Lecture 14: The Book of Revelation and the Symmetry of the Christian Bible
Before beginning this lecture you may want to . . .
Read the book of Revelation (Bible, King James Version).
Introduction:
The final book of the Christian Bible, The Revelation of St. John the Divine, is
the Bible's most extensive piece of apocalyptic literature-a vision, set forth in elaborate and arcane symbols, of the end of the current, corrupted world order, and its replacement by a new and perfected cosmos. The Book of Revelation gives the Christian Bible a strong sense not only of closure but of symmetry, for just as history began in Genesis 1 with the creation of the heavens and earth, so it ends with the creation of a new heaven and new earth, in which elements of Eden re-appear within the Holy City
Consider this. . .
To what sort of readers is Revelation most likely to appeal? What sort of readers are less likely to find its vision of history appealing?
The Book of Revelation and the Symmetry of the Christian Bible.
I. What is apocalyptic literature?
D.H. Lawrence said "By the time I was ten years old I am sure I had heard, and read, that book [Revelation] ten times over. . . It has had, and perhaps still has more influence than the gospels or [Paul's] epistles."
A An apocalypse is a vision of the world being replaced by a new and bet
ter world. An apocalypse is the Greek term for the word revelation.
B. The Biblical genre of apocalyptic literature may be traced to Isaiah 24-27, Daniel 7-12, and Mark 13 (the so-called "Marcan apocalypse"); the Book of Revelation is, however, the Bible's most extensive piece of apocalyptic literature.
C. John Milton, from his The Reason of Church Government (1642), had this to say about the Biblical book of Revelation: "The Apocalypse of St. John
D. The Biblical scholars Gabel and Wheeler had this to say about why Revelation was written: ''The author believed his own days to be the worst possible days and thus surely the last days... The faithful were to be encouraged to persevere during this bad time, because their deliverance was soon to come. "
E. The deliverance of the faithful was to come, as in the words of Rufus Jones, "the fierce comfort of an apocalyptic relief expedition from the sky. "
F. Apocalypses speak especially to proud and oppressed peoples who have despaired of ever saving themselves through their own merely human efforts. Gabel and Wheeler say apocalyptic writings envision "a flash of divine power, followed immediately by harsh punishment for those who have taken advantage of the misery of others and, conversely, by glorious rewards for those who have suffered undeservedly. "
Part II. The historical context of Revelation. The Book of Revelation was written around 95 AD. by St. John of Patmos for his fellow Christians of Asia Minor (present-day Turkey
A There are a number of allusions to persecution under Domitian in Revelation. For example in chapter 1, verse 9, "I John, who also am your brother, and companion in tribulation, and in the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ, was in the isle that is called Patmos, for the word of God, and for the testimony of Jesus Christ." Roman authorities often banished individuals to islands like Patmos .
B. John also mentions other elements of persecution in Revelation 2: 13 (the death of a martyr) and arrest of other Christians in chapter 2: 1 O.
Part III. The Symmetry of the Christian Bible.
According to the Christian Bible, the plot of history is symmetrical: it begins with the creation of heaven and earth, and ends, after a wave of purifying violence, with the creation of a new heaven and earth.
A. Christianity provides a prospective view of history, always looking ahead. Man begins in paradise and is looking forward to another paradise. This is echoed in chapter 1:8 of Revelation in the first words attributed to God, "I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty."
B. The new heaven and earth will only come after a period of horrific violence destroying the world. This purifying violence comes from the opening of seven seals and the sounding of seven trumpets. First there are the four horsemen, then the natural disasters that echo the plagues in Exodus.
C. The most disturbing image of destruction comes in chapter 14:19-20:
19. And the angel thrust his sickle into the earth, and gathered the
vine of the earth, and cast it into the great winepress of the wrath
of God.
20. And the winepress was trodden without the city, and blood came out of the winepress, even unto the horse bridles, by the space of a thousand and six hundred furlongs. (Revelation 14:19-20, KJV)
D. This carnage ends the world as we know it. Poised between this destruction and the new kingdom is the 1,OOO-year reign of Christ on earth-The Millennium. In the words of Revelation:
1. And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the
bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand.
2. And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil,
and Satan, and bound him a thousand years,
3. And cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled: and after that he must be loosed a little
season. (Revelation 20:1-3, KJV)
The Millennium of Revelation corresponds to the seventh day of rest in
Genesis 1-2, in a sort of mystic symmetry.
E. After the Millennium is over the world will come to an end. Then comes the Final Judgment where the evil are thrown into the lake of fire. Then
arises the climax of John's vision-a version of Eden
the Holy City
1. And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and
the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea.
2. And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God
out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.
3. And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the taberna
cle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall bo
his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God.
4. And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall bo
no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be tiny
more pain: for the former things are passed away.
5. And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. Allel
he said unto me, Write: for these words are true and faithful.
6. And he said unto me, It is done. I am Alpha and Omega, the begin.
ning and the end. (Revelation 21:1-6, KJV)
We also see a replica of Eden
1. And he shewed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, pro
ceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb.
