The most enigmatic book in the New Testament is the book of Revelation, which consists of
This book had a tremendous influence on later Christian
art and on the minds of Christians who were concerned with details about
the future.
To theologians, especially in the East, it was often embarrassing,
especially since non-theologians tended to find chronology in it rather
than symbolism.
At an early date it was a favourite of those who expected
the imminent coming of God's reign on earth;
Papias (early second century)
made use of it and supplied other traditions about future miraculous fertility
from what (he said) had come from John the Lord's disciple.
This point
means that soon after the book was written it was ascribed to an apostolic
Christian named John -
presumably John the son of Zebedee.
Justin and Irenaeus
accepted such a view in the later second century.
In the third century
Dionysius, bishop of Alexandria, attempted to minimize the authority of
the book by proving that since John son of Zebedee wrote the gospel ascribed
to him, he cannot have written the book of Revelation, since the two writings
employ different ideas, styles and vocabularies.
His point seems to be
well taken.
The same author did not write the two books.
But from a perspective perhaps
more historical than that of Dionysius we should incline to say that if
either book is to be ascribed to the son of Zebedee it is the book of Revelation.
Sometimes it has been claimed that the son of Zebedee cannot have written it, because
Since, however, we have no means of telling
whether or not John was put to death at the same time as his brother James
(Acts 12:4), it cannot be proved that John did not live on until the last
decade of the first century.
We may suspect that he did not write a book,
but suspicions of this sort are not easily confirmed;
moreover, writing
in antiquity as in modern times often involved the practice of dictating.
We should therefore conclude that the book was written or dictated by an early and significant John, perhaps the son of Zebedee.
It is not, however, absolutely certain that it was written in the reign
Perhaps we should know more about the date if we could
understand the mystery concealed in the number assigned the "beast" in Revelation
13:18, the number 666 or, in some manuscripts, 616.
This number evidently is based on the practice known as gematria,
treating
the letters in a word or phrase as numbers and then adding them up.
On a
wall at Pompeii someone scribbled, "I love her, whose
number is 45" -
but we shall never know who she was.
Thus various explanations of the numbers
in Revelation have been given. Irenaeus suggested "teitan" (Titan) or "lateinos"
(Latin), which in Greek add up to 666.
Later guesses have included
It may be that a reference to the ten diadems on the seven heads of the
beast (13:1) is related to the number of emperors;
by including Galba, Otho,
and Vitellius we find Titus, Domitian's predecessor, to be the tenth.
On
the other hand, we elsewhere read (17:10-11) that five kings have fallen
(Augustus-Nero), one is (Galba), another has not yet come (Vitellius).
In
addition (?), ten kings have not yet received the kingdom (17:12).
There may also be a reference to the idea that Nero was not actually slain
(13:3).
All we can say is that a situation between 68 and 70 is not excluded.
Revelation contains 9,830 words, with a vocabulary of 913 words;
of these,
slightly more than a hundred are found nowhere else in the New Testament.
Among the author's favourites are such words as the following (listed in
Greek alphabetical order):
angel, open, number, lamb, star,
book, thunder, dragon (snake), seven, animal, beast, throne, horse, smoke,
white, great, repent, temple, conquer, like, wear (clothing), blow ("plague"),
gate, fire, blow (trumpet), mouth,
seal, four, third, vial, voice, thousand, and gold - all of them characteristic
of apocalyptic-symbolic writing.
He is also fond of stereotyped expressions such as
"a great voice" (twenty times), "the kings
of the earth"
(ten times), "the Lord God, the Almighty" (nine times), the adjective
"true" ("alethinos") with "faithful",
"holy", or "righteous"
(nine times), "tribe and language and people and
nation"
(six times; cf. Dan. 3:4), "the word of God and the
testimony of Jesus" (six times), "wine
of wrath"
or "fierce wine" (five times; cf. Jer. 25:15), and "the small and the
great" (plural, five times).
John's grammar is quite strange.
He sometimes uses singular verbs with plural subjects, apparently because
he views the subjects as units (8:7, 9:12).
At one point he uses an adjective
in the nominative case to modify a noun in the dative (1:15);
at another,
a nominative singular noun (with a collective meaning) is followed by a
nominative plural participle, then by one in the accusative plural (7:9.
Another feature that can be reproduced in English is the odd doubling of
words with approximately the same meaning.
"Behold, I gave before you an opened door, which no one can close it (3:8).
And the woman fled to the desert, where she has a place there, prepared by God" (12:6).
It has sometimes been argued that these phenomena are due to translation
from Hebrew into Greek.
The Greek of Revelation contains many grammatical
constructions which are normal in Hebrew but - to say the least - unusual
in Greek.
Ordinarily in Greek, nouns in apposition with other nouns agree
with them in case (if accusative, accusative, etc.);
not so in Revelation
(1:5, 2:13; six other examples).
When one writes,
"Grace and peace to you,"
one does not continue,
"from he who is and was and is to come" (1:4).
Furthermore, there are words, which as they stand are practically unintelligible in Greek or to a Greek.
"These things
says the Amen" (3:14);
"the "accusing" of our brethren was cast down" (12:10);
"the place called, in Hebrew, Harmagedon" (16:16).
"Abaddon", which means "destruction",
is explained as meaning "the destroyer" (9:11).
What do such passages show?
It is not altogether clear that they show that Revelation was translated
from Hebrew into Greek.
