Revelation 20 - In Depth Bible Commentaries

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Aune holds that this sentence is a “parenthetical remark,” and that it “refers to the brief
narrative in Revelation 20:12-13, where the dead (apparently the wicked dead) have come
back to life and stand before the great white throne.” (P. 1090)
John's vision depicts physical death as not being the final end for the faithful people of
God, such as the martyrs, who live again, and reign with Christ. But likewise, “the rest of the
dead” have not reached their final end. They live again–evidently meaning, they are resurrected,
to life, in order to face their judgment. Already, in human history, the faithful people of
God have begun to participate in a priestly life and rule, that their deaths cannot annul or destroy--but
only facilitate! The "others" die, just as do the followers of Christ; but they do not
share in this blessed life and rule.
Walvoord, with his literal and futuristic view of Revelation, insists that "the most important
truth" of this passage is "...the evident fact that a thousand years separate the resurrection
of the martyred dead from the resurrection of the wicked dead." (Pp. 297-98)
Such a comment shows how Revelation, instead of being appreciated as a book of
signs, filled with enigmatic riddles, has been turned into a text-book of doctrinal and chronological
matters, a “road-map to the future”--instead of the visionary book of exhortation and
hope that it is. Instead of being appreciated as a vibrant vision that imparts hope to the readers,
but is not clear in its details, it becomes, under such interpretation, a technical description
of future events, which have little or nothing to do with the original readers, but which apply
only to a group some 2,000 years later known as "tribulation saints."
Hough states, "We must not treat the symbolic pictures of this book as if they represent
an ordered and chronological record of the events which are destined to unfold...Literal-minded
scholars have been perplexed by the picture of the saints sitting on thrones of judgment
after the destruction of the armies of evil, and of another gathering of evil forces after the King
of kings and Lord of lords has ridden forth upon his white horse to glorious victory...
“There is really no need for perplexity. The writer moves forward and backward in the
easiest fashion. We see the end, and then for the sake of emphasis we are taken back to an
earlier period. There is a final climactic moment, but there is many a backward flash." (P.
607)
We agree with Hough. The material is prophetic vision, with its enigmatic, puzzling lack
of clarity–“seen through a mirror darkly.” To take such material as containing exact chronology,
and clarity of detail, such as can be made the basis for a “time-table of future events” is
extremely misleading. However, to acknowledge the puzzling, enigmatic nature of the visions,
allows the interpreter to take in the various pictures, with all their inconsistencies and lack of
clarity, and be able to appreciate the dynamic hope that such visions impart to the suffering
people of God. What do you think?
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Aune notes that “The term ‘resurrection’ occurs just twice in Revelation, here and in
verse 6a; in both contiguous contexts it is designated h` avna,stasij h` prw,th, ‘the first resur-
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