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.

who are in fact tempted to stain their robes through compromise and syncretism, but because of its idealisation and exhortation, the surface of his text proclaims beatitude for those who ‘wash their robes’. The reward ‘according to each one’s works’ shall give them the right to the tree of life (e!stai e)cousi/a e)pi/...) and consequently access to the city described in 21,10–22,5. Yet John strikes a note of realism too this time: some shall enter the city, others will be excluded (v. 15).

        The list of those who shall not be allowed to enter is first of all structured according to the scheme of 5 + 2 (dogs, sorcerers, fornicators, murderers, idolaters + everyone who loves and who practises falsehood) in order to express the totality of sinners by means of the number seven¹⁷. Second, the list includes generic categories: ‘dogs’ is a very pejorative term, but it does not speak of any precise sin, and the formula ‘everyone who loves and practises falsehood’ is also generic and summarising. However, beyond what the text says on its surface, one can recognise that po/rnoi and idolaters are John’s target; he does not in fact reproach sorcery or murder in any church in Rev 2–3, where he meticulously reviews their life, but censures their pornei/a and involvement in idolatry through eating ei)dwlo/quta (2,14; 2,20.21). They are the real addressees.

3. Legitimisation of the book and the real addressees

        John also allows one to sense who really were the Christians to whom he wrote, every time he speaks of his book, especially when he addresses the churches in the first strophe and the prophets in the third one. In order to legitimise his book in the eyes of the members of the churches, in Rev 22,6-10 John (i) lets the angel designate the content of the book as words true and deserving of trust (lo/goi pistoi_ kai_ a)leqinoi/); (ii) he affirms that the angel was sent by God to his servants in order to reveal his plan to them (v. 6b-c); (iii) he speaks repeatedly of his book as a prophetic book (22,7.10; cf. 22,18); (iv) he says that he himself was overwhelmed by the great revelations he heard and saw, so that he was urged by gratitude to adore the revealing angel; (v) he puts it on the lips of the angel that those revelations, far from coming from himself, come from God, so that it is God who must be