#672

Basic interpretive principles for Revelation 5-20, Part 2

POST OVERVIEW. The second in a two-part series of posts stating and justifying two key interpretive principles for Rev. 5-20 and presenting two crucial questions for applying these principles to a given text in Revelation. (The first post of this series was post #671.)

This second post is about Key Interpretive Principle #2, that the characters and events of Revelation chapters 5-20 are to be understood as symbolic and figurative, not literal.

INTRO. The purpose of this two-part series is to present two powerful principles for helping the Bible student interpret the visions in Revelation 5-20 and to explain two crucial questions which emerge from these interpretive principles.

TWO PRINCIPLES AND TWO CRUCIAL QUESTIONS FOR REVELATION 5-20

THE TWO KEY PRINCIPLES STATED. The two key principles are 1) Revelation 5-20 is not written in chronological order, and 2) our default assumption is that the characters and events of Revelation 5-20 are to be understood figuratively or symbolically, not literally.

In the previous post (#671), we stated and justified Key Interpretive Principle #1, that Revelation chapters 5-20 are not chronological. We now turn to Key Interpretive Principle #2, that the characters and events of Revelation chapters 5-20 are to be understood as symbolic and figurative, not literal.

JUSTIFICATION OF “NOT LITERAL, BUT FIGURATIVE AND SYMBOLIC.” Key Interpretive Principle #2: The default assumption is that the characters and events in Rev. 5-20 are to be understood figuratively or symbolically, not literally. To justify this principle, I refer the reader to a two-part series of articles on my blog site (Post #622, 2/16/2023 and #623, 2/16/2023), which addresses this precise subject. The essence of these two posts is expressed in the quote below from Post #623.

QUOTE FROM POST #623. “One of the most obvious features of these chapters (Revelation 4-20) is a continuous pouring forth of strange and powerful visions of angels and dragons and earthquakes and hailstones. Just speaking for me personally, I cannot imagine what a literal interpretation of these visions could possibly mean, so I have always thought that most of these were intended to be symbolic of other biblical realities. After all, Revelation is the ultimate example of the genre called biblical prophecy, and, as in all biblical prophecy, the symbolic and the figurative are common. So, while there are certainly parts of this section of Revelation that should be understood literally, the overwhelming majority of these chapters presents events and characters which only make sense if they are symbolic and figurative. In fact, the great challenge of interpreting Revelation 4-20 is determining the meanings of the many images and events that John records.

The following give evidence of the need for a symbolic or figurative interpretation.

  • The Lamb in Rev. 5:6ff
  • The seals of Rev. 5, 6
  • The four horsemen of Rev. 6:1-8
  • The 144,000 of Rev. 7:4-8; 14:1-5
  • The seven angels with the seven trumpets of Rev. 8-9
  • The star from heaven in Rev. 8:10; 9:1ff
  • The abyss (bottomless pit) and the smoke in Rev. 9:2-10
  • Locusts and scorpions in Rev. 9:3-10
  • Twice ten thousand time ten thousand horsemen Rev. 9:16
  • Kill a third of mankind Rev. 9:15 (2.5 Billion people??)
  • Two witnesses, fire flows out of their mouths Rev. 11:5
  • The woman Rev. 12
  • Red dragon Rev. 12
  • The beast Rev. 13:1-10
  • Another beast Rev. 13:11-17
  • The angel and the sickle Rev. 14:17-20
  • Seven angels with seven bowls Rev. 16:1-12
  • Armageddon Rev. 16:13-16
  • Scarlet beast and the woman Rev. 17:3-18
  • The destruction of Babylon Rev. 18
  • The Rider on the white horse Rev. 19:11-21
  • The angel from heaven Rev. 20:1-3
  • The dragon, the key, the chain, the abyss (bottomless pit) Rev. 20:1-3
  • Thousand years Rev. 20:2-7   [END QUOTE]

For those who desire to read the full posts, here are links to posts #622 and #623 on interpreting Revelation’s symbolism.  Post 622    Post 623

CRUCIAL QUESTION #2. Since most of the characters and events in Rev. 5-20 are understood figuratively and symbolically, the student of Revelation is compelled to frequently use their Bible study skills to ask and answer crucial question #2, “WHO OR WHAT does this symbol represent?”

AN EXAMPLE FROM REVELATION 20:1-3; WHO IS “THE ANGEL?”

My recent three-post study on Revelation 20:1-3 (posts #668, #669, and #670) was done to determine when in human history “the thousand years” occurs, but an important part of that larger study was identifying “the angel” in this scene in Rev. 20:1. To discover the identity of “the angel,” we employed crucial question #2, “WHO does this symbol (“the angel”) represent?” For an example of how the WHO crucial question is used, follow the link to post #668.

SUMMARY. Stating and justifying Key Interpretive Principle #2, that Revelation chapters 5-20 are figurative and symbolic, not literal. Also, presenting crucial question #2, “WHO OR WHAT does this symbol represent?”

Soli Deo gloria            rmb                 9/15/2023                   #672