Summary: Bible - Book of Revelation

The GIST

Revelation, the last book of the New Testament and of the Bible, was written in Greek by a man who calls himself simply John. He says he was on the island of Patmos when the vision came, so scholars conventionally call him John of Patmos. A tradition going back to Irenaeus identifies him with John the Apostle, but his precise identity is still debated. The book is commonly dated to about 95 AD, in the reign of the Roman emperor Domitian.

Its title comes from its first word, apocalypse, which means an unveiling. It is the only apocalyptic book in the New Testament, and it holds a central place in Christian thinking about the end of history. In twenty-two chapters it moves from letters addressed to seven real congregations, through wave after wave of symbolic visions of judgment, to a final picture of a renewed creation. Its imagery, rich with numbers and echoes of the Old Testament, is some of the most vivid and most argued-over writing in scripture.

What It Says

The vision on Patmos (chapter 1)

The book announces itself as the revelation of Jesus Christ, given to show his servants "things which must shortly come to pass." A blessing is pronounced on whoever reads it aloud and on those who hear and keep it. John greets the seven churches in Asia and hears the first great self-declaration: "I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending."

On the Lord's day, John hears a voice like a trumpet telling him to write what he sees and send it to Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamos, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia and Laodicea. Turning, he sees seven golden candlesticks and among them "one like unto the Son of man," with hair white as snow, eyes like flame, a voice like many waters, seven stars in his right hand and a sharp two-edged sword coming from his mouth. John falls down as if dead. The figure lays a hand on him and says, "I am he that liveth, and was dead." The candlesticks, he explains, are the seven churches.

Letters to the seven churches (chapters 2 and 3)

Each church receives a short message that weighs its life. Ephesus is hardworking and discerning, yet "thou hast left thy first love." Poor, pressured Smyrna is told, "be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life." Pergamos holds fast where Satan's seat is but tolerates false teaching. Thyatira is praised for love and service and rebuked for putting up with a self-styled prophetess called Jezebel. Sardis has a reputation for being alive and is dead. Philadelphia, with little strength, has kept the word and is given an open door that no one can shut.

The last letter is the sharpest. Laodicea thinks itself rich and in need of nothing. The verdict is that it is lukewarm, "neither cold nor hot," and will be spat out. Yet even here the appeal is tender: "Behold, I stand at the door, and knock." Every letter ends with a promise to the one who overcomes and with the same call to listen to what the Spirit says to the churches.

The throne and the Lamb (chapters 4 and 5)

A door opens in heaven, and John is summoned up. He sees a throne ringed by a rainbow, twenty-four elders in white with crowns of gold, a sea of glass like crystal, and four winged beasts, like a lion, a calf, a man and an eagle, who never rest from crying "Holy, holy, holy."

The one on the throne holds a book sealed with seven seals, and no one in heaven or earth is found worthy to open it. John weeps. Then an elder tells him that the Lion of the tribe of Juda has prevailed. John looks and sees, not a lion, but "a Lamb as it had been slain." The Lamb takes the book, and heaven breaks into a new song. Angels beyond counting cry, "Worthy is the Lamb that was slain," and every creature joins in.

Seven seals (chapters 6 and 7)

As the Lamb opens the seals, four horsemen ride out: one on a white horse who goes out conquering, one on a red horse who takes peace from the earth, one on a black horse carrying a pair of balances, and then, in the book's most chilling phrase, "behold a pale horse," whose rider is named Death. The fifth seal reveals the souls of those killed for the word of God, crying out, "How long, O Lord." The sixth brings an earthquake, a blackened sun, a moon like blood and falling stars, and the great of the earth hide in caves from the wrath of the Lamb.

Before the last seal there is a pause. A hundred and forty-four thousand from the tribes of Israel are sealed on their foreheads. Then John sees "a great multitude, which no man could number," from every nation, robed in white and holding palms. They have come out of great tribulation, and the promise over them is one of the gentlest in the book: "God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes."

Seven trumpets (chapters 8 to 11)

The seventh seal opens onto "silence in heaven about the space of half an hour." Seven angels are then given seven trumpets. The first four strike a third of the earth, the sea, the rivers and the lights of heaven, and a burning star named Wormwood makes the waters bitter. The fifth trumpet releases from the bottomless pit a swarm of locusts with scorpion stings, ruled by a king called Abaddon. The sixth looses a vast army of horsemen from the Euphrates. Even so, the survivors do not repent.

