(An Attempt at Dogmatic Interpretation)

INTRODUCTION

John's "Revelation" is the last book in the Bible, which it completes with itself. In this way, "Revelation" begs to be compared with the book of Genesis, as with the beginning of the Bible, of which it is the end, according to the general plan and theme. At the same time, it is in its own way a unique book, on the whole unlike anything else in the Bible. This passage of it, as well as its general character, testifies to a certain special significance and originality of it, although it does not prevent its particular comparisons in content with other biblical books. In any case, it is by this external passage of "Revelation" in the Bible that it acquires the consummative character of a certain last word in the Bible, which is in accordance with the first.

It is these features of the "Revelation" that are subject to general revelation and revelation. But such a special place and meaning of the last word is characteristic of Revelation, and in its dogmatic content, dogmatic theology is agreed upon and completed in a peculiar way. [1]

Revelation in general is one of the most studied books of Holy Scripture from the philological, exegetical, religious-historical, and general biblical side. You can even say that every word and comma has been studied here.

However, there is already a certain indisputable area of scientific achievements of critical exegesis, which can also be used for the needs of dogmatics. They establish the general character of the "Revelation" from the point of view of its literary features, external style and structure. First of all, as regards its language, it must be said that it bears the obvious and pronounced features of the Hebrew style, which is not flawless because of its Hebraisms in regard to the correctness of language and grammar. However, this does not prevent him from being distinguished by exceptional power, so that it can be rightly said of him: "the author of the Apocalypse, although he is not a perfect artist, he is a writer of genius possessing a rare power of his calling." [2] Of course, it cannot be denied that there is an obvious difference in the style of the Revelation and the fourth Gospel, which is supposed to have been written later than the first. However, this difference does not force us to assert, contrary to Church tradition, that both books are the works of different writers. In any case, there remains the possibility of a purely scientific disagreement and dispute for this. For us, therefore, there is a complete and even scientific possibility of calmly following the testimony of tradition, for which "the author of the Apocalypse, as well as of the Gospel and the Epistles, is one and the same, i.e., the Apostle John of Zebedee," [3] John the Theologian, son of Thunder (as was customary and attested in the canon of sacred books in the East and West).

This peculiar style of the Apocalypse testifies to the special strength of the Jewish spirit and temperament, inherent in this book, and comparatively even weakened in the Fourth Gospel, which in this sense is more Hellenistic. And this deliberately Jewish character of this book is even more reflected in its special literary genre and style, precisely as the Apocalypse. It is equally characteristic that the Apocalypse as such is the only book of its kind in the whole Bible (in spite of the presence of some apocalyptic texts in some places in other books), and at the same time it is one of the many apocalypses with which the Hebrew literature abounds from the second century B.C. onwards. X. and before the second century and after it. In spite of the existence of individual monuments and of non-Jewish origin (such as the Sibylline books), it can be said that this apocalyptic for several centuries (from the second century B.C. to the second century after it) was a particularly characteristic expression of the Jewish spirit in its self-consciousness and its historical destinies. Beginning with the great prophets of the post-exile people, the Jewish people think and feel life apocalyptically, although this was not the only determining factor in their self-consciousness. The preaching of the Forerunner, Christ and the Apostles, and in general the whole of Christianity could find a place for themselves in it. It defeated the apocalyptic. The latter died out with the destruction of Jerusalem, which followed a series of messianic-apocalyptic movements and rebellions led by false messiahs. However, the Church of the Gentiles, which received Christianity from Israel, did not accept it apocalyptically, but remained free from it.

