The Revelation of John

A Narrative Commentary

Resseguie, James L.

• Publisher: Baker Academic
• Year: 2009
• ISBN:
  9781441210005
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Biblical Commentary

As the only book of its kind in the New Testament, Revelation can be difficult to understand, and for readers without specialized training, the historical-critical approach used in many commentaries can provide more complication than illumination. Here James Resseguie applies the easily understandable tools introduced in his primer on narrative criticism to this challenging book. He shows how Revelation uses such features as rhetoric, setting, character, point of view, plot, symbolism, style, and repertoire to construct its meaning. This literary approach draws out the theological and homiletical message of the book and highlights its major unifying themes: the need to listen well, an overwhelmingly God-centered perspective, and the exodus to a new promised land. Here is a valuable aid for pastor and serious lay reader alike.

REVELATION 1:1–8

The beginning anticipates the end; the opening, the closing. The prologue (1:1–8) and epilogue (22:6–21) bracket the book, forming an inclusio that brings the book full circle. Within this frame is disorder and chaos. But John’s story is primarily one of order, not disorder. He tells of how everything and everyone are put into their proper place at the end. The rhetorically balanced, aesthetically ordered, symbolically paralleled opening and ending alert readers and hearers to expect order and harmony out of chaos and disorder.

The preeminent epithet for beginnings and endings—“I am the Alpha and the Omega”—anchors both the opening and closing of the book (1:8; 22:13). The inclusio, “the time is near,” announces that all will be put into its correct order at the appropriate time (1:3; 22:10). The climax of the prologue and epilogue is the welcome news of Jesus’ coming to make messianic repairs to a broken cosmos (1:7; 22:20). The liturgical response to this good news is the double affirmation, “So it is to be. Amen” (1:7; cf. 22:20).

The prologue of Revelation has two parts. Part 1 is the superscription that includes the title of the book, introduces the dramatis personae of the narrative, and concludes with the first of the book’s seven beatitudes (1:1–3). Part 2 includes an epistolary prescript, a doxology, and two prophetic sayings (1:4–8). John’s consummate artistry is seen in the patterns of threes and the inclusios that symmetrically balance the opening.

Superscription (1:1–3)

Titles of works are important, for they anticipate what the reader will encounter in a work. In this instance, a new point of view from above is embedded in the meaning of the word “revelation.”1 The title of this book is “the revelation of Jesus Christ” (1:1). The word “apocalypse” derives from the Greek word for “revelation” and means “uncovering” or “unveiling” of something previously hidden. The reader/hearer of Revelation should expect an unveiling of things that can be seen only from a heavenly or above point of view. The above point of view cannot be seen unless the veil of heaven is rolled back. The genitive “of Jesus Christ” can mean that the revelation is “about Jesus Christ” (an objective genitive) or is “from Jesus Christ” (a subjective genitive). If it is about Jesus Christ then the uncovering concerns the meaning and significance of Jesus’ life, death, and final appearance for history. Yet most commentators argue that the genitive “of Jesus Christ” is a subjective genitive that announces the source of the revelation: Jesus.2 The first verse establishes a chain of transmission: God-Jesus Christ-angel-John-slaves. The apocalypse is “a revelation from Jesus Christ.” It is a revelation that God gave to Jesus and Jesus gives to John through his angel. Yet the objective/subjective distinction is perhaps artificial here.3 Is not any revelation that comes from Jesus Christ also about Jesus Christ? Jesus is the source of the revelation that God gave to him, but the revelation is also about Jesus. The Apocalypse is the last of our gospels that tells the story in vivid pictures of Jesus and his testimony. It is good news, not bad news, hopeful, not despairing.

The opening of a book is an announcement of what is important. John provides a chain of disclosure to establish a reliable and authoritative venue for the revelation of an above point of view. The dramatis personae are introduced in this chain. God, who is the source of the revelation, is given overflowing titles that underscore his infinite nature. He is called the one “who is and who was and who is to come” (1:4, 8) and “the Alpha and the Omega,” “the Lord God,” and “the Almighty” (1:8). Jesus Christ—a title that occurs only three times in Revelation and only in the opening of the book (1:1, 2, 5)—gives the revelation to his servant and to his angel (1:1). Jesus reveals it to those on earth through an angel who gives it to John. Jesus is the one who makes God known, and the unveiling or uncovering is an above point of view in contrast to the everyday point of view that is hindered by a limited perspective on earth. John’s vision is a glimpse of reality that is not seen by ordinary eyes or heard by ordinary ears. It is a revelation from above that makes sense of things here on earth.

