Giancarlo Biguzzi, «The Chaos of Rev 22,6-21 and Prophecy in Asia», Vol. 83 (2002) 193-210

Interpreters of the Apocalypse agree that in Ap 22,6-21 disorder reigns and that, most of all, various voices in these verses interfere with one another, without care for rules which would produce a proper development. Therefore, chaos is undeniably in the text. But it is equally true that with some ease one can discern in the text an articulation in three strophes: the first and the third speak of the revelation received by John and of the transmission of that revelation to the churches by means of John’s book, while the second is concerned with the ethical life and its eschatological reward. All this reveals the anxiety of John about a relaxation of vigilance on the part of the churches of Asia, so that John consequently insists on the imminence of the eschatological Coming and labors to show the legitimacy of the demands of his book, especially before the eyes of his ‘brother-prophets’. It is the framework of their prophetic style, probably charismatic like that of the prophets of 1 Cor 14, which allows us to make sense of the interference and injection of various voices in these verses of the johannine Apocalypse; we find a similar style in certain other verses at the beginning and in the body of John’s book.

away’ is the reward of the tree of life, announced in 2,7 and described in 22,2¹³.

        The first strophe speaks then of the revelation through which God makes known his plan to the churches, and of the churches who need to acquaint themselves with the book urgently, while the last strophe, on the contrary, speaks of Jesus’ witnessing to the prophets about the churches, warning that the book does not tolerate any addition or mutilation.

4. The themes and speakers of Rev 22 and John’s expectations

        In conclusion, the text of Rev 22,6-20 is easily sub-divisible into three blocks, each one of them clearly characterised and distinguishable from the other in both vocabulary and themes. The first and third strophes speak of the revelation that came to John on Patmos, while the second is from beginning to end an appeal to persevere, in the form either of imperatives constructed with e!ti, of promises of the Coming and the reward, or in the form of a beatitude, or of the threat of exclusion from the bliss of the eschatological city and its tree of life.

        Three voices intertwine in the three strophes in an unusual way and somewhat incorrectly, according to the following sequence:

narrator, Jesus, narrator (first strophe)
Jesus (second strophe)
Jesus, narrator, Jesus, narrator, congregation (third strophe)¹⁴.

        That John dedicates two strophes to the churches and directs the main themes of the three strophes towards the authentication of his