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in the book of RevelationThrough vivid visions and dreams, John the evangelist teaches the apocalyptic prophecy that expresses what the last days would be like. There are two books in the Bible that represent revelatory literature: Danielin the Old Testament, and Revelationin the New Testament. Revelation, also known as the Apocalypse (from the Greek word for ‘revelation’ or ‘revelation’), has a reputation as a mysterious book. John was deported to the island of Patmos because of his faith. So, living there in exile, he wrote the Lord’s message. John’s imagery and style partly follow the popular form of literature at the time of Jesus. In the first part of his book, John interprets contemporary events and in the second part he recounts God’s plan of salvation.

We all know that John’s language is poetic: symbolic imagery and other literary devices shape John’s style. Surely this explains only part of the style of the book of Revelation. Now let us remember that John also had to face the difficulty of expressing in human language images of things never before seen by the human eye.

The inaugural vision in Revelation (Biblical citations are from New Revised Standard Version of the Bible, NRSV, 1989) is a good example. The scene shows the presence of the Lord in all his glory. John confesses that “When I saw him, I fell at his feet as dead” (Revelation 1, 17). How did the evangelist describe our Lord?

John uses a form of speech called simile to describe his vision. A simile is an indirect comparison of two different things using as gold ace to make the comparison explicit. Remember that a metaphor is a direct comparison. In short, John uses figurative language. Let us then consider the verses from the inaugural vision quoted above.

John (Revelation 1, 14-16) describes the head and hair of the Lord; his eyes; The feet of him; his voice; and his face For example: “His head and his hair were white as white wool, white as snow; his eyes as a flame of fire.” The similes used can be grouped into two sets. The first group has words that represent characteristics of the sun (eg, shine, white, fire, burnished bronze, shining sun), while the second group has words that represent the sea (eg, wool, waters). These are two effective Christian symbols: the sun represents Jesus, while the sea represents divinity. We see that John’s similes refer to symbols which, then, refer to values. This is a fascinating way of explaining things. John could describe that superb vision with vivid similes.

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