Deciphering the Chiastic Nature of the Book of Revelation (Part II)
I show how Revelation is arranged in a chiastic pattern. I determine the remaining elements of the Revelation chiasm and provide the thematic connections that unite the two halves of the structure.
Welcome to Part II in this series. Remember, our goal is to determine how the book of Revelation is organized! We know it’s organized thematically, but what are the themes and how do they relate one to another? Let’s continue.
At this point, we should be ready for elements D and D’ to reveal themselves, and that’s exactly what we discover. Element D comprises Revelation 7:1–10:11 and element D’ consists of Revelation 14:1–16:21. Now, our simple chiasm has expanded yet again and appears below:
Here, as we saw for elements C and C’, Revelation 7:1–10:11 and Revelation 14:1–16:21 comprise large portions of Scripture. And, like elements C and C’, elements D and D’ consist of thematic units that relate to each other in a parallel fashion! This time, however, there are four thematic units instead of five. The connections for D and D’ are shown below. Please take the time to review the connections, comparing and contrasting elements D1 and D1’, D2 and D2’, etc.
As you can see, the thematic structure is extremely organized! Wow!!! It’s almost unbelievable how structured this book is. But this structure can only be discovered and appreciated by taking a thematic approach, searching for matching themes, organized as the Spirit led John in this grand revelation. Apart from the thematic pattern, the book of Revelation almost seems like a bunch of visions haphazardly strewn together. But now, we know better than that don’t we?
Thus far you have only seen my thematic summaries for C1–C5 with C1’–C5’ and D1–D4 with D1’–D4’. While it would be too lengthy to show all the individual connections that establish the correlations between D1–D4 with D1’–D4’, we will look at the thematic connections between D1 and D1’ so you can get a flavor for the types of connections that verify their thematic equivalence and provide the basis for saying that D1 is thematically connected to D1’. There are nine thematic connections between Revelation 7:1-17 (D1), and Revelation 14:1-20 (D1’) and they are listed side by side below for your perusal. Here are the first five . . .
And the last four . . .
Next on our agenda are elements E and E’. Element E encompasses Revelation 11 and element E’ pertains to Revelation 13. Our chiastic structure for the book of Revelation now appears as:
Like elements A and A’ and B and B’ which shared many individual thematic connections with each other, so likewise with elements E and E’. There are many thematic connections between Revelation 11:1-19 and Revelation 13:1-18. Here is a small sampling:
Revelation 11:7—“When they finish their testimony, the beast that ascends out of the bottomless pit will make war against them, overcome them, and kill them.” is thematically connected to Revelation 13:1—“Then I stood on the sand of the sea. And I saw a beast rising up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and on his horns ten crowns, and on his heads a blasphemous name.” and Revelation 13:11—“Then I saw another beast coming up out of the earth, and he had two horns like a lamb and spoke like a dragon.”
Revelation 11:16-17a—“And the twenty-four elders who sat before God on their thrones fell on their faces and worshiped God, 17 saying: “We give You thanks, O Lord God Almighty” is thematically connected to Revelation 13:4—“So they worshiped the dragon who gave authority to the beast; and they worshiped the beast, saying, “Who is like the beast?”
Revelation 11:2—“But leave out the court which is outside the temple, and do not measure it, for it has been given to the Gentiles. And they will tread the holy city underfoot for forty-two months.” is thematically connected to Revelation 13:7a—“It was granted to him to make war with the saints and to overcome them.”
Revelation 11:5-6—“And if anyone wants to harm them, fire proceeds from their mouth and devours their enemies. And if anyone wants to harm them, he must be killed in this manner. 6 These have power to shut heaven, so that no rain falls in the days of their prophecy; and they have power over waters to turn them to blood, and to strike the earth with all plagues, as often as they desire.” is thematically connected to Revelation 13:13—“He performs great signs, so that he even makes fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men.” and Revelation 13:15—“He was granted power to give breath to the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak and cause as many as would not worship the image of the beast to be killed.”
Revelation 11:11—“Now after the three-and-a-half days the breath of life from God entered them, and they stood on their feet, and great fear fell on those who saw them.” is thematically connected to Revelation 13:14b—“telling those who dwell on the earth to make an image to the beast who was wounded by the sword and lived.” and Revelation 13:3a—“And I saw one of his heads as if it had been mortally wounded, and his deadly wound was healed.”
