The Epilogue of Revelation chapter 22:12-13 can be seen as a parallel to the Prologue, with a similar discontinuity to Rev 1:7-8.
The “Alpha and the Omega” verse of Revelation 22:13 pertains to the one God and Father (The Lord God Almighty).
Most of the last chapter of Revelation is an Epilogue that strings together elements from the main body of the prophecy and reiterates some statements from the Prologue (Ch 1:1-8).
Because the first and last chapters are so choppy, I am inclined not to presuppose a continuity between verse 12 and verse 13 of chapter 22. There is a similar discontinuity between verses 7 and 8 of Chapter 1.
Thus, my position is the epilogue of Revelation is paralleling its Prologue but is more abbreviated. The above table shows the parallel.
The statement below from Robert Mounce's commentary on Revelation further substantiates my premise that Revelation 22 is disjointed with abrupt changes in the speaker and that the Epilogue should be understood in reference to the Prologue.
"Verses 6-21 of chapter 22 form the Epilogue of the book of Revelation. This section consists of a number of rather loosely related utterances which are difficult to assign with any certainty to specific speakers... It is unnecessary to account for the disjointed nature of the Epilogue by conjecturing that John left only a rough draft that needed additional rewriting and a final edit. The material itself has determined the form it has taken. Although falling into a number of short sections, it sets forth but two major themes, the authenticity of the book as a divine revelation and the imminence of the end.
"The similarities between the Prologue and Epilogue of Revelation have often been noted. The book is a genuine prophecy (1:3, 22:6, 9-10, 18-19) by a duly commissioned prophet (1:1, 9-10, 22:8-10) to be read in the churches (1:3, 11; 22:18) for the encouragement of the faithful (1:3; 22:7, 12, 14). These and other similarities support the view that the Prologue may have been the last part of the book to be written and thus reflects the influence of the Epilogue.”
Additional supporting references:
David E. Aune, World Biblical Commentary, Revelation (3 vols.), (1982) vol 52c, p. 1204
"This section gives the appearance of being so uneven and disorderly that a number of proposals have been made for rearranging and even eliminating some portion of the text in the interest of creating greater intelligibility and coherence out of the whole. One major problem in interpreting this section is determining the identity of the speakers despite the numerous abrupt shifts...
"The central problem in any literary analysis of 22:10-20 (0r the larger section of 22:6-21) is whether this section can be understood as a unity in its present form or whether some form of rearrangement or surgery (minor or major) is required to make sense of the present state of the text. According to Charles (2:212), in 22:6-21, more than anywhere else in Rev 20-22, the disjecta membra ("scattered limbs") of the poet-seer are to be found."
G. K. Beale, The Book of Revelation (1999), pp. 1122-1123
"It is difficult to identify clearly the speakers of some of the verses in the epilogue, and in comparison to the prologue, the organization of vv 6-21 seems haphazard... There is no explicit flow of thought in 22:6-21 but merely a series of repeated exhortations based on prior portions of the Apocalypse, each of which is concluded with an interjection conceding Christ's coming."
No comments:
Post a Comment