Revelation as Another Violent Creation Story?
Continued from yesterday's post on creation
Do you read prologues and introductions? If not, you really need to fix that. I almost made that mistake in reading the JPS Torah Commentary on the book of Genesis, but thankfully that is one introduction I did read.
Nahum Sarna’s insightful comments help frame Genesis 1, but they also help resolve something in my mind that I had major questions about several years back: how could Revelation be filled with so much violence and bloodshed when both Jesus and John spent so much time talking about love, nonviolence, and God sending rain and sunshine to good and evil men?
But before we get to that, let’s see what Sarna has to tell us in the introduction.
There is abundant evidence that other cosmologies once existed in Israel. Scattered allusions to be found in the prophetic, poetic, and wisdom literature of the Bible testify to a popular belief that prior to the onset of the creative process the powers of watery chaos had to be subdued by God. These mythical beings are variously designated Yam (Sea), Nahar (River), Leviathan (Coiled One), Rahab (Arrogant One), and Tannin (Dragon).1 There is no consensus in these fragments regarding the ultimate fate of these creatures. One version has them utterly destroyed by God; in another, the chaotic forces, personalized as monsters, are put under restraint by His power.1
Now, these stories obviously didn’t make it into our creation poem inGenesis, but the elements of them show up in other passages like Isaiah 27:1; 51:9–10; Job 26:12–13 and, in reference to their fate, cf. Psalm 104:9; Proverbs 8:27; Job 26:10; 38:8–11. (These lists, by the way, are also in the introduction.)
The creation story we have is compact, solemn, and dignified, unlike every other creation story in its time according to Sarna. As we learned in yesterday’s post, the Bible often uses the same setups but resolves the joke with a different punchline. Many of the stories and themes in the Bible were critiques of contemporary literature, myths, and conventional wisdom. Even in the New Testament, expressions like Lord, kingdom, peace, and Son of God were used subversively to critique the empire worldview of Rome.2
Which brings us to Revelation.
Revelation as a Violent Creation Story
Anyone who has read Revelation has noticed the dramatic difference between a surface level reading of the Apocalypse and, let’s say, the beatitudes or one of Paul’s epistles. In fact, its closest counterparts are found in certain books in the Hebrew Scripture like Daniel, Ezekiel, and sections of Isaiah (Isaiah 24-28). There are a few passages in the New Testament that are similar to the style of Revelation, but these are rare exceptions.
So how does a Christian who feels drawn to the nonviolence of Jesus as well as the emphasis on love throughout John and Paul’s writings cope with all of the violence and bloodshed in Revelation?
Reminder One: Revelation Uses Symbols that Elicit Emotions
Well, one step is to remember that the entire book is symbolic. The exaggerated imagery is designed to trigger strong emotions, not depict a 1:1 picture of what was to transpire “shortly” (Revelation 1:1, 3; Revelation 2:10). In fact, I think interpreting the emotions one feels as reading Revelation is just as important, if not more so, than trying to find an exact interpretation of every symbol or image in the book.
Reminder Two: Revelation is Meant to Be Heard, Not Read
Remember that Revelation was written to be read by one person to a congregation of people, not necessarily picked over with a fine-toothed comb in one’s personal study, even though there is a lot of benefit that could come from that. John says, “Blessed is he who reads and those who hear…”
So my advice would be not to get too hung up on any one symbol and instead throw on an audiobook of Revelation, close your eyes, and allow the imagery to fill your head. Some things will be explained for you (like in Revelation 11:8), but much of it will make sense just because the imagery is eliciting strong emotions like fear, sadness, shock, awe, surprise, or joy.
Reminder Three: A Revelation of Who?
What is Revelation all about? Revelation is a revelation of Jesus Christ. That’s its ultimate point. Any interpretation of Revelation that does not further reveal who Jesus is has missed the mark. Any interpretation of Revelation that is not consistent with what we see of Jesus in the gospel accounts has missed the mark.
So if you read something in Revelation that seems to contradict what you know about Jesus, there is a strong chance you are missing the point somewhere… either in how you view Jesus or how you are reading Revelation.
