Boundaries for the Book
The authorship of Revelation is widely accepted to be the Apostle John, who also wrote the Gospel of John and three epistles. Notably, John’s Gospel is 90% unique compared to the synoptic gospels. Despite its significance, John does not include the Olivet Discourse found in Matthew 24, which details Jesus’ prophecy about the destruction of Jerusalem. This omission is intriguing because it suggests that Revelation itself may be a visionary extension of the Olivet Discourse, written to encourage John’s audience, who were suffering persecution, that their deliverance was near.
Again, this is not meant to be a commentary on the Book of Revelation but simply some keys to help you begin to see the book in a different light. I am going to give you seven boundaries for the book to help you unlock a different, more biblical view. These keys are all principles I teach in Hermeneutics and although I will not be teaching the fullness of that subject here my hope is these simple keys will unlock powerful and profound truth. As with any good hermeneutical approach to scripture I pray this will bring a good balance or at least a good starting point for culture and historical relevance. Here are the boundaries.
Author
Date Written
Audience and Occasion
Time Texts
Location
Symbols
Genre
Author:
This boundary will probably be the simplest of all because with this book there is no controversy. The Apostle John, writer of the Gospel of John and three epistles is our author. However I would like to bring this to your attention concerning John. John’s Gospel is 90% unique to John, simply you won’t find it in the synoptic gospels.
You have already read the chapter on Matthew 24, the Olivet Discourse, and have seen the power and importance of Christ prophecy about the coming destruction of Jerusalem. This prophecy one of the most important in the New Testament because if you did not believe Jesus, you and your household would die in the destruction. However, the beloved disciple, John, doesn’t deem it necessary to write about this destruction, this prophecy that Jesus himself gave? I believe that when one truly begins to study however they will discover that the Revelation of John is a visionary look if you will at the Olivet Discourse, the most significant prophesy Jesus gave to his disciples but absent from John’s gospel. Could it be that John did not put it in his gospel because he wrote a whole letter about it?
Simply, John, writing right before the destruction as we will see next, he is really encouraging his audience, that was suffering persecution, that the time of there deliverance was almost here. The prophecy of Christ was preparing to manifest, Old Jerusalem was going to be destroyed, a new Jerusalem emerges or simple the Old Covenant disappears and the New Covenant fully emerges.
2) Date:
Why is the date important you may ask. This one key can change everything. You see, if the book was written after A.D. 70 as some claim then the book really would be hard to understand and future as some claim. The primary reason some Bible teachers claim the Book of Revelation was written around AD 96 is because John noted in Revelation 1:9 that he was on the island of Patmos at the time he received the Revelation. There is some historical evidence that John was exiled to Patmos under the reign of Domitian between AD 81 and AD 96. Therefore, the book might have been written during that time—or so some claim.
In reality, there are also historical documents that tell us John was exiled to Patmos at a much earlier date. Here I will share a couple of the many evidences that Revelation was written before AD 68.
1. The Syriac - We have the witness of one of the most ancient versions of the New Testament, called The Syriac. The second-century Syriac Version, says the following on the title page of the Book of Revelation:
“Again the revelation, which was upon the holy John the Evangelist from God when he was on the island of Patmos where he was thrown by the emperor Nero.”
Nero Caesar ruled over the Roman Empire from AD 54 to AD 68. Therefore, John had to have been on the island of Patmos during this earlier period. One of the oldest versions of the Bible tells us when Revelation was written! That alone is a very compelling argument. I will also mention here other early manuscripts that also point to a first century fulfillment and understanding: The "Muratorian Fragment," dating back to 170-190 A.D., states that this work of John was written during the reign of Nero. The "Aramaic Peshitta" version has a remark that places its date prior to 70 A.D. The title page of Revelation states this work of John was written right after the reign of Nero.
