New American Bible - Revised Edition/The Book of Revelation: Reading Guides

**The Book of Revelation**, as translated by the Co-Fraternity of Christian Doctrine in the New American Bible - Revised Edition.

## READING GUIDES FOR THE BOOK OF REVELATION IN THE NEW AMERICAN BIBLE - REVISED EDITION

Here are the following Reading Guides for The Book Of Revelation in The New American Bible - Revised Edition.

## READING GUIDE (THE CATHOLIC STUDY BIBLE - THIRD EDITION)

 **REVELATION**

 **[see pages 1751–1778 of the New Testament]**

 **[Additional Words: Or rather, read this entire article]**

 **BEFORE**

 **BEGINNING . . .**

### A Book of Christian Prophecy

The Book Of Revelation makes for difficult reading. Over the centuries,
many interpretations have led to disastrous consequences both for
individuals and communities. The fundamental error is to take Revelation
as a literal set of predictions from the past about current events. Reading
Revelation that way has been popular for a long time, but it has become an
obsession for many contemporaries. Such readings have successively been
disconfirmed by facts; the “end-time” has been awaited many times without
occurring. Such readings have caused the distortion of lives. Many have
abandoned livelihood and loved ones to meet the New Jerusalem, only to
have their dreams destroyed. Such readings also miss the real religious
message of Revelation. They reduce its value to that of an astrological
chart.

Although the text itself virtually calls out for a futuristic reading, with its
promise to reveal “what must happen soon” **(Revelation 22:6),** it is critical to recognize
that just such statements are standard features of a specific literary genre of
the ancient world, called apocalyptic. Two convictions should guide faithful
study of Revelation. First, as with all the biblical writings, the Word of God
was addressed first to the original audience; a text’s “fuller” meaning for
successive ages is secondary and never to be divorced from that first,
historical, meaning. Second, as in all literature, religious or otherwise,
literary genre dictates meaning. Newspapers and poetry do not
communicate their respective “truths” in identical ways. Knowing the
conventions of a literary form is necessary to intelligent reading.

### Revelation as Apocalyptic

At least since the book of Daniel in the Old Testament, the apocalyptic style
was widely used in Judaism during the New Testament period. Generated
by persecution from without and the threat of apostasy from within, this
“literature of the oppressed” quickly gained certain standard features:
revelations about the future are experienced in dreams or visions, and the
insights are communicated through a complex symbolism involving
numbers, animals, and cosmic phenomena. The element of prediction is
actually a fiction. The seer interprets events of his own age, using a figure
of the past (such as Enoch) or an angelic being as a spokesperson.

These literary features serve to express an interpretation of history.
Apocalyptic defends God’s justice. Events appear to be under the control of
evil people or even satanic powers, since those devoted to God are being
persecuted. Such is the “present age.” But apocalyptic places God’s
blessing in a future time, “the age to come.” Just when things become
humanly impossible on earth, God will intervene (e.g., through a Messiah)
to save his own, and thus inaugurate the “kingdom of God.” Apocalyptic
reconciles the conviction that God controls history with experiences that
suggest God does not. The religious message of apocalyptic is therefore
simple. To the faithful, it says, “hold on”; to the wavering, “stand fast.” It
offers the hope of eventual vindication to those now oppressed but
remaining loyal to the one God.

### Revelation as Prophecy

Revelation fits within this apocalyptic genre well. It has visions, animals,
numbers, and cosmic catastrophes. It has a two-age interpretation of history.
And its basic religious message is a call for the “endurance of the holy
ones” **(Revelation 13:10;** **And** **Revelation 14:12).** In other ways, however, Revelation transcends
apocalyptic. The author is not a fictional sage from the past but a leader
who is well known to his readers. In **Chapter** **2** **and** **Chapter** **3**, the voice of prophecy
is directed explicitly (and not in coded fashion) to the seven churches of
Asia Minor. Most importantly, for Revelation the turn of the ages has
already begun. The victory of God over evil has in principle been
accomplished through the death and resurrection of Jesus; even more
impressively, the faithful who have been killed already share in God’s
victory in heaven.

