery of the book of Revelation, we have to pay close attention to the historical and literary context of the author and his audiences. As I have already mentioned, John uses imagery from ancient history, the Roman Empire, and the Old Testament. John quotes or alludes to the Old Testament extensively in the book of Revelation. Bruce Metzger notes that of the “404 verses that comprise the 22 chapters of Revelation, 278 verses contain one or more allusions to an Old Testament passage.” So when we see John using vivid imagery to describe the vision of the world given to Him by Jesus Christ, we must see that John is not simply making these images up off the cuff. While they might not be immediately familiar to us, that does not mean that they were not familiar to John’s original audience. John’s imagery is providing a “set of Christian prophetic counter-images which impress on its reader a different vision of the world: how it looks from the heaven to which John is caught up in chapter 4.” In other words, John is providing imagery that allows the Christian to see things as they truly are from a heavenly perspective. We see a hint of this in Rev. 1:5 when John speaks of Jesus as “the ruler of the kings on earth.”
An example of such “counter-imagery” is found in Revelation 17, the account of the Great Prostitute. To understand this imagery, we have to understand something about the Roman Empire’s goddess, Roma. She was a personification of the empire, representing its power and glory, even worshipped in many of the temples in the cities of Asia. So when we see John describing the great whore of Babylon, we must understand him to be subverting the greatness of the Roman empire. His imagery is telling a different story than the one typically told by the propaganda of the Roman cult. This is just one example of our need to be historically and culturally informed as we read the book of Revelation.
What Does This Mean for the Study of Revelation?
First, it means that we must acknowledge from the outset that any understanding of the book of Revelation that does not make sense to its original audience is a false understanding of the book. Before we can understand how the book applies to us today, we should strive to understand how the letter applied to the seven churches in the Roman province of Asia. Only once we have understood the book in its own context will we be able to apply it to our own context.
Second, we must approach the study of the book of Revelation with intellectual and spiritual humility. It takes hard work to read and understand this book. Yet, we must read the book for its intended purpose, which, as Craig Koester states, “is designed to unmask false sources of security while beckoning readers to join the heavenly host in singing praises to God and the Lamb.” Revelation is a book about trusting and remaining faithful to Christ amid great trial and tribulation. It is also a warning to those who would be tempted to place their trust or give their ultimate allegiance to someone or something other than the Lamb!
CBH
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[1] “Apocalypse is a genre of revelatory literature with a narrative framework, in which a revelation is mediated by an otherworldly being to a human recipient, disclosing a transcendent reality which is both temporal, insofar as it envisages eschatological salvation, and spatial insofar as it involves another supernatural world, intended to interpret present earthly circumstances in light of the supernatural world and of the future, and to influence both the understanding and the behavior of the audience by means of divine authority.” (SBL Apocalypse Group)
[2] See also, Rev. 22:7, 10, 18, 19
[3] Bandy, 214
[4] Gorman, 23-4
[5] Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea
