I. Interpretation

I. INTERPRETATION

The Revelation (or the Apocalypse, as it is often called, from its opening word in the Greek) is by common consent one of the most difficult of all the books of the Bible. It is full of strange symbolism. There are curious beasts with unusual numbers of heads and horns. There are extraordinary phenomena, like the turning of one-third of the sea into blood (8:8), which are impossible to envisage. Modern readers find it strange. They are moreover not usually attracted by the fantastic schemes of prophecy which some exegetes find in it, and whose ingenuity is matched only by their improbability.

The result is that for many Revelation remains a closed book. Except for one or two passages, like the vision of the redeemed in chapter 7, or that of the heavenly Jerusalem in the final two chapters, it remains largely unread. We recognize that it is part of the canon of Scripture and therefore we accord it formal recognition. But we remain uneasy and we do not make use of it. We turn our back on its mysteries and luxuriate in John’s Gospel or the Epistle to the Romans.

This is a great pity. This book has much to teach us in the twentieth century.¹ J. B. Phillips tells us that he found the task of translating this book ’in the true sense of that threadbare word, thrilling. For in this book the translator is carried into another dimension - he has but the slightest foot-hold in the Time-and-space world with which he is familiar. He is carried, not into some never-never land of fancy, but into the Ever-ever land of God’s eternal Values and Judgments.’²

It is of the utmost importance that we do not lose touch with the eternal realities so stressed in Revelation. Perhaps there is no age for which its essential teaching is more relevant. These are days when the decisions of great powers have far-reaching effects on ordinary men and women. We may have no great interest in ideologies, yet find that our lives are affected by decisions reached in Moscow or in Washington, decisions in which we have had no voice, nor conceivably could have. Are we then no more than pawns caught up in a great ideological conflict? Nobody wants a nuclear holocaust, but are our lives destined to be snuffed out in a world-wide inferno brought about almost against the will of those controlling the destinies of the nations? Is there something demonic about those evil forces which even our most powerful statesmen seem unable to control? Revelation speaks to an age which is tortured by problems like these, for it was written to a minority with problems of its own about the realities of power. Indeed it has been called, not unjustly, ‘a theology of power’, albeit power exercised in love, for it is the slain Lamb who is triumphant.³

This is not how it has always been seen. Through the centuries the book has been interpreted in a variety of ways. We may sum up the principal ways of viewing it as follows:

a. The ‘preterist’ view
This starts with the situation of the church in the first century and ends there. It sees the book as arising out of the situation of the first Christians and that is its outstanding merit. The Roman Empire dominates the scene. The Seer was wholly preoccupied with the church of his day. He wrote out of its situation and indeed has nothing more in mind than its situation. This view has the merit of making the book exceedingly meaningful for the people to whom it was written. And it has the demerit of making it meaningless for all subsequent readers (except for the information it gives about that early generation).⁴ It should perhaps be added that some variant of this view is adopted by most modern scholars.⁵

b. The ‘historicist’ view
Those who see the book this way claim that it is an inspired forecast of the whole of human history. They see its symbols as setting out in broad outline the history of western Europe and as stretching right on until the second coming of Christ.⁶ This view does indeed make Revelation meaningful for this generation, at any rate in part. And it is a strengthening of faith to see the whole of history as under the control of God. But the early Christians could not have got much out of a book whose concern was basically for later periods. For them most of the book on this view must have been an insoluble puzzle. Yet we should surely hold that those to whom it was written had or could have had a satisfying understanding of it. It is also curious that a book forecasting human history should largely ignore the world outside western Europe. Historicist views also labour under the serious disadvantage of failing to agree. If the main points of subsequent history are in fact foreshadowed it should be possible to identify them with tolerable certainty, otherwise what is the point of it? But there are many historicist views and no real agreement.⁷

c. The ’futurist’ view
Some hold that, apart from the first few chapters, the book is exclusively concerned with happenings at the end of the age. They see the seven seals and all the rest as being concerned with the end of the world, and as prefiguring those events which will usher in the second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. This robs the book of all significance for the early Christians and, indeed, for all subsequent generations right up to the last. For all intermediate generations it is merely a forecast of what will happen in the last days. Until those days come it means little, except that God has an ultimate purpose.

d. The ‘idealist’ view
Idealists maintain that there are few or no references in Revelation to happenings, whether at the time of the writer or subsequently. On this view the whole book is concerned with ideas and principles.⁸ It sets out in poetic form certain theological conceptions. It is not particularly concerned with the situation of the early church, nor with that of the church in later days, nor with that of the end-time. It simply sets out principles on which God acts throughout human history. This secures its relevance for all periods of the church’s history. But its refusal to see a firm historical anchorage seems to most students dubious to say the least.

It seems that elements from more than one of these views are required for a satisfactory understanding of Revelation.⁹ We must always begin with the situation of the church to which it was written. Indeed, we must keep that situation in mind throughout our study if we are to make sense of this difficult book, for it is the clue to many things.

