REVELATION OF JOHN. The last of the canonical books of the New Testament.
General Character.— The book, as its name implies, purports to be a revelation (airmaavilgs, an ((uncovering))) or unveiling of the secrets of the divine purpose in reference to God's King dom on earth in its conflict with the forces of evil. As such, it is one of a large number of Apocalypses that were published, first in Jew ish circles and later the early Christian Church within the period from about 200 ac.
to 200 A.D. While most of these works were probably quite popular and circulated widely, only two, the book of Daniel in the Old Testa ment and the Revelation of John in the New, became canonical. The chief characteristics common to all apocalyptic works are (1) the communication of the inspired information to the seer by means of visions, or dreams, or similar ecstatic experiences by which the seer was brought into immediate contact with trans cendental scenes (heaven, the throne of God, angels, etc.) ; (2) the use of symbolism (num bers, beasts, the sea, mountains, etc., figuratively representing individuals, kingdoms and other realities) ' • and (3) the attempt to forecast the •course of world-history from the time of the author to the (end) • in other words, to work out a program of the future and especially of the last times, which were usually thought to be very near at hand. All of the known Jewish Apocalypses were pseudepigraphic, the revela tions being asserted to have been received by Enoch, or Noah, or other ancient worthies, thereby giving the work the prestige belonging to great antiquity and to a famous name. Even the Daniel pocalypse, written about 165 ac., was assigned to a Daniel supposed to have been living about 400 years earlier. The Chris tian apocalyptists were not all bound by this traditional practice. At least two, John, the author of the New Testament book, and Hermas, the author of The Shepherd) (c. 150 A.D.), issued their works under their own names. It is evident, from the facts stated, that Revelation is unlike any other New Testament book and must be viewed and inter preted, in general, in harmony with the prin ciples of interpretation that hold for all the works of the class to which it belongs.
Special Character of the Book.— Revela tion, though one of many Apocalypses, is the most individual of them all. Its many special
characteristics serve to put it in a class by itself. It is addressed by the author, John, to a definite group of seven churches, all in the Roman Province of Asia. No other Apocalypse is so openly and specifically addressed to actual readers. It was expected that it would be read and its message heeded. The circumstances which occasioned the message are, in part at least, also clearly indicated. The churches were in danger. From without, because they were undergoing persecution. Some Christians had already been martyred and a general persecu tion seemed imminent. Within, the sins of apostasy, immorality or corruption of doctrine seemed to be assuming threatening proportions. But it was not simply with such concrete facts that Revelation sought to deal. The seer was given to know what lay behind or was involved in these things. The persecution of the Chris tians was, to him, more than merely the work of the civil authorities, or of the state (the imperial Roman government). It was, in the last analysis, the work of Satan, the arch-enemy of God arid of all good, the Anti-Christ, the head of legions of evil angels, whose earthly rule was carried on through the institutions, political and religious, of the pagan Roman Empire. Of these institutions, the one that more significantly than any other gave expres sion to the union between Satan and the empire was that of the worship of the emperor.. To the seer this was, in principle, the worship of Satan, it was Satan's means of receiving the homage of mankind. But just as in the insti tutions and practices of pagan imperial Rome Satan's earthly kingdom was concretely em bodied, so in the Church — the unity spiritur ally existing in the numerous small Christian communities of Asia and elsewhere—nothing less than the Kingdom of God and of His Christ was concretely embodied, and the issue, as thus perceived by the seer, was in reality the issue between Satan and God, between heaven and hell, good and evil. What was transpiring on earth was therefore of universal, cosmic and eternal significance. This theme, one common to apocalyptic literature, is applied and developed in Revelation with a consistency and clarity, a dignity and sublimity, a force and pathos that places this book far above all others of its class.