THE LITTLE SCROLL

Next John envisions a little scroll held out to him by an angel. The scroll contained a new version of God’s purposes to be achieved through the church. When the angel spoke it sounded like seven thunders. Then John heard a voice from heaven forbidding him to write down what he heard. Instead the angel took an oath that there would be no more delay.

Prof. George Caird relates this to a passage in Daniel 12:6-7 which he held to be a standard apocalyptic reference John adapted for his own purpose. The reference was to the persecutions of Antiochus Epiphanes of the Jews during the 2nd century BCE resulting in the rebellion of the Macabbees and a century of independence. In effect, John was prophesying that God’s secret weapon was the persecution of the church by means of which God will achieve the redemption of creation.

John is then made to eat the little scroll and finds it sweet to taste, but bitter to digest. This referred to a similar experience by Ezekiel (2:8-3:3) so that he might assimilate its contents. Such strange instructions meant that John had been given special insight to tell the church that if the redemptive work of Christ was to become operative, it would be through the sacrificial witness of Christ’s servants. There could be no other way to bring about victory over human sin than by the cross. This same gospel is found in Mark 8:34-38 and comparable passages in Matthew 16:13-20; Luke 9:18-21 and John 6:66-67. Thus the Book of Revelation proclaims the same Good News as did the four Gospels, all written from 40 to 60 years after the Resurrection.

The frequent references to Old Testament apocalyptic passages found in Ezekiel and Daniel would have been well known to John’s audience from the Greek version of the Hebrew Scriptures, the Septuagint. They would have sought out such passages in an effort to understand what their own persecutions meant.