The Revelation of John: Hope Envisioned

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.

I. Occasion and Audience
Its agenda is actually similar to other NT letters, as well as OT writings (Deut 27-32).
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 urban Asia Minor (1:4, 1:11, 1:20, 2:1-3:22), addressing their present trials.
Three pressures: false teaching (heresy/immorality), persecution, and complacency.
These problems don't seem curable, but the canon's high standard makes them treatable.
The moral thrust of 1-3 exceeds the original occasions and audiences, universally applicable like the scenarios that follow.: Rev focuses apocalyptic prophecy on churches' specific circumstances, yet with an expansive view beyond (7:9-17)
(so my "Laodicia, U.S.A." chapel talk).
Its genre has, ironically, obscured its mainstream apostolic message.

II. Apocalyptic Literature: 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 so far
... borrowing images intertextually, even from earlier apocalyptic (like a 'mashup' – other worthy mashups here)
... that employs a peculiar, often nonlinear narrative structure
... to offer words of warning and comfort
... to persecuted believers, comfortable 'believers' at risk, and false believers
... in particular contemporary contexts
... in the present, even successions of portentious presents (cf. Daniel's rising and falling beast-empires)
rather than merely one coming future (so Rev 1:3, chapters 2-3, 22:10-17).
It distills our familiar stark contrasts into two transcendent ultimates: the Lord and his representatives, and Satan and his: spiritual opponents, but also 'secular' 'blasphemers.'
It offers and inspires worship
and faithfulness in the midst of formidable challenges.
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?).
Why such a form for a pretty conventional message?: Because texts don't just "mean things"; they do things.
Apocalyptic changes its readers, because it: ... gets our attention and captures our imagination.
... unmasks the deeper nature of a reality people take at face value (e.g., The Wizard of Oz, The Screwtape Letters).
... discerns God's future judgment breaking into the present (Dan 5:26-28),
... unites God's past and coming judgments as parts of a whole, and
... offers an ethic: "Watch" (Mark 13:32-37).

III. Apocalyptic Imagery
Apocalyptic literature arises before and in Israel's exile.: It adopts and subverts some of the captors' images
to extend and radicalize the implications of the former and latter prophets.
Its 'mysteries' are often metaphors, sometimes explained in the text.
Jesus makes the NT's apocalyptic literature new.: 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.
Imagery is fundamental to the genre. Its meaning and 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).
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). [Babylon, Medea, Persia, and Greece; then Medo-Persian empire falling to Greek kings; little horn is Antiochus IV Epiphanes, who antagonized Jews] The dragon, beast, false prophet rise and fall (Rev 12-13). [Satan, 'Babylon'-Rome, Nero?] Israel is persecuted: the Abomination of Desolation (Dan 10-11, 12:1). [Antiochus IV] 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.

IV. Roaring Lion and Slain Lamb: Apostolic Transformations of Israel's Eschatology
Jesus fulfills the old promises, but not straightforwardly:: So Revelation's imagery juxtaposes Jewish expectations with Christ's surprising fulfillments.
The Messiah's ministry, death, resurrection, ascension, and gift of the Holy Spirit have radically shifted the church's understanding of Israel's national hopes:
A debate today: Is God still 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].

V. Millennial Visions
Later Christians disagree on whether and how to harmonize and interpret texts.: Three schemes have been broadly influential:
Premillennialism: Jesus' coming (parousia) brings the Millennium.: Ancient premillennialism revives in modern forms.
Dispensational timelines draw out sequences of events: rapture/tribulation, Jesus' parousia or return, a literal Millennium, a great apostasy, final judgment, and new heaven/earth/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: The Millennium is figural, not literal.: Augustine, following Tyconius: Millennium and Tribulation describe the whole church age.
Reformers: The medieval papacy is the final apostasy (Rev. 20:7).
Some interpretive problems:: Against pre- and postmillennialism, apocalyptic intertextuality resists synchronization.
Against amillennialism, 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 messianic transformation of apocalyptic.
A question to help us assess: does an interpretation make the texts do the wrong thing?

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.

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). [Babylon, Medea, Persia, and Greece; then Medo-Persian empire falling to Greek kings; little horn is Antiochus IV Epiphanes, who antagonized Jews]	The dragon, beast, false prophet rise and fall (Rev 12-13). [Satan, 'Babylon'-Rome, Nero?]
Israel is persecuted: the Abomination of Desolation (Dan 10-11, 12:1). [Antiochus IV]	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.