549 Read the Bible for Yourself 16: How to Read Revelation

Posted on by Sean Finnegan

This is part 16 of the Read the Bible For Yourself.

Revelation is a complicated book of the Bible. It contains some of the most incredible and awe-inspiring descriptions of God’s throne room and the final paradise on earth. It also describes sinister mayhem, wanton destruction, and toe-curling persecution. How can we make sense of it? In today’s episode we’ll go over the basics of authorship, audience, occasion, and purpose. Then we’ll explore how Revelation uses visionary symbols to convey truth. Lastly, we’ll go over five interpretive lenses through which you can understand the timing of the events in Revelation. We may not settle every issue, but my hope is that this overview will at least prepare you to read Revelation for yourself.

Listen to this episode on Spotify or Apple Podcasts

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—— Notes ——

How to Read Revelation

Authorship

  • John is the author. (Rev 1:1-2)
  • It is hard to say if this was the same John who wrote the Gospel of John and the Epistles.
  • Later Christians generally believed Revelation was by the same John.
  • The style, vocabulary, and themes are completely different.
  • John was exiled to the island of Patmos because of his faith. (Rev 1:9)
  • “The Roman government, beginning with the emperor Nero, no longer considered Christianity as a sect of Judaism, which was a legal religion in the empire. Instead, Rome began to view it as an undesirable foreign cult that was a menace to society. John’s testimony about Jesus Christ was viewed as a political crime and hence punishable under Roman law. His suffering was the price paid for obeying a different King and testifying to a different Lord.”[1]

Audience

  • Rev 1:10 says John wrote to seven churches in the province of Asia Minor (western Turkey).
  • These churches were in Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea.

Occasion

  • Ephesus: enduring well, not growing weary, having discerned false apostles well, not loving
  • Smyrna: afflicted, in poverty, slandered by Jews, facing imprisonment, and martyrdom
  • Pergamum: holding fast, though Antipas martyred, tempted with sexual immorality and idolatry
  • Thyatira: loving, faithful, serving, enduring, tempted with sexual immorality and idolatry
  • Sardis: spiritually lethargic, lack vigilance
  • Philadelphia: keeping faithful despite opposition
  • Laodicea: arrogant, wealthy, complacent
  • Did John learn what was going on in these churches? Was that why he wrote?
  • Revelation is so visionary, it’s more likely that God prompted John by giving him these visions than that he wrote to detail with specific situations like many of Paul’s epistles.

Purpose

  • Encourage churches to endure through persecution as well as to correct them
  • Revelation both threatens and encourages.

Mode

  • Symbols dominate the visions in Revelation (Rev 1:12-20)
  • The seven golden lampstands = the seven churches (Rev 1:12, 20)
  • The great red dragon = the devil = Satan = the ancient serpent (Rev 12:3, 9)
  • Lake of fire that torments day and night = the second death (Rev 20:10; 21:8)
  • The symbols in John’s visions are like political cartoons.
    • “Someone has drawn an analogy between the symbolism of Revelation and political cartoons in our culture, in which pictures represent a reality. They are not to be taken literally, but they are to be taken as pointing to a reality. …So, for instance, I ask my student to imagine a political cartoon in which there is a wagon full of money with ropes tied to both ends of the wagon. An elephant is pulling in one direction, and a donkey is pulling in another. I ask them, ‘Who in the room thinks that somewhere in America there is a literal elephant and a literal donkey fighting over a wagon full of money?’ No one does, and I ask them, ‘What does this represent?’ and they all know exactly what it represents because they are familiar with Republicans and Democrats in our political system. The picture is symbolic, but it points to a real situation in the world.”[2]
  • The seven heads = seven mountains (Rev 17:9)
    • “At the outset, the angel identifies the seven heads with “seven mountains,” a phrase often used for Rome in the ancient world because it was built on seven hills (see Cicero, 6.5; Pliny, Nat. Hist. 3.66–67; et al.; see Swete 1911: 220 for others). The city began with an amalgamation of groups living on the seven hills (Aventine, Caelian, Capitoline, Equiline, Palatine, Quirinal, Viminal), and during Domitian’s reign a festival (the Septimontium) celebrated it. ”[3]

Genre

  • Revelation is an apocalypse, an unveiling.
  • It peels back the curtain of reality to reveal God’s perspective.
  • Apocalyptic literature employs fantasy imagery to reveal truths about current and future realities.

