Friday, September 2, 2022

Ian Boxall on Revelation 22:18-19

  

18–19 Before the book concludes it utters a solemn warning, probably via the voice of John, to those who hear its prophetic words. Using Deuteronomy as a model (Deut. 4:2), Revelation threatens dire consequences to the one who adds to or removes any of the words of this prophetic scroll. Those who add to them are threatened with the plagues written about in this scroll (those described in the seals, trumpets and bowls cycles): in other words, they will be treated as those associated with the monster or with Babylon, ‘those who make their home on the earth’. Anyone who removes any of the words will lose their share in the tree of life and the holy city. Both amount to the same thing. These are stern words, particularly threatening for scribes forced to copy manuscripts of the Apocalypse prior to the advent of printing, or for compilers of ecclesiastical lectionaries in any age. Perhaps most striking, however, is the self-understanding that such a statement presupposes. Revelation’s author is consciously placing it on a par with Deuteronomy, and therefore with the core of the authoritative Jewish scriptures (similar claims are made for the Pentateuch in its Septuagintal version in Ep. Arist 310–11). Perhaps the warning also betrays a fear on the part of John of scribal tampering with his text . . . (Ian Boxall, The Revelation of Saint John [Black's New Testament Commentary; London: Continuum, 2006], 319)

 

Further Reading:


Not by Scripture Alone: A Latter-day Saint Refutation of Sola Scriptura

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