The gospel had been preached throughout the Roman province of Asia (as elsewhere). Some had believed and become Christians. They had been taught that Jesus of Nazareth was the Christ, the Son of God. He had been rejected by the Jews and crucified. But that was simply the way in which he brought salvation to us. He could be greeted by those in heaven with the words: ’you were slain, and with your blood you purchased men for God from every tribe and language and people and nation’ (5:9). Having died for us he rose triumphant now to die no more (1:18). He went back to heaven, but in due course he would return. He would destroy the kingdoms of this world and set up God’s perfect kingdom. It was an inspiring faith and the little group of Christians embraced it with fervour. They looked and longed for the promised consummation when God’s will would be perfectly done throughout the whole earth.

And nothing happened.

The church continued to be a tiny group, doubtless adding a few members from time to time, but not becoming, and not looking like becoming, a mighty force to take over the Roman Empire. That Empire continued on its wicked way. Oppression and wrong abounded. Evil men prospered. Idolaters persisted in their idol-worship, and the cult of the emperor flourished. Because they would not conform, the tiny band of Christians found themselves the object of suspicion and sometimes outright persecution. A few of them were killed. Some were put in gaol.

What had become of the message which had induced them to become Christians in the first place? Where was the promise of Christ’s coming? All things continued as they were from the foundation of the world. If God was active in the world it demanded a very strong faith to perceive it. And most of the Christians, as they always have been, were people with no more than an average faith. Had they been mistaken in coming to Christ in the first place? Was it all a delusion? Was Christianity a fine religion indeed for the sanctuary but totally unable to cope with the demands of the forum and the capitol? Must they conclude that it was a pretty delusion, which must inevitably be shattered on the hard rocks of social and political realities? Was real power in the hands of the emperor and his associates?

To a church perplexed by such problems Revelation was written. We must not think of it as a kind of intellectual puzzle (spot the meaning of this symbol!) sent to a relaxed church with time on its hands and an inclination for solving mysteries. It was sent to a little, persecuted, frustrated church, one which did not know what to make of the situation in which it found itself. John writes to meet the need of that church.¹⁰

Take for an example of his method the opening of the book sealed with seven seals. This is surely the book of human destiny, the book that tells what is in store for mankind. The first thing to notice is that ‘no-one in heaven or on earth or under the each could open the scroll’ (5:3). The secrets of the future are not accessible to us, but remain fast sealed from our gaze. But the Seer is assured that ’the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has triumphed. He is able to open the scroll and its seven seals’ (v.5). When John looks for this Lion he sees ‘a Lamb, looking as if it had been slain’ (v.6), a clear reference to Jesus Christ in his character as the crucified One. He comes and takes the book, at which there begins a mighty chorus of praise, first from the elders and living creatures close to the heavenly throne and then taken up by myriads of angels and finally by ’every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and on the sea, and all that is in them’ (v.13).

In this way John makes his point that the future belongs not to the Roman emperor, nor to any human potentate or ecclesiastic. It belongs to no man or group of men, but only to Christ, the Christ who was crucified for the salvation of us all. He it is who can open the book of human destiny. All of us, and the destiny of all of us, are in his hands. This is recognized by those in highest heaven, by all the angels, and eventually by all that live. This peep behind the scenes brings to John’s readers a glimpse of the realities of power. Real power rests with Christ, the Lion. The appearances may be against it for the present. But ultimate reality is not dependent on present appearances.

Throughout the book John makes this point with emphasis. Continually he takes his readers behind the scenes. It becomes plain that earthly potentates do nothing but fulfil the plan mapped out for them by God. They never manage to thwart him. In vision after vision the truth is emphasized that God is supreme and that he brings his purposes to pass in the affairs of men. The illustrations which make the point are drawn from the contemporary Roman Empire, so that the book is securely rooted in a given historical situation. But the principles set out in it are of permanent validity. We see them in operation still.¹¹ John’s conclusion as to the location of ultimate power is just as relevant for us as for the little, persecuted church of the first century.¹²

Some find themselves troubled by the symbolism, and particularly by the difficulty in visualizing some of the Seer’s more complicated pieces of imagery (where does one locate ten horns and seven heads on one beast?). So, too, some pieces of imagery do not fit in very well with other pieces. It is important to realize that John is an artist in words. We are to look for the meaning conveyed by each symbol in that symbol itself. It is a matter of indifference whether the symbols can be visualized or reconciled. That is not their purpose. Their purpose is to convey ideas.¹³

G. B. Caird makes the point that the symbols do not all serve the same purpose. He likens them to the little flags on a map in a military headquarters where the movement of a flag may indicate something which has happened or alternatively something which is planned to happen. ‘The strange and complex symbols of John’s vision are, like the flags in this parable, the pictorial counterpart of earthly realities; and these symbols too may be either determinative or descriptive.’¹⁴ The visions, in other words, sometimes lift the veil and show things as they are. But on other occasions they reveal to us what God has planned. They may even be significant events, as initiating the working out of God’s plan.

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