2. In the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river, was
there the tree of life, which bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded
her fruit every month: and the leaves of the tree were for the healing
of the nations. (Revelation 22:1-2, KJV)
In the end the garden (Eden ) will reconcile with the city (Jerusalem
IV. Before the historical end-time, can Eden
A. Milton's Christian answer is that the individual believer can cultivate "a
paradise within thee, happier far." (Paradise Lost 12:585-87)
B. English authors after Milton
many don't share his Christian faith. Thus began the Romantic move
ment, one that searched for a paradise within, often through nature.
C. Wordsworth's post-Christian answer: to the mind wedded to Nature, par
adise might be "a simple produce of the common day." ("Prospectus" to
The Recluse)
Elysian, Fortunate Fields-like those of old
Sought in the Atlantic Main-why should they be
A history only of departed things,
Or a mere fiction of what never was?
For the discerning intellect of Man,
When wedded to this goodly universe
In love and holy passion, shall find these
A simple produce of the common day. (The Recluse)
This holy marriage with the external universe creates a new world.
D. This longing to recover paradise is shared by Blake, Coleridge and
Shelley, and in a different form by Marx. T.S. Eliot gives us a sentiment we can apply to this course on the Bible as a whole. He first announces ("East Coker," No.2 of Four Quartets) “my beginning is my end. " He ends with
We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.
("Little Gidding," No.4 of Four Quartets).
FOR GREATER UNDERSTANDING
Consider
1. What is an "apocalypse," and why do apocalyptic visions typically
involve extensively detailed violence and destruction?
2. In what ways are Eden and the New Jerusalem similar, and in what
ways are they different?
3. What does it mean to internalize the apocalypse?
Suggested Reading
Eliot, T.S. Four Quartets. New York
Literature: An Introduction. 4th ed. New York : Oxford University
Milton, John. Paradise Lost. New York
Wordsworth, William. The Maior Works. New York : Oxford University
Press, 2000.
Other Books of Interest
Abrams, M.H. Natural Supernaturalism: Tradition and Revolution in
Romantic Literature. New York
Rapids: Zondervan, 1998.
Metzger, Bruce M. Breaking the Code: Understanding the Book of
Revelation. Nashville
Summary:
The Christian Bible constitutes an account of the world and of humanity from beginning to end: from a paradise lost at the beginning of time, to an equivalent
paradise regained at the end of time as we know it. The Christian scheme of
history involves humanity in a circuitous journey back to its original blessedness, but in the end paradise will be everlasting. Christian theology since Paul and Augustine has suggested that aspects of the paradise at the end of time might be recovered internally within the individual believer. This thirst for and belief in an inner paradise takes a post-Christian turn in the literature of the English Romantics: to Wordsworth and others, the return to Eden
1. http://www.brysons.net/miltonweb/index.html- text of The Reason of
Church Government on-line. 2. http://www.brysons.net/miltonweb/pl.html- text of Paradise Lost on-line. 3. http://www.everypoet.com/archive/poetry/William- Wordsworth/william,
wordsworth_301.htm - words to The Recluse on-line.
4. http://www.tristan.icom43.netlquartets/ - text of The Four Quartets on-line.
DANIEL: THE APOCALYPSE OF THE OLD COVENANT
The Old Testament, like the New, contains a single apocalyptic book, Daniel. A devout Jew exiled to the court of Babylon, Daniel interprets the prophetic dreams of a number of emperors. One of these dreams is apocalyptic: Nebuchadnezzar dreams of a statue, composed of layers of varying metals, destroyed by a large stone. Daniel interprets the statue as a succession of idolatrous empires, all of which come to an end with God's establishment of "a kingdom which shall never be destroyed." (Daniel 2:44) Daniel himself has four apocalyptic
visions, interpreted for him by the angel Gabriel. Two of these-detailed in chapters
7 and 8-consist of a series of grotesque beasts that represent the empires of the Babylonians, Medes, Persians, and Greeks. Their reigns are ended when "the Ancient of Days" judges the world and gives power to "one like the Son of Man.
and 12 describe a single vision that culminates in Daniel's prophecy of the resurrection of the dead: "And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and somo
10 s/JRmo and ovo,./~'stlnfJ conlompl "(01]11/1'1/1 :'>';J)
NUMBER SYMBOLISM IN THE BOOK OF REVELATION
The Book of Revelation is a vision set forth in elaborate and arcane symbols of the events that will bring the current world order to an end, and introduce in its stead a new and perfected earth, figured in the text as the "New Jerusalem." By envisioning history in cosmic terms, using symbolic imagery, John sought to comfort and encourage the Church during the time of Roman persecution. To interpret Revelation one must come to know the symbolic meaning of the terms being used in almost the same way as a person trying to break a code. An understanding of numerology is helpful. Many numbers have symbolic meaning. Thus seven symbolizes completeness and perfection. God's work of creation was perfect and completed in seven days. The seven churches (Rev. 2:3) symbolize by their number all the churches. After seven the most significant number is twelve. The tribes of Israel Israel
to the earth,
No comments:
Post a Comment