Revelation 11:5—“And if anyone wants to harm them, fire proceeds from their mouth and devours their enemies. And if anyone wants to harm them, he must be killed in this manner.” is thematically connected to Revelation 13:10—“He who leads into captivity shall go into captivity; he who kills with the sword must be killed with the sword. Here is the patience and the faith of the saints.”
Revelation 11:7—“When they finish their testimony, the beast that ascends out of the bottomless pit will make war against them, overcome them, and kill them.” is thematically connected to Revelation 13:4b—“and they worshiped the beast, saying, “Who is like the beast? Who is able to make war with him?”
Revelation 13:3a and 13:14b state that the beast would survive a deadly wounding. This Scripture is quite clear that the beast will be empowered by hasatan to such an extent that he will be killed and resurrected. For any who would scoff at such a proposal, note the Holy Spirit–inspired connection above between Revelation 11:11 and Revelation 13:3a and 13:14b! These passages thematically connect the death and resurrection of Adonai’s two witnesses to the mortal wounding and “healing” of the beast. Why? The inspired connection between the healing of the beast’s mortal wound to the resurrection of the two witnesses is intended to be Adonai’s interpretation of what it means that the mortal wound of the beast would be healed. The beast will be resurrected after a mortal wounding just as Yeshua was! This will be accomplished by the satanic power of the devil himself. Adonai will allow this satanic display of power just as He allowed the magicians of Egypt to bring life into a rod, converting it to a snake through their demonic enchantments! The healing of the beast’s mortal wound will be so miraculous that the entire world will be deceived by this supernatural display of power and consequently worship the beast as God.
This brings us to the long-awaited and coveted central axis. The climax has been building as we’ve deciphered the chiastic nature of the book of Revelation one connection at a time, and we’ve finally arrived at a most joyous juncture. What is the prized central axis of the book of Revelation? Revelation chapter 12, the prophecy of the warfare between the woman and the dragon and the conflict between her seed and the seed of the serpent is the central axis of the book of Revelation. We have now completed the chiastic structure of the book of Revelation!
As stated earlier when I introduced you to chiasms, the central axis often functions as the most important element in a story. In other words, the central axis is the key to the entire story. It’s Adonai’s divine highlighter, highlighting what He thinks is most important. Therefore, I humbly submit to you that our awesome God has shown us that the end-time Revelation of Yeshua hinges around Revelation chapter 12. We will explore the ramifications of Revelation 12 as our central axis in the next few articles.
But, before delving into particulars, let’s stand back and take a bird’s-eye view of Revelation 12. When we do this our eyes will be opened to its magnificent detail. And, as usual, we will approach our prized passage thematically. I’d like to point out two details to you that are immediately curious. Notice the Scripture discusses how the woman was forced to flee into the wilderness in Revelation 12:6 (the first half of the story). Then, in Revelation 12:14 (the second half of the story), the woman is said to be given two wings of a great eagle that she might fly into the wilderness. Notice how the Scripture discusses a conflict between the dragon and the woman at the beginning of Revelation 12 where the dragon tries to devour her child as soon as it was born. This is offset in the second half of Revelation 12 where the serpent tries to kill the woman. But like the child, the woman’s life is supernaturally saved by Adonai. Lastly, notice how John informs us that hasatan was cast to the earth in Revelation 12:9 and 12:13. Why all these double takes? It is because Revelation 12 is written chiastically where all the themes in the first half are repeated in reverse order in the second half. So, once again, we see signs of the Bible’s most often-used literary device—chiasm. The chiastic structure of Revelation 12:1-17 is shown below. The entire chiasm is show as two separate halves . . .
Once again, I invite you to compare the thematically connected themes which appear on opposite sides of the central axis (A and A’, B and B’, etc.). Looking at it as formulated above, is it not obvious that Revelation 12 was written in a thematic pattern? There’s much to learn from these literary devices and will do so as time permits in future articles.
We’ve reached a huge milestone! In future articles we will see very plainly how these chiasms will help us understand and interpret the book of Revelation.
Shalom for now.
Tony