Is Revelation a vision—or an audition?
One of the things I accept noticed in studying Revelation in the concluding couple of years is the amount and importance of the material that John reports that hehears in comparison with what hesees. There have been several studies of the hymnic material in Revelation, and these sections are important in themselves, partly because of their theological importance, partly considering of their eschatological focus, and partly because (in chapter iv and 5) they reflect elements of the imperial cult and so offer a sense of 'polemical displacement' where John (equally it were) rips ideas away from the royal cult and asserts that all obeisance belongs to God lone. But I am not enlightened of any studies of the auditory material as a whole, of which the hymnic textile is a function.
Attached below is the text of Revelation which I have divided into the vision report material and the audition report textile, and immediately we see something remarkable: the vision report cloth comprises 55% of the text, whilst things John hears comprises 43% (the remainder is the short introduction and conclusion). (I should add that this is not an exact divide, and you might want to quibble with my resource allotment at the margins.) Then although almost artwork of John on Patmos depicts him as looking up and seeing something, we might simply likewise describe him listening up and hearing carefully! And there several things it is worth noting about this auditory material.
First, it comes in three main forms. The most obvious (to the ordinary reader) is the hymnic material, which is prominent in chapters iv and 5, 7, 11, 14, xvi and xix. This does important theological piece of work in the early on chapters, in particular articulating the convergence of divine identity between the I on the Throne and the lamb. But the later on material has an eschatological focus, and shifts our attending to the justice of God's judgements, with phrases near justice linking the acclamations in 14, 16 and nineteen. The 2d kind of auditory material consists of short interjections which are a mixture of statements and commands, which office to identify people and action, and motion the vision report narrative on. Only the third kind, which many readers do not at first find, are the long blocks of reported voice communication. The outset of these is the sequence of seven majestic pronouncements or messages bug by the risen Jesus to be passed to the assemblies (ekklesiai) in the seven churches. Our chapter divisions obscure the continuity of speech from the vision of Jesus into the messages.
The second (shorter) block comes in chapter 11; John is instructed (past an angel? by God?) to measure the temple, and this commands runs into a description in the future tense of 'my witnesses'. This future tense speech appears to continue until verse 10 ('The inhabitants of the earth volition celebrate…') and but decisively ends as John reverts to his usual past tense of vision report in poetry 11. The auditory material then continues in the hymn that completes chapter 11 from verse 15 onwards. The third major block of spoken fabric runs from 17.7, with the angel'southward estimation of the prostitute on the beast and the kings and hills, through the cries of woe at the fall of Babylon in chapter eighteen, to the hymn of triumph ending at xix.viii.
Secondly, though at that place are obvious differences between the vision report and audience reports in content, structure and language, there are also some hit elements of continuity. The first relates to a particular interest of mine, word frequencies. Words that come up with notable frequencies, like the 7 'blesseds' and ten 'inhabitants of the earth' and 'kings of the earth', appear in the introductory and ending textile, in vision reports and in audience reports. As in relation other aspects of discontinuity, these special words announced to sew together the text into a remarkably unified whole.
But the other matter to note here is that the audition reports are just as 'visual', that is, strikingly metaphorical, as the vision report material. So, whilst we have a much-depicted vision of Jesus in chapter 1, nosotros also have the absorbing metaphor 'I stand at the door at knock' in Rev three.20 which also has a notably history of delineation. And the cloth in chapter 11 is virtually a vision written report (in the time to come tense) that John is recording—a written report of a report—and so seems in some means as 'visual' as John's own visions. Whilst the strictclass of the visionary and auditory material is dissimilar, thestyle is often very similar—and that explains why we mostly practise not notice the transition.