The expression "the God Amen" is
found in Symmachus's Greek version of Isaiah 65:16;
someone like John, then,
could have believed that it was adequate Greek among Greek-speaking Jews.
"?Abaddon" is used of Sheol or the abyss
in several Old Testament passages, and if personified (as sometimes in the
New Testament) could be translated as "the destroyer".
"Harmagedon"
is explicitly described as "Hebrew",
and it is an attempt to transliterate the Hebrew of Zechariah 12:11.
As for
"the
accusing"
(a Greek word used in Hebrew by the rabbis),
it points not to a work written
in Hebrew
but to a Greek work written by someone whose native tongue was
probably, indeed almost certainly, Semitic.
We should conclude that as in other New Testament books any evidence which
can be adduced to prove that they were written in Hebrew or Aramaic points
just as clearly to their having been composed by someone who was imperfectly
bilingual.
If it be argued that certain passages contain mistranslations
of hypothetical Semitic documents which are more comprehensible than the
text we possess, it must be answered that we do not know that such documents
existed and that exegesis of non-existent documents is hardly the task of
the New Testament scholar.
John's style is characterized by pleonasm (unnecessary fullness of expression)
both in smaller and in larger units of the book, and by asyndeton (lack of
clear connection) in similar fashion.
There are also abrupt changes and,
indeed, contradictions within the book.
1:10-4:1 |
John is in the Spirit; |
4:2 |
he is in the Spirit (again); |
3:12 |
there is a temple in heaven; |
21:22 |
there is no temple; |
8:7 |
all the grass is burned; |
9:4 |
the grass is not to be harmed; |
16:1 |
angels are to pour vials on the earth; |
16:8 |
one does so on the sun; |
16:17 |
another does so on the air; |
||
17:3 |
a woman is sitting on a scarlet beast; |
17:15 |
on waters; |
At the same time, he (1) carefully introduces sections which are to come
in his book;
Revelation 1:12-20 prepares the reader for the letters to the
churches already mentioned in 1:11;
chapters 4 and 5 lead up to chapter 6;
and (2) on the other hand, introduces various matters without explaining
them until later (the "morning star" of 2:28 is not explained until 22:16;
the "seven thunders" of 10:3 are never explained).
All these features are characteristic of the writing of books of revelation
and do not require explaining by means of theories of various sources or
even of various documents.
Above all, like other apocalyptists, John uses
symbols throughout his book and is especially fond of the hidden significance
of numbers.
The most striking example of a hidden meaning is provided by
the beast-worship of Revelation 13:8, to which the following verse refers
with the words,
"Whoever has an ear, let him hear."
The beast, as we have seen, is given a secret number in Revelation 13:18.
Revelation begins with a brief statement about the nature of the book: it
is a revelation given by God to Christ and indicated by an angel to God?s
servant John;
and it concerns what is to take place in the near future (1:1-3).
Next come
letters dictated by Christ to John for seven churches in Asia Minor, beginning
with Ephesus and proceeding north through Smyrna to Pergamum, thence south-east
to Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea (1:4-3:22).
They are constructed
on a general pattern as follows:
"These things says he who ..."
"I know your works ..."
"But I have this against you ..."
"Repent ..."
"He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches."
"To him who overcomes, to him will I give. ..."
The principal part of the book begins with a statement of what must take
place hereafter - a prophetic vision of perpetual worship at the throne of
God (4).
Then John sees, in God?s right hand, a book sealed with seven seals;
the opening of the seals, and the consequent events, are described in 5:1-8:5
(chapter 7 deals with another sealing, that of 144,000 men out of the twelve
tribes of Israel).
After the last seal is opened, there is half an hour's
silence, followed by the sounding of seven trumpets by seven angels (8:6
-11:19 chapter 10 is largely concerned with a "little
book",
which an angel gives John to eat).
The seventh trumpet sounds; then comes
war in heaven (12-14;
chapter 13 is devoted largely to the beast opposed
to God).
The war leads to the action of seven angels who pour out seven bowls of the
wrath of God (15-16) and to the final destruction of "Babylon", presumably
Rome (17-18).
The destruction of this city immediately precedes the final
triumph of God (19:1-22:5),
beginning with a thousand years' reign of Christ
and his true followers (20:1-6),
continuing with a brief rebellion by Satan
(20:7- 10),
and concluding with the creation of a new heaven and earth and
the descent of the new Jerusalem to be the bride of the Lamb.
The book ends
with an epilogue (22:6-21).
One of the most important features of the book,
apart from the picture of the End, which dominates it,
is the author's use
of hymn-like materials at various points.
These hymn-like materials are presumably
either identical with or based upon hymns actually used in the Christian
worship of his time.
Some of them are antiphonal (7:10, 12; 11:15, 17);
others
build up to powerful climaxes (4:8, 11; 5:9, 12, 13, 9:1-2, 5, 6 - 8).
One
is sung by a great voice in heaven (12:10-12).
At one point those who have
overcome the beast stand by a sea of glass and
"sing the song of Moses the servant of God" (Deut. 32)
"and the song of the Lamb" (15:3-4).
The content, and to a considerable extent the form, of these materials resembles
the later Anaphora or eucharistic prayer of the Church, and the passages
explicitly addressed to the Lamb have reminded scholars that Pliny the Younger,
in his letter about the Christians, says that they were accustomed to address
a hymn (carmen) to Christ.
It is no accident that many of these passages
were set to music by Handel and Brahms.
They inspire such treatment.
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