Structure

  • Ch 1  Intro
  • Ch 2-3 Seven letters to seven churches
  • Ch 4-5 Throne room
  • Ch 6-7 Seven seals
  • Ch 8-11 Seven trumpets
  • Ch 12-13 Dragon and the beast
  • Ch 14 The 144,000
  • Ch 15-16 Seven bowls of wrath
  • Ch 17-18  Judgement on Babylon
  • Ch 19 Coming of Christ; Armageddon
  • Ch 20 Millennium
  • Ch 21-22:5 Paradise on earth
  • Ch 22:6-21 Final exhortations

Interpretive lenses

  • Roman Empire (preterist): the visions have already all or partially been fulfilled in the past.
    • “Our difficulties lie with that other phenomenon of prophecy, namely that the “temporal” word is often so closely tied to the final eschatological realities. This is especially true in the book of Revelation. The fall of Rome in chapter 18 seems to appear as the first chapter in the final wrap-up, and many of the pictures of “temporal” judgment are interlaced with words or ideas that also imply the final end as part of the picture. There seems to be no way one can deny the reality of this.”[4]
  • Church History (historicist): Looks for fulfillment in the history of the church during the Roman Empire and afterwards
  • Future Empire (futurist): Sees visions as pertaining to the future
    • Struggles with timing statements
      • “The time is near” (Rev 1:3)
      • “I am coming soon” (Rev 3:11)
      • “He knows that his time is short” (Rev 12:12)
      • “See, I am coming soon” (Rev 22:7)
      • “Do not seal up the words of the prophecy of this book, for the time is near” (Rev 22:10)
      • “See, I am coming soon” (Rev 22:12)
      • “Surely I am coming soon” (Rev 22:20)
    • Allegory: Interprets allegorically as the ongoing struggle between good and evil
    • Two Horizons: Combine both Roman Empire and future empire views

Encouragement

  • Revelation contains a blessing for readers. (Rev 1:3)
  • In the end, God wins. (Rev 21:3-4; 22:3-5)

Review

  • It’s important to remember that John wrote Revelation within the realm of the Roman Empire when persecution from the government was a real threat. He was likely in exile on Patmos.
  • John addressed the churches in Asia Minor, a province of the Roman Empire in western Turkey.
  • Much like political cartoons, it is essential to recognize the distinction between the symbols in Revelation and the reality to which they point.
  • Revelation is an apocalypse or an unveiling of God’s perspective on current and future events.
  • Preterists teach that the visions of Revelation, such as the seals, trumpets, and bowls refer to events that took place in the Roman Empire.
  • Historicists see these same visions unfolding throughout the history of the church.
  • Futurists believe these visions pertain to a future time when they will play out as described in Revelation.
  • The two horizons view sees fulfillment in the Roman Empire, which foreshadows the future fulfillment at the end, just prior to Christ’s return.
  • Revelation contains many terrifying visions of human suffering and death, but also it has hope for the future when God makes everything wrong with the world right.

[1] Mark L. Wilson, Revelation, vol. 4, Zondervan Illustrated Bible Background Commentary, ed. Clinton E. Arnold, vol. Hebrews to Revelation (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2002).

[2] George H. Guthrie, Read the Bible for Life (Nashville, TN: B&H Publishing, 2011), 207.

[3]Osborne, Grant R. Revelation Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament Accordance electronic edition, version 1.0. Baker Academic: 2002, Grand Rapids.

[4] Gordon D. Fee and Douglas Stuart, How to Read the Bible for All Its Worth (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2014), 271-2.

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3 thoughts on “549 Read the Bible for Yourself 16: How to Read Revelation”

  • This was a really well done overview of Revelation. Love how you pointed out how clearly some symbols are linked, and others are not defined at all. Also, love how well you treated the general positions on the book with fairness.

    I really think it sounds like you’re heading towards (full) preterism just like many of us have—scratching and clawing against it. Your view you gave at the end gives a full tip of the hat to preterism in general, and then holds out hope for a type of future understanding to somehow be true still. I tried that for a while too, but can’t see it any more. And no, don’t at all think I know it all or have arrived… it’s just those “time texts” you mention in Revelation, well they’re everywhere when you begin to start seeing them throughout the NT. Then you see Daniel and his exact counting days(and he was told to seal up his prophecy, cause the time wasn’t near). There’s a reason false Christs were everywhere in that time period—they read Daniel.

    It’s a perfectly fair question and point too against preterism to ask “What are we doing here now?” I can’t answer that perfectly. Going from a hardcore futurist(and I mean near futurist, much like your “end is near” commenter on last podcast) to seeing preterism was such a flip flop over years I was asking the same questions. I think better terms are here now calling this view Covenant Eschatology. You may not agree with them, but Gary Demar and Don Preston on Youtube are hard to argue with when it comes to this subject.