The self-understanding of the church in this writing is thoroughly
prophetic. Those who follow Jesus are “servants and prophets and holy
ones” **(Revelation 11:18).** Their witness is the “spirit of prophecy” **(Revelation 19:10).** Jesus is the
first and “faithful witness” **(Revelation 1:5)** whose mission they continue. The nature
of their prophecy is to bear witness to the reality of God in the world. In the
letters of **Chapter** **2** and **Chapter** **3**, this is expressed as fidelity in face of corruption
or apostasy. In the visions of chapters 4 through 21, it is expressed as
loyalty in face of the idolatrous claims of the state and even of possible
death.

### The Opening Vision (Revelation 1:1–Revelation 1:20)

The prologue **(Revelation 1:1–Revelation 1:3)** and the epilogue **(Revelation 22:6–Revelation 22:21)** provide an explicit
prophetic framework for the entire work and reveal a self-conscious literary
awareness as well **(cf.** **Revelation 1:3;** **And** **Revelation 22:18).** The understanding of prophecy as
witness, which becomes the major theme of the book, is sounded at once
**(Revelation 1:2).**

The popularity of letter writing in early Christianity is shown by the fact
that this apocalyptic writing contains letters to the seven churches of Asia
Minor **(Revelation 2–Revelation 3),** and even has an epistolary greeting to introduce the work
**(Revelation 1:4–Revelation 1:8).** The author identifies himself as one known to his readers and
recounts the vision that provides the basis for the rest of the book. The
phrasing of **Revelation 1:9** suggests that John is on the Greek island of Patmos as a
punishment for his witness to Jesus. The vision that now comforts him
becomes an exhortation to all who are likewise oppressed.

The Risen Jesus is encountered as the Son of Man (the central figure in
much apocalyptic), described in the most transcendent terms available. The
reader is now in the realm of visions, which means the realm of symbols.
The terms are obviously not meant literally, any more than the later
fantastic descriptions of heaven. The terms used here and elsewhere are not
fresh-minted but are the coinage of biblical symbolism. Of all apocalyptic
writings, Revelation most artfully weaves together the themes of classical
prophecy, especially from the prophet Ezekiel. The footnotes and cross-references
in the NABRE will repay the effort required to trace out such
themes. One should quickly realize that Revelation is a self-conscious and
complex literary construction.

The Son of Man appears with the stars in his hands, standing amid seven
lampstands. Revelation makes clear from the start that it is the risen and
powerful Lord (in cosmic control) who is revealed, and that he is present to
the churches **(Revelation 1:20),** the concerns of which are taken up in the letters that
follow.

### Letters to the Seven Churches (Revelation 2:1–Revelation 3:22)

In what are literally “spirit letters” **(see** **Revelation 2:7)** from the Risen Jesus, seven
churches of well-known cities in Asia Minor receive individualized
prophecies. Revelation understands “prophecy” as exhortations to remain
faithful to the integrity of their calling. The trials and lapses of the
Christians in these communities are here put on remarkable display. We also
hear fragments of sayings **(such** **as** **in** **Revelation 2:3)** that occur elsewhere in the New
Testament literature **(see** **1 Thessalonians 5:2** **And** **Mark 13:33).**

The letters all follow the same format. There is a greeting, followed by
an elaborate designation of Jesus. The Risen Lord analyzes each
community’s spiritual condition and concludes with words of warning or of
promise. The description of the church’s struggles show how they faced
opposition from without (as from the Jews), but even more, division within
(as with the Nicolaitans). Corruption, too, appears as a vivid possibility.
Typical for Johannine literature, the opposition is pictured in terms of false
prophecy **(Revelation 2:20).** The focus of praise and of persuasion in these letters is
endurance.

The imagery of the letters is lush. Who can resist the almost fairy-tale
quality of this statement: “I shall also give a white amulet upon which is
inscribed a new name, which no one knows except the one who receives it”
**(Revelation 2:17)?** Beneath the poetry, however, lies grim reality. The difficulty in
these letters of maintaining loyalty in the face of social exclusion and
human laxity is raised, in the visions that follow, to the level of a cosmic
conflict between the Lord and the forces of evil.

