It should be observed that Revelation, like most of the books of the New Testament, this written in the form of an epistle. It has the traditional opening and close common nearly all of the biblical epistles. After a brief introduction, which speaks of John in third person (1:1-3), we find the true beginning of the epistle: “John, to the seven Churches which are in Asia.” This resembles, in form, the opening of every one of the Pauline Epistles, as well as those of James, Peter, and Jude.
That the book was a letter intended for a specific contemporary audience is seen, for Example, in 1:11: “What you see, write in a book and send it to the seven churches which are in Asia: to Ephesus, to Smyrna, to Pergamos, to Thyatira, to Sardis, to Philadelphia, and to Laodicea.”
The close of the book, too, is typical of a biblical epistle: “The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen.” Every epistle of Paul’s, as well as Hebrews, closes with in equivalent well-wishing.
Thus the first step toward gaining a correct understanding of Revelation is to recognize that it is an epistle to a particular group of Christians, aiming to address their specific needs at the time it was written. This requires that we should seek first to discover how it applied to and would have been understood by its original readership, as we would seek to do with any other biblical epistle. Only secondarily do we transfer truths to our own modern circumstances. This is how responsible readers approach 1 and 2 Corinthians, Galatians, James, or any other New Testament book, and it is also the most responsible way to approach the epistle known as The Apocalypse of Jesus Christ.
In two important respects, though, Revelation differs from all other New Testament epistles. These differences present unusual challenges with reference to the interpretation of Revelation:
1. Unlike other biblical epistles, Revelation is a prophecy, as it repeatedly affirms itself to be (1:3; 22:7,10,18,19). Other epistles contain prophecies, but only this book identifies itself as a prophecy. The function of prophecy in the New Testament is to speak “edification, encouragement, and comfort to men” (1 Corinthians 14:3). These aims are accomplished through the related factors of preaching and prediction, or as some put it, through forthtelling the word of the Lord for the present and foretelling future events. Chapters 2 and 3 of Revelation give the word of the Lord concerning the contemporary situations of the seven churches of Asia Minor. It has been noted that these chapters contain the only letters in the Bible dictated directly by Jesus. Like most prophetic preaching (e.g., in the Old Testament), their message is one of comfort to the afflicted righteous and a call to repentance to the straying. The predictive element is prominent in chapters 4 through 22, which are concerned with events to occur “after these things.”
2. Revelation was written as apocalyptic literature, a style of writing popular in John’s time, but obscure to modern readers. Nelson’s New Illustrated Bible Dictionary points out that “the word apocalypsis is a Greek word meaning ‘revelation.’... Apocalyptic literature is a special kind of writing that arose among Jews and Christians to reveal certain mysteries about heaven and earth, humankind and God, angels and demons, the life of the world today, and the world to come.”1 No other book of the New Testament was written in this style, but between 200 b.c. and a.d. 100, Jewish writers produced a large number of noncanonical books which, because of their similarities to this book, are now referred to as apocalyptic (e.g., The Book of Enoch, The Apocalypse of Baruch, The Book of Jubilees, The Assumption of Moses, The Psalms of Solomon, Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs, The Sibylline Oracles, etc.). The canonical Book of Revelation is both similar to the other apocalyptic writings and different from them in important ways.
Ways Revelation Is Similar To Other Apocalyptic Writings
In several important respects, Revelation is very much like other apocalyptic works of its time.
1. In both Revelation and other apocalyptic writings, angels appear commonly as tour guides and interpreters.
2. Like the other books of its genre, Revelation was written during a time of intense persecution of believers. Suffering has been a recurrent feature of the history of the people of God. Some scholars have referred to apocalyptic works in general as “tracts for hard times.” Revelation was clearly written at just such a time of difficulty for Christians. The author describes himself as his readers’ “companion in the tribulation” (1:9). One of the recipient churches had lost a member to martyrdom (2:13), and others were warned of impending tribulation, imprisonment, and testing (2:10; 3:10). One of the main themes of the predictive portion of the book is that great suffering lies ahead, and martyrdom is a recurring theme.
