A FIGURATIVE AND NARRATIVE LANGUAGE GRAMMAR OF REVELATION

by

G. BIGUZZI Rome

Abstract

John's Apocalypse puzzles and troubles at every page. The reason is that the author frequently goes against common logic in shaping his images and narra­tives. Yet this lack of logic is not capriciousness. In fact, since Rev.'s surprising literary phenomena occur repeatedly, one can catalogue and systematise them in a sui generis Johannine figurative and narrative grammar. This contribution analy­ses two features of Johannine images (1), six features of Johannine ways of nar­rating (2), and the surreal and oneiric world created by John (3). First, this review helps one understand better John's bewildering language and makes the book of Rev. a more readable book. Second, it suggests that the numerous difficulties of Rev. are to be resolved first of all by collating the parallel traits found within this very same book, and not by hurriedly resorting to possible literary sources.

"A Grammar of Ungrammar:" This is how E. W. Benson entitled a section of his introduction to John's Apocalypse. By this turn of a phrase he defines the numerous grammatical and syntactical mistakes of Revelation. Other scholars such as W. Bousset, R. H. Charles, E.-B. Alio and more recently G. Mussies and D. Aune have catalogued these foibles.1 However, there is another ungrammar that could be written: namely the ungrammar of those images and narratives in Rev. which are no less queer than its grammatical solecisms, and along with them contribute to the "inimitable" style of Rev., as M.-E. Boismard calls it.2

The ungrammar of Rev.'s images and narratives has drawn lit­tle attention so far. At most, reference has been made to "l'étrange"

1 E. W. Benson, The Apocalypse. An Introductory Study of the Revelation of St. John the Divine (London: Macmillan, 1900) 131. Cf. also E.-B. Alio, "Apocalypse," in DBS I (1928) 308, who writes: "Il faudrait presque écrire une grammaire spéciale pour ce livre, dont les principales étrangetés paraissent obéir à une sorte de règle subjective."

2 M.-E. Boismard, "'L'Apocalypse', ou 'les Apocalypses' de S.Jean," RB 56 (1949) 509.

© Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2003 Novum Testamentum XLV, 4 Also available online - www.brill.nl

FIGURATIVE AND NARRATIVE LANGUAGE OF REV. 3 8 3

(P. Prigent, 1982), to "logical and chronological oddity" (M. E. Boring,

1989), and to descriptions "defying normal conceptions" (G. K. Beale,

1999). An attempt is made here therefore to inventory the anomalies

of Rev.'s figurative and narrative language in a sui generis grammar: a

grammar that, although not exhaustive, should be substantial enough,

first of all to help understand better John's bewildering language, and

second, by showing the consistency of such language throughout the

book, to suggest the unicity of Rev.'s authorship.

1. Peculiarities of Johannine Images

a. Description Songs

John frequently introduces his antagonists describing the anatomi­

cal details of their semblance. The first and longest of such "descrip­

tion songs"3 of Rev. concerns the "One like a son of man" (1:12-16).

John first portrays the whole person (the robe down to the feet, with

a golden girdle, v. 13b), then the upper part (the head, with its hair

and eyes, v. 14), next the lower part (the feet, v. 15a), and finally the

central part (the voice, v. 15b; the right hand that holds seven stars,

v. 16a; the sword coming out of the mouth, v. 16b), focusing on the

face that shines as bright as the sun (v. 16c). Other songs describe the

twenty-four Elders and the four Living Creatures (4:4, and 4:6-8 respec­

tively), the Lamb (5:6), the four horses and riders of the first four seals

(6:1-8), the locusts of the fifth trumpet—with an abundance of details—

(9:7-10), the cavalry of the sixth trumpet (9:17-19), the mighty angel

of Rev. 10 who hands the βιβλαρίδιον to John (w. 1-2), the Woman

and the Dragon that threatens her baby (12:1-2, and 12:3-4 respec­

tively), the Beast emerging from the sea (13:1-3; cf. 17:3) and the Beast

emerging from the land (13:11), the Great Harlot (17:4-6), and finally

the Conquering Rider or L·gos of God, with his armies (19:11-16).

3 To Rev.'s description songs, or Beschreibungslieder, there are precedents and paral­lels. It suffices to think of the Canticle and its descriptions of the physical beauties of the beloved (Cant. 4:1-5; 6:4-7; 7:2-10) or of the bridegroom (Cant. 5:10-16), even though John's very patterns are in the Book of Daniel. For instance, the description of the man clothed in linen (Dan. 10:5-6) inspired the description of the "One like a son of man" (Rev. 1:12-17), while the description of the four beasts (Dan. 7:3-8) inspired the description of the Beast that emerges from the sea (Rev. 13:1-2). Other cases of description songs are found in Dan. 7:9-10; 2Enoch 1:4-5; 4ÇH86 (4QCryptic) 1, i-iii; 2, i; 4Q561 (4QHor. ar.) 1, i-ii; 2.

384 G. BIGUZZI

A detailed analysis of each of these descriptions is not necessary

here. However, three remarks can be made about them.

The first concerns the great variety of subjects, which range from

Christ to demons, from celestial worshipers to harlots, and so on. The

description songs function as a malleable tool enabling the author to

introduce all kinds of characters, major or minor, human or animal,

positive or negative. The second remark concerns the purpose of the

songs: by describing the exterior appearance of each such character,

John conveys its moral identity and physiognomy. The third remark

concerns the different clues John gives for interpreting and identifying

his antagonists. The identity of the angel of 10:1 is explicitly stated:

it is an angel who plays the role of God's messenger. The Dragon's

image, instead, needs interpreting and translating into terms other than

those of mythical zoology. John himself, in fact, says that it is the

primeval Serpent, the Devil, or Satan (12:9; cf. 20:2). As to the Great

Harlot and the Beast from the land, surely the first is said to be

Babylon (17:5), the city which reigns over the kings of the earth (17:18),

while the second is said to be the pseudo-Prophet (16:13). Yet John

does not say which city he intends by "Babylon" and which alleged

prophet by "pseudo-prophet." At other times, John does not supply

any help to the interpreter of his images. For instance, having intro­

duced the Beast from the sea as extremely perilous in the song of

13:1-3, he leaves the interpreter to his own devices in calculating the

number of its name (13:18). The reader of the description songs is

expected, then, to face three different levels of difficulty, having aids

at his disposal sometimes for the task, and none at other times.

b. Metamorphosis of Images

A remarkable peculiarity of John's images is their metamorphosis.

Images in Rev. do not remain fixed but they change in some of their

traits or even entirely.4 The Great Harlot of Rev. 17:1, for instance,

changes into Babylon the Great (v. 5). The metamorphosis of the same

woman into a city is found again on a smaller scale in v. 16 where

John sketches the devastation of the πόρνη in four stages: two of them,

the second and the third, suit a woman, while on the contrary the

first and the last suit a city. In fact, in an elegant crescendo Rev. 17:16

4 Cf. E.-B. Alio, Saint Jean. L'Apocalypse (ÉB; Paris: Gabalda, 1921) lx, who (unfor­tunately without references) speaks of: " . . . instabilité des symboles secondaires qui glis­sent, qui se fondent, qui se chassent l'un l'autre au cours d'une même vision."