    But the current answer I see to the “What’s the point if Revelation isn’t future? Or Jesus already returned?” surrounds this larger picture I see of a transition happening in the NT from Old Covenant to New. We never were under the Old Covenant, so we never had to meet with a high priest and have them slaughter an animal per the Torah. Jesus came to change that system completely. Hebrews details this transitional understanding pretty well from Old to New and how the New covenant will not end since Jesus can’t die now like a fleshly human priest would. Direct connection to God through Jesus is available around the world because of faith and the completion of the Old Covenant bringing the New in full force around 70AD. So now, the prophecy to Abraham was and is continually fulfilled–he has many sons and daughters around the world generation to generation, via faith in the seed, whom is Christ.

    Last thing cause this is already long. It’s possible that Babylon in Rev 18 is actually Jerusalem, since it’s called the “great city” in Rev 11:8 where “the lord was crucified…” and Rev 18 says the same. It also says prophets and saints were killed in the great city. That could be either Rome or Jerusalem, they’re both on 7 hills from my studies in the past. Thanks again, great podcast.

    Reply

  • Thank you Sean, interesting episode. I had been looking forward to this one because the type of literature is just so different from the rest of the NT. Cool to hear some different interpretations. I always enjoy hearing about some of the less common views. You never know if there may be something in there that has been overlooked by the rest.

    I hear you’d like to do two more episodes. I’m not sure if you would consider suggestions, but I think it would be very cool to learn a little more about the non-Protestant canons. For example, recently I thought I should give Maccabees a read to better understand the history of Hanukkah, or, as it is described in John 10:22, “the Feast of Dedication” that was held when Jesus was in Jerusalem. May be an edifying experience that many Protestants may ordinarily miss out on.

    As for the mark of the beast in Revelation, I agree there are a million theories floating around and generally I don’t feel very comfortable giving them much credence. What I personally find interesting is how this mark of the best, as it says, is “a mark on their right hand or on their foreheads.” Right thereafter, it also details how the number of the beast may be calculated, suggesting this to be a certain name.

    We see a clear contrast here with the practice of wrapping tefillin, which, as God commanded, “shall be as a sign to you on your hand and as a memorial between your eyes.” This is the sign of God, so I would consider that the mark of the beast in some way would be the opposite of this. Notice also Revelation that ultimately the righteous shall all be marked with the godly sign as well: “His name shall be on their foreheads.” And indeed, it is God’s name that is written in this passage used for the Tefillin.

    Thus we find a clear parallelism between the sign and name of God and the sign and name of the accuser. Not sure if anybody will find this interesting, but just thought I should share.

    Thanks again for all your work Sean, God bless!

    Reply

  • To keep my response relevant I’ll leave it here. I don’t think it’s “silly” to say the Kingdom is already here any more than if you heard a foreign language, didn’t understand it, and called it “silly.” Before you learned Hebrew Sean, it might have sounded “silly.” I did the same thing to preterism before I really saw their worldview and perspective on the historical reading of the Bible. It’s not something one can explain in a matter of a few text boxes or even a short interview. I’d really encourage you to try to get Don Preston or Gary Demar on for an interview if they’re willing to do so on end-times.

    Even in the premillenial view that I believe you hold, there would be sin(including wars) on the globe during the millenial reign from physical Israel. After that millenial reign, maybe not? But you’d have to clarify. The real problem is all the historical audience meaning of “The Kingdom of God is near/at hand.” Jesus also said in Luke 21 “THESE are the days of vengeance, to fulfill ALL the things written.” That has prophetic significance in a timeline from Daniel based on counting exact days/years. I don’t see how to split up the synoptics and say these “end times” teachings between Mark 13/Matt 24/Luke 21 are all different time periods. People have tried and tried, but the chapters are not there and they seamlessly flow from my point of view. Also, if heaven/earth are still here the way WE define it as a physical heaven/earth and not principles/powers, not one jot/tittle from the Torah has passed(Matt 5:17-18 cf Matt 24:34-35). That creates a real problem with a destroyed temple and the book of Hebrews. I’ve been wrestling with this stuff for years cause there’s real issues in consistency.

    Is it possible that the Jews back then were wrong about their understanding of a conquering king based on physical rule? That’s what preterists believe as a general whole. They see a kingdom NOT being spread through physical violence(i.e. swords into plows) vs. the common ways nations spread their rule all around you today(plows into swords). That Kingdom of God is all around the globe no matter our differences and has no physical bounds sharing in every nation, tribe and tongue. It might be a mess, but it’s here in a preterist viewpoint.

    Reply

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