This matters because Jesus “explains God” (John 1:18). Jesus is the perfect picture of who God is, so if you misread Jesus, then you will have a warped view of God (Hebrews 1:3). Which means that interpreting Revelation has huge implications for how we view God. No wonder so many people who fixate on “signs of the times” are living in constant fear!
Reminder Four: John is Using Conventional Language to Make a Point
When we read of a cosmic battle between different mythical creatures like dragons and a variety of beasts, let’s not forget that this was a popular way to talk about how the world came to be as we discussed yesterday. John is using this language because that’s what the people know. He wants his audience to know the gravity of the situation they are watching unfold, but he also is setting them up to expect something at the end of the story: a bloody defeat of God’s enemies resulting in a new creation. But, as you know, God likes to change the punchline
Reminder Five: The Punchline Changes
If you pay attention to what’s going on between the lines in Revelation, you’ll notice two major groups of people/ beings. On the one hand, you have the persecuted remnant who are beheaded, exiled, and refuse to pick up the sword along with the Lamb who was slain. On the other hand, you have a group who bows down to the beast, worships the dragon, picks up the sword, and wages war against the saints.
In this passage, pay attention to the difference between those who worship the dragon and those who worship the Lamb and “endure to the end.”
Also, it was allowed to wage war on the saints and to conquer them. It was given authority over every tribe and people and language and nation, and all the inhabitants of the earth will worship it, everyone whose name has not been written from the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb that was slaughtered. Let anyone who has an ear listen: If you are to be taken captive, into captivity you go; if you kill with the sword, with the sword you must be killed. Here is a call for the endurance and faith of the saints. (Revelation 13:7–10)
On one hand, you have a group who wages war, conquers the nations, and demands worship. The other group worships the slaughtered lamb and refuses to pick up the sword. If you were to bet, who wins this battle? As verse four says, “Who is like the beast, and who can fight against it?”
Yet, Revelation ends with the enemies of the saints being slain, but they are not slain in the typical fashion, with a spear or a sword. Instead, a kingdom that turns swords into plowshares has to wage war a different way: a sword that proceeds from the mouth of the Lamb (Revelation 1:16; 19:15; cf. 2 Corinthians 10:3-6).
The violence in Revelation, then, doesn’t come from the Lamb or from God. Instead, like in Matthew 23 and Luke 19, the violence brings tears to Jesus’s (and therefore God’s) eyes because the people do not follow the way of peace.
As he came near and saw the city, he wept over it, saying, “If you, even you, had only recognized on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. Indeed, the days will come upon you when your enemies will set up ramparts around you and surround you and hem you in on every side. They will crush you to the ground, you and your children within you, and they will not leave within you one stone upon another, because you did not recognize the time of your visitation from God.” (Luke 19:41–44)
The wrath of God and of the Lamb is exactly this: Jesus’s words, his preaching and teaching, as well as the way he lived (the Word) presented the nations with the Way, the Truth, and the Life, but they tend to choose violence, falsify, and corruption. This Way means you have a blood-stained robe, but it isn’t the blood of your enemies; it’s your own blood. The slaughtered lamb, the beheaded saints, the encircled city receive victory by refusing to play the game and enter again into the cycle of violence.
While Revelation 20 has a judgement scene with some going into the lake of fire, that is not the end of the story. In chapters 21-22, John introduces us to a city, the new Jerusalem, which has gates that are never shut, fruit that brings healing to the nations, and has an open invitation: the Spirit and the bride say, “Come!” Anyone who wishes can wash their robes and enter the city because, as I’ve already said, the gates are always opened.
What an ending! Of course, John says there are some who choose to remain outside of the gates, but the invitation is still there.
This story, which may shock us at times, is really about Jesus’s Way of love and nonviolence prevailing over the violent, bloody, dark agenda of the empire and kingdoms of this world. Or another way to put it, the cross is the Way to resurrection.
Sarna, Nahum M. Genesis. Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 1989. Print. The JPS Torah Commentary.
Barry, John D., David Bomar, Derek R. Brown, Rachel Klippenstein, Douglas Mangum, Carrie Sinclair Wolcott, Lazarus Wentz, Elliot Ritzema, and Wendy Widder, eds. The Lexham Bible Dictionary. Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2016.