1. Traditionally, Revelation is the last book of the Bible. I don't mean chronologically (although that's quite possible), but in terms of the canonical sequence in standard editions of the Bible. This seems to be a scribal tradition. Scribes must make editorial decisions about the order in which to copy the books. And that in turn reflects precedent, if they copy a preexisting manuscript. It's an interesting question when the sequence of the NT became standardized in church history.
But even if we were starting from scratch, it's natural for Revelation to round out the canon. A logical climax to the OT and NT alike.
2. One of the challenges facing a commentator is how to outline a book of the Bible. Narrative books of Scripture have a plot. In some cases the outline is straightforward, but in other cases, like Revelation, that figures in the overall interpretation of the book.
One question is whether this simply concerns the internal structure of Revelation, or if the structure of Revelation is in some measure a mirror-image of Bible history, the Pentateuch or OT. To take just one example, Genesis plots a journey out of Eden while Revelation plots a journey back to Eden. But are there other parallels or mirror-images in terms of the plot?
3. There are different ways to outline a narrative. A common method is by time. By events. By the actions of agents in the narrative.
However, we can also plot a narrative in terms of motion through space rather than motion through time. Like a movie with changing scenes. Many biblical narratives are travelogues.
In Biblical narratives, people are situated in different places. They begin in a particular place. They move from one locale to another. And the locations may be theologically or symbolically significant. Moving from one place to another may represent a change in the traveler's spiritual condition, for better or worse. Consider the different connotations of a pilgrim and a drifter.
4. Take the three-story universe: sky, earth, sea (or netherworld). It's natural to imagine that in vertical terms because humans are earthlings for whom the sky is "up".
However, the spatial orientation is more complex. A horizontal dimension as humans walk across the surface of the earth.
In addition, the surface of the earth isn't flat. The land has "stories". Hills and mountains, steppes, plateaus, valleys, caves, canyons, plains, and coastlines.
Suppose you view the three-story universe as a building, and you lay it on its side. Instead of three stories, it's a single-story house with three rooms: front, middle, and back–or middle with two side rooms.
The tabernacle complex is like a three-story building laid on its side: the courtyard, sanctuary, and inner sanctum. In addition, there's a concentric dimension: the inner sanctum is inside the sanctuary, which is inside the courtyard, which is inside Eretz Israel, which is inside (surrounded by) pagan nations and the Mediterranean sea.
The depiction of a three-story universe is somewhat arbitrary because that reflects the viewpoint of an earthbound observer. We can easily reorient our perspective if we mentally lay it on its side. And that's a way to read biblical narratives. Where you begin. Checkpoints along the way. And your destination.
5. Space is a narrative category in the Pentateuch. A category with emblematic significance:
i) In Gen 1, God creates sky, land, and sea (oceans, lakes, rivers).
ii) In Gen 2, God makes man's ancestral home. That's a good place to be.
iii) In Gen 3, Adam and Eve are expelled from the Garden. They lose access to the tree of life for themselves and their posterity.
iv) In Gen 6-9, Noah's family undergo drastic dislocation.
v) In Gen 10-11, the human race is scattered to the winds.
vi) In Gen 12, God summons Abraham from Ur. Abraham is like Adam in exile. Ur represents the plight of Adam's banished posterity, sunken in pagan idolatry and immorality.
vii) Having left his ancestral home at God's behest, Abraham is rootless. A wayfarer–as are Isaac and Jacob.
viii) Sodom and Gomorrah (Gen 13,18-19) were located by the Dead Sea, which lies far below sea level. A symbolic netherworld. The area is generally inhospitable although freshwater springs rivers create a few oases. After fiery destruction, it becomes an earthly token of hell.
ix) In Gen 37-50), Joseph winds up in Egypt, and sponsors the rest of his relatives. That's initially benign.
x) In Exodus, Egypt becomes a place of oppression.
xi) Crossing the Red Sea, the Israelites become stranded in the Sinai desert. The antipode of Eden.
xii) Eventually they will cross the Jordan river to settle in the Promised land.
6. Places are central in great prophets like Isaiah and Ezekiel. Passage in space as well as passage in time. And these places have spiritual connotations, for good or ill.
Take the Babylonian exile. That represents judgment. By the same token, Isaiah and Ezekiel both depict the netherworld as a place of judgment (Isa 14; Ezk 32).
Ezekiel has paradise lost (Ezk 28) and paradise regained (Ezk 37:1-12)–as well as the new Jerusalem (Ezk 38-48). Likewise, Isaiah has the new Jerusalem (Isa 2) and the new Eden (Isa 65-66). The future represents a physical destination.
7. The opening scene in Revelation takes place on Patmos, a Roman penal colony.
i) An island in the Aegean Sea, the ocean forms a natural barrier, precluding escape.
ii) Although John can't go anywhere, Jesus can go to John. A stupendous Christophany initiates a series of visions. In a sense, the action in the Apocalypse plays out on Patmos. It all happens in the mind of John.
iii) Jesus dictates letters to churches in Roman colonies. Immersed in the dominant pagan culture. That includes Jewish communities, but many Jews have turned against the Christian movement.
iv) The cosmography of Revelation reflects a three-story universe: heaven/sky, land, and sea or netherworld. Heaven represents the domain of God, saints, and angels. The earth is a battleground while the netherworld is subdivided into the domain of demons (the abyss) and the domain of the damned (Hades).
v) One monster comes from the sea (Rev 13:1) while another monster comes from the netherworld (Rev 13:11).
vi) There are two seas. The sea below represents a fallen domain while the sea above represents heaven. The glassy sea (Rev 4:6; 15:2), issuing from the throne of God, is reminiscent of Ezk 47:1-12–which in turn, evokes the rivers of Eden. A reversal of Gen 19. Not a restoration of the dead sinners, but the land.
vii) The Euphrates (Rev 9:14; 16:12) triggers associations with Babylon and Eden. Abraham, the Babylonian exile, and the long-lost Garden.
viii) In addition to the seminal Tempter in Gen 3, the dragon (Rev 12:3) parallels the genocidal Pharaoh of the Exodus. Egypt is depicted as a marine dragon or sea-monster (Ps 74:13-14; Isa 27:1; 51:9; Ezk 29:3; 32-2-3). Likewise, the woman escaping into the wilderness (Rev 12:6,14) parallels the fleeing Israelites (Exod 19:4; Deut 8:3).
ix) The beast of the sea is the functional counterpart to Pharaoh while the false prophet is the functional counterpart to his court sorcerers. The whore of Babylon is the counterpart to Ur, Sodom, and Gomorrah. The lake of fire might be the counterpart to the Dead Sea if the conflagration which engulfed Sodom and Gomorrah turned the Dead Sea into a cauldron of boiling water, from the hailstorm of fire and brimstone.
8. The upshot is that one way to outline narratives of Scripture is to map them by space rather than time. In the Pentateuch, after the primary spaces are made (Gen 1), man is given a very auspicious place to begin. But he is banished. Life in exile degenerates into heathen vassalage, rootlessness, and judgment. They are delivered from bondage, but the wilderness becomes another place of judgment.
In the Apocalypse, John is banished to a penal colony, while Christian communities teeter on a knife-edge of assimilation or annihilation. But the final destination is a new Eden. In a way, the Pentateuch ends where Revelation begins while Revelation ends where the Pentateuch begins. A mirror-image.
This is very helpful!
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