Putting Vision, Metaphor, and Literal together
Preparing for the Seven Seals (Pt 3)
Audio Version!
Since my last post, I’ve been to Birmingham to celebrate my mother’s 85th birthday (a weekend full of surprises) and to see family I haven’t seen in a while. Now back in Redding snowed today—our first real snow of the winter! The pink peach blossoms in my back yard were covered with white. Winter is having a final gasp (metaphorically speaking!).
In the previous two posts I proposed that Revelation has many metaphors that point to literal realities. If you’ve not read both please do so before reading this one!
Today I want to add the vision itself back in to the mix and show that Revelation is in the form of visions that contain metaphors and references to the literal.
The job for us is to recognize what is what (vision, metaphor, reality) and that task is not so simple.
So later in this post I am going to give a test case from Revelation 5 that will provide an example and hopefully some guidance as we enter the seals of chapter six and beyond.
Vision
Let’s first talk about the vision itself, since I discussed metaphor and the literal previously.
We can never forget that from 1:10-22:20, what John wrote down was not the physical reality of his condition on Patmos, but what he experienced in a spiritual, trance-like state.
John saw these things in his vision, but when he came out of his spiritual state, he found himself sitting in a cell on Patmos with the physical reality all around him—he was no longer “in the spirit” but sitting on a chair or perhaps a hard rock.
Nothing spiritual about that!
But he knew that his visionary experience was real and vivid.
Now he had to convey what he saw and heard in writing—John did not necessarily understand all he saw, but he did give clues where he could and left the rest to us.
John’s literal presence as writer was indicated in Revelation every time he said “I saw” or “I heard.” From his perch on Patmos or later, he conveyed his remembrance of the vision with those words. But the substance of what he saw and heard was the vision.
The vision had enough wonder in itself apart from anything else with all of it sights, sounds, colors, creatures, and events. And a good part of Revelation is simply that.
Yet there was so much more embedded significance than a simple record of what he saw and heard.
Many of the visionary images transmitted literal concepts (though John rarely told us what the concept was): they were metaphors of spiritual, theological, or physical realities—the very reason Revelation is in the New Testament!
But—and this is important going forward—not everything in the vision was metaphor (some of the vision is simply the vision), but all the metaphors were part of the vision!!
Further, some elements in the vision, especially the songs, hymns, and acclamations, skip the metaphor altogether and directly name literal things, especially theological reality, without resorting to metaphor.
Our task then is to distinguish (1) simple visionary elements from (2) visionary metaphors from (3) literal referents with no metaphor (especially the hymns).
Is this easy? Not at all. But if we tread carefully through the visions we can do it.
(continued)
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A Test Case
And He came and received (it) from the right hand of the One Sitting on the throne. And when He received the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell before the Lamb, each having a harp and gold bowls full of incense which are the prayers of the saints, and they sang a new song saying, Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals, because you were slaughtered and you bought us for God by your blood from every tribe and tongue and people and nation and made them kings and priests for our God and they will reign upon the earth.
And I saw and heard the voice of many angels around the throne and the four living creatures and the elders and their number was ten thousands of ten thousands and thousands of thousands saying with a loud voice, Worthy is the slaughtered Lamb to receive power and riches and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and blessing.
And all creation which is in the heaven and on the earth and under the earth and on the sea and all the things in them I heard saying to the One Seated On The Throne and to the Lamb, The blessing and the honor and the glory and the might for ever and ever.
And the four living creatures were saying Amen, and the elders fell and they worshipped. Revelation 5:8-14.
OK, this is a long passage.
Too long in fact to do it justice, but for this post all of it needs be read together.
These are the final verses before the opening of the seals and they serve as a good place to bring together some of the ideas I’ve presented above.
In this passage, we see a combination of the vision itself, visionary metaphors, and reality (the literal meaning).
The vision on its own is something to behold—a countless number of beings roaring in unfettered worship of the Lamb who was alone worthy to open the scroll!!
And then (in v. 13) the worship of the One on the Throne and the Lamb together!
The roaring acclamations of the throngs in the Lord of the Rings movies does no justice to what we see described here.
All of the heavenly characters are present: The One Sitting on the Throne, the Lamb, the four living creatures, the crowned 24 elders, countless angels, and all creation in heaven, earth, under the earth, the sea and everything in them, including every tribe and tongue and people and nation.
A close look though shows that we have a visionary scene that contains metaphorical elements that point to literal realities. And the songs, hymns, and acclamations contain literal referents unmediated by metaphor.
Putting it together
Let’s take it verse by verse to illustrate what I am talking about.
I will list the visionary element in italic, the visionary metaphor if present in bold italic, and the literal referent in bold with (L).