### God and the Lamb in Heaven (Revelation 4:1–Revelation 5:14)

John is “caught up in spirit” **(Revelation 4:2),** and the rest of Revelation consists in the
visions he experienced in his ecstatic state. The vision is a staple of
apocalyptic. It is found with equal frequency in early Jewish mysticism,
called Merkabah, or “throne-chariot” mysticism. In prayer, the adept
ascended through the heavens to the throne of God’s presence. Much of the
celestial scenery here resembles that of the Merkabah: the jewel-encrusted
throne room **(Revelation 4:3f);** the sea of glass **(Revelation 4:6);** the angelic creatures **(Revelation 4:6–Revelation 4:9),** and
the numinous hymns sung in praise of God **(Revelation 5:9–Revelation 5:13).**

A dramatic departure from standard symbolism is the appearance of “the
Lamb that seemed to have been slain” **(Revelation 5:6).** Jesus is also called “Lamb of
God” in John’s Gospel **(Revelation 1:29;** **see** **also** **John 19:36,** **a** **reference** **to** **the** **Passover**
**lamb**).
It is a bold stroke to picture Jesus in such paradoxical animal terms.
The salient aspect of the lamb is its sacrificial function: Jesus was slain. But
this lamb is also “the lion of the tribe of Judah,” who has triumphed over
death **(Revelation 5:5).** In a powerful assertion of Jesus’s status after his resurrection,
the lamb is at “the right hand of the one who sat on the throne” **(Revelation 5:7;** **see** **Psalms**
**110:1).** Both figures receive the praise of the heavenly creatures **(Revelation 5:9–Revelation 5:11)**
and indeed of all creation **(Revelation 5:13f).**

The special character of the visions of Revelation is shown by the
problem of the “scroll” **(Revelation 5:1).** It contains the secrets to be revealed, and
because of its use in Ezekiel it is immediately recognizable as a symbol for
prophecy **(Revelation 10:8–Revelation 10:11** **And** **Ezekiel 2:9–Ezekiel 3:4).** Because of his resurrection, Jesus is
empowered to open the scroll **(Revelation 5:5).** What follows, therefore, is both a
revelation of and from Jesus Christ **(see** **Revelation 1:1).** The visions will show “what
must happen afterwards” **(Revelation 4:1),** but the reader is not frightened, knowing
from this first vision that the fundamental victory has already been
accomplished.

### Visions of Cosmic Conflict (Revelation 6:1–Revelation 16:21)

The next section of Revelation is the most difficult to make sense of, and,
not surprisingly, the most worked over for signs of the end. The candidates
selected to fit the profile of the “Beast” with the number 666 **(Revelation 13:18)** have
ranged from Nero to Hitler.

The visions are so structured as to give the illusion of temporal
sequence, linked together as they are by the phrase “and then I saw . . .” It is
indeed tempting to translate a series of visions into a sequence of historical
events, so readers have tried to compute the overlapping series of sevens:
seals **(Revelation 6:1–Revelation 6:17;** **And** **Revelation 8:1),** trumpets **(Revelation 8:1–Revelation 9:21;** **And** **Revelation 11:15),** plagues **(Revelation 15:1–Revelation 15:8),** and bowls
**(Revelation 16:1–Revelation 16:20).** But neither the events reported by headlines nor elaborate
literary analyses have ever satisfactorily unlocked this dense poetry. It is in
fact more likely that all the visions repeat the same basic message. The
saints on earth, locked in conflict with hostile forces, find a cosmic
counterpart in the struggle between God and Satan.