The content of the revelation is “what must soon take place,” which forms an inclusio with a similar phrase at the end of 1:3: “the time is near.” Just as there is a spatial point of view (an above and a below point of view), there is a temporal point of view (a “soon” and a “not-yet” point of view) in Revelation. The “soon” perspective is that Jesus is coming again, evil will be destroyed, and a new heaven and new earth will be created. The “not-yet” point of view, which is interspersed throughout the Apocalypse, is that the end is delayed. The martyrs under the altar ask how much longer they must wait and are given white robes and told to “rest a little longer” (6:11). Although the end seems near with the opening of the seventh seal, the narrative lurches forward and continues for fifteen additional chapters. With the seventh trumpet the end appears around the corner; yet once more narrative time marches on. Just as readers/hearers live with the tension of not being able to see everything from an above point of view, so they live with the tension of not having a clear picture of what is “soon” or what is “not yet.” The tension is even a part of God’s name: “the one who is and who was and who is coming” (1:4, author’s translation). The third term is more dynamic, a present participle, “who is coming,” not, as might be expected, “who will come.” God is coming, breaking into the present time, startling hearers/readers out of the ordinary and awakening them to new, fresh ways.

A verbal thread, “testify” and “testimony,” 4 which occurs three times in the opening, captures a prominent theme of the book. It is found twice in 1:2: the revelation from Jesus Christ was given to John who “testified” to the word of God and to the “testimony” of Jesus Christ. The third occurrence is in 1:5, where Jesus is called “the faithful witness.” The word “testimony” or “witness” comes from the language of the law court: witnesses are called to testify to the truth, sometimes with their lives. Jesus is the first in the book to give testimony and John follows, bearing testimony to the word of God. Others will be called to give testimony, such as Antipas of 2:13 who, like Christ, lost his life for his “faithful” testimony (cf. also 6:9; 12:11; 17:6; 19:10). The “two witnesses” of Rev. 11, whose testimony results in fierce opposition from the beast and the inhabitants of the earth, represent the faithful witness of the church.

A two-step progression develops the content of John’s testimony. He testified (1) to “the word of God,” and (2) “to the testimony of Jesus Christ.” The second part of the progression clarifies the first part. The “word of God” is “the testimony of Jesus Christ.” Jesus’ testimony5 includes both his words and deeds, especially his faithful witness of death and resurrection. As a faithful witness Jesus is the prototype for Christians.6 The distortion of the truth is a primary trait of the beast (cf. 13:14), and Christians are called to bear witness to God’s truth, “which means that [they] must be prepared to suffer for the sake of obedience in relation to the testimony of Jesus, even to the point of death (cf. 13:9–10; 14:4–5).”7

John closes the superscription with the first of seven beatitudes interspersed in the book (1:3; 14:13; 16:15; 19:9; 20:6; 22:7, 14). The selection of seven—the perfect number—underscores the fullness of blessing that is given to those who hear and keep what is written in the book.8 The first beatitude encourages the authorial audience to put on its “listening ears”: “Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of the prophecy, and blessed are those who hear and who keep what is written in it; for the time is near” (1:3). The double blessing suggests a liturgical setting for the book in which a lector reads the book while an audience listens to the words.9 Hearing, however, involves more than listening to a lector; it requires attentive listening that internalizes and obeys the words that are read.10 The theme of “listening ears” occurs here for the first time but is also found in each of the letters to the seven congregations in Asia. “Let anyone who has an ear listen to what the Spirit is saying to the churches” (2:7, 11, 17, 29; 3:6, 13, 22). At other times, the audience is exhorted to put on their listening ears, which requires them to discern what is being said—that is, to adopt an above point of view and to see reality from God’s perspective and act on what they hear (cf. 13:9–10; 14:12). At 22:7 John comes full circle with a beatitude that encourages th...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• List of Illustrations
• Preface
• Abbreviations
• Introduction
• Revelation 1:1–8
• Revelation 1:9–20
• Revelation 2–3
• Revelation 4
• Revelation 5
• Revelation 6
• Revelation 7
• Revelation 8–9
• Revelation 10
• Revelation 11
• Revelation 12
• Revelation 13
• Revelation 14
• Revelation 15
• Revelation 16
• Revelation 17
• Revelation 18
• Revelation 19
• Revelation 20
• Revelation 21:1–22:5
• Revelation 22:6–21
• Bibliography