2. Revelation 17:10 When we look at the internal evidence, we find a very clear indicator of the date of authorship in Revelation 17:10: "They are also seven kings. Five have fallen, one is, the other has not yet come; but when he does come, he must remain for only a little while" (Rev. 17:10). This passage, which speaks of the line of rulers in Rome, tells us exactly how many rulers had already come, which one was currently in power, and that the next one would only last a short while. Take a look at how perfectly it fits with Nero and the Roman Empire of the first century.
The rule of the first seven Roman Emperors is as follows:
"Five have fallen... "
Julius Caesar (49–44 BC)
Augustus (27 BC–AD 14)
Tiberius (AD 14–37)
Caligula (AD 37–41)
Claudius (AD 41–54)
"One is... " - Nero (AD 54-68)
"the other has not yet come; but when he does come, he must remain for only a little while."
Galba (June AD 68–January AD 69, a six-month rulership)
Of the first seven kings, five had come (Julius Caesar, Augustus, Tiberius, Gaius, and Claudius one was currently in power (Nero), and one had not yet come (Galba), but would only remain a little time (six months). The current Caesar at the time of John’s writing was the sixth Caesar, Nero.
3. Jewish Persecution of Christians
The Jewish persecution of Christianity that is shown in Revelation 6 and 11 indicates a pre-AD 70 authorship. After the slaughter of AD 70, the Jews were not in a position to persecute the early Church. In fact, since AD 70, the ancient Jews have never been in a position to be able to persecute Christians again.
4. Existence of Jerusalem and the Temple
The existence and integrity of Jerusalem and the Temple (see Rev. 11) suggest a date before the destruction of AD 70. If the Book of Revelation was written in AD 96, only twenty-six years after the destruction of the Temple and the Holy City, it is shocking John didn’t mention the recent massacre of the city and Temple.
It should also be noted before we move on that those who believe in the later date of authorship for the Book of Revelation mainly lean on the fact that Irenaeus the Bishop of Lyons (AD 120–202) claimed John wrote while on Patmos under Domitian’s reign. This alone could seem compelling, except Irenaeus is noted for making mistakes in recording dates and times in his writings. Irenaeus is the same Church father who claimed Jesus’ ministry lasted nearly twenty years, from the age of thirty until the age of fifty and was crucified then. I believe to build a worldview based off of one good mans bad records instead of clear biblical evidence is absurd at best.
3) Audience and Purpose:
The Audience is easy. John is writing to seven literal churches and this letter would also have been passed around to all churches during this day but again especially to the seven churches of Asia Minor. However, we most read this book they do so from a twenty-first century worldview and seek to hear or understand what the original audience would have heard or what it meant to them.
I tell my students all the time, “If you don’t know what it meant to them you will probably not really know what it means for you.” Know the audience and seek to see and hear from their perspective, from their life.
It has been said that the purpose of a book is key to it’s interpretation. This is especially true of Revelation. What is the purpose? The answer is found in the opening statements in Verse 1 and 7.
Verse 1: “The Revelation of Jesus Christ……”
John’s vision is not named The Book of Revelations, The Book of Revelation, or even The Revelation. Its full name is: The Book of the Revelation of Jesus Christ. The word “Revelation” literally means to “Unveil.” The whole book of Revelation is about the unveiling of Jesus Christ to a first century audience.
All through the New Testament, we find the apostles writing of a soon-approaching day when Jesus would be fully revealed, or unveiled. The question then is, what in the first century was veiling Jesus?
“But because of your stubbornness and your unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath against yourself for the day of God’s wrath, when his righteous judgment will be revealed” (Romans 2:5).
Notice in this last passage, the day of wrath (AD 70) was also to be the day of revealing. The idea that Jesus needs to be revealed is based on the presupposition that He is hidden or veiled. So the obvious question is, What is veiling Him?
