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Morning Seminar
Reading Revelation for Preaching
—Carl J. Bosma
I. INTRODUCTION
A. Different Reactions
1. It is clear from the beatitude 1.3 that the Revelation of Jesus was meant to be read and heard publically.
2. The reading of this letter has provoked two contrary reactions.
a. Negative reactions 1
1) Many readers find it to be the most complex and maddening book in the N.T. Consequently, they avoid reading altogether and do not preach from this book. Calvin, for example, did not write a commentary on it.
2) Some readers “approach the book with grave apprehension” or “dismiss it altogether.”
3) “[N]ot a few readers...have concluded that Revelation is crude, inept, and badly edited product of a second rate mind.”
b. Positive Reactions
1) Others, however, claim that it is the “...road map of contemporary history.”
2) Consequently, they “...are drawn irresistible into the quest to break its code and to provide a definitive explanation.”
B. Probable Causes for the Contrary Reactions
1. Complex and Grotesque Symbolism
a. One reason for these contrary reactions is the complex and at times grotesque symbolism employed in the book.
b. Some of the grotesque images defy translation into clear, meaningful concepts.
2. Literary Structure
a. Another reason for these contrary reactions is the complex literary structure of the book.
b. For some the book is a complex hodgepodge of multiple structuring devices that seems to lack a clear plot. Lawrence, for example.
c. For others, however, the book is a sample of great literary artistry. According to Richard Bauckham, for example, Revelation is “a work of immense learning, astonishingly meticulous literary artistry, remarkable creative imagination, radical political critique, and profound theology.”
3. Literary Genre
A third reason is the difficulty with respect to the literary genre. The various scholarly attempts to identify the literary genre of the book have proved frustrating. As a result, there is also no agreement on the appropriate reading strategy.
a. For some scholars Revelation represents apocalyptic literature.
b. For others, however, the beatitude in 1.3 clearly states that it is prophecy.
c. To complicate matters, 1.4-6 and the conclusion represent epistolary features. Consequently, the book is a circular letter.
4. Theology
a. For some the theology of Revelation is sub-Christian. They object, for example, to the lament in 6.10.
b. For others Revelation is the key theological book for today.
C. Diverse Interpretations
1. In addition to the strong reactions, the Apocalypse also invites diverse interpretations.
2. There are four principle interpretations:
a. Futurist
b. Historicists
c. Idealists
d. Preterists
D. Recent Suggestion
1. On the basis of the word upmone in 1.9 Stanley P. Saunders suggests that the Apocalypse is “a prime example of a narrative of resistance. 2
2. “Revelation, in fact, presents worship itself as the definitive act of Christian resistance against idolatry and violence of Roman imperial domination.”
3. Possible Objection
a. Some might object that Revelation is not a narrative.
b. Saunders accepts the definition of narrative by Mark Allan Powell: narrative is “any work of literature that tells a story.” 3
c. “[T]he Apocalypse tells the story of the revelation of Jesus Christ, from his appearance at the throne of God as the slaughtered Lamb who is worthy to open the scroll (Revelation 4-5) to his defeat of the imperial beasts and marriage to the heavenly city, the new Jerusalem (19:11-22:7).” 4
1) Revelation is the story of Jesus Christ.
2) The genitive of the superscription is subjective and objective: the unveiling of Jesus Christ. 5
d. In agreement with M. Eugene Boring, Saunders claims that the narrative of Jesus Christ is intimately related to the canonical narrative of God. “[T]hroughout Revelation it is Christ who defines God.”
e. As a result, “Revelation is also deeply conversant with the Scriptures of Israel, especially Isaiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel....” 6
f. Canonically, Revelation forms an appropriate bookend with Genesis. 7
II. THE APOCALYPSE AS ORAL PERFORMANCE
A. Opening and Conclusion
1. The opening beatitude in 1.3 indicates clearly that the book, a self-contained piece, should be performed orally as a whole.
2. Consequently, “one cannot preach portions of Revelation, as we typically do when following the lectionary or when preaching by theme or pericope, without doing damage to it—that is, without turning it into something other than what it was meant to be.
B. The Problem
1. According to Eugene H. Peterson, “no biblical book had been wrenched so far from its roots in oral media, into the foreign atmosphere of literary texts and the kinds of interpretive operations we have come to impose on the written word.” 8
2. Allan Dwight Callahan also argues that modern critical readers have been taught to read classical texts only for information, rather than transformation. 9 Callahan (p. 131) also argues that the Seer employs grammatical transgressions as part of an attempt to alter the collective conscienceless of its audience.
An example is the radical change in 5.5-6!
3. Elizabeth Schüssler Fiorenza claims that “the language and narrative flow of Revelation elicit emotions, reactions, and convictions that cannot and should not be fully conceptualized and phrased in propositional-logical language.” 10
4. Saunders agrees that “the discourse of Revelation can not be captured in conceptual, propositional language, for it is meant to evoke imaginative participation.” 11
5. Saunders concludes that “traditional approaches to preaching frequently have an atomizing effect on Revelation, thus preventing it from exercising its full imaginative, world-shaping, and resistance-engendering force.” p. 124
III. THE PROBLEM OF STRUCTURE
A. “One of the reasons many preachers find preaching from Revelation difficult is its complex, nonlinear structure.” p. 128.
B. As Adela Yarbro Collins has observed, the messages to the seven churches lend themselves readily to move from text to sermon. However, problems of sequence and repetition make the rest of the book, chapters 4-22, less accessible.
C. Saunders objects that the “problems of sequence and repetition” are only problematic when we attempt to violate the seer's directions for how to use this work.
D. The seer's careful interlacing of the material in 4-22 resists any single organizational scheme.
IV. DIALECT OF RESISTANCE
Callahan claims that the seer intentionally employs grammatical transgressions as part of an attempt to alter the collective consciousness of its audience.
A. 5.5-6
B. Associates victory with the blood of the lamb 12.11, 7.14, 17.14.
V. WORSHIP AND RESISTANCE IN REVELATION 4-5
A. Revelation 4.1-2a is the hinge between 1-3 and 4-22.
B. Revelation 3.21 is the springboard to 4-5.
C. Revelation 5 (p. 142): search, recognition to worship. With greater circumference: 4 living beings + 24 elders to angels and every creature on earth.
D. 144 seven worship scenes.
Footnotes
1) Stanley P. Saunders, “Revelation and Resistance: Narrative and Worship in John's Apocalypse,” 117.
2) Saunders, “Revelation and Resistance,” 118.
3) Saunders, “Revelation and Resistance,” 119.
4) Saunders, “Revelation and Resistance,” 119-120.
5) Saunders, “Revelation and Resistance,” 119-120.
6) Saunders, “Revelation and Resistance,” 121.
7) Saunders, “Revelation and Resistance,” 122.
8) Saunders, “Revelation and Resistance,” 122.
9) Saunders, “Revelation and Resistance,” 123.
10) Saunders, “Revelation and Resistance,” 123.
11) Saunders, “Revelation and Resistance,” 123-124.
—provided by Carl Bosma