FIGURATIVE AND NARRATIVE LANGUAGE OF REV. 3 8 5

speaks first of the destruction of the city and of the woman's denud­

ing (. . . καί ή ρημωμένη ν ποιήσουσιν αυτήν και γυμνή ν). Then the two

statements are brought to the climax: the denuding of the woman cul­

minates in the eating of her flesh (. . . καί τας σάρκας αυτής φάγονται),

while the destruction of the city grows to an all-consuming fire (. . . καί

αυτήν κατακαύσουσιν εν πυρί). The metamorphosis of the bride of Rev.

21:9 is very similar, since in the following verse she changes into the

city of Jerusalem: " Ί will show you the bride that the Lamb has mar­

ried' . . . , and he showed me Jerusalem, the holy city, coming down etc."

The two presentations of the 144,000 are also in metamorphosis.

While these 144,000 are signed with the seal of the Living God on

their foreheads in Rev. 7, they have there the name (not the seal) of

God and, in addition, the name of the Lamb, in Rev. 14. Furthermore,

in Rev. 14 they are no longer related to the twelve tribes of Israel

but are introduced now as virgins. Reasoning from these differences,

A. Feuillet distinguishes the 144,000 of Rev. 14 who should be Christian

virgins, from the 144,000 of Rev. 7 who should be identified as the

historical Israelites.5 Yet, here as well, the discontinuity of the details

is to be explained rather by means of metamorphosis. This can be

inferred from the parallelism with the number twelve of the gates and

the foundations of the eschatological Jerusalem.6 Rev. 7 employs the

vocabulary of the twelve tribes in the same way Rev. 21:12 does for

the gates. Similarly, Rev. 14 puts the 144,000 in relationship with the

Lamb, as Rev. 21:14 does with the foundations, since the twelve names

of the twelve Apostles of the Lamb are written on them. Rev. 14 is

therefore in substantial continuity with Rev. 7 on one hand, but on

the other glues together metamorphically new elements, the most rel­

evant being the relationship with the Lamb and its name.

The wrath of God in Rev. 7:1-3 and Rev. 8:6-9:21 is another exam­

ple of metamorphosis, a metamorphosis so drastic that it is almost

5 Cf. A. Feuillet, L'Apocalypse. État de la question (Studia Neotestamentica, Subsidia III; Paris-Bruges: Desclée de Brouwer, 1963) 28, 50; Idem, "Les 144.000 Israélites marqués d'un sceau," NT 9 (1967) 191-224. But cf. for example W. Hadorn, Die Offenbarung des Johannes (THK, NT; Leipzig: Scholl, 1928) 149 ("Kein Leser des Buches konnte zweifeln, daß Joh von den gleichen 144.000 rede, deren Versiegelung er 7:4 berichtete an ihren Stirnen"), and a detailed discussion in G. Biguzzi, / settenari nella struttura delVApocalisse (Suppl. Rivista Biblica 31; Bologna: EDB, 1996) 137-40.

6 Already some ancient interpreters relate the 12 and its multiple 144,000 of Rev. 7 to the same numerical figures of the eschatological Jerusalem in Rev. 21. Gf. for instance Primasius of Hadrumetum (f c. 558; CChr SL 92, 108:58-63), and Ambrosius Autpertus (f 784; CCh CM 27, 298:7-10).

386 G. BIGUZZI

unrecognisable. Announced in 6:17 ("The great day of his anger has

come, and who can stand before it?"),7 this wrath shall consist in the

release of the four winds according to 7:1-3. Before this happens, how­

ever, the servants of God have to be signed on their foreheads with

the seal of the living God as a mark of protection (w. 2-3). That mark

is mentioned again in Rev. 9:4, where the plague of locusts is sup­

posed to strike only those not signed with the seal of the living God.8

This entails that the release of the winds in 7:1-3 and the series of

plagues of the seven trumpets in 8:6-9:21 (fire unleashed against the

earth of the first trumpet, water changed into blood of the second and

third trumpets, . . . the locusts of the fifth trumpet etc.) are the very

same manifestation of divine wrath presented in metamorphosis by

John. Rev. 11:1 is a further case of metamorphosis. John is told to mea­

sure not only the ναός (a quite logical order), but the altar as well (an

order a little more puzzling, because of the start of the metamorpho­

sis), and then to measure the worshipers, for which the measuring rod

(κάλαμος όμοιος ράβδω) and the imperative μέτρησον are totally out of

logic because of the swift exasperation of the metamorphosis.9

A final example of metamorphosis is to be taken into account between

Rev. 17 and Rev. 19. In fact, the victorious battle of the Lamb over

the coalition led by the Beast is announced in Rev. 17 (". . . they will

go to war against the Lamb, but the Lamb will defeat them," v. 14),

while in Rev. 19 it is the Rider on the white horse who is said to

conquer the Beast and its armies ("I saw the Beast with all the kings

of the earth and their armies, gathered together to fight the Rider and

his army, and the Beast was captured etc.," w . 19-20). If Richard of

Saint Victor (f 1137) says that Rev. 5 announces a lion but shows a

lamb, one can say here that Rev. 17 indeed announces a lamb and

Rev. 19 shows a rider.10 According to Z. C. Hodges there is continuity

7 The upsetting of the cosmic elements in Rev. 6:12-17 is not yet the release itself of divine wrath, but only its announcement. Cf. Biguzzi, / settenari nella struttura dell'Apocalisse, 135-6.

8 In fact, one cannot but note the connection of Rev. 9:4 (... ινα μη άδικησουσιν . . . εί μη τους ανθρώπους οίτινες ουκ εχουσι την σφραγίδα τοΰ θεοΰ επί των μετώπων) with Rev. 7:3 (. . . άχρι σφραγίσωμεν τους δούλους τοΰ θεοΰ ημών έπί των μετώπων αυτών). Thanks to that precious verse, we are sure that the plagues of the trumpets are to be put in relation with the wrath of God and of the Lamb that was announced by the cosmic upset (6:17) and that is here re-presented through the image "in metamor­phosis" of the four winds (7:1-3).

9 Cf. Biguzzi, / settenari nella struttura dell'Apocalisse, 128 note 30. 10 The sentence is found in what could be called a comment on the Christological

FIGURATIVE AND NARRATIVE LANGUAGE OF REV. 3 8 7

(and metamorphosis) even between the rider on the white horse of

Rev. 6:2 and the rider on the white horse of Rev. 19,11 though between

them there are two remarkable variations: the first rider is armed with

a bow and bears a crown on his head, while the second is armed with

a sword and bears an undetermined number of diadems on his head.12

For Hodges, the sequence of bow (i.e. the weapon used to fight from

a distance) and sword (i.e. the weapon used to fight one on one)

expresses the fighters' mutual approach for a fight with cold steel, while

the crown in Rev. 6 and the diadems in Rev. 19 signify respectively

"victory in prospect" and "victory realized."13

In the Johannine metamorphoses the reader senses that events are

multifaceted and perceives history's evolution and progression towards

the aim intended by God.

