Introduction to the Book of Revelation
1. What form of literature is it?
2. Who was the author, when did s/he write, and
who was the intended audience?
3. What was the purpose or central message of the
work?
1. What form of literature is it?
Prophecy.
·
a forth telling about the present time in which
the book was written. For example, “Thus says the Lord … If you do this, then I will do that …” Prophecy was often written about the present
as if it was in the past.
·
It is God’s perspective of the human situation
(God’s view of human history), and what God will do about it (i.e., intervene,
make war on evil power, etc.).
o
Revelation is about the Romans, but the language
is coded. Why?
Because it would have been extraordinarily dangerous to write a work
for distribution in the
·
It uses symbolic language
o
The zoo of beasties.
About 2-300 years before Christ, the Jews had begun to give up on the
idea that
·
Uses apocalypse (‘seeing something previously
hidden’). But beware of applying the
symbols of other apocalyptic literature to Revelation (e.g., Daniel), because
symbols and their uses changes over time.
o
What Revelation meant by its symbolic language
became lost. Why?
Because when the Gentiles poured into the Christian faith, those few
Jewish Christians who understood the symbols and their original meaning became
so few in number that the symbolic language was not taught widely enough.
Symbolic meaning was lost to history.
2. Who was the author, when did s/he write, and
who was the intended audience?
Who
·
Some “John” was author (1:1, 4, 9).
Original title was revelation of
·
Could have been John, one of John disciples,
or someone who used the apostle’s name to give credit to his/her vision.
·
Probably in
When
·
Probably at
time of Emperor Domitian’s persecution of the Christians (mid 90’s C.E.). But could have been the 60’s C.E. after Nero’s
death when there were multiple claimants to the throne.
 |
Intended
Audience
·
Persecuted people of the Asian churches.
Book was intended to be a comfort to them.
John would not have used symbolic language that was unfamiliar to them
– just to the persecutors.
·
It was to be circulated and read.
It says that what is described will happen soon (see 1:1 and 1:3). In contrast, Daniel, from whom many of the symbols
were drawn by John, speaks to future events (Dan
·
Thus, to understand the symbolism, we need
to look at the history of the second half of the 1st century CE
·
John describes history as a cycle of nationalism
® war ® famine ® death.
·
The current emperor, who was persecuting the
church was like the self-declared emperor Nero, will eventually be overthrown,
and the empire destroyed.
·
Salvation will come about in a cosmic battle
with Jesus Christ at the center.
·
·
The old universe will be destroyed, and the
new universe created, with God living in the new Jerusalem on a planet populated
by the righteous.
·
All evil, as well as death itself, will be
consigned to the lake of fire.
·
Four sections of the book have seven sections.
But it is a mistake to try to make the book into seven parts with seven
sections (this is pushing numerology too far).
·
John follows a temporal timeline, but for dramatic
purposes, he repeats events:
·
Setting is important
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Updated 6 March 2003
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