The Book of Revelation is a work of profound theology. But its literary form makes it impenetrable to many modern readers and open to all kinds of misinterpretations. Richard Bauckham explains how the book’s imagery conveyed meaning in its original context and how the book’s theology is inseparable from its literary structure and composition. Revelation is seen to offer not an esoteric and encoded forecast of historical events but rather a theocentric vision of the coming of God’s universal kingdom, contextualized in the late first-century world dominated by Roman power and ideology. It calls on Christians to confront the political idolatries of the time and to participate in God’s purpose of gathering all the nations into his kingdom. Once Revelation is properly grounded in its original context it is seen to transcend that context and speak to the contemporary church. This study concludes by highlighting Revelation’s continuing relevance for today.
NEW TESTAMENT THEOLOGY
General Editor: James D. G. Dunn, Lightfoot Professor of Divinity, University of Durham
The theology of the Book of Revelation
This series provides a programmatic survey of the individual writings of the New Testament. It aims to remedy the deficiency of available published material, which has tended to concentrate on historical, textual, grammatical and literary issues at the expense of the theology, or to lose distinctive emphases of individual writings in systematized studies of ‘The Theology of Paul’ and the like. New Testament specialists here write at greater length than is usually possible in the introductions to commentaries or as part of other New Testament theologies, and explore the theological themes and issues of their chosen books without being tied to a commentary format, or to a thematic structure drawn from elsewhere. When complete, the series will cover all the New Testament writings, and will thus provide an attractive, and timely, range of texts around which courses can be developed.
THE THEOLOGY OF THE BOOK OF REVELATION
RICHARD BAUCKHAM
Professor of New Testament Studies
St Mary’s College, University of St Andrews
CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS
Cambridge, New York, Melbourne, Madrid, Cape Town, Singapore, São Paulo,
Delhi, Mexico City
Cambridge University Press
The Edinburgh Building, Cambridge CB2 8RU, UK
Published in the United States of America by Cambridge University Press, New York
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Information on this title: www.cambridge.org/9780521356107
© Cambridge University Press 1993
This publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place without the written permission of Cambridge University Press.
First published 1993
20th printing 2013
Printed in the United States of America by Edwards Brothers
A catalogue record for this publication is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloguing in Publication data
Bauckham, Richard.
The theology of the Book of Revelation / Richard Bauckham.
p. cm. – (New Testament theology)
Includes bibliographical references
ISBN 0 521 35610 5 (hardback) – ISBN 0 521 35691 1 (paperback)
1. Bible, N.T. Revelation – Theology. I. Title. II. Series.
BS2825.2B387 1993
228′.06–dc 20 92-15805 CIP
ISBN 978-0-521-35691-6 Paperback
Cambridge University Press has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of URLs for external or third-party internet websites referred to in this publication, and does not guarantee that any content on such websites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate.
For Loveday and Philip Alexander
Contents
Editor’s preface
List of abbreviations
1 Reading the Book of Revelation
2 The One who is and who was and who is to come
3 The Lamb on the throne
4 The victory of the Lamb and his followers
5 The Spirit of prophecy
6 The New Jerusalem
7 Revelation for today
Further reading
Index
Editor’s preface
Although the New Testament is usually taught within Departments or Schools or Faculties of Theology/Divinity/Religion, theological study of the individual New Testament writings is often minimal or at best patchy. The reasons for this are not hard to discern.
For one thing, the traditional style of studying a New Testament document is by means of straight exegesis, often verse by verse. Theological concerns jostle with interesting historical, textual, grammatical and literary issues, often at the cost of the theological. Such exegesis is usually very time-consuming, so that only one or two key writings can be treated in any depth within a crowded three-year syllabus.
For another, there is a marked lack of suitable textbooks round which courses could be developed. Commentaries are likely to lose theological comment within a mass of other detail in the same way as exegetical lectures. The section on the theology of a document in the Introduction to a commentary is often very brief and may do little more than pick out elements within the writing under a sequence of headings drawn from systematic theology. Excursuses usually deal with only one or two selected topics. Likewise larger works on New Testament Theology usually treat Paul’s letters as a whole and, having devoted the great bulk of their space to Jesus, Paul and John, can spare only a few pages for others.
In consequence, there is little incentive on the part of teacher or student to engage with a particular New Testament document, and students have to be content with a general overview, at best complemented by in-depth study of (parts of) two or three New Testament writings. A serious corollary to this is the degree to which students are thereby incapacitated in the task of integrating their New Testament study with the rest of their Theology or Religion courses, since often they are capable only of drawing on the general overview or on a sequence of particular verses treated atomistically. The growing importance of a literary-critical approach to individual documents simply highlights the present deficiencies even more. Having been given little experience in handling individual New Testament writings as such at a theological level, most students are very ill-prepared to develop a properly integrated literary and theological response to particular texts. Ordinands too need more help than they currently receive from textbooks, so that their preaching from particular passages may be better informed theologically.
