Symbolic Language In The Book Of Revelation
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Revelation 1:1-The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave Him to show His servants—things which must shortly take place. And He sent and signified it by His angel to His servant John,
Ben (not his real name) told me that the Book of Revelation is impossible to understand and that it should be mostly ignored by Christians. He was, understandably, disturbed by the misuse of the Book of Revelation that he had witnessed. Being raised in a family that often misunderstood and misused the Book of Revelation to spread some very concerning teachings, Ben had learned of times that his church leaders had incorrectly prophesied the Return of Jesus. Ben had lost faith in the Bible and turned to a prodigal lifestyle. Afterwards incarcerated, he had begun reconsidering the Bible and its claims. While we discussed valid prophecies and fulfillment and how they demonstrate the Bible is the Word of God, we also spent time breaking down the ways that his former church had misapplied the Book of Revelation. Specifically, we looked at the use of symbolic language in the last Book of the Bible. The Apostle John intentionally used symbolic language, as indicated by the first verse of Revelation.
Look more closely at that word “signified.”
“And it was Jesus who then “signified it” (rendered it into signs or codes) and sent it by His (aggelos, messenger) unto His servant John. “Signified,” (semaino), “to render into signs, codes, or signals,” is from sema, from which we get the term “sememe,” or the basic unit of meaning in communication theory. Each of the signs, or codes, links to other amplifying passages. Deciphering each of the codes in this book will require one to look into every other book of the Bible. There are 404 verses in Revelation, yet they include over 800 allusions from the rest of the Bible!”. (Dr. Chuck Missler, Cosmic Codes: Hidden Messages From The Edge Of Eternity: Bible Codes, 5005 (Kindle Edition); Koinonia House)
John tells us right from the get-go that symbolic language is used primarily throughout Revelation. Attempting to literalize figurative language will always result in confusion. Where do these symbols in the Book of Revelation come from? John draws these symbols in Revelation from two sources, the first one being the Old Testament Scriptures.
“One of the reasons we shouldn’t neglect the Old Testament is because we can’t understand the New Testament without it. Every book of the New Testament contains quotations from and allusions to the Old Testament. I’m not talking about mentioning stories, though that happens. New Testament writers articulate theology using the Old Testament. The book of Revelation is a dramatic case in point. No other book in the New Testament is as thoroughly saturated with the Old Testament as the book of Revelation. The book draws upon the Old Testament hundreds of times. While certain books are particularly influential (Daniel, Isaiah, Zechariah, Ezekiel), the apostle John basically considered the entire Old Testament as a source for his book.” (Michael Heiser, The 60 Second Scholar: 100 Insights That Illumine the Bible, 217-219 (Kindle Edition); Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press)
Some have declared that of the 404 verses in the Book of Revelation, at least 278 of them contain one or more references to the Old Testament. Misguided indeed are efforts to interpret Revelation without studying the Old Testament background.
Yet there are also other sources that the Book of Revelation draws on besides the Old Testament. Like many other inspired authors of the Bible, John references several uninspired books that were familiar to his readers.
“Many such Jewish and Christian apocalypses have been studied for millennia, but it was not until the first half of the nineteenth century that this literature was authoritatively identified as a distinct group of writings. This advancement coincided with the discoveries of several ancient Jewish manuscripts and the publication of their critical editions, especially of 1 Enoch and the Ascension of Isaiah. The bulk of these and other works—including some that do not take the form of an apocalypse yet still can be described as apocalyptic because they share constitutive traits of the genre—were studied and made accessible in English around the turn of the twentieth century by British scholar R. H. Charles, who drew heavily on them in his own scholarship on Revelation. Charles maintained that these sources offer such valuable contextual insight for exegesis that “the New Testament Apocalypse cannot be understood apart from Jewish Apocalyptic literature.” In fact, Charles credited much of his newfound respect for the theological profundity of Revelation to his contextual studies. “The first ground for such a revolution in my attitude to the Book,” Charles explained, “was due to an exhaustive study of Jewish Apocalyptic. The knowledge thereby acquired helped to solve many problems, which could only prove to be hopeless enigmas to scholars unacquainted with this literature.” Charles is not alone in his appreciation for this body of texts and its significance for unlocking Revelation. In the decades that have followed, his contention has come to be shared by many others, including Bauckham, who remarks, “The tradition of apocalyptic literature is the living literary tradition to whose forms and content [John of Patmos] is most indebted.”” (Ben C. Blackwell, John K. Goodrich, & Jason Maston, Reading Revelation in Context: John’s Apocalypse and Second Temple Judaism 22-23 (Kindle Edition); Grand Rapids, Michigan; Zondervan Academic)
Specifically, the Book of Revelation references these uninspired books: 1 Enoch (Revelation 1:1-20; 9:1-21; 20:1-15), the Epistle of Enoch (Revelation 2:1-3:22; 18:1-24), the Testament of Levi (Revelation 4:1-11), 2 Esdras (Revelation 5:1-14; 11:1-19; 13:1-18; 21:1-22:5), 2 Maccabees (Revelation 6:1-17), the Psalms of Solomon (Revelation 7:1-17; 19:1-21). the Testament of Adam (Revelation 8:1-13), the book of Jubilees (Revelation 10:1-11), Life Of Adam and Eve (Revelation 12:1-17), the Damascus Document (Revelation 14:1-20), the Words of the Luminaries (Revelation 15:1-16:21), Joseph and Aseneth (Revelation 17:1-18), and the Apocalypse of Zechariah (Revelation 22:6-21).
These references do not mean that the inspired Apostles endorse everything in these uninspired books, any more then their references to pagan works means that they endorsed everything in those works (cf. Acts 17:26-28; 1 Corinthians 15:33, etc). It simply tells us that those pagan writers got some things correct in what they had said and written, and the inspired Prophets and Apostles acknowledged this. (By the way: here is a lesson for us when studying with non-Christians or believers of a different religious group. We should acknowledge and commend when our religious friends have some things that are true and right. Finding common ground to build on together is helpful when studying with others from a different belief system).
In the same way, the references to uninspired books that were well known in the ancient world simply tell us that some of those historical statements and references to God were correct. While these sources may not be absolutely necessary for us to understand the messages of the Book of Revelation, they can help us to better understand what John is saying.
Being familiar with the sources of the symbolic language of Revelation will help us in better interpreting and applying it to our daily walk as Christians. At the same time, this helps us to see that the Bible encourages us to sometimes study sources outside of the Bible in order to better understand what is in the Bible. The Bible itself is the standard by which everything is weighed (cf. 1 John 4:6).
Lord, thank You for the Book of Revelation and the hope that it provides us. Please help us to study and become more familiar with it’s teachings that we may be further blessed and strengthened by it. Amen.