The apostle Paul gives us an incredibly clear answer to this question:
“Now if the ministry that brought death, which was engraved in letters on stone, came with glory, so that the Israelites could not look steadily at the face of Moses because of its glory, transitory though it was, will not the ministry of the Spirit be even more glorious? If the ministry that brought condemnation was glorious, how much more glorious is the ministry that brings righteousness! For what was glorious has no glory now in comparison with the surpassing glory. And if what was transitory came with glory, how much greater is the glory of that which lasts! Therefore, since we have such a hope, we are very bold. We are not like Moses, who would put a veil over his face to prevent the Israelites from seeing the end of what was passing away. But their minds were made dull, for to this day the same veil remains when the old covenant is read. It has not been removed, because only in Christ is it taken away. Even to this day when Moses is read, a veil covers their hearts. But whenever anyone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplatethe Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit” (2 Corinthians 3:7–18).
The Old Covenant, the Mosaic Covenant, was a veil that kept Jesus hidden. What Jesus did on the cross established the New Covenant and made the Old Covenant "obsolete and outdated [and it] will soon disappear" (Heb. 8:13).
Yet as long as the Temple stood in Jerusalem until AD 70, the Old Covenant continued to operate in obstinacy to the New Covenant. From the cross until the destruction of Jerusalem, AD 30–70, the earthly Jerusalem became a "New Egypt," and the Christians experienced a new exodus from the earthly Jerusalem into the New Covenant heavenly Jerusalem (see Gal. 4:24–27).
John’s vision is the apocalypse of Jesus because it is about the destruction of the Old Covenant system (see Rev. 4–19) and the finalization of the New Covenant as the only covenant in existence (see Rev. 20–22). It is the unveiling (apocalypses) of Jesus Christ and His New Covenant by the removal of the veil, which was the Old Covenant system (see 2 Cor. 3).
With this proper foundation, Revelation 1:1 makes sense. If we can understand the first verse of the book properly, the rest of the book can come into right focus.
Look at verse 7. - “Behold, He is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see Him, even those who pierced Him; and all the tribes of the earth (land) will mourn over Him. So it is to be. Amen.”
As I have talked when discussing Matthew 24, the Hebrew idiom "coming on clouds" speaks of God coming to bring judgment on a city or nation. That is what Jesus came to do in AD 70. Revelation 1:7 tells us whom His judgment is against. Here, the phrase "those who did pierce him" refers to the people of the first century. According to this passage, they were expected to be alive at the time of Revelation’s fulfillment. The fact that "those who did pierce him" were not alive in AD 96, because they were killed in the slaughter of AD 70, is a clear indicator that Revelation was written before AD 70 and also what this judgment was all about.
4) Time Texts:
After the early date of authorship is established, the next important key is the time-texts regarding the content of the book. Revelation is an unsealed book (see Rev. 22:10) because the events were soon to take place, whereas Daniel is a sealed book (see Dan. 12:4) because its contents were regarding events in the then distant future—almost five hundred years later. Simply, Daniel was told to seal his prophecy for the time was not yet, a later time which was as stated almost five hundred years later. John is told to not seal his vision up because the time was at hand.
Here is what the Book of Revelation says about the timing of its fulfillment:
• What must shortly take place (see Rev. 1:1)
• For the time is near (see Rev. 1:3)
• I am coming to you quickly (see Rev. 2:16)
• I am coming quickly (see Rev. 3:11)
• The third woe is coming quickly (see Rev. 11:14)
• The things which must shortly take place (see Rev. 22:6)
• Behold, I am coming quickly (see Rev. 22:7)
• For the time is near (see Rev. 22:10)
• Behold, I am coming quickly (see Rev. 22:12)
• Yes, I am coming quickly (see Rev. 22:20)
An important principle of biblical interpretation is that a text cannot mean what it never could have meant to its author or his or her readers. In other words, we cannot simply look at the texts that say “soon” and conclude it couldn’t be so because it was written two thousand years ago and we haven’t identified anything in history that fits what we think it should look like! Our ignorance of history gives us no allowance for such a conclusions.
