Composition And Genre
COMPOSITION AND GENRE
Sources and Theories of Composition
Revelation borrows extensively from the Old Testament, more so than any other New Testament book. 49 Most of the references come not in explicit quotations but in allusions and conceptual borrowings. John also makes use of Jewish apocalyspses, though to a lesser degree than is sometimes thought. Some have thought that John also betrays a knowledge of several New Testament books: Charles lists Matthew,
Luke, 1 Thessalonians, 1 and 2 Corinthians, Colossians, and Ephesians. 50 But this is not so clear, since almost all the similarities could have arisen from John’s knowledge of the oral tradition of Jesus’ life and teaching and of general early Christian teachings.
Still, since it is likely that John had read at least Mark and Luke by this date (on their dates, see the sections Date in chap. 3 and Date in chap. 4 above), we must allow the possibility of direct borrowing.
During the heyday of source analysis of the Scriptures in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, a number of scholars found evidence of sources behind the canonical book of Revelation. Charles, for instance, thinks one-fifth of the book is dependent on written sources, Greek and Hebrew in language and Jewish and Christian in origin. 51 He also argued that the author of most of the book died before finishing it and that "a faithful but unintelligent disciple” pasted together the material in Rev. 20:422:21, but in an order radically different from what the author intended. 52 But Charles’s rearrangement of the material causes more problems than it solves. Neither has his identification of sources much to be said for it. Revelation demonstrates a consistency in style that prevents any inferences about sources on the basis of linguistic considerations. Moreover, the book is so thoroughly permeated with traditional language and conceptions that it is impossible to identify sources through these means either. Evidence for sources is often found in the existence of doublets, or passages that appear to be roughly parallel. But repetition of material is part of the nature of Revelation.
Undeterred by these hindrances, a number of scholars have gone even further and argued that the book of Revelation is made up of two or more large blocks of material. Boismard thinks that two parallel apocalypses have been combined. 53 J. Massyngberde Ford argues that Rev. 4-11 stem from John the Baptist, 12-22 from a disciple of John, with 1-3; 22:16a, 20b; 21 being added by a Jewish-Christian disciple. 54 Neither theory has much positive evidence in its favor, but rests (particularly in Ford’s case) on imaginative and implausible connections and inferences.