The Book of Revelation is an eschatological text, meaning that it deals with what the author believed will happen at the end of the world. Many people see it as a strange book filled with bizarre imagery, and I’ve often heard it suggested that the author must have been high or hallucinating. It’s actually not as strange as many people imagine, its visions borrow heavily from the Old Testament books of the prophets, in particular Ezekiel, Isaiah and Daniel.
Revelation refers to its author as John, and states that it was written in Patmos (an island off the Turkish coast). Revelation made it into the Christian canon because early Christians wrongly believed its author was the apostle John. Augustine of Hippo stated that ‘the apostle John writes to the seven churches, [Revelation 1.4] showing in that way that he writes to the totality of the one church.’ (City of God 17.4). Tertullian likewise wrote that it had been authored by the apostle John (Against Marcion 3.25).
Like other early Christians, the author of Revelation thought the end time was close at hand. Revelation makes this clear when it has Jesus state, ‘I am coming soon; hold fast what you have, and let no one rob you of your crown’ (Revelation 3.11). Revelation wasn’t the only book in the New Testament that predicted an immanent appearance of Jesus in the sky and a Final Judgement, the same message also appears in the gospels. In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus says,
‘I tell you this: the present generation will live to see it all. Heaven and earth will pass away; my words will never pass away.’ (Matthew 24.34-5)
Paul and his followers also clearly believed the end time was imminent when he was writing in the first century. Paul wrote that, ‘This world in its present form is passing away’ (1 Corinthians 7.31). The author of the Letter to the Hebrews wrote, ‘In the past God spoke to our fathers through the prophets…but in these last days he has spoken to us by his son’ (Hebrews 1.1-2). The author of the First Letter of Peter described Jesus’ incarnation with the words, ‘He was chosen before the foundation of the world, but was made manifest in these last times for your sake’ (1 Peter 1.20).
Early non-Biblical Christian writings also display this apocalyptic belief. Tertullian (160 – 220 CE) wrote that ‘the last days approach’ (To the Nations 1). This apocalyptic belief in the end of the world expands upon the Jewish concept of ‘the day of wrath’ that we find mentioned numerous times in the Old Testament. Jews believed Yahweh would take vengeance on the gentile nations who worshipped other gods.
2 Thessalonians describes this day with, ‘When our lord Jesus is revealed from heaven in flaming fire with his mighty angels. He will take vengeance on those not knowing God, and to those not obeying the good news of our Lord Jesus Christ. They will suffer punishment’ (2 Thessalonians 1.7-9). We find this final judgement mentioned in Jewish works that date to intertestamental period, as well as a belief in the resurrection of righteous Jews. In 1 Enoch we read,
‘And all the idols of the heathen shall be abandoned, And the temples burned with fire, And they shall remove them from the whole earth. And they (i.e. the heathen) shall be cast into the judgement of fire, And shall perish in wrath and in grievous judgement for ever. And the righteous shall arise from their sleep.’ (1 Enoch 91.9-10)
The book of Jubilees likewise states,
‘On the day of judgement. As for the worshippers of idols and the profane, there will be no hope for them in the land of the living. There will be no remembrance of them on the earth, for they will descend into Sheol. Into the place of condemnation they will go. As the children of Sodom were taken away from the earth, so will all those who worship idols be taken away.’ (Jubilees 22.21-22)
The final apocalypse depicted in Revelation and elsewhere in the New Testament is the great conflagration, the counterpoint to the flood. Jesus describes this impending catastrophe in the Gospel of Matthew,
‘This is how it will be at the end of time. The angels will go forth, and they will separate the wicked from the good, and throw them into the blazing furnace, the place of wailing and grinding of teeth.’ (Matthew 13.49-50)
In the Gospel of Luke, Jesus says, ‘I have come to set fire to the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled!’ (Luke 12.49). Here we see a more dark and destructive side of the figure of Jesus that’s a million miles away from the philosophical message of the Sermon on the Mount.
Jesus directly links this final conflagration to the two great cataclysm stories in the Old Testament, the myths of the flood and Sodom. The Gospel of Luke reads,
‘As things were in Noah’s days, so will they be in the days of the Son of Man. They ate and drank and married, until the day that Noah went into the ark and the flood came and made an end of them all. As things were in Lot’s days, also; they ate and drank; they bought and sold; they planted and built; but the day that Lot went out from Sodom, it rained fire and sulphur from heaven and made an end of them all – it will be like that on the day when the Son of Man is revealed.’ (Luke 17.26-30)
Many modern Christians still believe in an apocalyptic Final Judgement and destruction of the world by fire. In the second century, Celsus mocked the Christians of his day for taking this final apocalypse seriously, and not understanding the mythological allegory,
‘They postulate, for example, that their Messiah will return as a conqueror on the clouds, and that he will rain fire upon the earth in his battle with the princes of the air, and that the whole world, with the exception of Christians, will be consumed with fire. An interesting idea – and hardly an original one. The idea came from the Greeks and others – namely, that after cycles of years and because of the fortuitous conjunctions of certain stars there are conflagrations and floods, and that after the last flood, in the time of Deucalion, the cycle demands a conflagration in accordance with the alternating succession of the universe. This is responsible for the silly opinion of some Christians that God will come down and rain fire upon the earth.’ (Origen – Against Celsus 4.11)
Other early Christian writers carried on this belief in an imminent destruction of the world in a conflagration. The author of the Second Letter of Peter wrote, ‘Look forward to the Day of God and work to hasten its coming. That day will bring about the destruction of the heavens with fire, and will melt the elements in flames’ (2 Peter 3.12). Tertullian (160 – 220 CE) wrote, ‘That last day of judgement, with its everlasting issues. That day unlooked for by the nations, the theme of their derision, when the world hoary with age, and all its many products, shall be consumed in one great flame’ (On the Shows 30). The author of The Ascension of Isaiah wrote,
‘Then the voice of the beloved [Jesus] will in wrath rebuke the things of heaven and the things of earth…and the beloved will cause fire to go forth from him, and it will consume the godless, and they will be as though they had not been created.’ (The Ascension of Isaiah 4.18)
This last great cataclysm by fire placed Christian eschatology in line with ancient Greek literary and religious sources. The Greeks believed that the world would be cleansed in a final conflagration and this may have been allegorically represented in their literature. A great fire was a set piece that ended numerous Greek plays and myths. At the end of The Odyssey, after killing the suitors of his wife Penelope, Odysseus sets fire to the great hall of his palace, ‘“The first thing I want”, the calculating Odysseus replied, “is a fire to purify this hall”’ (The Odyssey 22.490).
