The Book of Revelation is the strangest book for those who do not know it, and it attracts readers’ attention in times of disasters and wars, as they try to read the future in it. For whoever reads the Book of Revelation as being about the future has not understood Jesus’ saying during His trial: “«From now on you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of power and coming on the clouds of heaven.»” (Matt 26:64). There is no doubt that the Book of Revelation speaks about the coming of Christ, but the first coming, which has already happened, and everything it wrote was fulfilled on the Cross first, and was fulfilled secondly during the days of the persecution of the Christians that the Apostle John, the writer of the book, lived through.
Before I clarify this point, I will clarify an important point: how does the Apostle John read history? Returning to the dialogue between the chief priests, Caiaphas says: “nor do you consider that it is better for us that one man should die for the people, and not that the whole nation should perish!»” (John 11:50). The death of Jesus was, for the Jews, a political salvation from the danger of the Romans. Then John continues: “He prophesied that Jesus was about to die for the nation, and not for the nation only, but also to gather into one the children of God who are scattered abroad.” (John 11:51). While Caiaphas spoke of a political reality, John read the event with a theological reading that Jesus would fulfill, and thus he wrote the Book of Revelation: he reads what happens to the Christians with a theological reading, and that Christ is the Lord of history and directs it to its end.
The Book of Revelation is a revelation of the Old Testament
The Book of Revelation is the Gospel itself but in another language; it is a retranslation of all its data. The Book of Revelation works to clarify that all the visions that the prophets saw, such as Daniel, were fulfilled in Jesus. John reveals the identity of the Son of Man who appeared in the Old Testament: that He is Jesus, and clarifies that the kingdom of God that He promised His people has been fulfilled in the new Jerusalem, which is the Church, and the fulfillment of God’s promise: “And you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation” (Exod 19:6). The Book of Revelation declares the fulfillment: “And have made us kings and priests to our God” (Rev 5:10).
The Book of Revelation is a declaration that God leads history
The second matter: the Book of Revelation declares that God is the Lord of history and leads it to its goal. For just as Christ triumphed through His sufferings, so the believers will triumph in persecution. Thus the Apostle John merges, in a unique manner, Jesus’ struggle and His victory over the devil with the struggle of the believers against the beast, the emperor Nero, and makes their struggle against the emperor a participation in the struggle of Christ Himself, and Christ’s victory is the victory of the believers.
The Book of Revelation does not speak about the second coming
And it never speaks about the second coming nor about the antichrist. For the word coming παρουσία, which means the second coming, never appears in the Book of Revelation. The word ἔρχομαι appears, meaning “came,” and is not used in the sense of the second coming. And neither the word antichrist nor the false Christ appears at all in the Book of Revelation.
The images of the Book of Revelation are from the Old Testament
The images in the Book of Revelation are taken entirely from the Old Testament. This vision regroups all the images scattered among the prophets of the Old Testament, and all the events such as the seven plagues upon Pharaoh, and places them in the context of their fulfillment and within a new sequence through which it reveals the identity of Jesus. Through the revelation, John the Theologian reads history with a theological reading fulfilled on the Cross, and reads the history of persecution as the victory of Christ, and this was fulfilled when Christianity became a legal religion and the persecution ceased, and a new earth and a new heaven dawned upon the Christians.
Daniel mentions: “I was watching in my vision by night, and behold, one like the Son of Man coming with the clouds of heaven” (Dan 13:7). The Son of Man in the Old Testament was unknown; no one knew His identity. So John comes to reveal His identity: “Behold, He is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see Him, even those who pierced Him, and all the tribes of the earth will mourn over Him” (Rev 1:7), and ” one like the Son of Man” (Rev 13:1). And we also read in the Gospel of Matthew: ” From now on you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of power and coming on the clouds of heaven.»” (Matt 26:64).
And in Ezekiel, for example: “And above the firmament that was over their heads was the likeness of a throne, in appearance like a sapphire stone, and on the likeness of the throne was a likeness with the appearance of a man above it” (Ezek 26:1), and it says in the Book of Revelation: “and in the midst of the seven lampstands one like the Son of Man” (Rev 12:1).
The Book of Revelation is the hidden face of the Gospel of John
“Then the seventh angel poured out his bowl into the air, and a loud voice came out of the temple of heaven, from the throne, saying: «It is done!»” (Rev 16:17). And this is exactly what happened on the Cross: “When Jesus had received the sour wine, He said: «It is done.» And He bowed His head and gave up His spirit.” (John 19:30). And while the Gospel of John remains completely silent about what happened when He gave up the spirit, unlike the rest of the Gospels that describe an earthquake, the Book of Revelation describes it, saying: “And I looked when He opened the sixth seal, and behold, there was a great earthquake, and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became like blood,” (Rev 6:12). And all this happened on the day of Christ’s crucifixion, and we repeat it exactly in the hymns of the funeral.
The Book of Revelation is a source for the images in the hymns of Holy Week
For example, “Behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah has prevailed” (5:5) — we see it in the hymns: “Let us behold the one who came forth from Judah lying down, and let us cry out to Him prophetically: You crouched down and slept as a lion.” And also “there shall be no more night” (5:22) — we chant it: “In the day of Your kingdom that never sets.”
As for the thousand years that are spoken of in the Book of Revelation, they are the last age that we have begun to live since the crucifixion of Christ, and this is known in our theology. And John the Theologian confirms: “that we are in the last hour.” (1 John 2:18).
The End
In the end, the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ are the lost key to understanding the Book of Revelation. The Book of Revelation reads all of time with a theological reading, from the Book of Genesis to the crucifixion, and clarifies that the book of history sealed with seven seals (Rev 2:5) was opened by Jesus on the Cross, and that the new Jerusalem that God promised His people has become present. And the Apostle John does not content himself with that, but teaches us how to read history with a theological reading, to understand with greater precision how God works in it, and how Christ binds Himself to the persecuted and fights for them and leads history. It is time to deliver the Book of Revelation from the interpretations of heresies and sects — such as the Second-Comers and the Adventists, the Jehovah’s Witnesses, the millennialists, and the Moonies — that have clung to it, and to read it in the light of Christ’s resurrection, so that it is transformed from an enigma into a revelation, and we cry out with John: Come, Lord Jesus.
References
Archimandrite Elias Ta’meh, Biblical Studies on the Book of Revelation 38, Dar Al-Mashreq, Beirut.
Deacon Anton Ibrahim, A Study of the Book of Revelation, Publications of the Monastery of Our Lady of the Annunciation, Theological and Cultural Studies — Aleppo 2011.
The Book of Revelation between Yesterday and Today, lectures coordinated and introduced by the priest Paul Faghali, Biblical Studies -15-, The Biblical Association.