If you want to interpret Revelation properly, you must know what kind of book it is. This principle is true not only of Revelation but the entire Bible and all literature. Different literary genres require different rules of interpretation. You would never interpret a Shakespeare sonnet as you would a peer-reviewed scientific study, for example, nor a novel as a legal search warrant. Similarly, in the Bible, you would never interpret a parable as a historical narrative or a prophecy as a proverb. They are different kinds of literature, requiring genre-specific rules of interpretation.[i]

 

So, what kind of book is Revelation? An apocalypse, a prophecy, and a letter.

 

Apocalypse. The first word of Revelation is the noun apokalypsis (1:1), which derives from a verb meaning “to reveal or disclose” and from which we get the word apocalypse. According to New Testament scholars, apocalypse is a distinct literary genre. In the well-known definition of J.J. Collins:

 

Apocalypse is a genre of revelatory literature with a narrative framework, in which a revelation is mediated by an otherworldly being to a human recipient, disclosing a transcendent reality which is both temporal, insofar as it envisages eschatological [end-times] salvation, and spatial, insofar as it involves another, supernatural world.[ii]

 

Despite its transcendence and supernaturalness, an apocalypse has a very down-to-earth purpose, namely, to reveal or disclose what has been previously hidden or unknown. In that sense, it functions very much like prophecy. Indeed, the New Testament uses apokalypsis as an interchangeable synonym of prophecy (1 Cor. 14: 1, 6, 22, 26, 30).

 

Prophecy. On several occasions, John refers to his book as a prophecy (1:3; 22:7, 10, 18, 19) and identifies himself as a prophet (10:11, 22:9). Prophecy is one of the Bible’s most common genres, but it is often misunderstood to be wholly future oriented. Undoubtedly, biblical prophecy predicts the future, usually events just over the temporal horizon of its original readers. But prophecy also calls God’s people to follow him now, promising blessing for obedience and judgment for disobedience. It both foretells the future and forthtells our duties in the present, in other words. Consequently, biblical prophecy is eminently practical literature, given to us by God for “upbuilding and encouragement and consolation” (1 Cor. 14:3).

 

Letter. A letter is often an intimate communication between people who know one another. Most of the books of the New Testament are such letters, including Revelation. Like other first-century epistles, Revelation begins by listing the sender and the recipient: “John to the seven churches that are in Asia” (1:4; cf. Rom. 1:1, 7; James 1:1; Jude 1). And it ends with a benediction: “The grace of the Lord Jesus be with all. Amen” (22:21; cf. 1 Cor. 16:23(24, 1 Pet. 5:14, 3 John 14). John writes to his beloved congregations in Asia Minor, urging them—like Paul had done in his letters to the churches—to understand their faith and live their lives better, more Christianly.

 

So, John’s Revelation is an apocalypse, a prophecy, and a letter. Or perhaps we should say that it is an apocalyptically prophetic letter. Whatever the case, John’s intention—and God’s, behind him—is to provide his readers, both first- and twenty-first-century, with usable information about God, their world, and their duties in perilous times. We have misinterpreted Revelation if we do not see the practical point of its apocalyptic, prophetic, and epistolary genres.

 

 

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