2. Peculiarities of Johannine Narrative Techniques

a. Autarchy of Single Episodes or Details

John sometimes contradicts himself or at least betrays inconsisten­

cies. For instance he presents the Two Witnesses saying that anyone

who wants to harm them shall himself be harmed: "Fire can come

from their mouths and consume their enemies if anyone tries to harm

them; and if anybody does try to harm them he will certainly be killed"

(11:5). But only two verses later John says that "the Beast that comes

out of the abyss is going to make war upon them . . . and kill them"

(v. 7), and everything surprisingly happens without the least resistance,

in spite of the reassurances of v. 5.

"metamorphosis" of Rev. 5:5-6: "Superius posuit promissionem, hie subjungit promis-sionis exhibitionem. Nam leonem audivit in promissione, agnum videt in exhibitione. Magna est enim differentia inter leonem et agnum. Leo est magnus, agnus est parvus. Sed, si utrumque consideramus, utrumque Redemptorem nostrum comprobamus. Ipse est enim leo magnus per divinitatem, agnus per humanitatem. Leo per potentiam majes-tatis, agnus per mansuetudinem. Leo malos puniendo, agnus bonos redimendo. Leo fortitudine, agnus pietate. Leo in promissione ut spes infirma se roboret, agnus in exhi­bitione ne pavida conscientia formidaret" (PL 196, 756.D).

11 Ζ. C. Hodges, "The First Horseman of the Apocalypse," BSac 119 (1962) 333-4. 12 The term διάδημα comes from δια-δέω, "to bind," and before the term began

to signify "head-ornament for ladies" in antiquity it meant a royal band to wind round the head, and particularly round the tiara, which was a royal headgear. L. A. Moritz, "Diadem, διάδημα," in Oxford Classical Dictionary (Oxford: Clarendon, 2nd ed., 1970) 333, adds: "This was adopted, in the form of a white band with decorated edges, by Alexander and by his successors as an emblem of royal power."

13 Hodges, "The First Horseman," 333-4.

388 G. BIGUZZI

Again, the angelus interpres promises in Rev. 17:1 to show John the

Great Harlot sitting upon many waters (. . . της καθήμενης επί υδάτων

πολλών). Yet John sees the Woman seated upon a scarlet Beast (... καθη-

μένην έπί θηρίον κόκκινον, ν. 3) although the angel in v. 15 refers all

the same to the waters seen by John (but in fact, not seen at all): "The

water that you saw, where the Harlot is seated etc.—τα ΰδατα α είδες

ου ή πόρνη κάθηται κτλ." In addition to this, a further "stool" comes

out in v. 9, where the Harlot is said to sit upon seven mountains (επτά

όρη . . . δπου ή γυνή κάθηται έπ' αυτών). Something analogous is found

in Rev. 21 where the measurement of the city, its gates and walls is

announced (v. 15), yet only the city and its walls are measured (w.

16b; 17a), not the gates (even though the foundations and gates are

described in detail, w . 19-20, and v. 21a).

Again, interpreters point out that, if the "One like a son of man"

holds in his right hand the seven stars ("In his right hand he was hold­

ing seven stars . . .," 1:16), he would not be able to lay his hand on

John as a gesture of encouragement (". . . he touched me with his right

hand and said etc.," 1:17), all the more so because the stars are still

in his right hand a little later according to 2:1 ("The words of him

who holds the seven stars in his right hand . . ."). And again, while

the name of the new Jerusalem will be written according to 3:12 on

a column of the eschatological temple (actually on the Philadelphian

"conqueror"), one learns to the contrary in 21:22 that there will be

no temple in the eschatological Jerusalem.

This same lack of inter-relatedness of details is found in the cosmic

elements and phenomena. The plague of the first trumpet burns all

the green grass (και πάς χόρτος χλωρός κατεκάη, 8:7), and yet, as if

nothing had been said before, according to 9:4, the locusts "were told

not to harm the grass of the earth or any herbage (... ίνα μη άδικήσουσιν

τον χόρτον της γης ουδέ πάν χλωρόν κτλ) etc." In the same way, the

sun is darkened in 6:12 (". . . the sun became black as sackcloth"), but

then the plague of the fourth trumpet is somehow able to darken a

third of its light (8:12), and it is still shining so intensely in 16:8 as to

scorch people with its burning blaze. The fate of the stars, moon, sky

and sea is the same. Though in Rev. 6:13 the stars had fallen like

withered figs as when a violent wind shakes the trees, they still shine

in the sky when the plague of the fourth trumpet strikes them (8:12),

and again when the Dragon's tail sweeps them away (12:4). The moon

also, even though it has become like blood in 6:12, loses a third of

its light when struck by the plague of the fourth trumpet (8:12), and

FIGURATIVE AND NARRATIVE LANGUAGE OF REV. 389

still shines presumably in its full splendour under the feet of the Woman

of Rev. 12:1. Again, the sky, though rolled up as a scroll in 6:14, is

still in the firmament in 8:13 when, from its zenith, the eagle announces

the three woes, or in 11:6 when rain can be detained in it (if the Two

Witnesses so desire), or again when the three 'signs' appear in it accord­

ing to 12:1,3 and 15:1. Finally, the waters of the sea become blood

repeatedly: in Rev. 8:8 and in 16:3 when the plague of the second

trumpet, and respectively the plague of the second bowl strike them.14

John's narratives and reports are then in some measure autarchic.

The reason for this is difficult to discern. Possibly John wants to say

that we consider only the external and contradictory surface of human

history and are not able to perceive the deeper connections that nev­

ertheless link its events.

b. Narrative Lacunae

John often leaves gaps in his narratives which the reader has to fill

in by an active reading, thus becoming a participant in the storytelling.

For instance, between the announcement of the sealing of the 144,000

(Rev. 7:3) and John's learning of their number (w. 4-8: no fewer than

78 words), the sealing itself is simply left out. The verses that speak

of the four angels bound at the great river Euphrates (Rev. 9:14-16)

is another case. When the angel of the sixth trumpet orders to release

them, his order is promptly executed "so that [the four angels] kill a

third of humankind" (v. 15b). But then neither is the clause ". . . by

releasing the cavalry of twenty thousand of thousand of mounted men"

added after v. 15c (as the context calls for), nor is the irruption of

that cavalry out from their encampments mentioned. Yet it is the cav­

alry that in fact kills the third of humankind (v. 18), not the four angels

charged with the task, according to v. 15b. Furthermore, the missing

segment of the episode is substituted by John's learning of the num­

ber of the cavalry (ήκουσα τον αριθμόν αυτών, v. 16b) exactly as the

sealing of the 144,000 is substituted by John's hearing of their num­

ber, in Rev. 7:4a (ήκουσα τον αριθμόν των έσφραγισμένων). And again,

while Babylon's destruction as the enterprise of the Beast and its ten

14 Furthermore cf. what M. E. Boring, Revelation. Interpretation (Louisville, KY: Knox, 1989) 57-58, writes about the sea in 21:11,13: ". . . to ask how can the sea give up the dead in 20:13 when it has already passed away with 'earth and heaven' (the uni­verse of Gen. 1:1 . . .) in 20:11 etc."

