BOOK OF REVELATION (12:1-12)

Exegesis of the Book of Revelation (12:1-12)

Exegesis of the Book of Revelation (12:1-12)

The “Book Of Revelation” is the final book of the Christian New Testament, and the primary statement of early Christian eschatology. The text is also commonly known as the Book of Revelation or Revelation to John, after its author, who also wrote the New Testament Gospel that bears his name. Tradition holds that it was composed at a location in modernday Turkey known as Patmos. Scholars suspect, however, that the book had several authors and was not actually compiled until the last decades of the first century. It is unique among New Testament texts in that it is neither historical nor didactic (instructional) in nature. Instead Revelation is apocalyptic, using various literary methods, most commonly descriptions of visions, to describe aspects of the final judgment of the Christian God. This paper provides the exegesis of the Book Of Revelation.

Apocalyptic Genre

The literary genre of Revelation is one of the most discussed features. It has conventionally been supposed that Revelation is related to the field of Apocalyptic compositions. It shows several features of this field: an emphasis on the eschaton, mythological influences, a rich figurative matrix, the role of Satan & angels, and dualism.

Authorship and Canonicity

Nowhere does the author claim the identification JOHN THE APOSTLE. About this time the ALOGOI, led by the Roman priest Caius, in reaction to the abuse of Apocalypse by the Montanists, ascribed both the Gospel according to St. John and Revelation to the heretic Cerinthus and denied their canonicity. Though St. DIONYSIUS OF ALEXANDRIA (d. 264) considered Revelation an inspired writing, he questioned its apostolic authorship because of literary and theological considerations similar to those that prompt most modern scholars to posit different authors for the Fourth Gospel and Revelation. Dionysius' arguments are reproduced by Eusebius (Ecclesiastical History 7:25; Sources Chrétiennes 41:204-210), who also credits John the Presbyter with the writing of Revelation (ibid., 3.39.5; Sources Chrétiennes 31:154-155). Between A.D. 300 and 450 a number of the Fathers of the Church in the East, especially of the Antiochian School, excluded Revelation from the Canon. During the same period, however, it was accepted in the West and in the East by Athanasius, Cyril of Alexandria, Basil, Gregory of Nyssa, and others, all of whom assumed apostolic authorship of the book. In final analysis it seems hardly probable that both the Fourth Gospel and the Book of Revelation were authored by the same person.

Occasion

Like other APOCALYPTIC literature, John's was occasioned by a religious crisis. He wrote to encourage Christians, in the first instance those of Asia Minor, to be committed even to demise in spite of the legal, social, and economic forces that made it increasingly difficult to avoid taking part in pagan religious practices, especially emperor worship. Many had become disheartened and disillusioned because the glorious return of Christ, His PAROUSIA, which they had been eagerly expecting, seemed to recede farther and farther from the horizon of their ...