The last book in the Bible, which is commonly called “Revelations,” is arguably the most misunderstood book in the New Testament.
One major contributing factor to this misunderstanding is that the colloquialism “Revelations” is not the actual name of the book. The title as given by the KJV translators is The Revelation or more fully The Revelation of Saint John the Devine.
The book is not “Revelations” as in many, but rather one single Revelation. We simply need to look no further than the first verse to know this is true:
Revelation 1:1 KJV
[1] The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto him, to shew unto his servants things which must shortly come to pass; and he sent and signified it by his angel unto his servant John:
The Revelation of Jesus Christ is the conclusion of one unified story, which began in Genesis. The entire Bible is about Jesus Christ, also called Messiah or the anointed one. The Revelation in essence is an authorized biography of Jesus Christ by John the Apostle, an eyewitness to our Lord’s majesty. It was stylistically written sometime in the first century, to Seven persecuted Churches, located near the heart of a pagan beastly Roman Empire.
As Jesus unfolds His mystery to John, the reader is taken from that first century timeframe back to many events found in the Old Testament. This is exactly what Jesus did in the road to Emmaus story found in Luke 24:27 “And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself.” If we read the book not knowing this, we are left to our own devices trying to figure out what is going on in The Revelation.
Nearly 70 percent of The Revelation is either a direct quote or a reference to an Old Testament scripture or event. Therefore, to comprehend the book, we must have an extensive working knowledge of the Old Testament.
The Revelation of Jesus Christ is a masterpiece of literature. The various Biblical writers use most major forms of literature. So it is important to know if the inspired writer was using prose, poetry or some other form of literature. They frequently employed many literary devices within their chosen or inspired genre. Proper interpretation is also dependent on recognizing metaphors, allegory, hyperbole, puns, sarcasm and virtually any literature technique known to mankind.
If we truly wish to understand the Bible, especially The Revelation of Jesus Christ, then it is important that we study!
2 Timothy 2:15 KJV
[15] Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.