Apocalyptic Genre
Two books of the Bible are of the literary genre known as apocalyptic literature. In the Old Testament, there is the book of Daniel. In the New Testament, there is the book of Revelation. Of the various literary genres found in Scripture, apocalyptic is one of the least well understood and most frequently misinterpreted.
In our English Bibles, Daniel is grouped together with the prophets. However, strictly speaking, Daniel is not a prophetic book; in the Hebrew Bible, Daniel is not numbered among the prophets, but is instead part of the third section of the canon, “the Writings.” Daniel is not, strictly speaking, a prophet.
What is the difference between prophetic and apocalyptic writings? In prophetic books, the prophet speaks as a mouthpiece of God: “Thus says the Lord.” God speaks through the prophet. In apocalyptic, God grants a heavenly vision, often facilitated by an angelic messenger, to someone, who then records what God has shown them. When we hear the word “apocalypse,” we typically think of the destruction of the world, but originally, apocalypse (Greek: apokalupsis) refers to uncovering or revealing (thus, the title of the book of Revelation). The heavenly, spiritual realm, usually invisible to human eyes, is uncovered or revealed to the recipient of the apocalyptic vision, who can then share this privileged glimpse of supernatural reality with the reader.
The basic message of the prophets is that if Israel is faithful, she will be blessed, and if Israel is unfaithful, she will be cursed. Apocalyptic literature, in contrast, is written in a context in which God’s people are suffering in spite of, perhaps because of, their faithfulness to God, and are wondering why this is happening. It seems like God is absent, that He does not care, or that He is not in control. The apocalyptic vision reveals that, in spite of appearances, God is in control and, though He has allowed the powers of evil to run rampant for a time, He will soon intervene to set things right. The purpose of apocalyptic literature, then, is to give hope to God’s people in a difficult time, encouraging them to remain faithful, in spite of the intense hardships and suffering they are experiencing.
There were many ancient Jewish apocalyptic writings. But only two of them, Daniel and Revelation, are part of Scripture. Daniel was written to the Jews of the second century B.C., who were severely persecuted by the Seleucid Emperor Antiochus IV Epiphanes. Revelation was written to the Christians of the first century, who were severely persecuted by the Roman Empire.
Four Interpretive Views of Revelation
There are four major views on how to approach interpreting the book of Revelation: the futurist, historicist, idealist, and preterist views.
The most common view among Christians today about the book of Revelation is the futurist view. According to this view, Revelation foretells events that are still in our future. It is about the future “end times.” By examining the details of the visions and revelations that John has, we can map out the details of a timeline for these “end times.” Many Christians then go on to speculate about when these events will happen, or even declare that these “end times” have already begun.
Though this is the most popular view of Revelation among Christians, it is also the most implausible. John, who has been exiled because of his Christian faith, is writing to other persecuted Christians as their “partner in suffering and in God’s Kingdom and in the patient endurance to which Jesus calls us” (1:9). He is writing to seven particular first century churches, and begins by giving a message from Jesus for each one of them (chapters 2-3). It would make no sense for him to then abruptly change subject and to start talking about events that will happen over 2,000 years in the future. This reading of the book of Revelation completely misunderstands the apocalyptic genre and its purpose, which is to encourage God’s people to remain faithful during a period of suffering and persecution. Speaking of events that will not happen for thousands of years would hardly contribute to that purpose.
The New Testament is clear that, ever since Jesus, we have been living in the “end times,” the eschatological age in between Jesus’s First and Second Comings. We do not know when Jesus is going to come again, but we are supposed to live as if Jesus could be coming back anytime. Rather than focusing on predicting when Jesus is going to come again and trying to map out a timeline of the events surrounding His return, we should focus on living faithfully and bearing witness here and now to the truth that Jesus is Lord.
According to the historicist view, Revelation uses a series of symbols and allegories to foretell the course of history from the first century until the end of the age. The problem with this approach is that it is quite difficult to really map world history or church history onto the visions of Revelation. One can try to do this in hindsight, but this too often consists in arbitrary or strained interpretations about what historical figures or events are being symbolized. It is not even clear that the visions of Revelation are in a coherent chronological order; they sometimes seem to backtrack, overlap, or repeat. Furthermore, like the futurist view, the historicist view would leave most of Revelation as having no relevance for its original first century audience, which makes it implausible.
According to the preterist view, Revelation is (at least mostly) about events that have already happened in the first century or soon after. Since chapters 20-22 seem to clearly be about the Second Coming of Jesus, the Final Judgment, and the inauguration of God’s New Creation, which still lie in the future, most preterists are “partial preterists,” who view these chapters as describing future events, but the rest as having already taken place long ago.
Some preterists believe the audience of Revelation to be very early Christians being persecuted by Jewish religious leaders. The “Babylon,” then, of Revelation would represent Jerusalem, which was destroyed in 70 AD. But it seems very difficult to reconcile this with Revelation’s description of “Babylon” as “the great city that rules over the kings of the world” (17: 18). Thus, most interpreters understand “Babylon” in Revelation to be Rome, and the setting of Revelation to be Christians being persecuted by the Roman Empire. It does seem somewhat difficult, though, to line up the visions of Revelation with particular historical events. The Roman Empire did fall in the fifth century, but this was after its conversion to Christianity, and the city of Rome was never actually destroyed.
According to the idealist view, Revelation does not predict any specific historical events; rather, its visions symbolically present the conflict between Jesus’s Kingdom and the kingdoms of this world that takes place throughout history, followed by Jesus’s ultimate triumph at the end of history. Thus, Revelation’s depiction of “Babylon” may contain allusions to Rome, but Babylon is a symbol of all human empires that are in rebellion against God, not a symbol of Rome. And the two “Beasts” (chapter 13) are symbols, not of particular individuals, but of all worldly political rulers who rebel against God and the religious leaders who legitimate them.
The idealist view is certainly plausible. It would mean that the whole of the book of Revelation would be relevant for its first century persecuted Christian audience. It would also mean that we do not have to try to make chronological sense of Revelation’s visions, a task which often seems difficult, if not impossible. The only difficulty with the idealist view is that there are some parts of Revelation that do seem to have specific historical referents. For example, John writes, “Wisdom is needed here. Let the one with understanding solve the meaning of the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man. His number is 666” (13: 18). John seems to expect the reader to figure out a specific man (the Roman Emperor Nero?) he is referring to here.
Conclusion
By anyone’s account, Revelation is a cryptic book. It is often difficult to determine how its apocalyptic visions relate to historical events, though either a preterist or idealist view seems most likely. What is clear is that the point of the book of Revelation was not to give us a timeline for the future “end times.” The point of the book of Revelation was to encourage first century Christians who were being persecuted by reminding them that, in spite of appearances, Jesus the crucified one is reigning as Lord of all, and that His ultimate victory over the evil kingdoms of this world is assured. This is still the message of encouragement and hope that we are to get from Revelation today. No matter what hardships we experience as Christians, we can remain faithful by aligning our view of reality with Revelation’s apocalyptic vision, and living in light of that truth, rather than the lies and falsehoods of the world which constantly surround us. This is the significance of the book of Revelation.