Part 1- A Background on Revelation (Revelation 1)
Revelation, seen as the last book in our version of the New Testament. When one hears Revelation, the first thing that may come to mind is end times, or the apocalypse. You may think of speeches and sermons that have been preached trying to tie current events with what is written in Revelation as 'signs of the times.' I myself can think back to some of the interesting things I've heard in regards to the COVID-19 pandemic, my personal favorite being that the vaccine is the mark of the beast. But a lot of this seems to stem from a lack of understanding as to why Revelation as a book in the bible exists in the first place, and that brings me to introducing this new series, Apokalupsis. This five-part series will look at Revelation through the eyes of the early church to better understand why it exists, and what it means for us as the present-day church.
Before discussing Revelation as a book, I want to dive in to the word revelation. The word revelation simply means that something is being revealed. When discussing revelation in a biblical context, there are two primary types of revelation, being general revelation, and special revelation. General Revelation refers to God revealing himself in a broad way, such as through creation or nature. In the most simple terms, general revelation is the revelation of God's existence. Special revelation on the other hand actually has to do with a special manifestation, such as the initial coming of Jesus, which is revealed to us today through scripture. The key difference has to do with redemption. General revelation is merely the revelation of God's existence but doesn't speak into salvation. Special revelation does go deeper in that way. Liberty University's Harold Willmington puts this in an even simpler way. General revelation being indirect and unwritten, special revelation being written and direct. This is a lot of words to say "to be revealed, or unveiled."
Jumping into Revelation as a book, I want start by going back to this scripture's native language. As is much of the New Testament, Revelation was written in greek. The actual word in this case is Αποκάλυψης. Translating this into latin letters, this is Apokalupsis (also referred to by some as Apokalypsis). This translated into english is Apocalypse, which means destruction. However, Αποκάλυψης actually means to reveal or to unveil as to make known. Thus, we get the name Revelation instead of Apocalypse for this book. This is important for understanding Revelation as a book and why it exists, given how much it refers to trials, tribulations and chaos.
Revelation is in essence, a letter to the seven churches in Asia Minor (which today is primarily Turkey). In fact just as with the epistles, there is a greeting in Revelation which appears in 1:4, "John to the seven churches that are in Asia: Grace to you and peace from him who is and who was and is to come from the seven spirits who are before his throne" (ESV). I will dive more into the seven churches in part 2 of this study. John reveals that he is writing from the Island of Patmos (Rev 1:9), which can be found in the Aegean Sea as a Greek Island. It is primarily believed that John was exiled there by the Roman Empire during a time of anti-Christian persecution.
There is some debate as to exactly when Revelation was written, with a lot of the debate surrounding whether Revelation is connected to the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem in AD 70, something that was foretold by Jesus as he was leaving it before going to the Mount of Olives and discussing signs of the end of the age (Matthew 24). However the predominant sentiment was that Revelation was written in AD 95, which was about 25 years after the destruction of the temple. The Roman Empire was the setting for most events that occured in the New Testament and around this time, Domitianus was emperor. Domitianus was known for being quite cruel particularly toward the later years of his rule. It is also worth noting that emperor worship was common at this time under the Roman Imperial Cult. I will be digesting the conditions that the early church lived under during this time in later parts of this series.
This background of Revelation will play a role in diving deeper into why it was written in the first place, what it meant to the early church, and what it means to us today. I think it is safe to say that Revelation is a very misunderstood book and has used as a weapon of fear rather than what it is truly meant to be, an instrument of hope. It was been used improperly in politics as a talking point, it has been abused by televangelists hoping to make a quick buck. My hope is that I am able to at the very least cause you to dig a little bit deeper and recognize that even in this chaos we see in Revelation, just as we see in our own world, God remains on the throne.
Citations
Ice, Thomas D., "The Date of the Book of Revelation" (2009). Article Archives. 75.
McFayden, Donald. “The Occasion of the Domitianic Persecution.” The American Journal of Theology, vol. 24, no. 1, 1920, pp. 46–66., https://doi.org/10.1086/480090.
“The Roman Empire: In the First Century. The Roman Empire. Emperors. Titus & Domitian.” PBS, Public Broadcasting Service, https://www.pbs.org/empires/romans/empire/titus_domitian.html.
Willmington, Harold, "Question 36 - What is the difference between General and Special Revelation?"
(2019). 101 Most Asked Questions. 14.
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