Language Studies

Difficult Sayings

"Revelation, the least Christian book in the New Testament" – Adam Nicolson, Daily Telegraph

"The vision, of its essence, is apocalyptic and millennial. Deep in the Jewish tradition, and radiantly powerful in Deuteronomy, Daniel and Isaiah, is the idea that a moment of fearful justice will come, when the wrath of the divine will descend on Earth. It knows no compromise. Its very violence is a measure of its goodness.

That is the tradition drawn on by the blood-drenched visions of the end of time in Revelation, the least Christian book in the New Testament, disowned by Luther, but now the favourite text of both North American fundamentalist Christians and equally fundamentalist Islamic zealots, for whom it is just as holy." (Adam Nicolson, The Daily Telegraph, October 16, 2004 and The Age, October 23, 2004 www.theage.com.au/articles/2004/10/22/1098316857390.html)

You might ask why this article is appearing in a series about difficult biblical passages. The excerpt above comes from an Opinion piece that appeared in both the British and Australian press. The commentary by Adam Nicolson was critical of George Bush using biblical texts to justify the War on Iraq and using religious gung-ho symbolism in announcing the pyrrhic victory that supposedly ended hostilities there. The rights and wrongs of that war are not the issue here, nor is the interaction between religion and politics. The text used by President Bush was from Isaiah 49:9:

"Wherever you go, you carry a message of hope - a message that is ancient and ever new. In the words of the prophet Isaiah, 'To the captives, come out, and to those in darkness, be free'." (full text of President Bush's speech: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/2994345.stm, this passage appears right at the end)

Great and comforting words to hear if you are a Kurd, Marsh Arab or suppressed Iraqi, except for those for whom the presence of the so-called "Great Satan" America on Iraqi soil is anathema.

Nicolson goes on to quote what he calls the context of this citation, incorrectly referring to Isaiah 61, presumably because it carries similar wording, "to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound", in its opening verse. This inaccurate source reference and sloppy journalism is not our issue either.

Instead, the topic under examination here is whether St John's Revelation can in all truth and honesty be called "the least Christian book in the New Testament".

Martin Luther, despite kick-starting the Reformation, was renowned for dismissing James and also doubted Revelation's presence in the New Testament. In his German Bible translation Luther moved the books of Hebrews, James, Jude and Revelation from their traditional canonical order to the end of his translation and didn't list them in the index. He prefaced James with the statement that it "contradicts Paul by teaching justification by works" and in his early editions he wrote, "St. James Epistle is really an epistle of straw compared to [St. Paul's] for it lacks this evangelical character" (Preface to Deutsche Bibel, 1524).

So, if that was Luther's feeling about James, what was his attitude to Revelation? In the same 1524 New Testament preface he wrote, "In the Revelation of John much is wanting to let me deem it either prophetic or apostolical". Calvin was not so critical but nonetheless suggested that no one should dare explain its contents.

The Canadian based Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance have also commented on Revelation's apparent inconsistency with the God of the New Testament:

"It [Revelation] portrays God as inflicting horrendous punishments on humanity -- a concept that is today sometimes called "Ambush Theology." Luther concluded that he could not readily harmonize the God described in Revelation with the God to whom Jesus prayed to as Abba."
(http://www.religioustolerance.org/chr_ntb5d.htm)

Should we, then, be neo-Marconites and reject Revelation's message? Marcion in the second century tried to do away with all biblical books including Revelation^F1 and passages that smacked of Judaism or violence deeming these to belong to the message of another harsher God, rather than the manifesto of a God of love. Steve Santini^F2 thinks that Revelation may even be a second century Jewish fake trying to disrupt Christianity and Professor John Marshall^F3 thinks it a first century Jewish text responding to the War in Palestine.

Perhaps some of Nicolson's concerns are justified given the popularity of the multimillion selling Left Behind series and its theologically questionable end times Rapture theme. I have heard of whoops of hallelujah going up when Revelation's bowls of wrath are described as poured out and Jerusalem's streets are flowing with blood. Violence in the Middle East may presage the End but still God has no pleasure in the death of any, not even the wicked (Ezekiel 18:23). Jewish Passover tradition pours some of the Pesach wine, like drops of blood, on to the floor to commemorate the fact that unfortunately Egyptians had to die for Israel to come out of Egypt. It is perhaps the non-Christian and non-Jewish jubilant reaction of some to the biblical judgement theme of Revelation that is off-message.

