Hope for the Hopeless: The Apocalypse (Revelation) of John

Sources: Karl Barth, "The Strange New World of the Bible," in The Word of God and the Word of Man (Harper, 1957); Willis Barnstone, ed., The Other Bible: Ancient Alternative Scriptures (HarperCollins, 1984); Bart Ehrman, The New Testament: A Historical Introduction to the Early Christian Writings, 3d ed. (Oxford, 2004); I. Howard Marshall et al., Exploring the New Testament: A Guide to the Letters and Revelation (IVP, 2002), chapter 21; John O'Keefe and R.R. Reno, Sanctified Vision: An Introduction to Early Christian Interpretation of the Bible (Johns Hopkins, 2005).

Reading: Rev 11:15-18.

[add some focus on Daniel, for ethics etc.]
I. Revelation's Occasion and Audience
First of all, let's get this clear. It's "Revelation," singular.
Clues to Revelation's occasion and purpose: 1:3, 1:9a, 2:5-7+2:10-11+2:16-17+2:24-26+3:3:3-5+3:11-12+3:18-21, etc.

Rev is unusual for apocalyptic literature in being addressed to seven specific churches in Asia Minor (1:4, 1:11, 1:20, 2:1-3:22). This is apocalyptic for Christian communities. It seems we've lost early Christianity's natural focus on discrete communities of Jesus' disciples as the audiences for God's Word.
[Highlight two of the seven letters.]
Like Deut 27-32, Rev 2-3 gives these audiences moral directions and warnings,
backing them with the depictions that follow (Johnson, 585). An imperative-indicative? Sort of, except for Rev 1.

The moral thrust of 2-3 exceeds its occasions and audiences, as universally applicable as the apocalyptic scenarios that follow.

Rev focuses apocalyptic prophecy on churches' specific circumstances, yet with an expansive view beyond (7:9-17)
(e.g., my "Laodicia, U.S.A." chapel talk).

II. Apocalyptic Literature: A Textual Outlook, Form, and Function
Some of the New Testament is apocalyptic in literary genre, not just outlook.
Apocalypsis means "unveiling" or "revelation," not "catastrophe."
It is not reporting, secret messages, or mere prediction (e.g., "The Omega Code"), but ...

... a genre with specific literary devices, less straightforward than what we've seen already
... borrowing images intertextually, even from earlier apocalyptic (like a 'mashup') [insert a link] (we've seen this)
... and employing a peculiar, often nonlinear narrative structure [Koester spiral, then BP poster]
... to offer words of warning and comfort (we've seen this already elsewhere)
... to both comfortable and persecuted believers (we've seen this)
... in particular contexts (we've seen this)
... in the present, even multiple presents, not just one coming future (so Rev 1:3, chapters 2-3, 22:10-17, "Pale Rider")
... to inspire faithfulness in the midst of formidable challenges (and of course we've seen this).
Issue: Are Rev's events (for instance, Rev 7's multitude or Rev 11's raised witnesses) in our past? in our future?

[literary family tree] Revelation's family ancestors:

Uncles and aunts: 1 Enoch (<175 BC), Sibylline Oracles (~150 BC onward).
Parents: Ezekiel 1, Daniel 7-9, and Rev's other echoes.

Revelation's kindred (siblings? cousins?):

Other apocalyptic texts of the New Testament (e.g., Mark 13), 4 Ezra (2 Esdras 3-14, see e.g. 11:1-12:39), Apocalypse of Peter (>100 AD), Shepherd of Hermas (e.g., Fourth Vision), Ascension of Isaiah.

Revelation's heirs:

Children (nieces and nephews?): Apocalypse of Paul, Apocalypse of Thomas.
Second cousins: (Gnostic?) Christian Sibyllines, (Gnostic) Book of Thomas the Contender.
Grandchildren: Divine Comedy, etc. (and us as well?).

Texts don't just "mean things"; they do things.
Apocalyptic changes its readers, because it

... unmasks the deeper nature of a reality people take at face value [Wizard of Oz x2],
... discerns God's future judgment breaking into the present (Dan 5:26-28),
... so uniting God's past and coming judgments eschatologically, and
... offers an ethic: "Watch" (Mark 13:32-37).

III. Apocalyptic Imagery
Apocalyptic literature arises before and in Israel's exile.

It extends and radicalizes the implications of the former and latter prophets.
[Ex: Daniel.]

OT writers use apocalyptic to foretell the pattern of God's deliverance.

NT writers use apocalyptic to tell their story of Jesus Christ,
retaining but transforming (as Jesus did) their inherited apocalyptic framework.

