Douglas Van Dorn. Rings of Revelation. Waters of Creation, 2024.

Just when you think you have read all the interpretations of the Book of Revelation, out comes another one. In this case, Rings of Revelation does not so much try to predict future events like, say, The Late Great Planet Earth as it does a literary analysis of the book. No one can look at Revelation without realizing there are predictions, but Rings of Revelation looks more at how the last book in the Bible is organized. And in doing so, tries to get the reader to look at in a new way.

In order to explain this, I have to give a literature lesson. Van Dorn complains that even seminary students have never studied figures of speech. Well, I taught them for many years. The main feature, for example, of Biblical poetry is parallelism, where the second line of a poem (sometimes a third line) has a parallel structure and conveys a similar or contrasting idea. Here are a couple of examples:

He makes me lie down in green pastures.
He leads me beside still waters. (Psalm 23:2)

My soul magnifies the Lord,
and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior…(Luke 1:47-48)

Sometimes the second line presents a contrasting idea that still parallels the first line:

…he has filled the hungry with good things,
and the rich he has sent away empty. (Luke 1:53)

Sometimes, however, the parallel structure results in what is known as a chiasmus, where the second idea is presented in the reverse order. The term comes from the Greek letter chi (χ), which looks like an X, to indicate the change or reverse ordering of ideas. Here is a very basic example:

…for the Lord knows the way of the righteous,
but the way of the wicked will perish. (Psalm 1:6)

Notice the contrasting parallel ideas, but instead of a direct parallelism, the word order is reversed in the second line, with the “way” of the group coming at the beginning of the clause while the “way” of the first group came at the end of the clause. That is a simple chiasmus or chiasm.

Often it might be written out like this to emphasize the structure:

…for the Lord knows
     the way of the righteous,
     but the way of the wicked
will perish. (Psalm 1:6)

Now, unlike a simple parallelism, a chiasm can go on for several levels, presenting a number of thoughts and then reversing the order in a parallel manner. Bullinger’s Figures of Speech Used in the Bible notes that this “is always used in the most solemn and important portions of the Scriptures” (374).

Here are some more detailed examples. In English we usually note the levels with capital letters and then the corresponding levels with italicized letters or primed with a single abbreviated quotation mark or a exponent of one. The first example describes the ritual purifying of a house with mildew.

…and shall take the cedarwood and the hyssop and the scarlet yarn, along with the live bird, and dip them in the blood of the bird that was killed and in the fresh water and sprinkle the house seven times. Thus he shall cleanse the house with the blood of the bird and with the fresh water and with the live bird and with the cedarwood and hyssop and scarlet yarn. (Leviticus 14:51-52)

Now lay it out to note the chiasmus:

A…and shall take the cedarwood and the hyssop and the scarlet yarn,
     B along with the live bird,
          C and dip them in the blood of the bird that was killed and in the fresh water
               D and sprinkle the house seven times.
               D¹ Thus he shall cleanse the house
          C¹ with the blood of the bird and with the fresh water
     B¹ and with the live bird
A¹ and with the cedarwood and hyssop and scarlet yarn.

Here is an example from the Gospel of John:

A Jesus said to him, “Get up, take up your bed, and walk.”
     B And at once the man was healed,
          C and he took up his bed and walked.
               D Now that day was the Sabbath.
               D¹ So the Jews said to the man who had been healed, “It is the Sabbath,
          C¹ and it is not lawful for you to take up your bed.”
     B¹ But he answered them, “The man who healed me,
A¹ that man said to me, ‘Take up your bed, and walk.’” (John 5:8-11)

I point out to my students that parallelism and chiasmus are translatable. Many poetic devices are difficult, if not impossible, to translate. Rhyme is one obvious example. Since parallelism and chiasmus can be translated, readers can understand the poetic quality even in a language that is very different from Hebrew or Greek.

