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The Prophet of the Book of Revelation

Taras Barščevski orcid.org/0000-0003-2132-1105 ; Katolički bogoslovni fakultet Sveučilišta u Zagrebu, Zagreb, Hrvatska

Sažetak

It is believed that the Book of Revelation is the only prophetic book of the New Testament, whose author followed the example of the Old Testament prophetic books. It contains not only the »words of prophecy« (Rev 1:3; 22:7.10.18), but it has also been called
τό βιβλίον τῆς προφητείας – the book of prophecy (cf. Rev 22:19). However, in the Old Testament the prophetic books derived their authority not only from contents of a particular book but also from its author, a prophet, a man summoned by God to undertake
a mission and inspired by the Holy Spirit. In comparison, the Book of Revelation does not mention the prophetic call of its author, nor his name. On the other hand, it calls the two witnesses prophets and it mentions among members of the community, apart from saints and apostles, also brothers prophets. Who is, therefore, a prophet according to the Book of Revelation? What are his traits? What makes him similar or different from the Old Testament prophets? In order to somewhat answer these questions, the first part of this article will shortly explain the understanding of the prophet and his message in the Old and then in the New Testament. The central part of the article analyses the words προφήτης (prophet), προφητεύω (to prophesise)
and προφητεία (prophecy), with a special emphasis on their distribution in the Book of Revelation. This will point out the parallelism, when it comes to prophecy, between the Prologue (1:1-3:4-8) and Epilogue (22:6-9) and the mission of the two witnesses (cf. 11:1-13), who were named »prophets« after their death. In the third part of the article
the author will return back to the fundamental traits of the prophet, but this time not on the basis of generalised traits of the Old Testament prophets, but instead on the basis of emphasises traits of prophets in the Book of Revelation within the context of their relationship towards God and the community. These are primarily the inspiration in the revelation of Christ that makes the prophet a »servant of God« and a »witness of Jesus«, as well as the equal participation »with brothers, all saints and apostles, and all who fear God, the great ones and the little ones« in the testimony given to Jesus and confirmed in blood. The prophet, as well as all those who gave their life for Christ, becomes a witness, i.e. a »martyr«, and his special function of prophesising seems to melt into the sea of testimony. By considering all these traits together, which, at the same time, equalise this prophet with the Old Testament prophets and point out his specificity, one can conclude that the prophet of the Book of Revelation is not so much a clearly defined individual, but instead a liturgical function within the community, taken by someone who received a revelation from God through Christ in the Spirit and now needs to bring it to other brothers prophets and all those who keep the words of the prophecy (cf. 1:1 and 22:9). He should be seen as someone who presides over a liturgical act in the moment when the community is examining its conscience so that it might listen to what the Spirit is telling to churches, as the true liturg of that community to whom the author of the Book of Revelation addresses as the community´s angel.

Ključne riječi

prophet; the Book of Revelation; prophecy; the testimony of Jesus Christ; martyrdom; liturg; liturgical community; angel

Hrčak ID:

174449

URI

https://hrcak.srce.hr/174449

Datum izdavanja:

7.2.2017.

Podaci na drugim jezicima: hrvatski

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