The Theology of the Book of Revelation Read online

  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

  www.cambridge.org

  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.