The Prologue: Rev. 1:1–20 Chapter 1 introduces the book as a “revelation of Jesus Christ,” while the greeting from John to the churches marks it as a letter. It concludes with John on the island of Patmos, where he receives the inaugural vision of the glorious risen Christ. 1:1 The word apokalypsis (“apocalypse”) is part of an allusion to Dan. 2, since the whole of 1:1 is patterned after the broad structure of Dan. 2:28–30, 45–47 (cf. Θ), where apokalyptō (“reveal”) appears five times (cf. also 2:19, 22), ha dei genesthai (“what must come to pass”) three times, and sēmainō (“signify”) twice (cf. also 2:23 LXX). The words en tachei (“quickly”) are a conscious substitution for Daniel’s “in the latter days” (e.g., Dan. 2:28) and connote the definite, imminent time of fulfillment. But whereas Daniel expected this fulfillment to occur in the distant future, the “latter days,” John expects it to begin in his own generation. Indeed, it has already started to happen, as the references to beginning fulfillment of OT prophecy in chapter 1 bear out (cf. 1:5, 7, 13, 16). The use of sēmainō in Dan. 2:45 LXX indicates the symbolic nature of the Babylonian king’s dream (a statue symbolizing four world empires, somewhat like a political cartoon drawing). The appeal to this Daniel reference in the title and programmatic statement of the entire book indicates that symbolic vision is going to be part of the warp and woof of the means of communication throughout Revelation. Thus, rather than producing the expectation that the majority of the book will be “literal” in nature, this verse is asserting that the expectation is for most of the material to be understood symbolically (on which, see Beale 1999b: 295–99). This is one among a number of reasons that chapters 4–21 especially should be viewed predominantly as symbolic communication (particularly the visions of seals, trumpets, and bowls [on which, see Beale 1999a: 50–69]). G. K. Beale, & D. A. Carson, (2007). Commentary on the New Testament use of the Old Testament (pp. 1088–1089). Grand Rapids, MI; Nottingham, UK: Baker Academic; Apollos.
Posted on: Tue, 06 Jan 2015 23:05:31 +0000
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