Reading Revelation Responsibly: Uncivil Worship and Witness: Following the Lamb into the New Creation

by Michael J. Gorman

[It] uses visions, symbols, and ancient myths to convey its message. The language of the book is primarily pictorial, symbolic language. It is not the language of science or logic. Rather, it is evocative, powerful, emotive language, at times more akin to poetry than to prose. Like the language of poetry, the language of Revelation sometimes is mysterious and slippery, teasing its reader to make connections and see possibilities that one has never made or seen before. The language of Revelation “works” not by imparting information, but by helping the reader to experience what John experienced.10 Animals, colors, numbers, and other everyday entities take on symbolic value as apocalyptic seers attempt to express the nearly inexpressible. Among the most frequent and important aspects of the symbolism in Revelation are certain colors and numbers.11 The colors function more like images than adjectives, and the numbers more like adjectives than numbers.12 The following table highlights values that often are assigned by scholars to key colors and numbers in Revelation: