First Pass at This Weekend's Bible Lesson: Revelation 5:11-14

[Most weeks, I present as many updates on my reflections and study of the Biblical texts on which our weekend worship celebrations will be built as I can. The purpose is to help the people of the congregation I serve as pastor, Friendship Lutheran Church of Amelia, Ohio, get ready for worship. Hopefully, it's helpful to others as well, since our Bible lesson is usually one from the weekly lectionary, variations of which are used in most of the churches of the world.]

Revelation 5:11-14
11Then I looked, and I heard the voice of many angels surrounding the throne and the living creatures and the elders; they numbered myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands, 12singing with full voice, “Worthy is the Lamb that was slaughtered to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing!” 13Then I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea, and all that is in them, singing, “To the one seated on the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever!” 14And the four living creatures said, “Amen!” And the elders fell down and worshiped.

General Comments:
1. This marks the resumption of these "passes" at the weekly Bible lesson. Because last weekend marked my first of six messages based on passages from the book of Revelation and I didn't present any introductory comments on that book, I'm going to do that here.

2. As I explained in my message last weekend:

It was written by John, traditionally thought to be the beloved disciple and the author of the Gospel of John and of the three letters to churches also found near the back of your Bible, First, Second, and Third John. By the time John wrote Revelation, he was an old man exiled by the Roman Empire to Patmos, a small Greek island in the Aegean Sea. Even today, the place is so tiny that it has only about 3000 residents. It’s a rocky place that has been likened to Alcatraz.

The map above shows the position of Patmos off the coast of what was Asia Minor and is modern-day Turkey.

3. Revelation, like the letters of Paul such as Romans, First and Second Corinthians, Galatians, and so on, was written as a "circular letter," correspondence to be carried to gatherings of Christians in various communities as they worshiped.

4. Revelation 1:4 addresses the recipients of the letter: "John to the seven churches that are in Asia." This can't be read to mean that there were only seven churches in Asia Minor. From Acts and the letters Peter and Paul, we know that there were gatherings of Christian communities in many more locales than these. But there are two explanations scholars often advance for the reference to "seven churches":

• John's letter was meant specifically for the seven faith communities mentioned.
• Or, far more likely, seven, the number of completeness in Jewish numerology, would have caused the original hearers and readers of the letter to see the words John writes here as being a message for the whole church.
  

5. Revelation is the result of John's encounter with the risen and ascended Jesus. The opening verses indicate that the context within which this encounter and Christ's revelation to John happens is community worship. John's call isn't to a spiritual lone rangerism. His call is from the Creator and the Lord of the Church and he's being called into service to the Church.

6. The literary genre of Revelation is apocalypse. In fact, as I said this past weekend:

Our English title for this book exactly translates the Greek term, apocalypsis. That’s the noun form of the verb, apocalypto, which means, I reveal or I uncover. Here, John presents a series of messages and images revealed to him by the risen and ascended Jesus.

An Old Testament example of apocalyptic literature is Daniel.

The irony of Revelation is that while it purports to clarify, reveal, and uncover, it is in many ways, the most mysterious book of the Bible.

I hope to share general comments on the lesson itself tomorrow.