Literature differs from one era to the next. The myths of really ancient literature, such as the ones told by the Egyptians differ in length and style and a few other ways from the myths told up the timeline by a couple thousand years in Greece. The tales of the gods of the Norse people differ in style and content from the myths down the timeline a thousand years from the Greeks' tales. So it goes. Different eras produce different literature.
One would expect Hebrew literature not to be an exception. One can see short narratives, for instance, in the earliest tales of the Hebrew people, but by the time of David, the narratives have lengthened and have a different purpose and style than the earlier narratives. Poems of the Israelites can also be seen as early as the Exodus story (Exodus 15, which many call the Song of Moses), but its form, style, and type are certainly different from the forms exhibited in the book of poetry called Psalms. A person can see the robust style and technique of a poem like Psalm 119 as very different from the straightforward and focused praise poem of Exodus 15.
So, it really should not surprise anyone at all that the New Testament, too, contains different forms of writing. Even though it was a much more tightly constrained time period than any of the comparisons in the above paragraphs, its literature still shows variation because of place, time, purpose, and author. An exercise in accounting for the differences between the synoptic gospels and the Gospel of John illustrates the affect of different circumstances for different audiences in different settings. And as a person reads the New Testament as a whole, it would not take a genius to notice that the book of Revelation is very different from the other books of the New Testament. It stands alone. In fact, it has a greater similarity to a couple of Old Testament books (Daniel and Zechariah) than it does to any of the New Testament books.
But, literature exists in genres. It would be the rarest of books that stand alone with no connection to other books of its type. That should be a great indication to any reader that one might want to look for a genre of literature that Revelation fits even if he or she has to look outside the New Testament for comparisons. At the same time that Revelation was being written, in fact, the books of Second Baruch and Second Esdras were penned. They contain the same fanciful imagery, visions, and guidance of a human by heavenly beings that Revelation does. First Enoch one of the first to be written, is somewhat older by a couple or three centuries, but it still contained the features that Revelation adopted of heavenly beings explaining the scheme of things to come to Enoch. Second Enoch as well might be slightly older than Revelation, but its contents were very similar. And the Apocalypse of Peter, written around the same time as Revelation, was actually given canonical status by Christan groups in Egypt and Ethiopia, but it never achieved that status by Roman Christians, who had a great deal of influence in canon formation. Other apocalyptic material existed, but the mention of the above books helps one to see that apocalyptic writing was a genre and a style of writing over about a 400 year period that Revelation fits into. Understanding the style and genre gives great insight into the interpretation of the New Testament's last book.
Revelation 16 is representative of the help one can receive in interpreting its symbols by knowing the genre of apocalyptic literature. A series of angels are pouring bowls of wrath onto the Earth. Immediately one notices that a literal understanding doesn't give insight. Instead, one knows from other apocalyptic books that angels deliver God's messages to chosen humans. These angels do things like ride in different directions around the Earth and report to God what they saw (as in Zechariah) or open scrolls and explain its contents (as in Daniel). They measure things (as in Second Enoch and Ezekiel). Or they interpret great battles' consequences for all who live on the Earth (as in Second Esdras).
The bowls of Revelation 16, then, are actions of angels with a message for the inhabitants of Earth. They are symbols belonging to the story of Christians who have cried out for God to avenge their oppression and suffering that has been unfolding in previous chapters. The seven seals, for instance, show that God has received reports from his angels of his people's suffering, then reveals that he is going to act on their behalf to avenge their suffering. Seven trumpets follow to publicly announce to his people that God knows who exactly is responsible for the persecution against his son's followers and that their end is new. After the trumpets, John sees a vision in the sky of an evil force (Satan), who tries to eliminate Christianity as it was being born from Judaism and that Roman leaders (the first beast) and Jewish leaders (the second beast) had been in cahoots with the Romans and on their own oppressing his sacred people, now those who follow the slain lamb.
In auspicious manner (because Revelation 15.1 says these seven angels' actions are God's πληγὰς ἑπτὰ τὰς ἐσχάτας... ἐτελέσθη ὁ θυμὸς τοῦ θεοῦ ["seven last plagues... that finish his anger"]), seven angels start pouring out bowls of anger onto the Earth. The first four recall God's dealings with the king of Egypt 1500 years prior to John's time in a Great Deliverance that alleviated his people's pain of suffering. The first four bowls of anger conjured up the accompanying signs of that Great Devliverance in foreshadowing what God was about to do for his people in John's time because the emperors of Rome, their governors, and Jews everywhere around the empire had been persistently persecuting them.
Verse 8
Καὶ ὁ τέταρτος ἐξέχεεν τὴν φιάλην αὐτοῦ ἐπὶ τὸν ἥλιον, καὶ ἐδόθη αὐτῷ καυματίσαι τοὺς ἀνθρώπους ἐν πυρί
(The fourth one poured his bowl out onto the sun causing people to suffer from extreme heat.)
