Jeanie C. Crain http://crain.english.missouriwestern.edu

John Gabel, Charles Wheeler and Anthony York in The Bible as Literature: An Introduction, 6th edition (Oxford 2000)

The show itself--what John sees--is in two parts: the first depicts the cosmic and earthly events at the end of the Present Age; the second depicts the eternally static situation of the Age to Come.  The events that conclude the Present Age are introduced by sets of sevens that are associated with the communication of messages: seals on a scroll and heralds' trumpets.  The events themselves are divided into three phrases: the defeat of Satan in the heavenly sphere (by the birth of Christ), in the earthly sphere (by the destruction of Rome), and in the underworld (by the final elimination of the Devil, Death, Hades, and the sea at the very end of the age.) Poised between the two ages is the thousand-year reign of Christ on earth, which shares something of both future and past: It provides a foretaste of the bliss of eternity future, but the evil of the past lies there waiting to exert itself yet once again.  When this final resurgence of evil has been suppressed and ultimate judgment passed, the New Age can begin in all its perfection.  The only thing the author had to add was a warning that the last days were at hand and that no one should tamper with the words of his book. (157)

...In Revelation we so often find an instance of the destruction of evil followed by rejoicing in heaven, only to be followed in short order by the return of what seems to be the same evil in different guise.  Layer is placed upon similar layer, and it is not always evident just where we are in the continuing story at any given moment.  But there will come an end to that story, the author of the book assures his readers, when the great instigator of evil and his entire domain will be flung into the fiery lake; and then the warfare of the saints will cease forever. (157)

Chapter 1 John's greetings and the circumstance of his call

2-3 The letters to the seven churches

4-5 The heavenly court and the lamb

6-7 The seven seals

8-11 The seven trumpets

12-13 The pregnant woman, the dragon's defeat, the two beasts

14 Visions of assurance and warning

15-16 The seven bowls of wrath

17-18 The whore of Babylon and the beast

19-20 The defeat of the dragon's forces, final judgment

21-22 The new Jerusalem, conclusion

 

David L. Barr http://www.wright.edu/~dbarr/plotrev.htm

2 Structuring a Plot: The Stories as Distinct Actions

After some preliminaries, the writer begins to tell an autobiographical tale:

I, John, your brother who share with you in Jesus the persecution and the kingdom and the patient endurance, was on the island called Patmos because of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus. I was in the spirit on the Lord's day, and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet saying, "Write in a book what you see ...." (1:8ff)

This first story segment details what happened to him on Patmos. (A majestic human being appears to him and dictates seven messages to the angels of seven churches.) Having finished this task, John is called up to heaven, where he observes a scene at the divine court. This second story concerns the process by which a slaughtered-standing lamb opens a divine scroll and reveals its contents. John next looks into the heavenly temple and sees strange new signs. In this third story a cosmic dragon pursues a cosmic woman but is eventually defeated by a cosmic warrior, resulting in the establishment of a wholly new cosmic order.

I make three preliminary observations about these stories. First, they are ever more fantastic. The audience is led into ever stranger territory and witnesses ever more bizarre actions. The story progresses from John standing on Patmos (a real world event), to the vision experience, to a trip to heaven, to a cosmic battle. Then we are taken quickly back to earth again in the closing address to the reader. It is a fantastic journey--rather like a shaman's journey.(9) In literary terms, we find three different literary types sandwiched between realistic narratives of John on Patmos: the revelation theophany, the throne vision (Merkavah), and the cosmic war story.

Second, while these three stories are themselves sequences of causally connected action, there is very little connection between the incidents in the separate stories. Each sequence has its own logic, its own set of characters, its own base locale, and John plays a somewhat different role in each. These stories may be set forth schematically as follows:

If I briefly sketch the action of each segment, two points will become clear: they each can be viewed as a unified action, but they do not form a causal sequence between them. I would characterize the kernel incidents of these stories as follows. One: A majestic human being appears to John on Patmos and commands him to write a scroll and send it to the seven churches of Asia. After a detailed description of this divine figure, the figure comforts John, explains particular symbols to him, and then dictates seven messages to the angels of the seven churches. Two: John ascends to heaven at divine initiative, sees God on the throne surrounded by the heavenly court, and hears the heavenly liturgy. A scroll is presented that is sealed and that no one can open, causing John to weep. Then a character, announced as a lion but revealed as a slain-standing lamb, proceeds to open the scroll in seven stages. In the silence of the seventh seal, seven trumpets sound, followed by the announcement: God's kingdom has come. Three: A majestic heavenly woman about to give birth is pursued by a heavenly dragon who seeks to consume her child. The woman is saved and the child preserved, but the dragon turns to make war on her other children. Two great beasts are conjured from the sea and the earth; the lamb gathers 144,000 on Mt Zion. Scenes of heavenly harvest predict earthly judgment, then enacted in seven plague events, leading to the great announcement: it is done (16:17). Just what is done is now related in two sets of scenes, one grouped around the great prostitute (war against heaven, heavenly warrior, destruction, a thousand years of peace, final battle, final judgment, new creation) and the bride/wife of the lamb (restoration of the city).

