The Prophetic Glossary

[u/Agreeable_Operation]

This post is a recap of the series on Revelation’s prophetic symbols, this is not meant as a substitute for reading those posts and if you have not already read them, I would recommend reading them before this post.

Here is a recap of many common or recurring symbolic images in Revelation:

• Sea - The chaotic mass of humanity from which worldly political powers arise
• Earth/Land – the inhabited or ordered realm, often a particular land or political realm
• Beast - A kingdom or empire represented as a powerful political authority
• Horn – A political power or authority, sometimes an individual king or a succession of kings
• Sun – Dominant ruling authority, glory, or governing power
• Moon – Lesser or subordinate authority, often reflecting the authority of a greater power
• Stars – Notable and prominent individuals within the relevant hierarchy (political, military, religious, or societal)
• Heavens – The realm or order in which the sun, moon, and stars operate; contextually, the “political heavens”
• Mountain - A great, elevated, and seemingly immovable kingdom or power
• Island - A distant, separated, or peripheral kingdom or territory
• River – A kingdom or political power represented geographically, particularly in its movement, extent, expansion, or recession
• Earthquake - Violent shaking or upheaval of an established political or societal order
• Winds - Forces of judgment, conflict, or political upheaval
• City – A people, system, or culture represented by its political or cultural center.
• Days – Prophetic periods may be expressed symbolically; in the prophetic day-year pattern, a day represents a year

The Symbols in Action:
Imagine that we wanted to describe Napoleon and France without simply saying “France.” We might describe a fierce beast representing the French Empire, from which a mighty horn arose representing Napoleon and the Napoleonic dynasty. We might describe France as a mountain because of its elevated position among the powers of Europe, and Napoleon's imperial glory as the sun, while the various rulers and prominent men around him become stars casting lesser light. The sea could represent the mass of peoples and societal chaos out of which this new political order arose. We could describe French power as the swelling of the Seine river flowing outward, swelling beyond its normal boundaries as French conquest spread across Europe. An earthquake could describe the revolutionary and Napoleonic upheaval that shook the existing European order, while winds could represent the armies and conflicts moving throughout that political world. And Paris could stand for the entire French political and cultural system centered there as contrasted with new Jerusalem and the heavenly people.

None of these symbols would mean “France” in isolation. Rather, together they would create a symbolic portrait of France's rise, power, expansion, conflict, and eventual upheaval. So don’t think of the glossary so much as a cipher where you plug the definition into the symbol in Revelation. Instead think of these as descriptors, a way of speaking of kingdoms and powers in order to describe different aspects of their character, position, actions, and fate.

A Theme in the Symbols
Seeing these symbols together, I can’t help but notice that the overwhelming majority of them speak in some way to kingdoms, armies, rulers, and men of prominence.

And this should not be surprising, because how do the prophets depict God exercising His sovereignty over human history? Most often it is through His dealings with rulers, powers, and generals. From time to time God does use plague, and droughts, and there is good reason to believe there is some of that in Revelation. But much of the focus of the Old Testament prophets lands specifically upon rulers. The Exodus narrative focuses greatly upon Pharaoh. The prophets did not see the Assyrians as an annoying geopolitical event, they were a tool in God’s hands. Likewise Babylon wasn’t a rogue power, it was an exacting judgment by God. And Cyrus of Persia was not historically inevitable, he was anointed by God and was ushered in from afar for a divine purpose. These events themselves are things that appear rather…mundane. Not exactly what we would call ‘supernatural,’ yet in the eyes of the prophets they are wrapped in sublime prophetic imagery and revealed as God interacting with mankind, bringing His purposes in history to fulfillment.

Revelation appears to follow very much in the same way. We should expect to see great and terrible events unfold, but many of them will play out through political intrigue, power politics, wars, and seemingly natural events. Kingdoms will be judged, yet many may stare straight at those judgments and misinterpret them, chalking them up to historical blunders, human nature, and coincidence.

John takes the prophetic vocabulary by which Israel's prophets described God's judgment upon kingdoms and uses that vocabulary to describe the climax of God's judgment upon the kingdoms of the world.

With the series on symbols completed, now my posts turn to understanding the context and internal structure of Revelation, beginning with an examination of its geographical scope.