An interlude follows. A mighty angel gives John a little book to eat, sweet as honey in the mouth and bitter in the belly. Two witnesses prophesy in sackcloth, are killed by the beast from the pit, lie unburied for three and a half days, and then rise and ascend to heaven. At the seventh trumpet loud voices proclaim, "The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ."

The woman, the dragon and the beasts (chapters 12 to 14)

A new sequence begins with a sign in heaven: "a woman clothed with the sun," the moon under her feet and twelve stars for a crown, about to give birth. A great red dragon with seven heads and ten horns waits to devour her child, but the child is caught up to God's throne and the woman flees to the wilderness. War breaks out in heaven. Michael and his angels fight the dragon, who is identified as the Devil and Satan, and he is thrown down to the earth, where he turns on the woman and her other offspring.

Two beasts then appear. One rises from the sea with seven heads and ten horns, receives the dragon's power, and is worshipped by the whole world. A second comes up from the earth, looking like a lamb and speaking like a dragon. It makes people worship the first beast and forces everyone to take a mark, without which no one may buy or sell. The number of the beast is given as "Six hundred threescore and six."

Against this stands the Lamb on mount Sion with the hundred and forty-four thousand. Angels announce the fall of Babylon and warn against the mark, and the earth is reaped like a harvest.

Seven vials and the fall of Babylon (chapters 15 to 18)

Seven angels now pour out seven vials holding the last plagues: sores, seas and rivers turned to blood, scorching heat, darkness, and the drying of the Euphrates. Unclean spirits gather the kings of the earth to a place called Armageddon. With the seventh vial a voice from the throne says, "It is done," and the greatest earthquake ever known splits the great city.

John is then shown a woman dressed in purple and scarlet, riding a scarlet beast and drunk with the blood of the saints. Her name is Babylon the Great, and the angel explains that she is the great city that rules over the kings of the earth. Her end is announced with a cry: "Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen." God's people are told, "Come out of her, my people." Kings, merchants and shipmasters stand far off and lament.

The rider, the thousand years and the judgment (chapters 19 and 20)

Heaven answers with alleluias and the announcement of the marriage of the Lamb. Then heaven opens, and a rider on a white horse appears, called Faithful and True and The Word of God, with a title written on him: "KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS." The beast and the false prophet are captured and thrown into a lake of fire.

An angel binds Satan and shuts him in the bottomless pit for a thousand years, while those who were beheaded for their witness live and reign with Christ. When the thousand years end, Satan is released, gathers Gog and Magog for battle, and is destroyed by fire from heaven. Then comes the great white throne. The dead, small and great, stand before God, the books are opened, and each is judged according to his works. Death and hell themselves are cast into the lake of fire.

All things new (chapters 21 and 22)

The final vision is of healing. John sees "a new heaven and a new earth," and the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God like a bride adorned for her husband. A voice declares that God will dwell with his people. There will be no more death, sorrow, crying or pain. The one on the throne says, "Behold, I make all things new."

The city is described in loving detail: twelve gates of pearl bearing the names of the tribes of Israel, twelve foundations bearing the names of the apostles, walls of jasper and a street of pure gold. It has no temple, because God and the Lamb are its temple, and no need of sun or moon. A river of the water of life flows from the throne, and beside it grows the tree of life, of which John says "the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations."

The book closes with a repeated promise, "I come quickly," an open invitation to anyone who thirsts to take the water of life freely, a warning not to add to or take from the prophecy, and a prayer: "Even so, come, Lord Jesus."

Why It Matters

Revelation blends three kinds of writing. It is a letter, addressed to seven congregations whose cities lay close together in Asia Minor, near Patmos. It is an apocalypse, a disclosure of divine mysteries through visions. And it is prophecy: the author sees himself as a Christian prophet, and the book uses that word in its various forms more than any other in the New Testament. The letters to the churches serve as introductions to the whole, which is addressed to all seven.

Scholars describe John as a Jewish-Christian prophet who was accepted by the congregations he wrote to. Clues in the visions point to Domitian's reign, while the seven-headed beast and the number 666 seem to allude to the emperor Nero, whom many in later decades expected to return. Modern biblical scholarship reads the book as a first-century message warning early Christian communities not to assimilate into Roman imperial culture. At the same time, its sometimes obscure and extravagant imagery has allowed a wide variety of Christian interpretations across the centuries.

Who Should Read It

Read Revelation if you want to meet some of the Bible's most unforgettable images at their source, from the four horsemen to the gates of pearl. It rewards readers who love symbolism and are patient with mystery, anyone curious about how the earliest Christians saw their place in the Roman world, and anyone who wants to see how the Bible's long story is brought to an end in a vision of hope.