This post isn’t in direct relationship to Great Lent, as is most of what I’ve posted lately. Instead, this is something that came up during a visit to family over the western Easter Sunday. Why doesn’t the Orthodox church teach anything about the Book of Revelation?
As with most questions of this type, its complicated. The new Orthodox Study Bible has this to say about it (all emphases mine):
While seen as canonical and inspired by God the Revelation is the only New T estament book not publicly read in the services of the Orthodox church. This is partly because the book was only gradually accepted as canonical in many parts of Christendom. In addition, in the 2nd and 3rd centuries, Revelation was widely twisted and sensationally misinterpreted, and the erroneous teachings brought troublesome confusion to Christians - a trend that continues to this day.
From the Orthodox Church in America website:
Given the fact that the early Christians were enduring a horrible period of persecution, the main theme of Revelation is to provide the persecuted Christians with a sense of hope that would encourage them to remain faithful to Christ despite the fact that at any moment they could be put to death for the Faith. Hence, Revelation focuses on the ultimate triumph of the Kingdom of God and how the Christians by remaining loyal and faithful to Christ, will ultimately reap the rewards promised by Christ. The vision of the Apostle John recorded in Revelation was a reminder from God to the faithful not to give in to their enemies, but to remain faithful.
…
Weird interpretations of Revelation are not new. Already in the second and third centuries there were so many twisted and sensational misinterpretations that the false teachings that arose caused great confusion to the Christians of the time. For this reason, while the Book of Revelation was included in the Canon of Scripture, it was not permitted to be read publicly in the services of the Church.
…
the Orthodox Church does not accept the notion that everyone can properly interpret the Bible as he or she wants. Some Protestant bodies believe in this, but Orthodoxy does not. We say that the Church has the ability to properly interpret Scripture, and this means that we should study and adopt the interpretations that have been handed down over the 2000 years of the Church’s living history. Given the fact that that which is contained in Scripture is the inspired word of God, revealed to mankind and not to a single individual, no individual has the right or ability to offer “the” definitive interpretation of Scripture. This is especially the case with Revelation, which as noted above cannot be interpreted as one wishes…
After all of that, I could do with a straight-forward explanation of this. Thankfully, the GOARCH website has one here. Let me try to put it together in summary:
Orthodox scholars understand the Book of Revelation as a warning for spiritual and moral preparedness.
the Orthodox approach considers the Book of Revelation as an integral component of the Bible, and consequently, not to be used as a mystical cipher for super-historical analysis. The Orthodox approach guards against fundamentalist approaches that misuse the Book of Revelation because it divorces the book from its original context.
The Book of Revelation is a circular pastoral letter addressed to the seven churches in the province of Asia at the end of the first century AD. The book or letter was not for private communication but was to be read in public in the midst of the worshipping community. The Book of Revelation is primarily concerned with encouraging the courage and perseverance of the early Christians who were threatened by Roman persecution in what was then perceived to be the end times.
