If you are going to attempt interpreting Scripture properly, you need to consider the type of genre you are considering. Most interpretive mistakes take place because people simply are unaware of certain guidelines involved with interpreting the Bible.
So how do we interpret the Book of Revelation? Well, we need to first consider what type of literature we are describing. C. Marvin Pate helpfully describes the genre of Revelation when he writes,
While significant parallels do indeed exist between Revelation and early Jewish and Christian apocalyptic materials, there are critical differences between them as well, none the least of which is that Revelation is a prophetic book (1:3; 22:7, 10, 18–19), while the others make no such claim. As such Revelation is not pseudonymous (1:1; 22:8); neither is it pessimistic about God’s intervention in history. Furthermore, while many apocalyptic writers recast past events as though they were futuristic prophecies (vaticinia ex eventu), thus lending credibility to their predictive prowess, John (the author of Revelation) does not follow this procedure. On the contrary, he places himself in the contemporary world of the first century a.d. and speaks of the coming eschatological consummation in the same manner as did the Old Testament prophets—a consummation that, for John, has already begun to break into history in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ (1:4–8; 4–5). (Four Views on the Book of Revelation, 11)
Helpful.
Luke is a pastor-theologian living in northern California, serving as a co-lead pastor with his life, Dawn, at the Red Bluff Vineyard. Father of five amazing kids, when Luke isn’t hanging with his family, reading or writing theology, he moonlights as a fly fishing guide for Confluence Outfitters. He blogs regularly at LukeGeraty.com and regularly contributes to his YouTube channel.
On the “drama of the Apocalypse”:
“Stop, Look
and Listen” before you cross the Jordan!
“And I saw”
(eidon) in Revelation – 56 occurrences.
“And I
heard” (hkousa) in the Revelation – 27 occurrences.
Not “I came,
I saw, I conquered” (Julius Caesar), but, “He came, I saw, He
conquered!” (Jesus Christ).
Sources on the Apocalypse as drama (in
chronological order):
David Paraeus (1548-1622), Commentarius in Apocalypsin (Heidelberg, 1618), pg. 566.
Friedrich Gotthold Hartwig, Apologie der Apokalypse wider falschen Tadel und falscb.es Lob.
Chemnitz 4 Theile (Frieberg, 1780-1783).
Johann Gottfried Eichhorn (1752-1827), Commentarius in Apocalypsin Joannis, 2 vols. (Gottingen, 1791).
Noah Worcester, “An Account of Eichhorn’s
Illustration of the Apocalypse”, The Christian Disciple and Theological
Review, New Series, No. 20, Vol. IV, No. 2 (March-April, 1822), pp. 65-75;
on Google Books at http://books.google.com/books?id=RFFKAAAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false
[accessed 15 MAR 2012].
“On the Character of the Apocalypse”, The
Quarterly Christian Spectator Vol. IX, No. IV (December 1837), pp. 570-573,
s.v. Art. III; on Google Books at http://books.google.com/books?id=m7IAAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA571&dq=Eichhorn+Quarterly+Christian+Spectator+1837&hl=en&sa=X&ei=m11hT-KqKMrl0QGRmd2RBw&ved=0CDIQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q&f=false
[accessed 14 MAR 2012].
Moses Stuart, A Commentary on The Apocalypse, 2
vols.(Andover: Allen, Morrill and Wardwell, 1845), I:150-155, 472, 473; on Theological Commons at http://commons.ptsem.edu/?keywords=Moses+Stuart&submit=true&scope=name&x=13&y=12
[accessed 14 MAR 2012].
“Animadversions upon the Articles on ‘The Poetry of
the Apocalypse'”, Biblical Review and Congregational Magazine II (July-December,
1846), pp. 259-268, s.v. Art. III (October, 1846);
on Google Books
at http://books.google.com/books?id=ledOAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA259&dq=Hartwig+apocalypse&hl=en&sa=X&ei=1WRhT6WCOsPe0gHvxvTBBw&ved=0CEMQ6AEwAzgo#v=onepage&q=Hartwig%20apocalypse&f=false
[accessed 14 MAR 2012].
Friedrich Bleek, Lectures on the Apocalypse, ed.
Lic. Th. Hossbach, trans. and ed. Samuel Davidson (London: Williams and
Norgate, 1875), pp. 59-61; on Google
Books at http://books.google.com/books?id=ePpJAAAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=Bleek&hl=en&sa=X&ei=njZiT4T7KeqD0QGer4CaCA&ved=0CFYQ6AEwBg#v=onepage&q=Bleek&f=false
[accessed 15 MAR 2012].
Edward White Benson, The Apocalypse: An Introductory
Study of the Revelation of St John the Divine, being a presentment of the
Structure of the Book and of the fundamental Principles of its Interpretation
(New York: The Macmillan Company, 1900), pp. 5-6, 37-41; on Theological Commons at http://commons.ptsem.edu/?keywords=Edward+White+Benson&submit=true&scope=name&x=8&y=9
[accessed 14 MAR 2012].
Frederic Palmer, The Drama of the Apocalypse in
Relation to the Literary and Political Circumstances of its Time (New York:
The Macmillan Co., 1903), pp. 1-21, and 35-86, s.v. Chapter I: “The
Dramatic Character of the Apocalypse”, and Chapter III: “The
Drama”; on Google Books at http://books.google.com/books?id=654ZAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=Palmer+drama+apocalypse&hl=en&sa=X&ei=Z1phT-3OK8rp0gHM-aDOBw&ved=0CDIQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=Palmer%20drama%20apocalypse&f=false
[accessed 14 MAR 2012].
John Wick Bowman, “The Revelation to John: Its
Dramatic Structure and Message”, Interpretation 9 (1955), pp.
436-453.
I will be checking
these out soon to see what they do with this approach:
Thomas C. Bird, Drama of the Apocalypse (Boston:
Roxburgh Pub. Co., 1912)
Thomas Osborn, The
lion and the lamb : a drama of the Apocalypse (New York: Abingdon
Press, 1922)
See also:
Philip Schaff, History of the Christian Church, 7
vols. (Oak Harbor, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc., n.d.; 1997 reprint of New
York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1910 ed.), I:688-710; on Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) at http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/hcc1.html
[accessed 15 MAR 2012].