I have recently listened to a four disk lecture given by
Father Thomas Hopko called Apocalypse. In it, Father Hopko speaks about
the book of Revelation written by St. John the Theologian on the island of
Patmos. By hearing what Father Hopko had to say, I learned much more what the Church's
position is regarding the book of Revelation.
In the first disk, Father Thomas Hopko begins the
lecture by saying that not only is the book controversial to understand today,
but before the books of the Bible were canonized it was a controversy. It was
considered by some of the early Christians to be Pseudepigrapha, or false
writing. If one were to compare, the number of false books that the early
Fathers rejected is much greater than the number of books in the Bible. In the Council of Laodicea in the fourth
century, the book of Revelation is not listed as one of the books of the Bible.
Amphilochius of Iconium, the cousin of St. Basil the Great and St. Gregory of
Nyssa said of Revelation, "It is spurious book and should not be in the
canon." In fact, St. John Chrysostom never mentions it. However, Father
Thomas goes on to say because we have the Church, Holy Tradition, Prayer,
Icons, and many other things, the Orthodox do not need to be too nervous or
upset about what is in the canon and what is not. This would only be an issue,
as he says, if the Bible had fallen from heaven as the Koran and is the only
authority that Christians have. There
has always been divisions and controversies concerning many other books of the
Bible, not just Revelation. True Christian life is an ongoing reality of
prayer, preaching, and sanctity of the community-not about a book or books as
important as they may be.
Father Thomas says that eventually the book of Revelation did become canonized and is definitely one of the books of the Bible. However, though it is within the Bible, it is not read at all in the services of the Church.The book of Revelation is filled with Scripture verses from other books of the Bible. In fact, one cannot properly understand the book without having considerable knowledge of the rest of the Bible. Because Revelation contains many references to the heavenly liturgy and what is going on up there, the earthly liturgy was formed from many of those references. One cannot fully understand the Orthodox Liturgy unless they have read Revelation within the Orthodox Tradition. Of course, the earthly liturgy was partly developed even before Revelation was written because the Apostles were still around. For this reason Revelation has taken some things from the earthly liturgy. So Revelation has taken things from and contributed to the Liturgy. The book of Revelation was canonized partly because of the influence of some influential Saints such as Sts. Justin Martyr, Irenaeus of Lyons, and Athenasius the Great. These three and many more vehemently defended the book.
Traditionally, the author of Revelation is St. John,
however no modern biblical scholars affirm this. Father Thomas facetiously says
that this is their problem. He also
says that it is interesting to note that the Saints who stood for Revelation
the strongest were in the lineage of discipleship to St. John. Though there is
some discrepancy as to the authorship of Revelation, mostly because the writing
style of Revelation is radically different than the fourth gospel of John, it is
not an extremely important issue. It is within the Bible and therefore all we
need to do is listen to it.
Apocalypse means disclosure; actually, it is a particular disclosure. The book was written for particular people, namely, those within the Church who have ears to hear, eyes to see, and minds to understand-the insiders of the Church. The book of Revelation not only tells of what is happening to the Christians of the time of the book, but also what will be happening to all Christians throughout the life of the Church on earth. The entire book is a parable; a parable makes the story more clear to those who already understand the story. This is also true within the Gospels. When the Lord told a parable, the disciples still did not understand because they were not in the position to understand the story. Because Revelation is a massive parable, it is an enigma; this means that unless a person is within the Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church, he will most certainly not understand it because he cannot. The Orthodox are in the best position to understand the book because they have actually kept the traditions of the Apostles. Basically, if the Orthodox cannot understand it, no one can.

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