Deciphering the Clues of Revelation (3)
Did John write about events that were thousands of years away, and irrelevant to his immediate audience, or did he describe things that were "just about to happen"?
This is Part 3 of a 5-part series. Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5
“Does anybody really know what time it is? Does anybody really care?” — Chicago
Thus far in this series, we’ve looked at some of the fascinating parallels that exist between numerous Old and New Testament passages and the mysterious woman, “Babylon the Great,” mentioned in the book of Revelation. In this piece, I’d like to highlight some of the benefits associated with the idea that we’ll have a better chance of understanding John’s vision if we attempt to interpret his words and grammar in the light of its original first-century context.
Many modern interpreters have argued for a symbolic or trans-temporal reading of Revelation (i.e., its themes apply to all times and places rather than to any particular time or place),1 however, if we pay close attention to the clear language of the opening, John immediately calls attention to the fact that he was writing about things that, from his perspective in time, were just around the corner. Here is John’s opening:
The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show to his servants the things that must soon take place. He made it known by sending his angel to his servant John, who bore witness to the word of God and to the testimony of Jesus Christ, even to all that he saw. Blessed…are those who hear, and who keep what is written in it, for the time is near (Rev 1:1-3).
If we take these words at face value, John doesn’t appear to be writing about things that are always true or things that will take place thousands of years in the future. This becomes even more clear as we make our way through the book, since John keeps repeating this same point: (Rev 2:16, 3:11, 11:14, 22:6-7, 12, 20). If this idea is news to you, it may take some time for you to wrap your head around it. In the end, however, it’s not all that different from the way we interpret the book of Daniel. Though events were future from the prophet’s perspective, we should interpret them as having already been fulfilled.2
When John says in verse 1 that these things must soon take place, he uses the Greek word τᾰ́χος, which refers to “a very brief period of time, with focus on speed of an activity or event, speed, quickness, swiftness, haste.”3 When used in an adverbial sense, it means “quickly, soon, immediately.”4 This is the word we find in John 13:27 when Jesus tells Judas, “What you are going to do, do quickly.” The other clear word in John’s opening appears in verse 3 when he writes that “the time is near” (ἐγγύς). This word refers to “close proximity” in either space or time.5 Back in 1898, F.W. Farrar noted that John “emphatically says that the future events which he has to foreshadow will occur speedily (ἐν τάχει) and the recurrent burden of his whole book is the nearness (‘ο καιρὸς ἐγγύς)…Language is simply meaningless if it is to be so manipulated by every successive commentator as to make the words “speedily” and “near” imply any number of centuries of delay.”6
A Hidden Key
There’s another helpful interpretive key in Rev 1:19, but because of the way this verse is often translated, it’s not always easy to see. John is specifically instructed to record everything he sees in his vision: “Write therefore the things that you have seen, those that are and those that are about to (μέλλει) take place after this.” Many modern English translations, including the ESV, leave the temporal modifier “μέλλει” essentially untranslated. Once again, if we pay close attention to John’s language here in the opening chapter, it seems clear that his vision relates to things that are close at hand. This is why the book of Revelation is best read and understood in the light of its first-century context.
Here are a few other passages in the Apocalypse where this same temporal modifier is used (and is often untranslated):
Rev. 3:10 I will keep you from the hour of trial that is about to (μελλούσης) come.
Rev. 12:4-5 The dragon stood before the woman who was about to (μελλούσης) give birth so that when she bore her child he might devour it. She gave birth to a male child, one who is about to (μέλλει) rule all the nations with a rod of iron…7
Rev. 17:8 The beast that you saw was, and is not, and is about to (μέλλει) rise from the bottomless pit and go to destruction.8
Finally, John is specifically told by an angel in the last chapter, “Do not seal up the words of the prophecy of this book, for the time is near” (Rev 22:10). Some six centuries earlier, Daniel was told the very opposite: “But you, Daniel, shut up the words and seal the book, until the time of the end.” (Dan 12:4). The contrast between these two passages is striking. Hundreds of years had passed from the time of Daniel until the destruction of Jerusalem,9 but close to two thousand years have now elapsed since John wrote down the words of his vision. This should lead us to ask why he, unlike Daniel, was told not to seal the words of his book.