However, and this cannot be emphasized with sufficient force, the Church, rejecting the apocalypses as a special form of national Jewish self-consciousness, chose and proclaimed as divinely inspired one of the apocalypses, unique in its kind, she preserved and glorified it, including it in the canon of the holy books. In this way the Church at the same time abolished, as if it were unnecessary, but at the same time confirmed in its abiding meaning, as a kind of vetus testamenium in novo, [**1] our "Christian" Apocalypse. In all the sacred books, not only of the Old Testament, but even of the New Testament (although in the Greek text), the word of God sounds in the Hebrew voice, speaks, in a certain sense, in the Hebrew language, so that it needs to be translated into a universal dialect accessible to "all languages." That is why in the New Testament we hear the living speech of St. Paul. Paul, as well as the other apostles, which, without losing its personal and national-Jewish character, already becomes a universal preaching. And the same must be said about the Apocalypse, which betrayed its Jewish style, imagery, and temperament and preserved it as universal, all-human, and generalized this peculiar text of the local and the particular into a national one.

But this generalization is not exhausted by this spiritual translation alone. It also has another, broader and deeper meaning. The fact is that the language and thought of the apocalypses included elements of, one might say, universal paganism, they are characterized by a syncretic character, the study of which is so successfully and persistently engaged in religious-historical science. Through its analyses and inspirations, the Jewish images and teachings of the apocalypses are revealed as containing the heritage of ancient times from various religions and peoples. It can be said that they, and in particular our Apocalypse, were written in the thick syncretic ink of the religious history of the world. They can be identified, and these images can be deciphered, leading them back to the original sources. In them one can find a variety of influences, traditions and borrowings, which are now being revealed in religious-historical science more and more fully and widely. If even the sacred text of the Bible as the religious tradition of the chosen people is not closed to these influences of the surrounding pagan peoples, then for apocalyptic writing it is a general rule. And through it syncretic images penetrate into our Christian Apocalypse, which through this preserves and carries them, assimilating to them a universal character. "Religious-historical" science, triumphantly revealing these features of syncretism, often uses this to profane the holy book, to secularize and destroy its content. However, this kind of application is not at all necessary and not indisputable. There is no need to reject or question the historical correctness of these scientific observations in order to weaken their application and meaning. The content of the sacred books, in particular of the Apocalypse, is not thereby dissolved or abolished in its own power, it includes these alien elements as material, colours and images. Through this, the power and richness of his images only multiply, without losing their own significance. The language and images of the Apocalyptic, as well as of our Apocalypse, thus open the door to world history to the last book of the New Testament.

Thus, the Apocalypse, both in its style and in its character, is an alien book in the Bible, belonging to a certain literary genre of a certain era. However, it is included in the Bible as its organic part, which is essential. And this inclusion, as a well-known biblical dogma, has become so organic that it makes us forget the historical and specific features of the Apocalypse. It stands before us in all its originality, like a kind of monolith. Its literary and historical features did not prevent its acceptance as a Christian revelation of a certain character. This Judaistic book of a syncretic nature took on the features of Christian revelation and became a Christian book, organically entering the New Testament as a revelation about Christ and His Church. Its language and images were assimilated and transformed here to the point of complete rebirth, and we, reading this book as part of the Christian revelation of the New Testament, forget about its origin and special properties. It is given to us as Holy Scripture, as a book written by the great Christian Apostle. It is perceived by us in a general biblical context as part of the Bible, a New Testament book, in connection with the entire New Testament revelation. It belongs to the number of prophetic books and as such is the only prophetic book in the New Testament. Although all the prophetic books in the Bible, specifically in the Old Testament, have the character of revelation, since they also contain Christian prophecies, the Apocalypse has an exceptional place in this respect as a Christian, New Testament prophecy: "The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave Him, to show His servants what must soon come to pass... Blessed is he who reads and hears the words of this prophecy" (Rev. 2:10). I, 1, 3). John, the apostle and evangelist who wrote the fourth Gospel and the three conciliar epistles, is also a prophet in Revelation.