390 G. BIGUZZI

horns is announced in 17:16, in Rev. 18 the end itself of Babylon is

to be supposed, without a word about either the Beast or its allies and

their war operations that put an end to the metropolis.

This jump from announcement to result, skipping over the inter­

mediate operations, accelerates the rhythm of the narrative, and so

expresses and inspires the wish that the plan of God will soon be

accomplished.

c. Discontinuity in Itineraries and in the Identity of Antagonists

John says in 17:3 that an angel transported him into the desert to

show him the Great Harlot, and in 21:10 that another angel trans­

ported him up a high mountain to show him the eschatological Jerusalem.

Yet similar spatial indications are wanting in large parts of his book.

For example, John says in 4:1 -2 to have gone up to heaven but, with­

out any transfer being signalled, he happens to find himself on the

seashore in Rev. 10:1-2. In fact the angel who hands him the βιβλαρίδιον

to swallow puts his right foot in the sea and his left on the land (v. 2).

There is a lack of continuity also in the localisation of the battle and

in the identity of the fighters of Rev. 12. The Dragon and its armies

fight in heaven with Michael and his armies. The song which cele­

brates the victory over the Dragon seems to suppose, however, that

the battle took place on earth and that the Dragon fought with the

brethren of those who sing the song: "They [i.e. our brethren] have

conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their

testimony" (12:11).

When the itineraries are discontinued, the continuity of the narra­

tive itself seems to be assured by the person of John. The reader has

to follow him in his pneumatic experiences, the mention of places

being of lesser importance. It is εν πν ευ μάτι that John finds himself

before the "One like a son of man" (1:10) or in heaven before the

throne of God (4:2). It is again εν πνεύματι that he is transported into

the desert to see Babylon-the-harlot and her judgement (17:3), or onto

a high mountain to contemplate the descent from God of the new

Jerusalem (21:10). When instead there seems to be an overabundance

of subjects and their inter-relatedness remains unclear, John leaves it

to the reader to grasp the unity of the events precisely in the bond

between heaven and earth, such that Michael and his angel hosts are

interchangeable with terrestrial combatants, victorious through the blood

of the Lamb. Autobiography and spiritual communion are, then, supe­

rior to topography and individuality in Rev.

FIGURATIVE AND NARRATIVE LANGUAGE OF REV. 3 9 1

d. Anomalous Sequences of Verbal Tenses

The author of Rev. loves the hysteron-proteron that occurs at least ten

times in his book, according to D. Aune's count.15 For instance, exchang­

ing the order of the elements, John writes: "I am rich, and I became

rich" (3:17), "everything existed, and was created" (4:11), ". . . to open

the book, and to break its seals" (5:2), " . . . to have authority over the

tree of life, and to get into the city" (22:14), etc. But in Rev. there is

something more than this almost irrelevant rhetorical device, in that

John often constructs his narratives on very surprising sequences of

verbal tenses.

For example the narration of Rev. 11:1-13 starts with six future

tenses (w. 2-3,7: πατήσουσιν, δώσω, προφητεύσουσιν, ποιήσει, νικήσει,

άποκτενεΐ), then continues with four present tenses followed by one

residual future (w. 9-10: βλέπουσιν, ουκ άφίουσιν, χαίρουσιν, ευφραίνον­

ται,—πέμψουσιν), and finally closes with no fewer than eleven aorist

tenses (w. 11-13: εισήλθεν, έστησαν, έπέπεσεν, ήκουσαν, άνέβησαν,

έθεώρησαν, έγένετο, etc.).

The sequence of the tenses is anomalous also in the dirges over

Babylon in Rev. 18. After the future tenses that have the kings of the

earth as their grammatical subject, two present tenses and one resid­

ual future follow, with the merchants of the earth as their grammati­

cal subject. Finally two aorists and two imperfect tenses occur with

the sailors as their subject. So the first dirge is set in the future

(κλαύσουσιν, κόψονται, v. 9), the second in the present (κλαίουσιν,

πενθοΰσιν, v. 11; but στήσονται, v. 15), and the third in the past (έστη­

σαν, εκραζον, έ'βαλον, εκραζον, w . 17-19). The rest of the chapter as

well oscillates from past to future and from future to past, such that

Babylon at times is already a haunt of every foul spirit (έγένετο κατοι-

κητήριον κτλ, 18:2), while at other times it still claims to be a queen

(κάθημαι βασίλισσα κτλ, v. 7), plagues and fire are still about to dev­

astate it (ηξουσιν αϊ πληγαί κτλ, v. 8), and the people of God are

urged to escape from it to avoid being associated with its sins and

exposed to its plagues (v. 4). Or again, Babylon shall sink (βληθήσεται)

as a great millstone in the sea according to Rev. 18:21, yet the smoke

of its fire already ascends (αναβαίνει), according to 19:3, for ever and

ever. The succession of verbal tenses is irregular also in the narration

of the Dragon's final assault and defeat, where two future tenses

15 Cf. D. Aune, Revelation 1-5 (WBC 52A; Dallas, TX: Word Books, 1997) 221, 259.

392 G. BIGUZZI

(λυθήσεται, έξελεύσεται, 20:7-8) are continued by five aorist tenses

(άνέβησαν, έκύκλευσαν, κατέβη, κατέφαγεν, εβλήθη, w . 9-10a).16

The most surprising sequence of tenses is however in Rev. 10:7

whose aorist tense έτελέσθη is rendered with the future consummabitur

even by the usually rigorous Jerome in his Vulgate.17 The reason of

Jerome's future is that according to Rev. 10:7 the mystery of God

"έτελέσθη" at the blowing of the seventh trumpet, that will sound only

later on in Rev. 11:15.

In all these verbal tense anomalies John probably wants to say that

the times of God are other than our times and that the future fulfilling

of God's will is so sure that it can be expressed through the Greek

tenses of the past.18

e. Episodes Narrated from Complementary Perspectives

Some events in Rev. 11-13 seem to be extraneous to each other

but actually they are not because the time lapse in which they take

place is one and the same. Thus, the dominion of the nations over

the holy city will last 42 months according to 11:2, the Two Witnesses

shall testify for 1,260 days according to 11:3, the Woman of Rev. 12

will stay under God's protection in the desert for 1,260 days or "three

times and a half respectively according to 12:6 and 12:14, and, finally,

the Beast from the sea is allowed to do whatever it wants for 42

months according to 13:5. As is evident from the equivalence between

16 See also the present λέγουσιν in 6:16 that comes after 7 aorists (έγένετο/fer, έπεσαν, άπεχωρίσθη, έκινήθησαν, έκρυψαν); the present κράζουσιν in 7:10, preceded by an imperfect and followed by a series of aorists; the present σύρει in 12:4, that is set amongst past tenses, and see finally the presents αναβαίνει and ουκ εχουσιν, which conclude a series of futures in 14:11.