Verse 9
καὶ ἐκαυματίσθησαν οἱ ἄνθρωποι καῦμα μέγα καὶ ἐβλασφήμησαν τὸ ὄνομα τοῦ θεοῦ τοῦ ἔχοντος τὴν ἐξουσίαν ἐπὶ τὰς πληγὰς ταύτας καὶ οὐ μετενόησαν δοῦναι αὐτῷ δόξαν
(When people felt the tremendous heat, they spoke profanities against the name of God, the one having the power over these plagues, and refused to give him due honor.)
Verse 10
Καὶ ὁ πέμπτος ἐξέχεεν τὴν φιάλην αὐτοῦ ἐπὶ τὸν θρόνον τοῦ θηρίου, καὶ ἐγένετο ἡ βασιλεία αὐτοῦ ἐσκοτωμένη, καὶ ἐμασῶντο τὰς γλώσσας αὐτῶν ἐκ τοῦ πόνου
(The fifth poured his bowl onto the beast's throne, and its kingdom became dark. People bit their tongues to endure their suffering.)
Verse 11
καὶ ἐβλασφήμησαν τὸν θεὸν τοῦ οὐρανοῦ ἐκ τῶν πόνων αὐτῶν καὶ ἐκ τῶν ἑλκῶν αὐτῶν καὶ οὐ μετενόησαν ἐκ τῶν ἔργων αὐτῶν
(They spoke profanities against the God of Heaven since they had to endure suffering and had been covered in festering sores. But they did not say they wanted to change the behavior that caused their pain.)
There are some very close parallels with Second Esdras at this point. The first 4 bowls of anger speak to God's anger about the treatment of his people. That also is a theme using the same kind of symbolic language of leading his people from torment out of Egypt in Second Esdras 15.5-12. The fourth bowl of anger uses imagery with the sun and extreme heat. The same kind of imagery of destruction of the abusers of God's people is used in Second Esdras 13.8-11. The sun isn't mentioned in that context, but fire, flames, and sparks spewing from the Messiah's mouth to burn people and to show humanity that God is in control and through his anger he brings accountability to a group of people mistreating those who live by his name is the same. Rejection of God and refusal to change behavior by those who act profanely against him in the bowls poured out by angels 4 and 5 of John's vision parallels Second Esdras 9.7-13. And although there is the same kind of imagery in Day of the Lord passages in the Old Testament, such as Isaiah 13.6-18, the details of apocalyptic imagery represent the denoument an age and a beginning of a new era, not just a cleansing.
The above parallels with Second Esdras make the point that God's people have called out to him, that he has heard them and will act against the ones subjecting them to mistreatment. Both books were written about the same time with the same message. They corroborate the treatment of God's people at the hands of the Romans, and both show that God is acting with superlative means and with supernatural, unmistakable, inimicable justice against this invincible empire. Both make the comparison to the Egyptian deliverance, which was Judaism's pivotal, seminal event. Both have overtones that this time God is acting on behalf of his people the Christians, including those Jews who believed and accepted Jesus for who he was, but excluding those Jews who believed Jesus to be a prophet, not the son of God or the messiah.
One of the reasons John's Apocalypse resonates with me is that, at times, I have found myself on the opposite side of Christianity. I have been in situations when no one knew that I was a Christian, and so I saw others rail against it as an evil in the world. I have heard people say God doesn't exist and Christianity is a mere superstition. I have heard and been in the presence of scientists speaking about the impossibility of God's existence, that we as sentient beings have created a god out of necessity for controling the masses of people.
Admittedly, ashamedly, my silence against such terrible profanity against the Maker of Heaven and Earth fits into the category of these Romans and Jews who persecuted Christians for their beliefs in a superstition that God's son rose from the dead and will return for his followers. Deservedly, I should accept my judgment of festering sores or death from not getting to drink Earth's lifesources of water. My early years as an adult were characteristic of idealism and relentless pursuit of knowing more about God. But my middle years were filled with silence as the scientific pursuits of knowledge encroached on my faith rather than supplementing it.
But, with knowledge, there is a tipping point. It must decide to continue to supplant one's spiritual beliefs or decide to make it subsidiary to faith because knowledge seeks arrogance and self aggrandizement and doesn't coexist with the humble nature of faith well. It was evident that supplanting my belief would place me in a kingdom that would become dark. So I thank the God of the Great Deliverance from Egypt and the God of the Great Deliverance from Rome for allowing time for the profanity of silence to change into a voice for the sake the kingdom of light. I am grateful to have changed discomfort from the extreme heat of the sun into letting others see that God stands with his people and acts in their lives. John's apocalypse, his disclosure of the One who stands with his people, even me, brings me to an unclouded moment with "the one who has the power over the plagues," who deserves my due honor!
[Introductory photo of reflection is found at https://i.pinimg.com/736x/8d/82/3a/8d823a0a3cc358656c1e2c48f6eb19a1--stunning-photography-photography-ideas.jpg]
[The first song is There Is A Cloud by Elevation Worship. The second song is So Will I by Hillsong.]
[The Greek text used for the New Testament references is the Nestle Aland 28th edition]
[Translations from Greek are my own.]
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