The same ending occurs in The Bacchae, where Dionysus frees his imprisoned followers and sets fire to King Pentheus’ palace. Dionysus tells his devotees,
‘Let fiery lightning strike right now.
Kindle the conflagration of Pentheus’ palace!’ (The Bacchae 594)
Many early Christians believed this great conflagration would be followed by a final judgement of all the people that had ever lived. Christians would go to heaven and everyone else would be punished. The Letter to the Hebrews talks of ‘a terrifying expectation of judgement and a raging fire that will consume God’s enemies’ (Hebrews 10.27).
Tertullian wrote that, ‘All those who aren’t true worshippers of God…shall be consigned to the punishment of everlasting fire’ (Apology 48). Tertullian held the bizarre belief that all dead souls from throughout history would be reunited with their body just so they could receive punishment. He wrote, ‘Therefore the body too will appear. For the soul isn’t capable of suffering without the solid substance (that is the flesh)’ (Apology 48).
The writer of Revelation believed all those found wanting at this judgement would be plunged into a burning lake, he wrote, ‘As for the cowardly, the unbelievers, the vile, and murderers, fornicators, sorcerers, idolators, and all liars. Their lot will be the second death in the fiery lake of burning sulphur.’ (Revelation 21.8)
This may be the basis for the later Christian and Muslim belief in hell. It probably derives from ancient Greek religion, where the impious were punished in Tartarus and the flaming river Phlegethon. These Greek beliefs in turn possibly derived from the ancient Egyptian Lake of Fire mentioned in The Coffin Texts. The belief in a fiery underworld may have come from trying to explain where volcanic lava comes from, as it clearly comes up from under the earth.
By classical times, the Greeks believed in a judgement after death by three judges – Minos, Rhadamanthys and Aecu. The good and pious went to the Elysian Fields or Islands of the Blessed, the impious to Tartarus. In the 4th century BCE, Plato wrote of an afterlife that was very similar to the later Christian version of heaven and hell,
‘Every man who has passed a just and pure life departs after his death to the Isles of the Blessed, and dwells in all happiness, free from sorrow. But whoever has lived unjustly and impiously shall be imprisoned in the place of retribution and judgement which is called Tartarus.’ (Gorgias 523)
The main influence for the apocalyptic vision in Revelation is the Old Testament Book of Daniel. Just like the gospels, Revelation equates Jesus to the ‘Son of Man’ described in Daniel. John states, ‘Behold, he is coming in the clouds!’ (Revelation 1.7), which mirrors the vision of Daniel, ‘I saw one like the son of man coming with the clouds of heaven’ (Daniel 7.13). Later in Revelation, the author makes the comparison clear, ‘Then as I looked there appeared a white cloud, and sat on the cloud was one like a son of man’ (Daniel 14.14).
Revelation describes Jesus in fantastical language that again probably derives from Daniel. The author of Revelation wrote of Jesus,
‘When I turned I saw seven golden lampstands. In the middle of the lamps was one who looked like a man, wearing a robe down to his feet, with a golden girdle around his chest.His head and hair were like snow white wool, and his eyes flamed like fire. His feet were like burnished brass glowing in a furnace, and his voice sounded like rushing waters.’ (Revelation 1.12 – 15)
Compare that description of Jesus with this description of Yahweh from Daniel,
‘His robe was white as snow and the hair of his head like cleanest wool,
His throne was flames of fire and its wheels blazing fire.
A flowing river of fire streamed out before him.’ (Daniel 7.9-10)
The author of Revelation has the archangel Michael and Yahweh’s heavenly army fight the cosmic dragon at this end time,
‘Then war broke out in heaven, Michael and his angels fought against the dragon. The dragon and his angels fought back, but they weren’t strong enough, and they were forced out of their places in the sky. And the great dragon was thrown down, the serpent of old who is called the devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world. He was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him.’ (Revelation 12.7-9)
This mirrors Yahweh’s battle with Leviathan mentioned in the Old Testament. The Book of Isaiah possibly gave the battle an eschatological dimension, which might be a reason why it appears in Revelation,
‘See, Yahweh is coming out of the place where he lives,
to punish the people of the earth for their sins.
The earth will display the blood shed on it,
and no longer conceal its slain.
On that day, Yahweh with his
fierce, great and powerful sword will punish
Leviathan the piercing serpent,
Leviathan the twisting serpent;
he will slay the dragon.’ (Isaiah 26.21-27.1)
The Bible and Mythology 