17 Other translations are: "should be finished" (KJV), "will be fulfilled" (NJB, NRSV), "alors sera l'accomplissement" (TOB), "wird vollendet sein" (ELB), "dann ist vollen­det" (LUT).

18 The comments of some Medieval Interpreters on Rev. 14:8 are particularly effective. Bede (f 735) writes: "Cecidit, cecidit Babylon ilia magna. Dicit (. . .) more Scripturae, quae solet praeteritum poneré, quod novit inevitabiliter adimplendum" (PL 93, 174.D). But first of all cf. Bruno of Asti (f 1123): "Cecidit, cecidit Babylon magna. Usitatissimus enim est iste locutionis modus, ut ea, quae certissime fieri scimus, prius etiam quam fiant facta dicamus: unde et eos jam vicisse dicimus, quos victores fore putamus, et eos quos morti propinquos videmus, jam mortuos nuntiamus. Sic ergo angelus in hoc loco, quia non dubitat subito esse Babylonem perituram, ac si jam cecidisset quasi de praeteritis loquens ait: Cecidit, cecidit Babylon magna." The same Bruno significantly adds: "Ac si dicat: Nullam spem in ea ulterius habeatis, nullum amorem in ea ponatis, quia in prox­imo miserabiliter mere videbitis; non vos fallat, non vos decipiat, cujus omnis pul-chritudo subito evanescet" (PL 165, 701.C).

FIGURATIVE AND NARRATIVE LANGUAGE OF REV. 393

the 1,260 days of 12:6 and the "three times and a half" of 12:14, which refer to the same sojourn of the Woman in the desert,19 each of the five terms at issue is equivalent to the other, since the "three times (= years) and a half" are equal to 42 months or 1,260 days.20

Such temporal indications, strange enough for a less-informed reader, are in fact rather transparent for those who are acquainted with the book of Daniel.21 In Dan. 7:25 and 12:7 "three times and a half" is the length of the desecration of the temple which in fact lasted from June 168 B.C. to December 165 B.C.

The same time spoken of from diverse perspectives in the four episodes mentioned, is a time of prophetic testimony on the one hand and on the other, of blasphemy against God and persecution against the saints and finally, of God's protection for them.22 Thus, every nar­rative segment blends with the others in the same story. It is as if the narrator feels unable to express a complex event in one stroke and therefore narrates the story from partial perspectives successively, which when put together like orange segments give the complete account of the event.23

19 See below the paragraph on the anticipatory doublets. 20 It suffices to mention H. B. Swete, The Apocalypse of St. John (London: Macmillan,

2nd ed., 1907) 152: "The story of the Woman in the wilderness synchronizes with the prophesying of the Two Witnesses," and, first of all, Alio, L'Apocalypse, 142: "La com­paraison de XI,3 avec XI,2 et XIII,5 montre que cette mesure s'applique à une seul et même époque, et non à deux époques contiguës d'égale longueur: c'est pendant que les gentils foulent la Sainte Cité, et pendant que la Bête sévit (XIII,5; cfr. XI,7), que les Deux Témoins exercent leur activité." Alio concludes: "Saint Jean entend bien faire un synchronisme." The interpreter who first looked for synchronisms in Rev. was J. Mede in his Clavis Apocalyptica (Cantabrigiae, 1st ed., 1627; 3rd ed., 1649).

21 Hadorn, Die Offenbarung des Johannes, 8, speaks of "danielische Zahl." 22 It seems to be intentional the differentiation of the counting stated in days for

the negative forces (11:2 and 13:5) from those stated in months for the positive forces (11:3 and 12:6), apart from the "three times and a half" of 12:14, a variation due probably to the fact that it is a doublet of 12:6.

23 Cf. Biguzzi, / settenari nella struttura dell'Apocalisse, 245-6. This is not unknown to some. Cf. P. Prigent, "Le temps et le Royaume dans l'Apocalypse," in éd. J. Lambrecht, L'Apocalypse johannique et l'apocalyptique dans le Nouveau Testament (BETL 53; Gembloux: Duculot, 1980) 244: "Notre auteur nous invite à . . . reconnaître qu'ils [i.e. les mots] sont inca­pables d'exprimer la révélation. Il faut donc transgresser les règles d'une logique humaine impropre à traduire parfaitement l'évangile. La vérité ne se dira qu'au prix d'approx­imations successives, voire contradictoires;" Idem, "L'étrange dans l'Apocalypse: une catégorie théologique," LumVie 31 (1982) 57: "Il n'y a pas d'abord le temps des témoins, puis celui de la fuite au désert, et enfin celui du pouvoir de la Bête. Il s'agit toujours de la même époque . . . Sur cette période, le voyant projette des éclairages successifs." Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza resorts to three different images to convey how John some­times describes the same antagonist or event from different perspectives successively.

394 G. BIGUZZI

A similar dissection in complementary perspectives is in Rev. 1:1

where John succeeds in entirely reconstructing the transmission chain

of the άποκάλυψις only at the cost of listing its protagonists in two

complementary strokes. He mentions the ultimate source of the reve­

lation (God), the princeps-mtdiator (Jesus), and the beneficiaries (the

servants of God or Jesus) in Rev. 1:1a. In Rev. 1:1b, on the contrary,

John mentions Jesus, the angel sent by Jesus, and then John himself,

illustrating only the central segment of the revelation chain, the seg­

ment of the mediators, and disregarding the two extremes (God as the

ultimate source, and his servants as the recipients). Condensing every­

thing in one list would have been grammatically heavy and concep­

tually less expressive. Instead, the bifurcation into two complementary

series gives prominence both to the greatness of the revelation (1:1a)

and to its prophetic nature and structure (1:1b).

A third case of a narrative composed from complementary per­

spectives is found in Rev. 20:11-15. Here John divides the judgement

scene into two halves: w . 11-12, and v. 13. In the first, after intro­

ducing the Sovereign (i.e. judge, v. 11), the dead (v. 12a), and both

the book of works and the book of life (i.e. the books of judgement

and of reward, v. 12b), John speaks explicitly of the judgement of the

dead (καί εκρίθησαν κτλ, v. 12c). Three elements, (i) the cosmic power of

the judge ("From his presence, earth and sky fled away etc.," v. lib),

(ii) the article in "the (τους) dead," and (iii) the totality entailed in the

couple "τους μεγάλους και τους μικρούς", orient the reader to conclude

that John is speaking here of all the dead. In spite of such universal­

ity, John goes on speaking of two more classes of the dead in

v. 13. One class was detained in the sea (v. 13a), probably the peo­

ple who had had no burial. The second was held in Thanatos and

Hades (v. 13b), i.e. in the Underworld. John states that these dead also

were judged (και εκρίθησαν κτλ, v. 13c).

