In Revelation 1.3 one reads, “Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of the prophecy,…” In the Old Testament sense of the word, what does it mean for something to be a prophecy? This is not meant to be an across the board assessment. I am certain that ideas concerning prophecy developed into New Testament times. However, if the Old Testament concept is at work here in any way, it could possibly add to one’s understanding of Revelation as a prophecy.
The Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, examining the Old Testament background for “prophecy,” draws out a number of salient features about the term, though recognizing that the actual information concerning prophecy in the Old Testament is very varied. I will list the salient features below and draw out some of my own implications for you (the bold statements below paraphrase points made in the dictionary):
- Old Testament prophecy is first and foremost “the word of the Lord.” If the Old Testament concept of prophecy is at work, whoever has written the introduction to the Book of Revelation would be communicating from the outset that he considers the message of the book to be from God.
- Old Testament prophecy most often transmits an imminent message. Some readers of Revelation will likely disagree here; however, if Revelation follows in the line of Old Testament prophecy, it was most likely not intended to speak of some far off distant future. This may also be indicated by the use of “soon” in Revelation 1.1.
- The form of Old Testament prophecy is unique to the prophet/book. There are common elements to prophecy. For example, there are some common prophetic phrases like “Thus, says the Lord.” There are other common elements like “symbolic speech actions.” However, when one reads the Old Testament prophets they are all very different in a literary sense. Therefore, though Revelation is called a “prophecy” this in no way diminishes its capacity for uniqueness.
- Old Testament prophecy was often intent on getting people to do something. It is sometimes the case that Old Testament prophecy says “this is what is going to happen and that is that.” However, often times the focus is “here is what is going to happen if things continue in this way, so change what you are doing.” If Revelation is in this vein, then this is contrary to those who view the book as a manual to discern when the world is going to end. The book then would have been written to influence the behavior of those to whom it was written.
- Visions are commonplace in Old Testament prophecy. Those who have read the Old Testament prophets will be no strangers to weird visions. I’m thinking here of the first part of Ezekiel. Yet these visions can again key one into how to interpret the book. The early visions in Ezekiel are weird, but they spoke to the people in the time period preceding the Babylonian Exile.
Again, this is an attempt to provide a brief overview of what Old Testament prophecy was like. Of course prophecy changed, so one is free view the prophecy of Revelation as more different than similar to Old Testament prophecy. Yet if one accepts that the Old Testament concept may be at work here, this overview may help to give some interpretive clues for the book.
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