Now some of the greatest writers are known for their effective use of different figures of speech and types of parallel structures. I think of Joyce’s Ulysses or Milton’s Paradise Lost. Both have a depth that writings by, shall we say, non-geniuses lack. Well, Van Dorn makes a convincing case that the entire book of Revelation is one large chiasmus that, as Dr. Seuss would say, goes on beyond zebra. Here is the link to his chart to show what I mean: https://www.douglasvandorn.com/ringsofrevelation. (You will probably need to enlarge it to read it well.)

One begins to realize that this is beyond a mere human capacity, even for a Milton or a Joyce. If nothing else, it certainly points to divine inspiration!

Interestingly, Van Dorn cites Heiser in a few places. It is clear that both have a similar thesis about a (if not the) message of the Bible: That the created world we live in is a spiritual battleground. The verses that the chiasmus in Revelation pivot on are Revelation 12:9-10:

And the great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent, who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world—he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him.

And I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying, “Now the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ have come, for the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down, who accuses them day and night before our God.

Van Dorn makes a case that this summarizes the main message of the whole Bible. God created a “very good” universe, the devil tempted mankind and he fell, the world was cursed, Jesus came to reverse the curse and rescue His followers, and God will restore a new heaven and earth. (If you think about it, that in itself is a chiasmus.) While Van Dorn does not mention it, Christian literature and liturgy often interpret a chiasmus as symbolic of Christ because the word Christ (Christos in Greek) begins with a chi (Χριστος).

What does this mean for understanding Revelation? Van Dorn sees repetition in the book, so he argues (and he is far from the only one) that the book is not written in a straight chronological order. For example, he notes the similarity between Revelation 12 and the casting down of the devil as we saw above with the binding of Satan in Revelation 20. Could they be describing the same event?

Or what about the declaration in Revelation 11:15:

“The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever.”

Doesn’t that sound a lot like the description of Christ returning to earth in Revelation 19:11ff.?

In other words, maybe instead of a single linear development in Revelation, the development is more circular, in other words, there are rings, hence the title of the book.

Van Dorn also notes, as others have, that Revelation quotes and alludes to the Hebrew Scriptures copiously. He says there are over 300 such quotations and allusions. Whereas in all his letters, Hebrew scholar the he was, Paul has fewer than 200. Much of the Rings of Revelation, then, is an attempt to look at the Book of Revelation in the light of the Old Testament.

That has been done by many other writers, but usually making connections with Old Testament prophetic books about the last days like Daniel, Ezekiel, and parts of Isaiah. Van Dorn does a little of that, but he is more interested in connections that others have not made. For example, Revelation mentions or alludes to the Tabernacle in a few places (Revelation 13:6, 15:5, and 21:3, though some translation use different terms), so he includes a fascinating analysis of the structure of the Mosaic Tabernacle and how we see its patterns in Revelation that tell us more about God’s prophetic purposes.

I mentioned in a previous review of Heiser’s book that argues that Armageddon is not Megiddo (a common interpretation). Van Dorn provides more detail to support that position.

Although it is mostly beyond the scope of this book, Van Dorn also suggests that the entire Gospel of John can also be organized according to one large chiasm. There may be a few verses that do not quite fit, but also it helps us see God’s purpose in having John write his distinctive gospel.

Rings of Revelation probably has to be read slowly, but it certainly has some things to contribute to the study of this final Book of the Bible.

For what is worth, Van Dorn does define and illustrate for us the four main interpretive views of Bible prophecy, especially Revelation: premillennial, postmillennial, amillennial, and dispensational. Which is he?

I think he might actually check off the fifth choice: none of the above. Not because he rejects them all, but because he takes something from each. That in itself may reveal his view of the church as well as the last days. He quotes one of the earliest church fathers, Justin Martyr (AD 110-165), who was a premillennialist: “Many belong to the pure and pious faith, and are true Christians, [who] think otherwise” (64). Brother Justin, things have not changed. Van Dorn would agree.