Thus, on one side we see all the “beasts” who oppose the faithful: the
dragon **(Revelation 12:1–Revelation 12:8),** the first beast **(Revelation 13:1–Revelation 13:10),** and the second beast **(Revelation 13:11–Revelation 13:17).**
These are not separate enemies but successive masks of the one force of
evil. As in modern horror films, the destruction of one gives rise to another
more horrifying still. Beneath the different manifestations, one visible
enemy is most prevalent: the idolatrous state that persecutes the saints,
enslaves them, and seeks to kill them **(Revelation 13:7–18).**

On the other side are those loyal to God, the “servants, prophets, and
holy ones” **(Revelation 11:18;** **And** **Revelation 19:9f).** They continue Jesus’s own faithful witness to
God by witnessing to Jesus. By so doing, they reject the idolatrous claims
of the state on their obeisance. They suffer the consequences, some of them
by shedding blood. Revelation establishes the connection between
“witness” and “martyr” by the disciples’ imitation of Jesus’s death. The
prophetic self-consciousness of this church is most clearly stated in the
account of the two witnesses **(Revelation 11:1–Revelation 11:13).** This earthly interlude shows two
people, who both “witness” and “testify” (the terms are interchangeable).
They are killed in imitation of Jesus **(Revelation 11:7).** They are also called into heaven
**(Revelation 11:12).** The vignette describes the conviction of Revelation that those who
share Jesus’s death also share his triumph in heaven. Thus, alternating with
scenes of suffering on earth below are serene descriptions of the saints in
heaven celebrating the anticipated and certain victory of the Lamb **(Revelation 5:9f;**
**Revelation 6:9–Revelation 6:11;** **Revelation 7:4–Revelation 7:7;** **Revelation 14:1–Revelation 14:5;** **And** Revelation **15:2–Revelation 15:4).** In standard apocalyptic, history moves
downward to ever more dismal circumstances, until God finally intervenes.
In Revelation, however, the final outcome is not in doubt. Not only Jesus
but also those “defeated” with him by evil already share in the resurrection
triumph. The earthly conquest is just a matter of tidying up.

It is useless to tease such poetry into a train schedule. The vision here is
not one of history unfolding like clockwork; it is a religious vision of God’s
ultimate conquest despite current appearances. Once the reader lets go of
the obsessive “need to know” that twists beauty into charts and tables, it is
possible to wonder at the powerful poetic and religious imagination at work
in these glorious images. On the side of evil, what genius to make the
second beast, who is a “false prophet,” mimic the features but betray the
nature of the true prophet: “it had two horns like a lamb’s but spoke like a
dragon” **(Revelation 13:11).** On the side of good, what beauty in the prayer that speaks
to the suffering of all humankind, that hopes “the Lamb who is in the center
of the throne will shepherd them and lead them to springs of life-giving
water, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes” **(Revelation 7:17).**

### Punishment of Babylon (Revelation 17:1–Revelation 20:15)

The masks fall away, revealing as the real enemy of God’s people the
Roman Empire, “the great harlot who lives near the many waters” **(Revelation 17:1).**
Rome is called Babylon **(Revelation 17:5)** because in the biblical tradition it was
Babylon above all that symbolized the desecration of the Temple and the
exile of the people. In typical apocalyptic fashion, the sequence of events is
laid out: God has given temporary rule to this evil empire to accomplish his
ends. It does battle against the Lamb and the people.

The persecution and suffering were undoubtedly real. These Christians
were faced with the choices of all who suffer oppression. Were they to resist
violently and seek the overthrow of Rome? That was futile as well as
contrary to their ethos. Were they simply to cooperate? That would be to
lose their identity. They chose the path of passive resistance. They did not
fight the beast, but neither would they do its bidding. The path of
martyrdom, however slow or fast, is not easy. For those who survive, the
psychic toll is considerable. Anger at the enemy can easily turn inward;
patient endurance is hard. They were convinced that “the Lamb will
conquer” **(Revelation 17:14),** but in their earthly condition they had not yet seen it
happen. Rome’s fall is therefore described in delicious detail. The pent-up
fury of the oppressed is released in glee over the degradation of the
oppressor. Much of this is obviously and literally wish fulfillment, the stuff
of fantasy. The anger of a downtrodden people is deflected to a punishing
God.

The end-time reveals how “the words of God are accomplished” **(Revelation 17:17).**
The “Word of God” himself **(Revelation 19:13)** leads the climactic battle and
inaugurates the messianic age, when the saints “will reign with Christ for a
thousand years” **(Revelation 20:4–6).** But this is not yet the end. There is another
outbreak of demonic destruction **(Revelation 20:7–Revelation 20:10)** and the tossing of the Devil into
the fire, then the resurrection of the dead for final judgment **(Revelation 20:11–Revelation 20:15).**
These stages lack poetry, but the final vision overcomes this deficiency.

