Deciphering the Chiastic Nature of the Book of Revelation (Part I)
I show how Revelation is arranged in a chiastic pattern. I determine the first few elements of the Revelation chiasm and provide the thematic connections that unite the two halves of the structure.
Before reading this article (if you don’t understand chiastic structures you will need to review my previous article posted below . . .
As we approach the book of Revelation thematically, it becomes readily apparent that it is written in a thematic pattern. For example, if we compare the words, themes, subjects, situations events and/or circumstances in Revelation 1:1-20 with those in Revelation 22:6-20, we can find numerous thematic connections! Here is a sampling of a few of those connections:
Revelation 1:1—“God gave to show His servants—things which must shortly take place” is thematically connected to Revelation 22:6—“to show his servants the things which must shortly take place.”
Revelation 1: 17—“And when I saw Him, I fell at His feet as dead” is thematically connected to Revelation 22:8—“And when I heard and saw, I fell down to worship before the feet of the angel who showed me these things.”
Revelation 1:3—“Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of this prophecy” is thematically connected to Revelation 22:18—“everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book.”
Revelation 1:1—“And He sent and signified it by His angel to His servant John” is thematically connected to Revelation 22:6—“The Lord God . . . sent His angel” and Revelation 22:16—“I, Jesus have sent My angel.”
These Holy Spirit–inspired connections clearly show us that Adonai wants us to consider Revelation 1:1-20 with Revelation 22:6-20 as we read this book! This same phenomenon can be seen when we compare Revelation 2–3 with Revelation 21:1–22:5. Again, here is a sampling of some of the connections:
In Revelation 2–3, a promise is made seven times to those who overcome. This fact is thematically connected to Revelation 21:7—“He who overcomes shall inherit all things, and I will be his God and he shall be My son.”
Revelation 2:7—“To him who overcomes I will give to eat from the tree of life, which is in the midst of the Paradise of God,” is thematically connected to Revelation 22:2—“In the middle of its street, and on either side of the river, was the tree of life, which bore twelve fruits, each tree yielding its fruit every month.”
Revelation 3:12—“And I will write on him My new name” is thematically connected to Revelation 22:4—“They shall see His face, and His name shall be on their foreheads.”
Revelation 3:12—“I will write on him the name of My God and the name of the city of My God, the New Jerusalem, which comes down out of heaven from My God.” is thematically connected to Revelation 21:2—“Then I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.”
These connections seem to suggest the book of Revelation is written in a chiastic manner! Further analysis of the entire book reveals that it is definitely arranged in a chiastic pattern. Thus, it appears that all the themes in the first half of the book of Revelation will find their matching thematic pair in the second half of the book in reverse order. When constructing a chiastic structure, it is advantageous to develop overall themes that capture the essence of each element of the structure. I have added those overall themes to the first pair of elements in our chiasm below:
As you can see, the themes in the first half are equivalent to those in the second half, as they should be.
As we continue to untangle the chiastic nature of the book of Revelation, we are led to elements C and C’ which are connections between Revelation 4:1–6:17 and Revelation 17:1–20:15, respectively. This expands our growing chiastic structure as follows:
Although these two passages are quite lengthy, close analysis of them reveals that Revelation 4:1–6:17 and Revelation 17:1–20:15 both have five thematic units that perfectly relate to each other in a parallel fashion! I will expand them below.
If you compare C1 to C1’, C2 to C2’, etc., you will see that they thematically connect with each other, thus establishing clear thematic equivalence with each other and confirming the chiastic nature of the book of Revelation. By now, you should also begin to realize that the book of Revelation is an exceptionally ordered book! It’s not a potpourri of miscellaneous visions haphazardly strewn together. It has structure, order, logic and beauty.
To be continued!
Shalom,
Tony