The Theology of the Book of Revelation Read online

  Many interpreters have been understandably reluctant to accept that John envisages the martyrdom of all Christians without exception, but it is what these passages clearly imply. On the other hand, John seems to be quite capable of also writing as though there will be faithful Christians still alive at the parousia (3:20; 16:15). This suggests that, on this issue as on many others, Revelation has suffered from interpretation which takes its images too literally. Even the most sophisticated interpreters all too easily slip into treating the images as codes which need only to be decoded to yield literal predictions. But this fails to take the images seriously as images. John depicts the future in images in order to be able to do both more and less than a literal prediction could. Less, because Revelation does not offer a literal outline of the course of future events – as though prophecy were merely history written in advance. But more, because what it does provide is insight into the nature of God’s purpose for the future, and does so in a way that shapes the readers’ attitudes to the future and invites their active participation in the divine purpose.

  In this light, we can see why Revelation portrays the future as though all faithful Christians will be martyred. The message of the book is that if Christians are faithful to their calling to bear witness to the truth against the claims of the beast, they will provoke a conflict with the beast so critical as to be a struggle to the death. The imagery of chapters 13–14 absolutizes this situation in order to reveal what is really at stake. The beast will tolerate no dissent from his self-deification. Witness to the truth is inconsistent with any compromise with his lies. Therefore the alternative becomes the utterly stark one: worship the beast or face martyrdom. The portrayal of the situation such that no one can escape this choice in this stark form embodies John’s prophetic insight into the issue between the church and the empire: that there can be no compromise between the truth of God and the idolatrous lie of the beast. It is an insight characteristic of the biblical prophetic tradition (cf. 1 Kings 18:21). It is not a literal prediction that every faithful Christian will in fact be put to death. But it does require that every faithful Christian must be prepared to die. The call to conquer allows no middle ground where Christians may hope to avoid death by compromising with the beast. In the situation John envisages, martyrdom belongs, as it were, to the essential nature of faithful witness. Not every faithful witness will actually be put to death, but all faithful witness requires the endurance and the faithfulness (13:10) that will accept martyrdom if it comes. If we must translate the call to conquer into literal terms, we could say that it requires every Christian already to accept the martyrdom that faithful witness may incur.

  THE HARVEST OF THE EARTH 11

  Chapters 12–14 depict the messianic war from the incarnation (12:5) to the parousia (14:14–20). But the militaristic imagery is abandoned before the end of the account in favour of other images. In chapter 13 we see the beast waging war on the saints. In 14:1–5 we see the martyrs, the Lamb’s army, successfully resisting attack on mount Zion and celebrating their triumph in heaven. But even before the end of the description of these followers of the Lamb, the imagery has shifted from military terms to those of sacrifice and witness (14–5). The effect of the martyrs’ victory on the nations (14:6–11) and the final outcome of the war at the parousia (14:14–20) are then depicted in images quite different from those of messianic war. The reason is, as we already know from 11:3–13, that the purpose of the participation of the Lamb’s followers in the messianic war is to bring the nations to repentance and faith in the true God. This cannot be depicted in the imagery of war.

  Therefore the effect of the martyrs’ witness on the nations is depicted in the three angelic proclamations of 14:6–11, addressed to the same universal constituency as submit to the beast’s rule and worship him (14:6; cf. 13:7–8). The conflict between the beast and the Christian martyrs confronts the nations with the choice: heed the witness of the martyrs and repent of idolatry (14:7) or face the judgment of God on all who worship the beast (14:9–11). The result of this choice, the outcome of the whole conflict, is then depicted in a new image – a traditional image of the eschatological consummation, but introduced only at this point in Revelation. This is the image of the harvest, which John presents in two forms: the grain harvest (14:14–16) and the vintage (14:17–20).