There is need therefore for a series to bridge the gap between too brief an introduction and too full a commentary where theological discussion is lost among too many other concerns. It is our aim to provide such a series. That is, a series where New Testament specialists are able to write at greater length on the theology of individual writings than is usually possible in the introductions to commentaries or as part of New Testament Theologies, and to explore the theological themes and issues of these writings without being tied to a commentary format or to a thematic structure provided from elsewhere. The volumes seek both to describe each document’s theology, and to engage theologically with it, noting also its canonical context and any specific influence it may have had on the history of Christian faith and life. They are directed at those who already have one or two years of full-time New Testament and theological study behind them.
James D. G. Dunn
University of Durham
Abbreviations
Biblical and other Ancient Literature
&n
bsp; Ap.Abr.
Apocalypse of Abraham
Ap. Paul
Apocalypse of Paul
Ap.Zeph.
Apocalypse of Zephaniah
Asc.Isa.
Ascension of Isaiah
2 Bar.
2 Baruch (Syriac Apocalypse of Baruch)
Bel
Bel and the Dragon
b.Sanh.
Babylonian Talmud tractate Sanhedrin
2 Chron.
2 Chronicles
1 Clem.
1 Clement
2 Clem.
2 Clement
Col.
Colossians
1 Cor.
1 Corinthians
2 Cor.
2 Corinthians
Dan.
Daniel
Deut.
Deuteronomy
Did.
Didache
Eph.
Ephesians
Exod.
Exodus
Ezek.
Ezekiel
Gal.
Galatians
Gen.
Genesis
Hab.
Habakkuk
Heb.
Hebrews
Hermas, Mand.
Hermas, Mandates
Hermas, Vis.
Hermas, Visions
Hos.
Hosea
Isa.
Isaiah
Jer.
Jeremiah
Josephus, Ant.
Josephus, Antiquitates Judaicae
Jos. As.
Joseph and Asenath
Jub.
Jubilees
Judg.
Judges
L.A.B.
Pseudo-Philo, Liber Antiquitatum Biblicarum
Lad. Jac.
Ladder of Jacob
Liv. Proph.
Lives of the Prophets
Matt.
Matthew
Mic.
Micah
Num.
Numbers
Odes Sol.
Odes of Solomon
1 Pet.
1 Peter
2 Pet.
2 Peter
Philo, Mos.
Philo, De Vita Mosis
Philo, Plant.
Philo, De Plantatione
Ps.
Psalm
1QGen.Apoc.
Genesis Apocryphon from Qumran Cave 1
1QH
Hodayot (Thanksgiving Hymns) from Qumran Cave 1
1QM
Milhamah (War Scroll) from Qumran Cave 1
4QpIsa.
Pesher on Isaiah from Qumran Cave 4
1QSb
Blessings from Qumran Cave 1
Rev.
Revelation
Rom.
Romans
1 Sam.
1 Samuel
2 Sam.
2 Samuel
Sir.
Ben Sira (Ecclesiasticus)
2 Tim.
2 Timothy
T.Levi
Testament of Levi
Tob.
Tobit
Zech.
Zechariah
Serial publications
AARSR
American Academy of Religion Studies on Religion
BETL
Bibliotheca Ephemeridum
Theologicarum Lovaniensium
BNTC
Black’s New Testament Commentaries
BZNW
Beihefte zur Zeitschrift für die neutestamentliche Wissenschaft
EQ
Evangelical Quarterly
Int.
Interpretation
JBL
Journal of Biblical Literature
JSNTSS
Journal for the Study of the New Testament Supplement Series
JSOTSS
Journal for the Study of the Old Testament Supplement Series
NCB
New Century Bible
Neot.
Neotestamentica
NTS
New Testament Studies
RTP
Revue de Théologie et de Philosophie
SNTSMS
SNTS Monograph Series
TDNT
G. Kittel, ed., Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, 10 vols, (trans. G. W. Bromiley; Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1964–76)
Them.
Themelios
TU
Texte und Untersuchungen
TynB
Tyndale Bulletin
WUNT
Wissenschaftliche Untersuchungen zum Neuen Testament
ZNW
Zeitschrift für die neutestamentliche Wissenschaft
CHAPTER 1
Reading the Book of Revelation
WHAT KIND OF A BOOK IS REVELATION?