Revelation includes time texts that point to an imminent fulfillment. Terms like "soon," "near," and "quickly" are recurrent, suggesting that the events described were expected to occur within the lifetime of the first-century audience. This urgency aligns with the historical context of the Roman Empire and the persecution faced by early Christians.
5) Location:
The modern reader has been trained to read Revelation as if it was written about a global catastrophe. Unfortunately, our English translations are careless with the details regarding location. For example, when Revelation writes about a third of the grass, a third of the trees, and a third of the earth (see Rev. 8), the modern reader imagines this on a global scale. Yet the original wording of the Greek manuscripts paints an extremely different picture.
In the Greek, we must understand two words regarding location. The first word is “ge”, which is used sixty-seven times in Revelation. It refers to a local inhabited civilization or the land of a particular nation. The second word is “kosmos,” which is used three times in Revelation (see Rev. 11:15; 13:8; 17:8). It refers to the entire globe, the entirety of planet earth and the heavens.
The apostle John often used this word, kosmos, in his other writings—a whopping fifty-seven times in his gospel and seventeen times in First John alone.Yet he chose not to use it in Revelation because he was not writing about a global event. This is an incredibly important point! From this simple study of these two words translated as "world," we can see that the Book of Revelation was not written about a global catastrophe but a local catastrophe. The contents of the entire Book of Revelation refer to local (ge) events, not global (kosmos) events.
Understanding the geographical and cultural context is essential. Revelation’s visions and symbols are rooted in the ancient Near Eastern world, specifically within the Roman Empire. Recognizing the significance of locations like Patmos, Asia Minor, and Jerusalem helps in interpreting the text accurately.
6) Symbols:
I have heard some say that there are over three hundred symbols in the Book of Revelation. The problem with these symbols are that they are written to Jewish believers who have a Hebraic background and understanding to which the majority of our modern readers do not.
Again, these are keys not a commentary so I will not be going into all the various symbols but to help us again see this book in a different light we will look at one. A vast majority of Church history has taught us that the beast represents the Roman Empire of the first century. As F.W. Farrar wrote in 1882:
“Every Jewish reader, of course, saw that the Beast was a symbol of Nero. And both Jews and Christians regarded Nero as also having close affinities with the serpent or dragon....All the earliest Christian writers on the Apocalypse, from Irenaeus down to Victorinus of Pettau and Commodian in the fourth, and Andreas in the Fifth, and St. Beatus in the eighth century, connect Nero, or some Roman Emperor, with the Apocalyptic Beast.”
The apostle John refers to the number 666 and says in verse 18, "This calls for wisdom. Let the person who has insight calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man. That number is 666." When we read this verse, we must keep the following details in mind:
1. John was expecting his readers to be able to calculate this number and all arrive at the same conclusion.
2. John was not writing to readers thousands of years in the future but to his immediate contemporaries, and he expected them to arrive at the right interpretation.
3. John was not referring to a deep, profound mystery but to natural knowledge when he said, "this calls for wisdom" and "insight [to] calculate." He said this because the number code he used was the ancient Hebrew and not the concurrent Greek language of the day.
4. When the Jewish readers saw what John wrote, they would have mentally translated the numeric value into its corresponding Hebrew letters and spelled out Nrwn Qsr, or as we would pronounce it, Nero Caesar.
“They are also seven kings. Five have fallen, one is, the other has not yet come; but when he does come, he must remain for only a little while” (Revelation 17:10).
This passage, which is speaking of the line of rulers in Rome, tells us exactly how many rulers had already come, which one was currently in power, and that the next one would only last a short while. Take a look at how that perfectly fits with Nero and the Roman Empire of the first century. The rule of the first seven Roman Emperor’s are as follows:
Julius Caesar (49–44 BC)
Augustus (27 BC–AD 14)
Tiberius (AD 14–37)
Caligula (AD 37–41)
Claudius (AD 41–54)
“Five have fallen...”
Nero (AD 54–68)
“One is...”