  The double image comes from Joel 3:13. Although this verse actually depicts the two stages of the grape harvest, the Hebrew word used for harvest is most commonly used for the grain harvest and so John has read it in that sense (and he was not the first to do so: cf. Mark 4:29). In this way he has drawn from Joel two images – the grain harvest and the vintage – both of which were in any case well-established images of the eschatological consummation (e.g. Isa. 63:1–4; Matt. 13:39–42; Mark 4:29; 4 Ezra 4:28–32; 2 Bar. 70:2). He has used the two images to depict the two aspects, positive and negative, of the parousia: the gathering of the converted nations into Christ’s kingdom and the final judgment of the unrepentant nations. This interpretation of the two images has only rarely been accepted by previous interpreters of Revelation, but John has clearly indicated it in three ways.

  In the first place, each of the two images is connected to an image earlier in the chapter. The ‘great winepress of the wrath of God’ (14:19) echoes both ‘the wine of the wrath of her fornication’ (14:8), which Babylon has made all nations drink, and ‘the cup of the wine of the anger of God poured undiluted into the cup of his wrath’ (14:1ο),12 which God makes all who have worshipped the beast drink. Babylon’s wine is the corrupting way of life which she offered the nations and thereby enticed them to worship the beast. God’s wine is the judgment on the nations (as can also be seen from the allusion to Isaiah 63:3, which is here combined with Joel 3:13).

  The corresponding antecedent to the image of the grain harvest is in 14:4: the 144,000 ‘have been ransomed from humanity as first fruits for God and the Lamb’. The phrase recalls 5:9, addressed to the Lamb: ‘by your blood you ransomed for God [people] from every tribe and language and people and nation’. But now we learn that the followers of the Lamb, ransomed by his sacrifice, are to be themselves a sacrifice. Moreover, they are a specific kind of sacrifice: first fruits. The first fruits were the first sheaf which was taken from the harvest before the rest was reaped, and which was then offered to God as a sacrifice (Lev. 23:9–14). The connexion between the first fruits of 14:4 and the reaping of the whole harvest in 14:14–16 would be obvious to any Jew, who was unlikely to be able to use the image of the first fruits without implying a full harvest of which the first fruits are the token and pledge (cf. Rom. 8:23; 11:16; 16:5; 1 Cor. 15:20, 23; 16:15). Thus the martyrs, redeemed from all the nations, are offered to God as the first fruits of the harvest of all the nations, whose reaping is depicted in 14:14–16.

  Secondly, although the descriptions of the harvest and the vintage are in many respects parallel, there is a major difference between them. The grain harvest takes place in only one action: reaping. The vintage comprises two actions: gathering the grapes into the winepress and treading the winepress. These two actions, we learn later in Revelation, correspond to the gathering of the kings of the earth and their armies to Armageddon (16:12–14) and the judgment of the nations at the parousia (19:15, which echoes 14:19 and reveals the identity of the one who treads the winepress, left enigmatic in 14:20). The account of the grain harvest could have been extended in parallel to the vintage, for reaping was followed by threshing (usually performed by animals trampling the grain) and winnowing (in which the good grain was separated from the chaff, which blew away or was burned). Just as treading the winepress is a natural image of judgment, so are threshing and winnowing. But reaping is not. When the harvest is used as an image of judgment, either threshing is the aspect specified (Jer. 51:33; Mic. 4:12–13; Hab. 3:l2; Matt. 3:12; Luke 3:17; cf. Rev. 11:2) or the wicked are compared with the chaff blown away by the wind or burned (Ps. 1:4; 35:5; Isa. 17:13; 29:5; Dan. 2:35; Hos. 13:3; Matt. 3:12; Luke 3:1
7). Discriminatory judgment could be symbolized by the gathering of the grain into the barns, while the weeds (removed before reaping) or the chaff are burned (Matt. 3:12; 13:30; Luke 3:17). Hardly ever is harvest, as such, a negative image of judgment (Hos. 6:11), while the specific action of reaping never is. With reference to the eschatological consummation, reaping is always a positive image of bringing people into the kingdom (Mark 4:29; John 4:35–8). Modern urban readers, not used to thinking about unmechanized agricultural processes, do not naturally bother to discriminate among biblical harvest images. But ancient readers differed from us in this respect. The actions depicted were very familiar to them. They would immediately notice that Revelation’s picture of the grain harvest does not proceed to the processes which symbolized judgment, while that of the vintage does.

