Furthermore, one of key passages early on in the book is 6:9–11, where the fifth seal when opened reveals “the souls of those who had been slain because of the word of God and the testimony they had maintained.” This is followed in 7:14 with the great multitude in white robes who “have come out of the great tribulation,” and who now appear in heaven “before the throne of God,” where they are promised no more suffering (vv. 16–17). The same thing happens again in the opening visions of the second half of the book (12:11 and 17), where their suffering and death is linked to their “holding fast their testimony about Jesus.” Then, in the rest of this half of the book (chs. 13–22) their suffering and death are specifically attributed to the Empire itself (“the beast”).1
This motif is the obvious key to understanding the historical context of the book, and fully explains its occasion and purpose. John himself is in exile, apparently for his faith; others are at the same time experiencing various degrees of suffering. John has the prophetic insight to recognize that the martyrdom of Antipas of Pergamum (2:13) is but the beginning of a holocaust that will soon overtake those who proclaim as Lord not only someone other than Caesar himself, but One whom a former Caesar had executed as a criminal of the state. At the same time—and this is John’s greater urgency—chapters 2 and 3 make it plain that there are some internal disorders that make him not at all certain God’s people are ready for the great onslaught that is about to come upon them. Indeed, at issue for him is a church that is on the brink of disaster—concern over the issue of sovereignty and oppression by the Empire, on the one hand, and fear lest the church not be able to resist it, on the other.
This especially accounts for the words found in the opening and closing inclusio. In 1:3 God’s blessing rests on those who “keep” (NIV “take to heart”) what is said in this book; in 22:7 the closing benediction rests on “those who keep the words of the prophecy in this scroll.” This also accounts for the (otherwise strange) collocation of verses 11 to 15 at the very end:
11Let those who do wrong continue to do wrong; let those who are vile continue to be vile; let those who do right continue to do right; and let those who are holy continue to be holy.”
12“Look, I am coming soon! My reward is with me, and I will give to everyone according to what they have done. 13I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End.
14“Blessed are those who wash their robes, that they may have the right to the tree of life and may go through the gates into the city. 15Outside are the dogs, those who practice magic arts, the sexually immoral, the murderers, the idolaters and everyone who loves and practices falsehood.
Here is a sudden, concluding appeal for faithfulness and watchfulness, with a beatitude for God’s faithful ones and an (assumed) curse on all the others.
Such a view of things further accounts for the repeated warnings throughout the book; especially those in connection with the plagues and, in chapters 13–14, about going along with the beast. Thus when John sings his funeral dirge over Rome in chapter 18—one of the truly great moments in all of Scripture—it is accompanied by this final warning (v. 4):
‘Come out of her my people,’2
so that you will not share in her sins,
so that you will not receive any of her plagues
Thus the main themes are clear. The church and state are on a collision course of some magnitude over who runs the universe, and John fully recognizes that power and victory presently appear to belong to the state. But because of Rome’s arrogance and oppression, God will bring her to ruin. Thus (still in ch. 18):
6Give back to her as she has given;
pay her back double for what she has done.
Pour her a double portion from her own cup.
7Give her as much torment and grief
as the glory and luxury she gave herself.
In her heart she boasts,
‘I sit enthroned as queen; I am not a widow,
and I will never mourn.’ [Isa 47:7, 8]
8Therefore in one day her plagues will overtake her:
death, mourning and famine.
She will be consumed by fire,
for mighty is the Lord God who judges her.
With her will be all the petty kings, seamen, and merchants who have courted her (vv. 9–19). And at the heart of everything is the cult of the emperor, who had begun by now to be “worshiped” as “Lord and Savior”!
Thus John first of all warns the church that suffering and death lie ahead. Indeed, he has the prophetic insight to recognize that it will get worse, far worse, before it ever gets better; and his primary concern for the churches is that they do not cave in under the coming pogrom they are about to experience. Thus the various texts that serve as warnings:
If anyone worships the beast and its image and receives its mark on their forehead or on their hand, they, too will drink of the wine of God’s fury, which has been poured full strength into the cup of his wrath. (14:9–10)
Come out of her, my people, so that you will not share in her sins, so that you will not receive any of her plagues. (18:4)
But the prophetic word of this book is also one of encouragement, as John repeatedly announces that God, not the Empire, is in control of history; that the church will triumph even through death; that God will finally bring justice and pour out his wrath on the persecutor; and that at the end God will bring eternal rest to the faithful.
A final note in this regard: it is imperative that the reader note the clear distinction John makes between two crucial words (and thus ideas): thlipsis (tribulation) and orgē (wrath). Tribulation, including suffering and death, is clearly part of what the church was already enduring; John’s primary prophetic word is that noted above, that such tribulation will get far worse before it ever gets better, that such suffering and death are going to come in even greater measure before the End itself. Misunderstanding the meaning of this word accounts for most of the poor reading of this document. But John’s second prophetic word sets the former in divine perspective; God’s wrath (i.e., his judgments) will finally be poured out on those responsible for the suffering—and on all others who join in the rebellion against God and the Lamb, a view that is wholly consonant with the rest of the New Testament.3
The Revelation: Who Wrote It?
The authorship of the Apocalypse is complicated by its relationship with the Fourth Gospel and the three epistles that bear the name of John, even though all of these, as with the three Synoptic Gospels, actually come to us without naming the author. By way of contrast, the author of this book identifies himself simply as “John.” At issue for later readers is, which John? The primary answer to this is, a John well known to his readers, a person who obviously held a place of some importance among them—which may be attributed either to age or position, or as is most likely, to both. At this point, as with the Gospels, we are thrown back on what has been said by other early Christians, all of whom held the author of the Fourth Gospel and the three Johannine Epistles to be the Apostle John (the author calls himself “the elder”