Third, each of these three actions is built on a distinct model. The first story is clearly a theophany; and the third is just as surely a holy war. I am not so clear how to characterize the second, except to say it is neither theophany nor holy war. While our knowledge of Merkavah mysticism is limited, there does seem to have been a throne vision genre, perhaps built on Isaiah's famous vision (Isa. 6). Some would also connect the throne scene with the rituals of the imperial court.(11)

Thus each of these three units can be viewed as a unified action, but what becomes obvious is that there is no real connection between the three actions. While one can point to strong thematic continuity between these sections, there is not a continuity of action. The action of the first movement does not lead to that of the second or the third. They do not form a causal sequence, yet within each movement there is a reasonably clear causal sequence. How should we understand their relationship? Is Revelation one story or three?

There is an O. Henry short story called "Roads of Destiny" that offers some analogy to John's narrative strategy. In O. Henry's story a young man leaves his native village to explore the world and write poetry. But when he comes to a fork in the road, he cannot decide which way to proceed. So the story is told showing him take all three options: first he takes one branch; then the second; and finally he returns to his village. For each path taken a different series of events ensues, but each leads inexorably to the same end: the young man is shot and killed--each time with the very same pistol. Now clearly all three events belong in the same narrative, for the narrative could not make its point without all them. Yet just as clearly the actions within each event can have no causal connection with actions in the other two; for the initial act of choosing one road excludes the acts that lie down another path. It would be to miss the point were we to ask whether our young man went down path two before or after going down path one. The connection is not one of before and after. What then are the connections between the three?

These connections have to do with theme (destiny) and characters rather than with continuous sequential actions. Yet they gain their meaning only by being seen in comparison within the same narrative.(12) When one finishes O. Henry's story one understands the seductive/destructive allure of poetry in a new way, a way that takes destiny beyond accidental encounters. One also understands that action within a story is not necessarily sequential.

In a similar way, John's three dramatic actions do not constitute a sequential, unified action. One does not happen before or after the other. They represent alternative tellings of the story of Jesus with a common theme and overlapping characters. The Dragon does not attack the Woman's children (chapter 12) after Jesus dictates the letters (chapters 2-3) or after the triumphant consummation of heavenly worship (chapter 11); that attack is contemporaneous with the life of the church and is as old as Eve. The third action is a retelling of the story of the coming of God's rule with a new focus. It is as if the narrator finished the triumphant heavenly announcement that the kingdoms of this world have become the kingdom of God and of the Christ (11:15) and then turned to the audience and said, "Do you wonder how that came about? Well, let me tell you . . .." The focus now is on the attack of the Dragon and the ensuing cosmic war, with Jesus being presented (rather ironically) in the guise of the Divine Warrior.

This lack of causal sequence can be seen in the ending of each of these story segments, for each ends with a partial closure, a sense of an end that is no end. At the end of the Letter Scroll Jesus promises to come to any who will open the door (3:20); at the end of the Worship Scroll, the voice announces that Messiah's kingdom has come (11:15); at the end of the War Scroll evil appears to be destroyed and the new Jerusalem descends (21:1). Yet even in this last instance we are told that nothing unclean can enter the city (21:27); and as life in the city is described in glowing terms we are also told "Outside are the dogs" (22:15). This is a story that appears to end, repeatedly, but never finally does.

Rather than one unfolding event, Revelation presents three interrelated tellings of the story of Jesus. One does not lead to the other, yet they gain their meaning by appearing together. Let us now consider more carefully just how they are put together.

...........................

The aural experience of the Apocalypse would have a definite beginning and ending, and John has so arranged these to emphasize a sense of completion. Many have observed the strong correlation between the beginning and the ending. There are at least eleven points of correspondence, in addition to the epistolary framework (1:4; 22:21).

But the parallels are more than just verbal and thematic, there is also a parallel of action. Set within the context of a letter that begins "John to the seven churches" (1:4) and ends with the letter formula so familiar from Paul's letters, "the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with all" (22:21), the action starts with John directly addressing the audience and describing his sojourn on Patmos where he has a vision (1:9-10). It ends with John directly addressing the reader, saying this is what he heard and saw (22:8). It is the classic technique of the storyteller: I was off alone one day and I saw something very interesting. . .. The actual story is one further stage removed from the audience by the additional frame of the letter. This double envelope of letter and vision-report frames all the action of the story and helps the audience experience it as a unity.

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