I am beginning a twelve week class study on Revelation this coming Tuesday. I found the following summary of an introduction from Ian Paul’s commentary most helpful.

Reading Revelation’s imagery

The book of Revelation uses a series of metaphors. Metaphor is at the center of all Christian theology, and in that sense Revelation is the most Christian text in the New Testament. The images contain a wide variety and diversity of interpretations and applications. We describe the world and human behavior through metaphors. We use these words when we move from what we know to what we do not know. Every time human knowledge expands into new areas, we describe what we have not known before by extending our language through coining of new metaphors. Think of ‘inflation’ in economics, genes as ‘packets’ on information in biology, or the idea of ‘surfing’ the information ‘super highway’ and ‘visiting ‘ ‘Web’ ‘sites’! This is very different from literal statements. The powerful rhetorical impact of Revelation when it is read or heard accounts for how it describes the world in which we live.

The use of numbers.

Seven in the ancient world suggested completeness therefore symbolizes the whole world or the whole church: Seven churches, seven seals, seven trumpets, seven bowls, seven visions, blessings, sickles. The mathematical significance of square, triangular and rectangular numbers.. The ancient Greeks were fascinated by the properties of such numbers. John consistently uses the square and cubic numbers 144 and 1,000 to designate the things of God, By contrast, he uses the triangular number 666 to designate the opponent of God and triangular numbers to designate that period of time when God’s people are oppressed by their opponents and yet enjoy the protection of God – 42 months equal 1,260 days. It is a highly symbolic text. In the ancient world letters were used for numbers to calculate the numerical value of words and names by adding up the value of their letters. This saved the cost of copying by scribes.

The use of the Old Testament.

There are 676 allusions to OT passages in Revelation’s 405 verses meaning that we encounter (on average) one or two allusions in every verse. Most frequently to Isaiah (128 times), Psalms (99 times), Ezekiel (92), Daniel (82) and Exodus (53).

Interpretation

Revelation, like all NT books, offers prophetic insight into spiritual reality. It is like a musical symphony that has a single theme but several variations on it to enhance its impact. It introduces its point and revisits it several times. We need to attend carefully to what the text actually says; understand what the writer and first audience might have thought it meant in their own context; and from that discern what God through his Spirit might be saying to us in the situations and challenges that we face. Revelation is speaking to first-century Christians, but it makes sense of their present situation in the light of the ultimate destiny of the world, and we need to do the same for our situation. We might even see ways in which God’s promise and judgment have been worked out in history and all these things will teach us truths about the nature of God, his relation to the world he has made and his purposes. Revelation shows us very clearly how to be alert to the context we are in and how both to engage with and stand up to the pressure of ideologies, and it gives us that resources to live courageously in an inhospitable climate.

(Ian Paul, REVELATION, Tyndale New Testament Commentaries)