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| REVELATION |
| Explanatory Footnotes |
| 3:1 Cities on a Mail Route The cities mentioned in chapters 2 and 3 were actual cities in the ancient world where a church existed. John listed them in the order in which a messenger on the road would have found them, starting with the chief city of Ephesus and then circling back clockwise. The cities lie in what is now part of modern Turkey. Religious wars took their toll: none of the churches in these cities survived. 5:1 Seals and Scrolls Certain words and phrases used in Revelation had a clearer meaning to ancient readers familiar with the objects. For example, important documents were sent written on a papyrus scroll sealed with several wax seals. Only the proper person, in the presence of witnesses, could open the document. Thus in this vision, only the "worthy" creature is able to break the seal. 7:1 Significant Numbers Numbers had a great symbolic significance in the Bible, and especially to the writer of Revelation. This concept is foreign to most modern readers; a rough parallel might be the "unlucky" significance some attach to the number 13. The most obviously symbolic numbers in Revelation are 4, 7, 12, and their multiples. The number 4 seems to stand for the created universe (four points of the compass, four winds of the earth), and thus the four living creatures represent all creation. In the Bible, the number 7 denotes perfection or completion, probably because the Genesis creation account covers seven days. The 12 tribes of Israel in the Old Testament and 12 apostles in the New indicate that the number 12 stands for the church, or God's redeemed people from both Covenants. A number multiplied by 10's, such as 144,000 (12x12x10x10x10) suggests an indefinite but very large |