### The New Creation (Revelation 21:1–Revelation 22:21)

The conclusion to Revelation is a fitting conclusion to the Bible as a whole.
The vision of a new creation **(Revelation 21:1)** is central to the New Testament **(see,**
**e.g.,** **2 Corinthians 5:17).** The Christian experience of Christ was an absolute
beginning, rooted in the ever-new life of God himself. God can say,
“Behold, I make all things new” **(Revelation 21:5)** because God is “the Alpha and the
Omega, the beginning and the end” of all things **(Revelation 21:6;** **And** **Revelation 22:13).** As Genesis
began with the creation by a word, so the vision of the end-time
recapitulates that beginning: creation is renewed.

The hope expressed by Revelation is not simply that souls be saved after
death, or that evil be conquered, or even that saints reign for a thousand
years over a burned-out terrain. The hope is that creation itself be
transformed. So the sight of a “New Jerusalem coming down out of heaven
from God” is the vision of a civilized order, one that is intrinsically holy in
the proper sense. Human society is based on the recognition of God’s power
and presence. No place for those, now, who refuse the “dwelling place of
God with the human race” **(Revelation 21:3,** **And** **Revelation 21:7f).**

In this city, there is not even need for “religion” as a separate
compartment of life. The temple of the city is “the Lord God almighty and
the Lamb” **(Revelation 21:22).** And all the city’s people will be priests of [the Lord]
God **(Revelation 20:6),** showing at last that the fundamental human vocation is praise
of God **(Revelation 22:9).** There need be no division between peoples. Nothing is here
accursed **(Revelation 22:3).** The nations will walk by the light of the Lamb **(Revelation 21:24),** and
the trees of the city “serve as medicine for the nations” **(Revelation 22:2).** And what
medicine! There will be “no more death or mourning, wailing or pain, [for]
the old order has passed away” **(Revelation 21:4).**

Great harm has come to those millenarians who have tried by force to
make this vision a reality, and establish a thousand-year reign of the saints
on earth. Great despair has come to the utopians who have tried on the basis
of goodwill to construct a society like the New Jerusalem.

The vision has its value precisely as challenge, as ever-receding
prophecy to all human effort for renewal. This does not come about by
human cunning but by God’s gift. The transformation is not technical but
organic. But so compelling is the vision that no one who hears it can help
joining in the plaintive cry of the epilogue, “Amen! Come, Lord Jesus!”
The epilogue also reminds us that we are still in the in-between time when
the world is not re-created. There is still need for the witness of prophecy
and for endurance of the saints, for “the wicked still act wickedly, and the
filthy still be filthy. The righteous must still do right, and the holy still be
holy” **(Revelation 22:11).** Here is a call to the saints.

### FURTHER READING

Aune, D. E. Revelation. 3 vols. Word Biblical Commentary; Waco, TX: Word, 1997–98.

Boring, M. Eugene. Revelation. Interpretation Commentaries. Louisville: John Knox, 1989.

Boxall, Ian. The Revelation of Saint John. Black’s New Testament Commentary. Peabody, MA:
Hendrickson, 2006.

Caird, G. B. A Commentary of the Revelation of St. John the Divine. Harper New Testament
Commentary. New York: Harper & Row, 1966.

Harrington, Wilfrid J., O.P. Revelation. Abington New Testament Commentaries; Nashville:
Abingdon, 1998.

Hays, Richard B., and Stefan Alkier, eds. Revelation and the Politics of Apocalyptic Interpretation. Waco, TX: Baylor University Press, 2012.

Minear, P. I Saw a New Earth: An Introduction to the Vision of The Apocalypse. Washington, DC:
Corpus Publications, 1968.

Mounce, Robert H. The Book of Revelation. New International Commentary on the New Testament.
Rev. ed. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1998.

Thompson, Leonard L. Revelation. Sacra Pagina. Collegeville, MD: Liturgical Press, 1993.