There is a difference between prophets, apocalyptics, and apostles, although there are common features between them, on the basis of which they draw closer to each other. The prophets teach, rebuke, but also foretell what is to come, sometimes in general and abstract terms, sometimes symbolically and figuratively, and then they draw closer to the apocalyptics: such is the book of the prophet Daniel and some others. Insights and prophecies concerning the future are also found in the Gospels, as well as in the Apostolic Epistles. However, Revelation has a special character, which combines the literary features and images characteristic of the apocalypse with the prophecies characteristic of the prophets. It can be said that in it the apocalypse ceases to be itself, for it becomes a prophecy, albeit set forth in a special, apocalyptic language. The apocalypse ceases to belong to the apocalyptic, but becomes a prophecy. This is the whole uniqueness of the character of the Christian apocalypse. This is also expressed in his self-determination.

Open. I, 1-2-3: "And He shewed (it) by His angel unto His servant John, who testified to the word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ, and what he saw. Blessed is he who reads and hears the words of this prophecy."

John the Theologian, the Evangelist, is also a seer of the mystery. On the one hand, he is a witness as a confessor and preacher, an apostle, whose words are "prophecy" in their content and dignity, so to speak, in their meaning and value. This presupposes that he is worthy to accept the prophecy, to become its preacher in the world. In this sense, too, he is a prophet. However, his spiritual image is also different from that of a prophet in his own ministry. It is not characteristic of the prophetic search, questioning and inspiration, in response to which prophecy is given by the Holy Spirit as "the word of God", as "the hand of God" on the prophet. Prophecy is not only an illumination from above, but also a question answer, a divine-human matter. But the seer has visions as revelations. He is shown what he did not ask and could not even ask, because what is revealed exceeds the human horizon, extends beyond him, into the realm transcendent to him. If prophecy is a divine-human illumination, in which creative inspiration meets divine inspiration, then "vision" is, as it were, a one-sided act of God in man or over man. The image of such divine influence is expressed as a state of "being in the spirit", in a trance that leads to transcendence. On the human side, this obviously presupposes chosenness, a corresponding special dignity, but the seer does not ask, but sees whether it is shown or spoken to him through an angel. He is required to be able to see what is shown, to perceive it, to tell people, but at the same time to resist himself, to bear the prophecy, not to be spiritually corrupted by it. Such is precisely the property of the "apocalypse," of revelation, in contrast to prophecy. If it is possible to look for a question answer here, it is only in the most general form of a certain bewilderment, confusion, confusion, nothing more. For all the grandeur of the revelations of the Apocalypse, the visions here simply alternate, follow one another, and then fit into the narration of them according to a certain plan, and the attitude of the contemplator to them remains passive, receptive. This spiritual comparative passivity distinguishes apocalypses from prophecy. In certain cases, what has the character of an apocalypse in its content and style can also become a prophecy, including elements of a question answer. Such, for example, are the apocalyptic chapters of the Book of Daniel (cf., e.g., Dan. VIII, 27: "And I, Daniel, was faint and sick for several days; then he got up and began to attend to the king's affairs; I was amazed at this vision, and did not understand it." Wed. Jn., I, 3). Here, although in general outlines, the personality of the contemplator of the visions himself appears. But we would look in vain for this person in John's revelation, with all its tremendous power: here we find only visions of mysteries, but not of the seer himself, who remains hidden, not revealed in his personality, although such a person exists. Perhaps this is one of the reasons for all the difficulty and even lack of answers to questions about the relationship between the two sacred writers, the compilers of the fourth Gospel and the Epistles, on the one hand, and the seer, on the other.

This kind of impersonality, the absence of individual features in apocalyptic writing, also explains the pseudonymous character inherent in it. A pseudonym is not only a symptom of a spiritual illness characteristic of the state of the diaspora to this day (a disease that is contagious, both corresponding to a certain spiritual state and to professions: the stage, literature, etc.), but also corresponds to the absence of an individual person and the state of the apocalyptic, the passivity of his contemplation, of which we spoke above. In any case, it should be stated that pseudonymis is a feature inherent in apocalyptic writing, which therefore bears the name of apocrypha (except, of course, the Apocalypse of John).