  Thirdly, the single action in the grain harvest is performed by ‘one like a son of man’, seated on a cloud and wearing a crown (14:14), whereas the two actions of the vintage are performed respectively by an angel (14:19) and one whose identity is not revealed until 19:11–16 depicts him as the divine warrior and judge. The figure who reaps the grain harvest is certainly Jesus Christ (cf. 1:13) and so is the one who treads the winepress, but the two images of Christ are different. The description of the figure on the cloud is a precise allusion to Daniel 7:13–14, the only verses in Daniel which refer to One like a son of man’. They depict him coming on clouds to God (compare the relation of the cloud to the heavenly temple in Revelation 14:14–15) to receive dominion over ‘all peoples, nations and languages’ (7:14; compare the golden crown which the figure in Revelation 14:14 wears). Daniel 7 does not depict this figure as a judge or as concerned in the destruction of the beast. He simply receives his universal kingdom. This is also what he does in Revelation 14:14–16. He receives into his kingdom the nations which have been won from the beast’s dominion for Christ’s by the martyrs’ conquest of the beast. Unlike the Gospel traditions in which Jesus is called ‘the Son of man’, John carefully uses the exact phrase from Daniel, ‘one like a son of man’, and uses it only here and in 1:13. He does not associate Daniel 7:13–14 with Christ’s parousia as judge, as some early Christian writers do, but restricts the christological reference of the passage to what it actually says, which closely related to his own interest in Christ’s rule over all the nations. In 1:13 Christ is depicted as the one who has authority already over the churches, but as we now know he constituted the churches a kingdom for God only so that they, by their witness in the world, could participate in bringing all the nations into the kingdom of God and his Christ (11:15). He is ‘one like a son of man’ precisely in relation to the churches as lampstands (1:12–13), bearing light for the nations. In 14:14–16 we see Christ’s kingdom extended from the church to the nations.

  So in 14:14–20 John depicts the outcome of history in two contrasting images – the positive ‘harvest of the earth’ and the negative ‘vintage of the earth’. This is rather different from 11:13, where the story of the church’s witness ends with the conversion of all who survive the warning judgments. The difference corresponds to the fact that in chapters 13–14 the power and deception of the beast have been presented and the ambiguity of the conflict between the beast and the martyrs highlighted. It is an open question whether the nations will accept the witness of the martyrs and perceive their death as victory over the beast or whether they will persist in delusion and continue to worship the beast who appears to triumph over the martyrs. The double conclusion to chapter 14 corresponds to the two possibilities opened by the proclamation of the angels (14:6–11). We shall return to this issue after considering the third and final passage in which Revelation depicts the effect of the witness of the martyrs in converting the nations (15:2–4).

  THE CONVERSION OF THE NATIONS

  In this passage it is the new exodus motif which is used to depict the effect of the church’s witness to the nations. In 15:2 the martyrs are seen to have come triumphantly out of their conflict with the beast. Their passage through martyrdom to heaven is compared with the passage of the Israelites through the Red Sea, for the sea of glass in heaven (cf. 4:6) is now mingled with the fire of divine judgment (15:2). They stand beside the sea, praising God for the victory he has wrought for them, just as the people of Israel, led by Moses, sang a song of praise to God for his deliverance of them from Pharaoh’s army (Exod. 15:1–18). Because the new exodus is the victory the martyrs have won, by the blood of the Lamb (cf. 7:14; 12:11), their song is not only the song of Moses but also the song of the Lamb.

  The words of the martyrs’ song are not, however, those of the song of Moses in Exodus 15:1–18; but nor are they simply another song, with which John has replaced the original song of Moses. Like the version of the song of Moses which Isaiah 12 predicts that Israel will sing at the new exodus, Revelation’s version is an interpretation of the song of Moses, which John has produced by typically skilful use of current Jewish exegetical methods. As he related the hymn of Exodus 15 to the eschatological exodus, John evidently identified five points of significance:

  (1) God’s mighty act of judgment on his enemies, which was also the deliverance of his people. (Exod. 15:1–10, 12)

  (2) God’s mighty act of judgment demonstrated God’s incomparable superiority to the pagan gods:

  Who is like you, O LORD, among the gods?

