7. Toward a Canonical Reading of Revelation

Canonical Approach Primer

The Shape of the NT: From the Earliest Churches to the End of Days

The story of the NT begins with the Gospel collection and its four diverse yet complementary accounts of the coming of the Son. The book of Acts continues this narrative storyline by providing an account of the coming of the Spirit and the growth of the churches. The NT epistles provide two distinct collections of apostolic teaching and dialogue about the nature of the gospel and the life of the churches.

Though at first it may seem disconnected from the story of the NT, it is important to recognize that the book of Revelation (also known as the Apocalypse of John) strategically picks up the narrative that began with the Gospels and Acts. 

After the structural pause represented by the Catholic Epistles and Paul’s Letters, the Revelation provides a multilayered narrative that connects the earliest churches to the end of days. Because John’s Apocalypse is technically an epistle as well, it is fitting that it appears alongside these letter collections in the broader NT collection. 

Reading Revelation in Light of NT Letter Collections

This apocalyptic letter serves a crucial canonical function. The beginning of the book contains 7 letters to 7 churches, mirroring the middle section of the NT canon. These 7 letters structurally and thematically bind the book of Revelation to the rest of the NT writings.

An element that strengthens the connection between the Revelation and the rest of the NT epistles is that each of its 7 letters to the churches has a clear structure, highlighting that they were composed as distinguishable letters for distinct churches. Each of the 7 letters includes a greeting to the church’s leader, a description of Christ, words of commendation or criticism, a warning or exhortation, and a promise for those who persevere.

Accordingly, after two major collections of epistles, Revelation begins with a carefully crafted letter collection. Readers of the NT will be familiar with such a sequence of letters by an author to a number of churches. 

The Muratorian Fragment, an early canon list, connects the 7 letters in Revelation 2–3 to the Pauline Corpus. In the middle of a discussion concerning Paul’s Epistles, the fragment reads, “For John also in the Apocalypse, though he writes to seven churches, nevertheless speaks to all.” What is more, John “speaks to all” in one literary location, namely, his book of Revelation.

These 7 letters to the 7 churches could be read by everyone because each one was received and passed along within this embedded letter collection. This structural feature of Revelation echoes and anticipates the shape of the NT collection. 

The Eschatological and Intertextual Exclamation Point on the Grand Storyline of the Bible

After the epistolary interlude of this letter section, Revelation 4 picks up the narrative thread and John’s vision carries it into the eschatological horizon of a new heaven and a new earth (Revelation 21–22).

Because of these textual features, John’s Apocalypse is the exclamation point of the biblical storyline. Here redemptive history culminates in the vision John recounts in the final chapters of his book. The Revelation of Jesus Christ functions as the fitting canonical counterpart to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The overarching narrative framework of the NT provides the believing community with a narration and interpretation of its origin (Gospels), expansion (Acts), and ultimate end (Revelation). 

Along with the title Jesus, the Christ (Rev 1:1, 2, 5), John also directly links Jesus to “the Lion of the tribe of Judah” and the “Root of David” (Rev 5:5; cf. 22:6, “I am the root and descendent of David”). By strategically identifying Jesus as the son of David, John adopts an important biblical image. One of the purposes of the vision of Revelation is to “fill out” this prophetic portrayal of Jesus as the reigning Davidic king. As the voices in the heavenly court proclaim in Revelation 11:15, John’s vision anticipates the moment when “the kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever.” 

Just as John’s Gospel showed how Jesus’s crucifixion filled out the scene of the suffering servant of Psalm 22 (John 19:16–37), here John’s Apocalypse shows how Jesus’s exaltation fills out the scene of the reigning son of Psalm 2. Just as the focus on Jesus as the Christ ties the book of Revelation to the rest of the NT, so too this emphasis binds it to the story of the OT. Indeed, the revelation of Jesus as the prophesied Davidic Messiah might be “the canonical integrating element within the whole of the OT and the NT” (Sailhamer, Meaning of the Pentateuch, 461). 

According to the shape of the NT and the function of the book of Revelation, only in this coming king is the hope of a new creation and a new life made a reality.

Annotated Walking Tour 

Külli Tõniste, “Revelation as the Ending of the Canon,” in Canon Formation, 289–307. This brief article is a good introduction to the main concerns of her larger monograph, The Ending of the Canon: A Canonical and Intertextual Reading of Revelation 21–22 (T&T Clark, 2016). Tõniste examines the function of Revelation with a special focus on the final two chapters. She also discusses the standard manuscript evidence and reception history of Revelation in the earliest church communities. 

Garrick V. Allen, Manuscripts of the Book of Revelation: New Philology, Paratexts, Reception (Oxford, 2020). This volume delves into a host of paratextual features of manuscripts that are part of Revelation’s reception history in early Christianity (including  a discussion of titles and scribal habits). Allen also examines the social dynamics that inform the production of manuscripts of this book in different interpretive eras. This volume expands on some of the issues and themes of his earlier The Book of Revelation and Early Jewish Textual Culture (Cambridge, 2017).

Richard Bauckham, The Theology of the Book of Revelation (Cambridge, 1993). Interesting and insightful essays on theological themes and patterns in Revelation. Bauckham does not address the canonical function of the book directly, but his theological reflection centers on developments within the book as a whole and Revelation’s connection to OT and NT theology. Similarly, see The Climax of Prophecy: Studies on the Book of Revelation (T&T Clark, 1998).  

Brian J. Tabb, All Things New: Revelation as Canonical Capstone (IVP, 2019). Argues that a series of central themes that run throughout the Bible and redemptive history culminate in the book of Revelation. This volume would complement William Dumbrell’s The End of the Beginning: Revelation 21-22 and the Old Testament (Lancer, 1985; Wipf & Stock, 2001). Dumbrell identifies four themes in the final chapters of Revelation and traces their development across the OT (New Jerusalem, New Temple, New Covenant, and New Israel, and New Creation).

Jason P. Kees, At the End of All Things: Identifying the Ideal Reader of Revelation (Fontes, 2023). While not denying the value of overtly theological or primarily historical backdrops, Kees demonstrates the fittingness of a canonical approach to reading Revelation. Outlining Revelation’s organic connection to both the Jewish Scriptures and the shape of the NT collection, Kees showcases many verbal and thematic links to biblical texts that contribute to the vibrancy of John’s prophetic book.

A few other helpful resources: 

• Spellman, “The Book of Revelation within the Canonical Context” and “Appendix: Survey of Intertextual Connections between Genesis 1–3 and Revelation 21–22,” in Toward a Canon-Conscious Reading of the Bible, 172–81, 225–34.

• Michael Kruger, “The Reception of the Book of Revelation in the Early Church,” in Book of Seven Seals, 159–74.

• Tobias Nicklas, “The Apocalypse in the Framework of the Canon,” in Revelation and the Politics of Apocalyptic Interpretation, pp

• Greg Goswell, “The Johannine Corpus and the Unity of the New Testament Canon,” JETS 61.4 (2018): 717–33.

• Andrew Koperski, “Eusebius, Revelation, and Its Place in the New Testament Canon,” Journal of Early Christian History 11.3 (2021): 79–94.

• Charles Gieschen, “The Relevance of the Homologoumena and Antilegomena Distinction for the NT Canon Today: Revelation as a Test Case,” CTQ 79 (2015): 279–300. 

Series Navigation:

Series TOC ← → Next Post