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.

concern. Their role and the circumstances of their life need to be reconstructed more closely, now.

III. John and the prophets of the seven churches

1. Other voices’ interference in the book of Rev

        One has to return, having now arrived at the conclusion, to what has been the starting point: the voices which interfere with each other. It must be said first of all that the phenomenon occurs elsewhere in Rev. The most evident case is in 16,15. The announcement of the Coming and the following beatitude do not have the least logical connection, either with the preceding context or with the following one that speak of the anti-divine coalition organised by the Dragon, the Beast and the pseudo-Prophet. Some propose transfering this verse to another context to eliminate the difficulty²⁰, but, since such an intervention looks like an escamotage, the best explanation remains that an extraneous voice interferes here as well.

        Interference of voices, however, is already found in Rev 1,1-8 where some cases are sure while others are only possible. One such sure case is in v. 7, where a prophetic oracle announces the Lord’s Coming (i))dou_ e!rxetai) as soon as a doxology is closed (vv. 5b-6). The ‘Amen, Amen’ of v. 7c is another very probable case, since it seems to be the assent given by a choral voice to that prophetic announcement. Sure also is the case of the e)gw/ ei)mi to_ !Alfa... of 1,8, followed in its turn by the unexpected e)gw_ )Iwa/nnhj which starts the christophany narrative (1,9)²¹. Another violent change of grammatical subject and action is found between 11,2 which speaks of the command given to John to measure the temple, and 11,3 where a voice in the first person introduces the two Witnesses. One could list, in addition, the texts introduced by w|de (13,10; 13,18; 14,12; 17,9), the beatitude dictated to John in 14,13, and the ‘Rejoice over her (= Babylon), o heaven’