It is not possible to hold that these two judgements—the one of the

"great and small" dead and the other of the dead of the sea and of

She lists: "a prismatic rather than sequential fashion," "a dramatic motion picture whose individual scenes portray the same persons or action each time from a different angle or perspective," "a musical composition that varies its main themes in different ways": E. Schüssler Fiorenza, Revelation. Vision of a Just World (Edinburgh: Clark, 1993) 36. Cf. finally R. Bauckham, The Theology of the Book of Revelation (NTT; Cambridge: University Press, 1993) 21, where the author speaks of "complementary perspectives [about Babylon's fall]," and p. 47, where he writes: "Revelation deals with images which cannot say everything at once."

FIGURATIVE AND NARRATIVE LANGUAGE OF REV. 3 9 5

the Underworld—are either distinct or chronologically successive, because one cannot make out where to locate the waiting for judgement by the "great and small" dead if not exactly in the sea or the Underworld. Therefore, one has to conclude that John divides the same event into two halves here as well. In between a prologue where the judge's throne is presented (v. 11) and the epilogue where the sinking of Thanatos into the lake of burning sulphur is related (v. 14), a single judgement is referred to from two different perspectives that distin­guish themselves on the grounds of their distinct universality: the anthro­pological (the "great and small" dead, v. 12), and the cosmic (the dead of the sea, the dead of the Underworld, v. 13).

f. Anticipatory Doublets

John sometimes challenges his readers and interpreters also by means of surprising doublets that anticipate what he relates in more detail at the right time and place later on.

One of such cases regards the two flights of the Woman of Rev. 12 into the desert, the first being signalled immediately after her deliv­ery (12:6), and the second when the Dragon pursues and persecutes her (12:14). It is true that E. Corsini surmounts the difficulty stating that one confronts here two distinct flights. The first one would be "an allegory of the original fall," while the second would be a com­pendium of the Jewish dispensation, or the exodus.24 However, even prescinding from Corsini's methodological options,25 his hypothesis of two distinct flights is not free from difficulties. According to him the desert would be a negative locus in the first instance (original fall), and a positive one in the second instance (exodus). On the contrary the text manifestly presents both cases as a positive environment. And again, the absence of persecution in the first flight, used by Corsini as a criterion to distinguish it from the second,26 has nothing to do with

24 E. Corsini, The Apocalypse. The Perennial Revelation of Jesus Christ (Wilmington, DE: Glazier, 1983 [Torino 1980]) 217-23; Idem, "La donna e il dragone nel capitolo 12 dell'Apocalisse," RStBib 6 (1994) 261. In his article of 1994, Corsini changed the identification of the second flight from the Jewish dispensation to the exodus.

25 Understanding a flight in the desert as the original fall is an interpretation nei­ther symbolic nor typological, but in se and per se allegorical. After all, Corsini himself employs the term "allegory" abundandy.

26 The two flights are distinguishable from each other since only the second has to do with persecution, says Corsini. The 1,260 days of the first would constitute the first half of Daniel's week of years which is not a time of persecution, whereas the "three times and a half of the second flight should be the second half of the week of years,

396 G. BIGUZZI

either the image or the reality of the original fall. The point is that,

if the Dragon dashes off in pursuit of the Woman's child towards the

place where it is brought to safety, the Woman is not threatened by

it and has no need to flee. It is in v. 13 that there is indeed the neces­

sity for her to seek safety, because there the Dragon turns against her

with great hostility (έδίωξεν: "pursue," "chase in war or hunting,"

"persecute"). If v. 6 speaks of a needless flight, then, along with the

majority of interpreters, one can see in this verse a surprising (and

useless) anticipation of v. 14, where the flight is chronologically in the

right place.27

A second anticipatory doublet is in Rev. 16:18-19 where Babylon

is split into three parts by an unprecedented earthquake. Yet the actual

destruction is announced later on in Rev. 17:16 and is finally pre­

supposed—as already said above—, not exactly described, as the result

of a big fire (not of an earthquake!), in Rev. 18. A third example is

the descent of the New Jerusalem from heaven in 21:2 which antici­

pates unnecessarily that of 21:10. The classical explanation of such a

doublet is to suppose the blending of two sources by the author.28 But

which is, instead, a time of persecution: "And he shall make a strong covenant with many for one week; and for half of the week he shall cause sacrifice and offering to cease; and upon the wing of abominations shall come one who makes desolate etc." (Dan. 9:27). The sum of the two times would equal Daniel's week of the messianic waiting.

27 Here there is an anticipation according to Bousset, Swete, Alio, Lohmeyer, Gelin, Bonsirven, Behm, Salguero, Bartina, Beasley-Murray, Prigent, Roloff etc. As an exam­ple, cf. L. Cerfaux, "La vision de la femme et du dragon de l'Apocalypse en relation avec le Protévangile," in Recueil Cerfaux, III (BETL 71; Leuven: University Press, 1985) 247: "Le verset 6 . . . n'est. . . qu'une anticipation de 13-18." Some other inter­preters, instead, give impossible narrative explanations of this evident doublet. Thus, Hadorn, Die Offenbarung des Jofannes, 131 ("Es mußte gesagt werden, wo die Gemeinde nach der Entrückung des Messias ist"), U. B. Müller, Die Offenbarung des Johannes (ÖTK, NT 19; Gütersloh-Würzburg: Mohn-Echter, 1984) 236 ("Weil der Verfasser einen neuen grundlegenden Gedanken einschieben will, ist er zu dieser Unterbrechung genötigt), and H. Gollinger, Das "Große Z^hen" von Apokalypse 12 (SBM 11; Würzburg: Echter, 1971) 117, and 178-179, for whom the double flight is even necessary: ". . . doch erweist sich auch diese Wiederholung im Rahmen der . . . Gesamtinterpretation . . . als durchaus sin­nvoll, wenn nicht gar notwendig'" "Deshalb [i.e. to say that God governs history and not Satan] muß die Frau schon in der Wüste sein, als Satan von Himmel gestürzt wird. Daher ist Vers 6 an seiner Stelle ebenso notwendig wie die ausführlichere Darstellung von Flucht und Wüstenaufenthalt der Frau in den Versen 14-16. Vers 6 kann also nicht einfach als mehr oder weniger bedeutungslose Dublette zu Vers 13b-14 abgetan werden, wie es Charles (I, 321) und mit ihm eine Reihe anderer Interpreten tun" (ital­ics added).