Revelation with all its judgements may have the appearance of being "least Christian" in the sense of the idiomatic "Christian kindness" it apparently lacks, but hardly the least biblical. Revelation is only deemed "least Christian" if one's Christianity is solely defined by John's gospel, loving your neighbour (a Jewish concept from Leviticus 19:18) and the Sermon on the Mount. John's own supposedly more "spiritual" gospel is itself balanced by his more "apocalyptic" Revelation, assuming the author^F4 is one and the same.

Many regard the book of Revelation as being heavily influenced by other biblical books, the Old Testament canonical prophets and extra biblical Jewish apocryphal literature, in particular. Indeed of the 39 Old Testament biblical works some 32 are alluded to in the book of Revelation, more than any other New Testament book, yet another writer can say almost the opposite and emphasise its "newness":

"Hallelujah for the last book of the Bible, the Book of Revelation! It is entirely different from all the other books. In Matthew there are a number of quotations from the Old Testament. In John, the Acts, Romans, Hebrews, and other books there are also many quotations. But here in the Book of Revelation, a book of twenty-two chapters, we cannot find one Old Testament quotation. It is absolutely a new book; nothing in it is quoted from the old books. In this book there are no quotations from the entire Bible—nothing at all of the old way. Then what is here? The seven Spirits! There is a Lamb with seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God. This is all. We only see the Lamb, the Redeemer, with the intensified Spirit. Nothing is of the old source. All the utterances in this book are made by the sevenfold Spirit and are new and fresh. There is nothing religious, nothing old, nothing dead; everything is spoken by the living Spirit in a new and living way." (Living Stream Ministry, http://www.ministrybooks.org/chapter.asp?id=25&chapterid=13§ionid=1&pageid=1)

Does its "newness" make it less Christian? Does its language steeped in the visionary apocalyptic of the Old Testament make it more Jewish? What the above writer does not understand is that in a Jewish context one need only quote a portion of a text or use biblical keywords to hint at the original Hebrew passage, and it need not be introduced by "this was written…" or "the prophet X says…".

If we lost the book of Revelation would we lose any important doctrines? Most of its eschatology, "end times theology", can be rebuilt from the predictions of Isaiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, Joel and Zechariah, and Jesus' own "little apocalypse" recorded in Matthew 24:3-25:46; Mark 13:4-37 and Luke 21:7-36. Indeed, for its size, Daniel is proportionately the most quoted Old Testament book in the New Testament and apart from Psalms and the Pentateuch, the apocalyptic visionaries Isaiah and Ezekiel are the next most important.

Other New Testament sources for Revelation-styled eschatology would be both letters to the Thessalonians, nearly half of whose content are concerned with the "End". 1 Corinthians 15 adds details concerning the bodily resurrection (e.g., vv.23-24,52). These cover most of the important facets of "the End" and also serve, therefore, to mark Revelation's theology as both Jewish and "Christian". Indeed, in Elwell's Evangelical Dictionary of Theology (Revelation, Theology of, p.685) it is noted that the term "antichrist" does not come from Revelation and that "Revelation adds little of substance to what other New Testament writings say about eschatology".

In other words, Revelation can neither be "least Christian" or anti-Christian and even if it were it would amount to saying the same of other New Testament books and become a form of modern Marcionism with its rejection of the "not so nice" facets of biblical belief.

Revelation is the only book promising a blessing to those that read it and a curse to those that change it (Revelation 1:3; 22:18-19) we would do well to remember this when we accuse it of being un-Christian. It ends with a very Christian hope, "And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away." (Revelation 21:4)

FOOTNOTES:
Tertullian, Contra Marcion, 4.5
"When reading ancient rabbinical letters of the second century it is evident that they made an effort to disrupt the Christian "heresy" with disinformation. . . . This has made me wonder if it is possible that the book of Revelation was purposely written to or purposely directed towards those of belief to cause them to doubt Paul’s revelation of the mystery." http://www.geocities.com/kibotos2002/revelation.html
Marshall, J, Parables of War: Reading John's Jewish Apocalypse, 2001 (Waterloo, Ontario: Wilfrid Laurier University Press)
Justin Martyr in the mid-second century is the first to declare Revelation as authored by John the Apostle (Dialogue with Trypho, 81). In the same chapter he quotes Isaiah 65:17-25 as consistent with John’s message.

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