Breaking the Code

John may subscribe to the idea that the desert tabernacle and the Jerusalem temple were models of the cosmos (see Josephus, The Antiquities of the Jews 3.6.4 §§122-23; 3.7.7 §§180-81; Philo, The Special Laws 1.66). We have already encountered the accoutrements of the holy places and inner courts in John’s heaven (Revelation 6:9; 8:3-5) and will aga

The Euphrates is significant as the eastern frontier of the Roman Empire, beyond which lay the Parthian menace. These demon-horsemen with their mounts, hitherto held in leash, are now let loose like avenging furies upon the Roman provinces at “the hour, the day,

Lest the reader fail to grasp the significance of the Hebrew name, John adds the Greek equivalent, Apollyon (9:11). John’s vision may represent a subversive satire of imperial ideology. Domitian claimed Apollo, one of whose symbols was the locust, as his patron deity; in John’s cosmos, however, “Apollo” is a creature of the abyss, the chief of a ho

The imagery that John uses to describe his visions may have been in part suggested by storms, earthquakes, and eclipses of the first century. If, as is likely, Revelation was written after AD 79, when the sudden eruption of Vesuvius completely engulfed the cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum with molten lava and destroyed ships in the Gulf of Naples,

the explicit number, 144,000, symbolizes completeness—not one of the redeemed is missing.

These seven angels are identified as “the seven angels who stand before God” (8:2), the seven who, according to Jewish tradition, formed an elite order of archangels. In Tobit, a Jewish text written during the intertestamental period, an angel reveals himself thus: “I am Raphael, one of the seven angels who stand ready and enter before the glory of

In his description of these, John makes use of symbolism drawn from many parts of the Old Testament: the earthquake from Haggai (2:6), the sun turned black and the moon turned to blood from Joel (2:31), the stars fallen from heaven like figs from a fig tree (Isaiah 34:4), and the sky rolled up like a scroll (Isaiah 34:4). The use of cosmic convulsi

As the city had fallen in the past because of lack of vigilance, so now the Sardians are reminded to be watchful and to shake off their apathy. If, however, they “do not wake up,” Christ says, “I will come like a thief,” that is to say, he will come when he is not being expected. The language is strongly reminiscent of Jesus’ own words concerning h

Sardis, a busy commercial and industrial city at the junction of five roads about thirty miles south of Thyatira, had been the capital of the ancient region called Lydia. In the sixth century BC, it was one of the greatest cities of the world, where the fabulous King Croesus reigned amid his treasures. Even though the citadel of Sardis was situated