It is important to begin by asking this question, because our answer determines our expectations of the book, the kind of meaning we expect to find in it. One of the problems readers of the New Testament have with Revelation is that it seems an anomaly among the other New Testament books. They do not know how to read it. Misinterpretations of Revelation often begin by misconceiving the kind of book it is.
At least in the case of ancient books, the beginning of the work is usually the essential indication of the kind of book it is intended to be. The opening verses of Revelation seem to indicate that it belongs not to just one but to three kinds of literature. The first verse, which is virtually a title, speaks of the revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him and which reaches God’s servants through a chain of revelation: God → Christ → angel → John (the writer) → the servants of God. The word ‘revelation’ or ‘apocalypse’ (apokalypsis) suggests that the book belongs to the genre of ancient Jewish and Christian literature which modern scholars call apocalypses, and even though we cannot in fact be sure that the word itself already had this technical sense when John used it there is a great deal in Revelation which resembles the other works we call apocalypses.
However, 1:3 describes Revelation as a prophecy intended to be read aloud in the context of Christian worship, and this claim to be a prophecy is confirmed by the epilogue to the book (cf. 22:6–7, which echoes 1:1–3, and especially 22:18–19). But then 1:4–6 can leave no doubt that Revelation is intended to be a letter. Verses 4–5a follow the conventional form of letter-opening used by Paul and other early Christian leaders: statement of writer and addressees, followed by a greeting in the form: ‘Grace to you and peace from …’ There are differences from Paul’s usual form, but the early Christian letter form is clear and is confirmed by the conclusion of the book (22:21), which is comparable with the conclusions of many of Paul’s letters. Thus Revelation seems to be an apocalyptic prophecy in the form of a circular letter to seven churches in the Roman province of Asia. This is explicit in 1:11: what is revealed to John (what he ‘sees’) he is to write and send to the seven churches which are here named. This command applies to all the visions and revelations which follow in the rest of the book. The habit of referring to chapters 2–3 as the seven ‘letters’ to the churches is misleading. These are not as such letters but prophetic messages to each church. It is really the whole book of Revelation which is one circular letter to the seven churches. The seven messages addressed individually to each church are introductions to the rest of the book which is addressed to all seven churches. Thus we must try to do justice to the three categories of literature – apocalypse, prophecy and letter – into which Revelation seems to fall. In considering each in turn it will be appropriate to begin with prophecy.
REVELATION AS CHRISTIAN PROPHECY
Virtually all we know about John, the author of Revelation, is that he was a Jewish Christian prophet. Evidently he was one of a circle of prophets in the churches of the province of Asia (22:6), and evidently he had at least one rival: the Thyatiran prophetess whom he considers a false prophet (2:20). Thus to understand his book we must situate it in the context of early Christian prophecy. John must normally have
been active as a prophet in the churches to which he writes. The seven messages to the churches reveal detailed knowledge of each local situation, and 2:21 presumably refers to an earlier prophetic oracle of his, addressed to the prophetess he calls Jezebel at Thyatira. John was no stranger to these churches but had exercised a prophetic ministry in them and knew them well.
Since Christian prophets normally prophesied in the context of Christian worship meetings, we must assume that this is what John usually did. The reading of this written prophecy in the worship service (1:3) was therefore a substitute for John’s more usual presence and prophesying in person. Usually in the early churches prophets delivered oracles which were given to them by God in the worship meeting. They declared the revelation as they received it (cf. 1 Cor. 14:30; Hermas, Mand. 11:9). It took the form of a word of God spoken to the church, under the inspiration of the Spirit, in the name of God or the risen Christ, so that the ‘I’ of the oracle was the divine person addressing the church through the prophet (cf. Odes Sol. 42:6). But early Christian prophets seem also to have received visionary revelations which they conveyed to the church later in the form of a report of the vision (cf. Acts 10:9–11:18; Hermas, Vis. 1–4). In this case the vision was initially a private experience, even if it happened during the worship service, and was only subsequently reported to the church as prophecy. We can make a useful, though not absolute, distinction between these two types of prophecy: oracles, spoken in the name of God or Christ, and reports of visions, in which the prophets had received revelations in order subsequently to pass them on to others. The whole book of Revelation is a report of visionary revelation, but it also includes oracular prophecy within it. This occurs in the prologue (1:8) and the epilogue (22:12–13, 16, 20); the seven messages to the churches (2:1–3:22) are oracles written as Christ’s word to the churches; and also throughout the book (e.g. 13:9–10; 14:13b; 16:15) there are prophetic oracles which interrupt the accounts of the visions.
The Theology of the Book of Revelation Page 1