28 In his status quaestionis, J. Comblin, "La liturgie de la nouvelle Jérusalem (Apoc, XXI,1-XXII,5)," ETL 29 (1953) 7, lists for example Völter, Spitta, J . Weiß, among

FIGURATIVE AND NARRATIVE LANGUAGE OF REV. 397

the tenor of the words in the two descriptions reveals a single hand and, moreover, Rev. 7:9-17 employs the vocabulary and images of the two supposed sources, i.e. both 21:1-8 and 21:9-22:5. It would be safer then to attribute both texts to John, originally distinct and subsequendy joined together, as M.-É. Boismard assumes.29 In regard to all of these suppositions one rightly recalls L. Morris: "We need not think of two originally different narratives put together by a bungling editor, so obtuse that he forgot what he had included eight verses before."30 The almost inevitable conclusion therefore is that Rev. 21:2 is an antici­patory doublet.31

John has recourse to such anticipations when he wants to acceler­ate the rhythm of his narrations. Thus, before an episode is concluded (Rev. 12) or even reported (Rev. 18 and 21), the reader is assured of God's assistance and victory.

3. John's Surreal and Oneiric World

a. A World beyond Common Logic and Experience

As a suitable frame for his unusual linguistic, figurative and narra­tive repertoire, John is shaping a world of his own in every page of

the Literarkntiker of the end of the nineteenth century, but cf. also R. H. Charles, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Revelation of St John (ICC; Edinburgh: Clark, 1920) II, 151-3; H. Kraft, Die Offenbarung des Johannes (HNT 16a; Tubingen: Mohr, 1974) 262; Prigent, "Le temps et le Royaume," 232-3, and, with reservation, W. Thusing, "Die Vision des 'Neuen Jerusalem' (Apk 21:1-22:5) als Verheißung und Gottesverkundigung," TTZ 77 (1968) 20 note 4 ("möglich, nicht zwingend").

29 Cf. Boismard, "'L'Apocalypse', ou 'les Apocalypses' de S. Jean," 524-7. 30 L. Morris, The Book of Revelation. An Introduction and Commentary (TyndNT 20;

Leicester-Grand Rapids, MI: Inter-Varsity-Eerdmans, 2nd ed., 1989) 242. 31 Hadorn, Die Offenbarung des Johannes, 209, is too evasive ("wie schon 21:2 angedeutet"),

while on the contrary S. Bartina, Apocalipsis de San Juan (SE, NT 3; Madnd: BAC, 1967) 824, explicitly speaks of "anticipation." Others interpret Rev. 21:1-8 as a first and summary description and 21.9-22:5 as a more detailed one. Thus, J. Moffatt, The Revelation of St John the Divine (E's GT 5; London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1910) 478 and 482 ("prelude" and "resumption"); E. Lohmeyer, Die Offenbarung des Johannes (HNT 16; Tubingen, Mohr, 1926) 167 ("eine Ergänzung"); J Bonsirven, L'Apocalypse de Saint

Jean (VS 16; Paris: Beauchesne, 1951) 305 ("une description détaillée"); Ch. Brutsch, La Clarté de l'Apocalypse (Genève: Labor et Fides, 5. ed., 1965) 363 ("une vision plus nuancée"); Muller, Die Offenbarung des Johannes, 349 ("naher beschreibt"); J. Roloff, Die Offenbarung des Johannes (ZB, NT 18; Zurich: Theologischer Verlag, 1984) 197 ("zunächst einen allgemeinen Überblick"); W. J. Harrington, Revelation (SP 16; Collegeville, MN: The Liturgical Press, 1993) 209 ("more fully"); G. Κ. Beale, The Book of Revelation (NIGTC; Grand Rapids, Mi-Cambridge, U K.· Eerdmans-The Paternoster Press, 1999) 1062 ("a recapitulation of the immediately preceding section")

398 G. BIGUZZI

his book: a world made of very unique settings, actors and rules, such

that Rev.'s images often transgress common logic, as happens in dreams.

A cluster of such bizarre items can be found for example in the

image of the Woman of Rev. 12:1-2. She is in fact surprisingly dressed

in sun, standing on the moon, and crowned with a dozen stars of the

sky. These traits hint of the celestial nature and vocation of the Woman.

Yet the sun is not a dress, the moon cannot be underfoot, and the

stars of the sky are not gems to be set in any crown. Another detail

of John's universe can be taken from the image of the Great Harlot

(Rev. 17) who is labelled as "drunk with the blood of the saints and

the blood of Jesus' witnesses" (v. 6). The "drinking of blood" evokes

the image of a horrifying banquet, while the drinking of blood "till

inebriety" suggests relentlessness with one's victims. Yet blood is not

alcoholic nor inebriating. Another peculiar detail is in the image of

the armies dressed in linen (ένδεδυμένοι βύσσινον) fighting with the

two Beasts and their armies, at the command of the Rider of Rev.

19. Going into battle dressed in linen conveys that they are fighters

pure and stainless and that their battle is an ideal one. In fact, linen

is an extremely valuable and refined cloth: John himself knows that

the great and the powerful wear linen (18:16) and that linen is worn

on the day of one's wedding (19:8). It is then understandable that John

lists linen among the 28 precious wares in 18:11-13. Yet in real life

nobody goes to the front dressed in linen. The image of the gates of

the New Jerusalem is also bewildering: each gate is a huge pearl, made

of a single piece (21:21). John's description here seeks to amaze, express­

ing the preciousness and eschatological nature of the Jerusalem that

comes down from heaven. But the dimensions even of the most mas­

sive pearl are out of proportion to the dimensions of a city gate.

While experience tells us that blood stains red, John states, on the

contrary, that the saints have bleached their robes in blood (7:14).

Again, while a stream of water can run only upon an earthen surface,

a stream is vomited out by the Dragon against the Woman who escapes

by flying, obviously in the sky, towards a place of refuge (12:15).32 And

again, one reads in Rev. 21:16 that the three dimensions of the escha­

tological Jerusalem are the same. The city in consequence would have a

cube's shape according to John, and yet urban dwellings rise to a height

32 The oddity is pointed out by R. Lehmann-Nitsche, "Der apokalyptische Drache. Eine astraltheologische Untersuchung über Ap Joh 12," Zßihn 65 (1933) 201.

FIGURATIVE AND NARRATIVE LANGUAGE OF REV. 3 9 9

of only some tens of meters, and surely not up to 12,000 stadia.33

Strange as they are, these details do have some meaning in John's universe. The bleaching power of the blood celebrates the salvine force of the Christ-Lamb's death. The stream running through the sky is a remaking of the old exodus taken from an image found in Ex. 19:4 and Dt. 32:11. The cubic city tries to represent what is otherworldly and ineffable.34 But in each the reader faces a straining of common understanding and experience.