  Who is like you, majestic in holiness,

  awesome in splendour, doing wonders?

  (Exod. 15:11)

  (3) God’s mighty act of judgment filled the pagan nations with fear. (Exod. 15:14–16)

  (4) It brought his people into his temple. (Exod. 15:13, 17)

  (5) The song concludes: ‘The Lord shall reign forever and ever’. (Exod. 15:18)

  The words with which the song ends (5) clearly connect with Revelation’s overall theme of the establishment of God’s eschatological kingdom, and so John has already quoted them at 11:15. The significance of the new exodus for him is ultimately that it leads to God’s eternal kingdom. Point (1) is reflected in the references to God’s deeds, ways and judgments (Rev. 15:3–4), and point (4) is fulfilled in the presence of the martyrs in the heavenly sanctuary (15:2: implied by the sea of glass, which is before the divine throne, according to 4:6). But it is notable that the deliverance of God’s people, though presupposed, is not mentioned in Revelation’s version of the song. Point (2) is plainly relevant to Revelation’s concern with demonstrating the incomparability of the one true God against the idolatrous pretensions of the beast. Therefore the words with which the whole world worships the beast in 13:4 are in fact a parody of these words from the song of Moses: ‘Who is like the beast, and who can fight against it?’ John understands the new exodus as God’s demonstration of his incomparable deity to the nations, refuting the beast’s claim to deity. Therefore also point (4) falls into place: God demonstrates his deity so that the nations ‘fear God and give him glory’ (14:7). This has become in fact the main point of the interpretation of the song given by the version in Revelation 15:3–4. In Exodus 15, God’s mighty act of judgment and deliverance inspires terror in the pagan nations. This is indeed, in the context, a recognition of his incomparable deity, but its significance remains rather negative. John has reinterpreted it in a strongly positive sense, as referring to the repentance of all the nations and their acknowledgment and worship of the one true God.

  He has arrived at this interpretation of the song of Moses by way of two other Old Testament passages, which he has used to interpret it and both of which he quotes in his own version of the song. He has connected these passages with the song of Moses because both have parallels to the song’s key verse (Exod. 15:11) about the incomparability of God. In the following quotations, the words parallel to Exodus 15:11 are underlined, those quoted in Revelation 15:3–4 are italicized.

  There is none like you, O LORD;

  you are great, and your name is great in might.

  Who would not fear you, O King of the nations?

&n
bsp; For that is your due.

  (Jer. 10:6–7a)

  There is none like you among the gods, O Lord,

  nor are there any works like yours.

  All the nations you have made shall come

  and bow down before you, O Lord,

  and shall glorify your name.

  For you are great and do wondrous things;

  you alone are God.

  (Ps. 86:8–10)

  In this way, John has interpreted the song of Moses in line with the most universalistic strain in Old Testament hope: the expectation that all the nations will come to acknowledge the God of Israel and worship him.

  The significance of this version of the song of Moses is considerable. The effect is to shift the emphasis in the significance of the new exodus, from an event by which God delivers his people by judging their enemies to an event which brings the nations to acknowledge the true God. The martyrs celebrate the victory God has won through their death and vindication, not by praising him for their own deliverance, but by celebrating its effect on the nations, in bringing them to worship God. This gives a fresh significance to the use of new exodus imagery with reference to the first stage of Christ’s work, in which by his death he ransomed a people from all the nations to be God’s own people (5:9–10). We now see that this redemption of a special people from all the peoples is not an end in itself, but has a further purpose: to bring all the peoples to acknowledge and worship God. In the first stage of his work, the Lamb’s bloody sacrifice redeemed a people for God. In the second stage, this people’s participation in his sacrifice, through martyrdom, wins all the peoples for God. This is how God’s universal kingdom comes.