Notes: Literary Genre

Video lecture by David Matthewson
Notes by David Feddes

Revelation blends at least three literary types (genres):

• Apocalypse
• Prophecy
• Epistle/letter

Apocalypse

The word “apocalypse” is often taken to be cataclysmic disaster that brings the world to an end. But the first-century readers would not have seen it this way.

The word “apocalypse” appears in Revelation 1:1. “The revelation (apocalypse) from Jesus Christ.”

Writings that are categorized as apocalyptic were most common from 200 BC to 200 AD. In the Bible, Daniel and Revelation are the two books with the largest sections of “apocalyptic” literature. Other books, such as Ezekiel, Zechariah, and Isaiah also have some apocalyptic sections. There are many other non-biblical writings in apocalyptic style that resemble Revelation and Daniel.

1. An apocalypse is a first-person narrative account of a seer’s vision, written down to convey the seer’s visions to readers. Often apocalyptic literature would indicate that history was evil and that only direct intervention from God would bring history to an end and start a new world. However, not all apocalyptic is like that. More basic to apocalyptic literature is the belief that knowledge of the heavenly world and the future and the secrets of heaven cannot be known except by direct revelation from God. Apocalypses convey knowledge of the heavenly world, which can be know only if God opens the heavens. The writer enables the reader to re-experience the vision.

2. Apocalypses are primarily about the heavenly world, as well as the future. Visions often glimpse God and the inhabitants of heaven. (Further study: The Open Heaven, by Christopher Rowland)

3. Usually this knowledge of the heavenly world and the future is communicated by highly symbolic language and imagery. The author sees things in symbolic form, and then he writes them down in symbols and images that resemble as closely as possible what he saw. 
a. Heavenly things can sometimes best be communicated by imagery.
b. Images can engage our imagination and emotions more than literal language can.
c. Symbolic language focuses more on theological meaning than on the exact description in the vision.

4. As a vision of heavenly reality and the future, apocalypse literature is meant to provide a new perspective on the present time of the readers. It’s not just meant to predict a far-distant future. An apocalypse could help people to see the real truth about their situation, to see it in a new light and respond accordingly.

Example #1: A political cartoon communicates by symbolic and exaggerated imagery. If you know the imagery and the political situation, you can understand what the cartoon is saying. The political cartoon is a different way of communicating than writing about politics. For instance, an eagle is a symbol of the United States. An elephant or a donkey is a picture of a political party. Political cartoons use pictures and exaggeration. However, political cartoons refer to real persons and places. Likewise, an apocalypse refers to actual persons, places, and events in history, in the time of the readers and in the future, but describes these things in symbolic, exaggerated images to drive home the point and help the reader see in a new light.

Example #2: When you watch a play, you don’t see what’s happening offstage, behind the curtain, unless the curtain is taken away. An apocalypse removes the curtain to show what is happening behind the scenes. Then we can better understand what is happening on the stage of history.

5. The main function of apocalypse is not to predict the future, but encouragement and warning.

Summary: major features of apocalyptic literature
1. An apocalypse is a first-person narrative account of a seer’s vision, written down to convey the seer’s visions to readers.
2. Apocalypses are primarily about the heavenly world, as well as the future.
3. Usually this knowledge of the heavenly world and the future is communicated by highly symbolic language and imagery. 
4. As a vision of heavenly reality and the future, apocalypse literature is meant to provide a new perspective on the present time of the readers.
5. The main function of apocalypse is not to predict the future, but encouragement and warning.

Revelation has all five of these major features of apocalyptic literature.

In addition, apocalyptic literature often features angels in various roles, such as guiding the seer and bringing judgments.

Most apocalypses were pseudonymous: written in the name of an important, well-known person from long ago. However, Revelation is not pseudonymous. John clearly writes not in the name of a past historical figure but as a contemporary of his readers to address their situation: "I, John, your brother and companion in the suffering and kingdom and patient endurance that are ours in Jesus, was on the island of Patmos because of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus" (1:9).

Prophecy

John clearly labels his book at prophecy, at the beginning and at the end. “Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear, and who keep what is written in it, for the time is near.” (Rev 1:3) “the prophecy of this book” (Rev 22:7, 10, 18, 19)

John writes in the tradition and with the same authority of the Old Testament prophets. Most of his images and symbols come from Old Testament texts. He uses the language of eating scrolls and commissioning that echo the OT prophets.

John probably would have not have distinguished prophecy from apocalyptic.

Authorship
Writer identifies himself as “John.” He has often been taken to be the apostle John, who wrote the Gospel of John and the epistles 1, 2, 3 John. Dr. Matthewson thinks a good case can be made that the apostle John wrote Revelation. Still, he finds it interesting that the author does not call himself an apostle. Rather, he claims the authority of an Old Testament prophet, and he shows how the OT prophets reach their climax and fulfillment in the person of Jesus Christ.

Key aspects of prophecy

1. Someone who proclaimed the message of God to the people and called them back to God’s covenant. Usually prophets spoke when people were straying away from their covenant relationship with God to worship other gods. Prophets called the people back to faithfulness to a covenant relationship, and warned of judgment. Prophets were not mainly predictors of the future, like fortune tellers, to satisfy curiosity about the future. They did speak of future salvation and future judgment, but to call people in the present back to God. Prophets would critique godless nations and empires of the day.

2. Prophecy was rooted in history. It was about God intervening in history, about his plans and desires for his people living in history.

3. Primary message of salvation for the faithful, and judgment for the unfaithful, unrepentant, compromisers, and wicked nations.

4. Written mainly for the purpose of encouragement and warning, not to gather people around a crystal ball and show them what they wanted to know about the future.

Revelation has all these features of prophecy.

Epistle/letter

Very little in chapters 4-22 sounds like a letter, but the book begins with greetings like a letter, similar to Paul’s letters. It identifies the author (John), the readers (seven churches) and a greeting (“grace and peace. It also ends like a letter with a closing blessing: “The grace of the Lord Jesus be with all. Amen.” (22:21)

Letters are “occasional”: written in response to specific circumstances, or problems, or issues, or crises. For instance, Galatians and 1 Corinthians were written to address specific issues in churches. Similarly, Revelation as a letter addresses a particular situation and the needs of the original readers. This means Revelation would apply to those readers in their time and place, and it would largely be understandable for those readers and address their situation.

Summary: Revelation blends at least three literary types (genres):

• Apocalypse
• Prophecy
• Epistle/letter

How does knowledge of genres influence how to interpret the book of Revelation? This will be addressed in the next lecture.