Furthermore, it belongs to a world other than our own that an eagle (8:13) or even an altar (16:7) or its horns (9:13) speak, and that three frogs perform prodigies (16:14), or again, that a star be able to handle the key of the abyss (9:1-2). It is extraneous to our world and experience that a human being have a sword in place of his tongue (1:16; cf. 2:12,16; 19:15,21), that a woman would fly (12:14), that a human being be appointed as a permanent column of a temple (3:12), that an animal would be a member of itself (17:7,9-11),35 or that a city would fornicate with the kings of the earth (18:3), or that another city would marry (21:9-10), and that it would marry a lamb (19:7; 21:9), that the lamb could have 7 eyes, and that it could open the seals of a book which no one else in the three regions of the cosmos is able to do (5:2-4 and 6:1,3,5 etc.), and that it could turn out to be the shepherd of an innumerable multitude (7:17), being followed wher­ever it goes by 144,000 persons (14:4), fighting a victorious war against terrible foes (17:14).

b. Rev.'s Surreal World, its Nature and Purpose

The least inadequate term to ascribe to all the images that popu­late this Johannine world is perhaps "surreal."36 The term "surreal­ism" was coined in the Twentieth century to signify the transcendence

33 Concerning the "cubical" Jerusalem, B.J. Malina, The New Jerusalem in the Revelation of John. The City as Symbol of Life with God (Zacchaeus Studies, NT; Collegeville, MN: The Liturgical Press, 2000) 54, writes: "It is a cube, each side of which is the length of the Great Wall of China . . . This great cube would cover half of the United States and reach to the height of 260 Mount Everests."

34 J. Sweet, Revelation (TPI, NTC; London-Philadelphia, PA: SCM-Trinity Press International, 2nd ed., 1990) 15, writes: "A square is a perfect figure—even more so a cube (21:16)."

35 Cf. Allo, L'Apocalypse, 64 (". . . par exemple un animal et un membre de cet ani­mal [are identical]").

36 The term is employed for instance by Boring, Revelation, 57, who writes: "Interpreters of Revelation should not attempt to fit John's surrealistic pictures into etc."

400 G. BIGUZZI

of realism in European arts and literature. In fact, one could compare a number of Johannine traits with certain creations of surrealistic artists. For example, just as John presents the "One like a son of man" hav­ing a sword which issues from his mouth (1:16), so Salvador Dalí would represent drawers coming out from the belly of Venus, or would paint a head with a candle or an aeroplane in place of eyes nose and mouth. Just as John presents a cavalry wielding sulphur and fire, so Dalí would paint appalling burning giraffes.37 However, even if the term "surreal" might help to define John's images, his unrestrained fantasy escapes our capacity to classify his bizarre creations and inven­tions exhaustively.

As for its nature and purpose, the "strangeness" of this oneiric world is first of all revelatory and prophetic. It speaks in fact of the new cre­ation that God's power brings about, to some extent in the present messianic times, and then fully in the eschatological aeon. Since Rev.'s strangeness engages the reader in a demanding interpretative labour, it also serves to catch the attention, to surprise, and fundamentally to exhort. Through it John alarms the readers on the one side, and tries to persuade them to opt for the right camp on the other.

4. Conclusion

John's Apocalypse puzzles and troubles at every page. The reason for this is that the author frequendy goes against common logic in shaping his images and narratives.38 Yet, John's license with regard to common logic is not capriciousness since it is possible to gather his

37 The transcendence of realism was rather frequent also in antiquity and in more recent times: it should be enough to recall here Aesop's fables, or those of Phaedrus, or of J. de la Fontaine, and the writings of Lucian of Samosata, the Golden Ass by Apuleius of Madaura, the legends of A thousand and one nights, and The adventures of Baron von Munchausen, etc.

38 The literary audacities found in Rev. are not without analogy. Prigent, "L'étrange dans l'Apocalypse," 49-50, for example points out parallels with the O T and apoca­lyptic literature, commenting that the original readers of Rev. met with less difficulty in approaching it than we do today. He adds, however, that it suffices to compare ten pages of any O T prophet and ten pages of Rev. to realise that there is no such con­centration of surprising features in the O T as there are in John's book. What could be said about apocalyptic literature is different to some extent. For example H. P. Müller, "Die himmlische Ratversammlung. Motivgeschichtliches zu Ape. 5:1-5," ZJ^^ 54 (1963) 255 note 4, writes: "Die jüdische Apokalyptik ist voll von Unanschaulichkeiten und technischen Inkonsequenzen."

FIGURATIVE AND NARRATIVE LANGUAGE OF REV. 4 0 1

eccentricities into some kind of system, here called a "grammar." Since

every grammar helps in learning and mastering a language, the above

attempt to systematise the strange traits of the book of Rev. seeks to

make it a more readable book, however inimitable it is.

This attempt at writing the Ungrammar of Rev.'s anomalies is rel­

evant also on the level of literary criticism. In other words, all that

has been said above testifies against the source-hypothesis as applied

to Rev.'s origin and composition. This is so for at least two reasons:

because of the repeated occurrence of the same anomalies, and because

of their presence in the micro-texts.

Firstly, if for instance the sequence of verbal tenses goes from future

to present to past repeatedly, in many episodes, it is not viable either

to call in question the author's knowledge of Greek, or to suppose his

recourse to different sources. The same can be said for the texts of

the complementary perspectives. One could for example suppose two

sources behind the judgement of the two groups of dead in Rev. 20:11-

12 and 20:13, but the hypothesis is not necessary and even improba­

ble, because the author proceeds in 20:11-13 as he does on at least

two other occasions.

Secondly, the supposed blending together and reworking of pre-exis-

tent sources are belied on the literary level by the narrative gaps and

metamorphoses when they are found in such short episodes that can

only be unitary. If for example the result of the sealing follows imme­

diately its announcement without a single word about the sealing act

itself, then analogous lacunae are not indisputable proofs for a bungling

combination of sources when they occur elsewhere in Rev. Similarly,

the metamorphosis in the command to measure the ναός, the altar

and the worshipers (11:1: a single verse), or the metamorphosis by

which a city changes into a woman and again from a woman it turns

back into a city (17:16: a single verse again) prove that it is not nec­

essary to have recourse to any source in order to explain analogous

variations which may exist between larger and wider images.39

In conclusion, the numerous and great difficulties of Rev. are to be

solved first of all by collating the parallel features found within this

very book, and not by hurriedly resorting to sources. After all, the

diachronic study of Rev., dominant for example in the last decades of

Cf. the review on D. Aune, Revelation 1-5, in Bib 79 (1998) 584.

402 G. BIGUZZI

the nineteenth century, which W. Bousset spoke of as a "hunt for sources,"40 has not succeeded in explaining the book and its plot.41

Rather, due to his particular language and his own narrative logic, John of Patmos is the best interpreter of himself.

40 W. Bousset, Die Offenbarung Johannis (KEK, NT; Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 6. ed., 1906) 121 ("Jagd nach Quellen").

41 Allo, L'Apocalypse, lxvi, writes: ". . . ainsi il n'y aurait nul besoin de recourir, pour expliquer certaines 'incohérences' du symbolisme, à l'hypothèse qu'il [i.e. John] a jux­taposé péniblement des sources disparates."

^ s

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