Interpretation can be

literal ("mounted on a donkey", Matt 21),
figural ("let the reader understand", Mark 13:14), or
allegorical ("thrown in the fire", John 15:6).

Imagery is fundamental to the genre.

Old Testament images:	Images in Revelation:
Sun, moon, and stars tell the times (Joel 2).	The sky vanishes (Rev 6:12-14, 12:8).
Numbers tell the times (Dan 7:25, 12:7; 9:20-26).	Times of opposition (Rev 11:3, 12:6, 12:14, 13:15).
The fourth beast rises and falls (Dan 7); a ram and a goat (Dan 8, esp. 8:19).	The dragon, beast, false prophet rise and fall (Rev 12-13).
Israel is persecuted: the Abomination of Desolation (Dan 10-11, 12:1).	Great tribulation (Rev 6, Rev 7:14).
Resurrection and rescue (Dan 12).	The sealed servants of God (Rev 7); resurrection (20:4).
The king delivers Israel from Babylon (Zech 9).	The Son of Man comes to judge the world (Rev 11:15-18 etc.).
Disaster brings mourning in Jerusalem (Zech 12).	Mourning for the pierced one (Rev 1:7).
Messiah restores Israel (Zech 13-14).	Jesus reigns in the Millennium (Rev 20:1-6), then in the New Jerusalem (21:1-22:5).
Summary: God will deliver Israel through its present trials.	Summary: Jesus will deliver the Church through its present trials.

Issue: Is God violent (cf. 9:18), or is violence being subverted here (11:5-6)? See especially 19:11-21's winepress [cf. Isa 63, Lam 1:15, Joel 3:13, Rev 14:19].

IV. Roaring Lion and Slain Lamb: Apostolic Transformations of Israel's Eschatology
Jesus fulfills the old promises, but not straightforwardly.
His ministry, death, resurrection, ascension, and gift of the Holy Spirit have radically shifted the Church's understanding of Israel's national hopes:

Israel awaits a bright national future in an evil world.	Jesus Christ leads its apocalyptic restoration.	E.g., Gen 28:10-15 in John 1:44-51.
Israel's righteous ones seek assurance and vindication.	Christ's vindication offers a way to address his followers' old narrowness, grandiosity, arrogance, insecurity, fragility, despair, paralysis, and ruthlessness (cf. Rom 1:28-31).	Ps 110:1-4 in Col 3:1-17 and Heb 7-8.
Wayward Israel needs international judgment and restoration.	Jesus' Holy Spirit characterizes the Church's life, experience, and hope.	Isa 66 in Rev 21; Joel 2:28-32 through Pss 16 and 110 in Acts 2:14-39.
Apocalyptic prophecy discloses reality to suffering Israel.	The Church's apocalyptic perspective foresees Christ's deliverance from its present and future enemies.	Joel 2:30-31 in Mark 15:33, Luke 23:44-45.
Israel expects final, sure, decisive judgment-salvation from enemies.	Jesus' past and future appearings locate Christian hope, mission, and ecclesiology.	Dan 7:13-14 in Mark 14:61-64 and Rev 1:7-8; Ps 68:29 in Eph 4:7-10.

 

V. Add It Up? Visions of God's Endgame
Later Christians disagree on whether and how to harmonize and interpret texts.
Premillennialism: Jesus' coming (parousia) brings the Millennium.

Ancient premillennialism revives in modernity:
Dispensational timelines (J.N. Darby, illustrated by Clarence Larkin) sequentialize Rapture/Tribulation, Return, Millennium, Apostasy, Judgment, and New Jerusalem.

Postmillennialism: The Millennium precedes the parousia.

The world improves as the Church spreads.
Jesus makes a "soft landing" in a smooth transition to the Millennium.
Medieval postmillennialism (Joachim of Fiore) returns in modernity (R.J. Rushdoony).

Amillennialism: No literal Millennium.

Augustine, following Tyconius: Millennium and Tribulation are the whole Church age.
Reformers: The medieval papacy is the final apostasy (Rev. 20:7).

Some problems:

Apocalyptic intertextuality resists synchronization.
Allegorizing can de-Judaize apocalyptic symbols and unmoor apocalyptic from the history it refers to.
Harmonizing can modernize apocalyptic time.
Both techniques can sideline the New Testament's Christological transformation of apocalyptic.

A critical question: does an interpretation make the texts do the wrong thing?

Issues:

Is war in heaven in the primordial past? the Christian past? the future?
What and when is the Millennium?
How should Christians interact with civil governments in the present age?
How should we seek to interpret Rev well, given its interpretive history (described in Koester)?