Revelation: - Knights of Columbus, Supreme Council

II
WHAT JOHN SAW
In taking up the question of the symbolism of the Apocalypse, we should
make one thing plain from the beginning, and that is that we do not intend
to question for one minute the reality of John’s vision. John is a prophet; he
has an authentic message from God. The teaching of the Apo calypse is true
and is a true record of revelation given to John.
But the Apocalypse is a record of revelations received formerly and written
down only later (1:9ff.). Probably John received these rev elations over a
considerable period of time. Their organization into book form, following an
outline and set manners of expression, is the work of John himself acting
under divine inspiration. The form of writing, which he employed, as was
pointed out in the last article, was Jewish apocalyptic.
He himself tells us as much. He says, for example, that he saw “one like a
son of man” (1:13), that before the heavenly throne “there is as it were a sea of
glass, like crystal” (4:6), “I saw a Lamb standing, as though it had been slain”
(5:6), “I saw what ap peared to be a sea of glass mingled with fire” (15:2), and so
forth. If we add together all the “like’s,” the “as though’s,” and the “as it
were’s” of the Apocalypse, we should find that they are one of its chief
character istics. John has not said, in other words, that he saw with his bodily
eyes a man, a sea of glass, or a slain Lamb, but things that can be symbolized
by these representations. One commentator on the Apocalypse has said well
that this book was not so much seen by its author as thought by him. The
images which he has used, and which almost without exception he has
borrowed from earlier literature, he has employed to give expression to his
revealed thoughts.
This is an important fact to keep in mind when reading the Apocalypse.
Take, for instance, the pas sage in 5:6ff. John saw a Lamb standing, but as
though slain. Just how does a slain lamb stand? In fact, this lamb does not act
very slain at all, since “he went and took the scroll from the right hand of him
who was seated on the throne” (v. 7). This lamb, too, has seven horns and seven
eyes. What are we to make of all this? That John actually was given a picture
- 15 -