The Poetry of Revelation

One issue with talking about the book of Revelation is that in order to combat the vast amounts of misinformation out there about the book, we often heavily use information. That’s one thing I want to avoid in this series. It cannot be about the “facts” of Revelation, when Revelation is far more about emotions than about facts. Facts certainly matter, and we might unfortunately have to spend a lot of time on the facts to avoid confusion, but the book should give us certain emotions about God, about the church, about Jesus, about suffering. Feelings like awe, encouragement, love, hope, even negative emotions like horror and disgust. This is why in an earlier post, I spent time on playlists to accompany a reading of Revelation, that I aimed to auditorily draw you in to the emotions of Revelation’s pages. My goal in this series is primarily that Revelation gives us certain emotions about God, about our purpose, about our lives. Secondarily, I want us to wrestle intellectually with the metaphors, the riddles, and the conundrums of Revelation.

The facts matter insofar the emotions they give the reader. This is the way poetry is. When it comes to poetry, the facts do matter, otherwise it is difficult to engage with the material, if one is thoroughly confused about the facts to which the poetry at times references. But the images and metaphors are more important than the facts, and the feelings they give. Sometimes poetry makes you feel like you don’t understand anything. Sometimes the emotion poetry gives is confusion because it pushes our mind into new places and in new directions that propositions or logic simply don’t achieve.

While apocalyptic literature can’t be put in the box of modern literature, I do believe it belongs to the genre of poetry. And the goal, at times, of Revelation is to confound us and push our minds and emotions in new directions with ambiguous images that get us to question everything.  Consider, for example, the use of female imagery throughout the book.

              Consider how ambiguous the image of the woman is in Revelation 12:

“And a great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars. She was pregnant and was crying out in birth pains and the agony of giving birth. And another sign appeared in heaven: behold, a great dragon, with seven heads and ten horns, and on his heads seven diadems. His tail swept down a third of the stars of heaven and cast them to the earth. And the dragon stood before the woman who was about to give birth, so that when she bore he child he might devour it. She gave birth to a male child, one who is to rule all nations with a rod of iron, but her child was caught up to God and to his throne, and the woman fled into the wilderness, where she has a place prepared by God, in which she is to be nourished for 1,260 days….And when the dragon saw that he had been thrown down to the earth, he pursued the woman who had given birth to the male child. But the woman was given two wings of the great eagle so that she might fly from the serpent into the wilderness, to the place where she is to be nourished for a time, times and half a time. The serpent poured water like a river out of his mouth after the woman, to sweep her away with a flood. But the earth came to the help of the woman, and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed the river that the dragon had poured from his mouth. Then the dragon went off to make war on the rest of her offspring, on those who keep the commandments of God and hold to the testimony of Jesus….”

So from this passage, who do you think the woman is? There are a few possible answers: Israel? Eve? Mary? The Church? The people of God in general? The image of the woman is fluid and inexact. Likewise, what time it is in this chapter is fluid and inexact: Is it when Jesus was born? Is it when the God birthed his people in Exodus? Is it when the church was persecuted under Nero? The metaphor of the woman and the dragon is not about an exact person or an exact time, but neither does it not talk about specific times and people. Rather, it stretches out beyond particular time, people, and circumstances to many times, peoples, and circumstances. It is both about one thing and about everything. Exactness is not the point, but if we don’t see the possibilities of interpretation, we won’t get the point.

But the woman gets much more air time in Revelation, each time she seems to be the same person, yet she comes in many forms. She is the nation of Israel, the holy city of Jerusalem.  She is Mary and Eve. She is the church, the bride of Christ. Yet, there is another woman, the whore of Babylon, who also takes various forms. She is “the great city” of Babylon, She is the goddess Roma who on the coins was surrounded with seven hills (Rev. 17:9), who is “drunk with the blood of the saints”(Rev. 17:6), the embodiment of corruption, immorality, and greed, Jezebel, the one who rides on the beast. We see in Revelation wickedness represented as a woman and righteousness represented as a woman.

The imagery in Revelation connects a variety of times, places, and themes. The woman is just one example. We will explore many more. But the imagery of the woman should make us feel certain emotions. The intent of the author is to get the reader to feel certain things.

As we explore Revelation, there are certain areas of understanding where the facts matter insofar the emotions they provide. It will be necessary to explore our knowledge and understanding when it comes to these matters. Eschatology and prophecy are two places where how we interpret Revelation profoundly affects the feelings it gives us.