3. Another obvious similarity between the canonical Apocalypse and its uninspired counterparts is the use of vivid images and symbols (monsters and dragons, symbolic numbers and names, etc.) in depicting the conflict between good and evil. A failure to take full account of this feature has led to some of the most outlandish teachings on this book by some whose rule of interpretation is “literal, unless absurd.” Though this is a good rule when dealing with literature written in a literal genre, it is the exact opposite in the case of apocalyptic literature, where symbolism is the rule, and literalism the exception.
A very good illustration of this is seen in the following apocryphal additions to the biblical Book of Esther, added to the book centuries after its composition, in the guise of a prelude and postscript written by Mordecai. It is typical of the apocalyptic style of the period that produced it. At the beginning of the book, an apocalypticist has created this prelude containing an alleged dream of Mordecai:
Behold, noise and confusion, thunders and earthquake, tumult upon the earth! And behold, two great dragons came forward, both ready to fight, and they roared terribly. And at their roaring every nation prepared for war, to fight against the nation of the righteous. And behold, a day of darkness and gloom, tribulation and distress, affliction and great tumult upon the earth! And the whole righteous nation was troubled, they feared the evils that threatened them, and were ready to perish. Then they cried to God and from their cry, as though from a tiny spring, there came a great river, with abundant water, light came, and the sun rose, and the lowly were exalted and consumed those held in honor (A:3-10).
Then follows the Book of Esther, after which Mordecai sums up as follows:
I remember the dream that I had concerning these matters, and none of them has failed to be fulfilled. The tiny stream which became a river, and there was light and the sun and abundant water—the river is Esther, whom the king married and made queen. The two dragons are Haman and myself. The nations are those gathered to destroy the name of the Jews. And my nation, this is Israel, who cried out to God and were saved (F:2-6).
These additions, written in the apocalyptic style of the period, are particularly instructive to us since we know the story of Esther and can see how the symbols correspond to actual events. We can also easily spot the similarities of style with that of the Book of Revelation, written in the same genre. Apocalyptic imagery is also used in some canonical books of the Old Testament (e.g., Isa. 24, Dan., Ezek., Zech.) and in Jesus’ Olivet Discourse (Matthew 24; Mark 13; Luke 21).
In Revelation, personal and national entities are portrayed as animals, for example, a Lamb, a dragon, monstrous beasts, mutant locusts, etc. Two cities, symbolically depicted as a harlot and a bride respectively, are given symbolic names, like Babylon, Sodom, and Egypt, and Jerusalem. A woman (apparently) is symbolically called “Jezebel.” Political upheavals are symbolically described in terms of cosmic disruptions: the sun and moon darkened, stars falling, every island and mountain disappearing, etc.
4. As in other apocalypses, certain numbers in Revelation convey concepts more than merely count units. The most evident of these is seven—the number of completeness or perfection (compare Deut. 28:7, 25; Ps. 12:6; 119:164; Prov. 9:1; 24:16). In Revelation, there are seven churches, seven seals, seven trumpets, seven bowls, seven thunders, seven beatitudes, etc. Fractions like one-third and multiples of twelve (24,144,000) are used in ways that transcend their value as mathematical units. Also, it seems unwise to press for literal interpretations of time periods in many cases. Very arguably, “1000 years” means “a very long time” (as in Ps. 90:4 and 2 Pet. 3:8), contrasted with passages where “10 days” (2:10), “one hour” (17:12), and the indefinite “a little while” (20:3) would seem to convey the concept of a short time in equally nonspecific terms.
Key Ways Revelation Is Different From Other Apocalyptic Writings
1. Unlike other Jewish apocalyptic books, however, Revelation claims to be inspired by God as a prophecy. The Christian church has recognized God’s inspiration of this book and has, for that reason, recognized it as part of the complete canon of Scripture. Other apocalyptic writings have not been so recognized by the historic Christian church.
2. Revelation also identifies by name its true author, while other apocalyptic authors generally adopted pseudonyms, claiming to have been written by famous persons of previous centuries, such as Enoch or Solomon.
3. Revelation actually predicts the future, while noncanonical apocalyptic writings merely appear to do so. When, for example, they use as a pseudonym a famous figure like Solomon, they write from the perspective of that figure’s own time. From that time, the apocalyptic book appears to write about the future, leading up to the actual time in which that book was actually produced. Actually, the “predictions” are a retelling of recent history. The Book of Revelation, however, actually is what it claims to be: an epistle in the apocalyptic mode that predicts events of the future under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.