Валерия Косякова – Apocalyptic Concepts in the Middle Ages (страница 5)

After the execution of Christ and His Resurrection, the general mood of the apostles expresses the extreme degree of expectation of Christ's imminent return: "Therefore they (the apostles) came together and asked Him, saying, 'Lord, will You at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel?' But He said to them, 'It is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has put by His own authority...' And when He had spoken these things, while they looked on, He was taken up, and a cloud received Him out of their sight. And as they looked steadfastly toward heaven as He went up, behold, two men in white apparel stood by them, saying, 'Men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing into heaven? This same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen Him go into heaven'" (Acts 1:6-11).

The coming of the "Son of Man" is also described by the apostles (Mark 13:26-27, Matthew 13:41-42, Mark 14:61-62). The Gospel of John already directly speaks of Jesus' participation in the Last Judgment: it is he who will resurrect the dead (John 6:54).

The end of the world is conceived of as a sudden and total event, anticipated by the apostles. Thus, the Apostle Paul writes that " the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we which are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we shall always be with the Lord " (1 Thessalonians 4:16-17). The Apostle Peter testifies: " But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat, the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up " (2 Peter 3:10). In this context, the Revelation of John the Theologian, which inspired the creators of medieval visual imagery, becomes the logical conclusion of the entire preceding centuries of eschatological tradition.

Prophecies about the End of the World are found in various places in the New Testament, so a distinction is made between the “little Apocalypse” (an episode in the synoptic Gospels of Mark, Matthew and Luke, where Jesus speaks of the “end of the age” in abomination and desolation and of the signs of the imminent coming of the Son of Man) and the “Revelation” of John itself 9. There are also apocalyptic texts that have been the subject of constant debate, which is why they were not included in the New Testament canon, becoming apocrypha, including the Apocalypse of Peter ( 2nd century AD) and the Apocalypse of Paul ( 3rd century AD), the Apocalypse of Thomas ( 2nd – 4th centuries AD), the Revelation of Bartholomew (a medieval compilation), the Apocalypse of Zephaniah ( 1st century AD), and the Revelation of the Most Holy Theotokos.

The ideas, images, and symbols of the Book of Revelation remain enduringly relevant in culture. However, what do we know about the text of the Apocalypse—the most famous and significant eschatological work—other than the fact that the Revelation received by John the Evangelist on the Greek (but then Roman) island of Patmos influenced the minds, hearts, and collective imagination of Christian culture?

In the manuscript tradition, there are no less than sixty variants of the name of this text, and the text of the Apocalypse itself, which we read today, has gone through a long path of development: corrections and editions.

Although Christian tradition holds that Revelation was given to John the Theologian, who wrote it down, its authorship remains unknown. Tradition has assigned it to "John"—possibly a pseudonym for an author or authors belonging to the "Johnite circle" or "school," which the apostle himself may have founded. "John" preached in Asia Minor and was a scholar, an expert on the Old Testament and apocalyptic literature. Apparently, he was a Palestinian Jew: a textual analysis of the Apocalypse has shown that it contains numerous deviations from classical Greek, a fact noted as early as the third century AD by the Alexandrian bishop St. Dionysius the Great , who noted that the author of Revelation “ writes Greek incorrectly… and makes mistakes in the language , ” 10and that the text itself contains Semitic linguistic constructions 11.

How the Book of Revelation of John the Theologian is structured

The text of Revelation has a clearly defined structure: an introduction (chapters 1: 1–20 ), seven epistles (chapters 2–3 ) , the main body of visions (chapters 4–21 : 9), and a conclusion (chapters 21: 10–22 ). The division can be narrowed down to the introduction, which recounts John's exile, his ascension by an angel "in the spirit," and his epistles to the churches. Then follows the main section, in which John becomes a "seer" of the end times and the Last Judgment. In the final section, John is given a revelation of the New Jerusalem, a command to record the truth of Revelation, and a premonition of the imminent arrival of the fateful day.

The narrative in Revelation is told in the first person — by John, who bore witness to the message given to him by God. While in a special ecstatic state (in the spirit), John heard a loud trumpet voice saying to him, “ I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last ” (1:10). Turning around, John saw seven candlesticks, in the midst of which stood One like the Son of Man: “ clothed with a garment down to the foot, and girt about the breasts with a golden girdle. His head and his hair were white like wool, as white as snow; and His eyes were as a flame of fire. And His feet were like fine brass (a precious stone), as if burning in a furnace; and His voice as the sound of many waters. And He had in His right hand seven stars, and out of His mouth went a sharp two-edged sword: and His countenance was as the sun shining in its strength ” (1:13–16).

This fragment became part of a stable iconography, represented in both the Eastern (Orthodox) and Western (Catholic) traditions. The Son of Man, holding a double-edged sword, is depicted as white-haired and menacing. His specific representation alludes to the idea of the indepictable God the Father. In less dogmatically strict visualizations, one can encounter the image of the Ancient of Days 12. The composition and structure of the icon are subject to fairly strict canons associated with the rite of sacred subject matter, but in frescoes and book miniatures, not consecrated as icons, the artist could allow himself a certain freedom, consistent with his purposes.

Here the introductory part ends and the central part of Revelation begins: finding himself “in the Spirit,” John saw a throne over which a rainbow spread, and on it was One seated, surrounded by twenty-four elders in white robes with golden crowns. “ And out of the throne proceeded lightnings, thunderings, and voices. And seven lamps of fire were burning before the throne, which are the seven Spirits of God.

And before the throne was a sea of glass like crystal. And in the midst of the throne and around the throne were four living creatures full of eyes before and behind. And the first living creature was like a lion, and the second living creature like a calf, and the third living creature had a face as a man, and the fourth living creature like a flying eagle. And each of the four living creatures had six wings around it, and they were full of eyes within. And they rest not day and night, saying, Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, which was and is and is to come ” (4: 5–9 ).

John saw a book sealed with seven seals, but no one could open it, which plunged the seer into grief, but one of the elders consoled him, pointing to the Lamb (the image of Jesus Christ and his sacrifice), who was able to open the book: “ And I looked, and behold, in the midst of the throne and the four living creatures and in the midst of the elders stood a Lamb as if it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God sent into all the earth ” (5:6).

The Lamb begins to open the seals of the book, and after each of the first four seals is opened, the tetramorphs exclaim to John, " Come and see ," signifying the successive appearance of the apocalyptic horsemen. After opening the first seal, the Lamb releases a rider with a bow on a white horse. After opening the second seal, another horse, a red one, appears. And power was given to the one sitting on it to take peace from the earth, so that people would kill one another. And he was given a great sword. After the opening of the third seal, a black horse follows, and its rider had a pair of scales in his hand. After opening the fourth seal, a pale horse appeared, and its rider's name was Death; and Hades followed with him. And power was given to them over a fourth of the earth, to kill with sword, and with hunger, and with pestilence, and by the beasts of the earth. The opening of the fifth seal reveals under the altar the souls of those slain for the word of God and for the testimony which they held (6:2–9).