Thirdly, the interrelation between what John hears and what he sees is held together tightly in the narrative, and is central to our reading and estimation. In Rev 1.10, John hears a 'swell voice' that is 'similar a trumpet speaking', which in Ex 19.16 and xix is the vocalisation of God issuing his commandments. He then 'turns to see the voice', and encounters 'one similar a son of man' who likewise has features of the Ancient of Days, both from Dan vii. What John hears and what he sees interpret ane another: the authoritative voice of God is now heard in the words of Jesus—which as well become 'what the Spirit is maxim to the assemblies' (at the end of each message). A number of times John 'looked and heard' (equally in v.xi); he hears the command to 'Come up!' and he sees the four horsemen in chapter vi; he sees the New Jerusalem descend and he hears the significance of it in 21.1–3. Peradventure the well-nigh significant connectedness betwixt hearing and seeing comes in chapter vii. John hears the ethnically Jewish, finite, faithful remnant being counted out (Rev 7.4), then turns to see that they are multi-ethnic, international, and cannot be counted (Rev 7.9).
Fourthly, this phenomenon of seeing and hearinglocates John within the biblical prophetic tradition in quite a distinctive manner. In the One-time Testament the most common word for 'prophet' is the termnavi, which has a sense of being a spokesperson. Only 1 Sam nine.9 records a more than ancient term, 'seer', that is, i who sees (using the ordinary verb for sight). And then there is already here an intermixing of the visual and the spoken. And the about distinctive phrase associated with the prophets is 'The word of the Lord came to…' all the manner from Genesis fifteen.one (to Abraham) to Zechariah 7.i. Information technology is particularly prominent in Jeremiah and Ezekiel, ii of the nigh visual prophets, and is often accompanied by visual observations. So Jeremiah sees an almond tree and a boiling pot (Jer 1.11, 13) simply as Amos has seen a plumb line (Amos 7.8) and a basket of ripe fruit (Amos viii.1).
At the cease of Revelation, John emphasised this combination of seeing and hearing, and in doing so makes connections with a item NT tradition. In Rev 22.eight, every bit office of his emphatic handing on of his testimony to his audition (with the authority of Jesus every bit its ultimate author), John reiterates 'I, John, am the 1 who heard and saw these things. And when I had heard and seen them, I savage down to worship…' (though, in an ironic and salutary move, he worships the wrong person). This echoes the opening of the offset letter of John:
That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which nosotros have seen with our optics, which nosotros take looked at and our hands have touched—this we proclaim concerning the Discussion of life. The life appeared; we take seen it and show to information technology, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to usa. Nosotros proclaim to you what nosotros accept seen and heard, so that y'all also may have fellowship with united states. (1 John 1.1–three).
The Johannine signature as well pops up in the account of John and Peter earlier the Sanhedrin in Acts iv.20: "As for the states, we cannot assist speaking about what we take seen and heard."
And then there is a potent connection betwixt Revelation and the prophetic tradition of the OT in John'southward seeing and hearing—which supports Richard Bauckham's characterisation of Revelation as 'the climax of prophecy' in the title of his collection of studies. And there is a particular link with the Johannine combination of seeing and hearing—though with an important differentiation. Despite John having used the verborao to refer to what he has seen (the word from which we derive our 'panorama'), at this final point he switches to the verbblepo. So, equally is oft the case with Revelation and the other Johannine gospel and letters, there is a closeness of theological ideas, merely a difference in the bodily use of words.
What does this implyfor our reading and interpretation of Revelation? First, that we should nourish to the transitions between the vision reports and the audience reports, and in detail attend to the relationship between them and the connections that are made. Merely, on a larger scale, we ought to be aware of Revelation equally an aural text (and then to speak). Revelation has no parallel in the extent of its influence on visual media and fine art, and it has also had an influence on Christian hymnody. Simply usually people suppose that we will be helped past visualising the text, by recreating what John 'saw'. In fact, given the corporeality of auditory textile, we will be best helped byhearing not seeing the text—Revelation needs to be heard, even performed, for us to appoint with it. It is a powerful argument for both reading extracts from the text well in the local church, and even for putting on a operation of the whole volume. Scout this space…!
Text of revelation split into visual and auditory: Revelation vision and audience
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