Galba (June AD 68–January AD 69, a six month ruler-ship)
“the other has not yet come; but when he does come, he must remain for only a little while.”
Of the first seven kings of the Roman Empire, five had come (julius Caesar, Augustus, Tiberius, Gaius, and Claudius), one was now in power (Nero), and one had not yet come (Galba), but would only remain a little time (six months).
The symbol and symbolic number of the Beast was easy to understand if you were the audience to whom John was addressing. When the Bible is not studied from proper hermeneutics then we are not only left confused but we also make the word bow to our understanding and interpretation instead of the way God intended.
Revelation is rich with symbolism, much of which is drawn from the Old Testament and the cultural milieu of the first century. Familiarity with these symbols is crucial for proper interpretation. Symbols such as the beasts, the dragon, and the various imagery of judgment and redemption are steeped in the prophetic traditions of the Hebrew Scriptures and the socio-political realities of the time.
7. Genre
The Book of Revelation, often viewed as one of the most enigmatic and complex books in the Bible, belongs to a specific genre that significantly influences its interpretation. Understanding this genre is crucial for accurately interpreting its messages and symbols. Let’s delve into the genre of Revelation and explore why it is essential for proper interpretation.
The Genre of Revelation: Apocalyptic Literature
Revelation is primarily classified as apocalyptic literature. This genre, which includes other biblical texts like parts of Daniel, Ezekiel, and Zechariah, is characterized by the following features:
Visions and Symbols: Apocalyptic literature often conveys its messages through vivid, symbolic imagery and visionary experiences. These symbols are not meant to be taken literally but rather understood metaphorically or allegorically.
Dualism: There is a strong contrast between good and evil, light and darkness, and the present age versus the age to come. This dualism underscores the cosmic struggle and ultimate triumph of good over evil.
Heavenly Mediators: Apocalyptic writings frequently involve angels or other heavenly beings who reveal divine secrets to the human author.
Eschatological Focus: The genre is heavily concerned with the end, judgment, and the establishment of God’s kingdom.
Encouragement in Persecution: These writings often aim to provide hope and encouragement to communities facing persecution or suffering, assuring them of divine justice and eventual deliverance.
Why Genre Matters for Interpretation
Understanding that Revelation is apocalyptic literature is crucial for several reasons:
1. Interpreting Symbols
Recognizing the symbolic nature of apocalyptic literature helps avoid literal misinterpretations. For instance, the beasts, dragons, and other fantastical creatures in Revelation are not to be understood as literal entities but as representations of political powers, spiritual realities, or historical forces.
2. Contextualizing Dualism
The stark contrasts and dualistic language in Revelation highlight the cosmic struggle between good and evil. Interpreting these elements within their genre helps readers understand the broader theological message without getting lost in the specifics of the imagery.
3. Understanding Purpose
Apocalyptic literature often serves to encourage and strengthen faith during times of trial. Knowing this can help interpreters see Revelation as a source of hope and reassurance for its original audience, rather than a mere prediction of future events.
4. Grasping the Eschatological Focus
Revelation’s focus on end times and final judgment needs to be understood within the framework of apocalyptic expectations. This helps readers appreciate its themes of divine justice, the ultimate victory of good, and the establishment of God’s kingdom, rather than treating it as a detailed roadmap of future history.
5. Recognizing Historical Context
Apocalyptic literature often arises out of specific historical contexts of oppression and persecution. Understanding this helps situate Revelation within the first-century context of Roman rule and early Christian suffering, providing a more accurate interpretation of its messages. The same help and hope that was given to the first century audience suffering is also extended to us as we journey through life and face it’s challenges.
Conclusion: By applying these boundaries—Author, Date, Audience and Purpose, Time Texts, Location, and Symbols—you can gain a more nuanced and historically grounded understanding of the Book of Revelation. This approach helps to balance the interpretation and provides a clearer lens through which to view its profound and powerful messages.
Comments