8 And He [the Lamb] came and received (it) from the right hand of the One Sitting on the throne. And when He received the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell before the Lamb, each having a harp and gold bowls full of incense which are the prayers of the saints.
The Lamb (He)—visionary metaphor (among several!) referring to Jesus (L)
The One Sitting on the Throne—visionary metaphor referring to God the Father (L)
Right hand—visionary metaphor referring to power and authority of God (L)
The Scroll—visionary metaphor as yet undefined, but containing something related to the plan of God (L) for Jesus and the world.
The four living creatures—visionary metaphor likely referring to representatives of created beings (L), though other possibilities exist. Ezekiel had a similar visionary experience (Ezekiel 1). The faces of lion, ox, human, and the eagle may be metaphorical also—perhaps even aspects of Jesus, though I have not yet fully explored these ideas.
The twenty-four elders—visionary metaphor likely referring to representatives of Israel and the Church (L), though this identification is tentative.
Harps—part of the vision and certainly related to heavenly music and the “new song” that gets sung, but as metaphor for something else I don’t know.
Gold bowls—part of the vision and represents implements in the heavenly temple (L) (of which the earthly temple itself was metaphor and which the book of Hebrews gives a full account of). The fact that the bowls stay bowls in their literal referent dispenses with metaphor which must represent something different by definition.
Full of incense—visionary metaphor. John explicitly tells us that this is a metaphor referring to the literal: “which are the prayers of the saints.” The incense as the prayers of the saints (as aspect of the heavenly temple) is one of the touchstone theological realities that is repeated in chapter 8. The prayers of the saints are vital in God’s work.
Prayers—(L) Literal
The saints—(L) literal reference to all who have trusted Jesus. The saints physically alive or dead as a group throughout Revelation represent reality.
Angels—part of the vision and representing real angels (L); I do not think there is any reason to argue for a metaphorical meaning here. There are many individual angels throughout Revelation that are simply part of the vision.
9 and they sang a new song saying, Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals, because you were slaughtered and you bought us for God by your blood from every tribe and tongue and people and nation 10 and made them kings and priests for our God and they will reign upon the earth.
A New Song—part of the vision but the content of the song itself contains a wealth of theological reality. The song is a song of worship—true worship that we can only approximate at best.
Worthy are you—The vision song is in second person directed to the Lamb/Jesus (L).
Scroll/seals—see “scroll” above on v. 8.
You were slaughtered—reality! Jesus was put to death on the cross.
You bought (redeemed) us for God by your blood—(L) reality! The theological reality of Jesus’s death.
from every tribe and tongue and people and nation—(L) reality! The scope of God’s saving purpose in the cross for all people.
and made them kings and priests for our God and they will reign upon the earth—(L) reality! Another theological statement about the results of the cross.
This song is indicative of the songs and acclamations throughout Revelation: they are full of real theology regarding the Gospel of the Exalted Jesus—no metaphor involved.
11 And I saw and heard the voice of many angels around the throne and the four living creatures and the elders and their number was ten thousands of ten thousands and thousands of thousands
This verse again recites the innumerable beings in the vision. One thing to note is that “I saw and heard” was John’s notice that everything he wrote was remembered from his visionary experience.
12 saying with a loud voice, Worthy is the slaughtered Lamb to receive power and riches and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and blessing.
This verse is a second acclamation of worship:
With a loud voice—a descriptive phrase of the vision only.
Slaughtered Lamb—Once again the visionary metaphor Lamb with slaughtered referring to the reality of the crucified Jesus (L).
This phrase is slightly different from “a Lamb standing as slaughtered” in 5:6. “Standing as slaughtered” pointed to the resurrection, while “slaughtered Lamb” focussed on the crucifixion.
To receive power…blessing (L)—theological reality due to God, yet given to Jesus.
13 And all creation which is in the heaven and on the earth and under the earth and on the sea and all the things in them I heard saying to the One Seated On The Throne and to the Lamb, The blessing and the honor and the glory and the might for ever and ever.
John witnessed all creation in his vision representing all creation (L) in reality (somewhat like Philippians 2:10-11). This time however One Seated On The Throne and the Lamb are joined together! God (L) and Jesus (L) are worshipped the same.
14 And the four living creatures were saying Amen, and the elders fell and they worshipped.
The vision (and the chapter) concludes with the visionary metaphors creatures and elders in worship.
(cont.)
Summing up
I have gone through this exercise to show that the visionary, the metaphorical, and the literal are not distinct but are mixed together.
We must consider each sentence with all its parts to determine what is simply part of the vision, what is visionary metaphor and its literal referent, or what is simply reality.
This situation will recur over and over, though mostly the visions include metaphor and we must figure out the literal reality of the metaphors. Sometimes we get an explicit clue like “the prayers of the saints,” but most times we do not.
Now I think we are ready to tackle the seals of chapters 6–8.