1. Genre and Place in Religious History

As the Book of Revelation itself says in 1:1–2, 9–11, it is a “revelation” (apokalypsis) of Jesus Christ that is meant for Christians and is given through “John.” Though being an epistolary work in dialogue with the churches of Asia Minor (1:4, 11), it has predominantly the features of ancient apocalyptic.

The early church used the term “apocalypse” for other Christian texts and for Jewish texts that were rece…