I see so many posts, and I'll admit I've even made one or two or so myself, explaining some elaborate theory about what the events/things/beings in this book represent. Now no one seems to really agree about all of it, though. You'd think at least some of us would read a person's theory and if it were the true one, we'd be convinced because we were trying to agree with the true theory. But it seems more as if we just use our theories to justify our worldview somehow--like if we have certain views about certain political and church groups, we mold our Book of Revelation model in accordance with those attitudes, so we don't have a reason to listen to anyone else's model. Doesn't that make our theories suspect?
a few things, expositional constancy, illigitimate totality transfer, and using a good literal version.
those are all keys to prophetic interpretation.
anyway, too much for this thread (I don't have the time to post it all)
but here a small quote from my favorite commentary on revelation which is available free online ironically:
"
7.2. The Art and Science of Interpretation
http://www.biblestudytools.com/comm...on/the-art-and-science-of-interpretation.html
The practice of interpretation is known as
hermeneutics.
The word
hermeneutics is ultimately derived from Hermes the Greek god who brought the messages of the gods to the mortals, and was the god of science, invention, eloquence, speech, writing, and art. As a theological discipline hermeneutics is the science of the correct interpretation of the Bible.
1
Bible study consists of three primary steps:
observation,
interpretation, and
application.
2 . After observing the text, interpretation should yield the understanding of God’s Word which He intended resulting in its fruitful application in the life of the reader. If interpretation goes astray, then a proper understanding will not result and the application of God’s message to the life of the reader will not be what God intended.
Our position is that the book of Revelation is to be interpreted normally, like any other writing, and especially like the rest of the Scriptures. We part company here from those who seek to classify the book as being representative of the
apocalyptic genre so they can apply a mystical or spiritual “spin” to the text and make it mean all manner of things.
D.L. Cooper gives a reasonable definition of normal interpretation in his
Golden Rule of Interpretation:
When the plain sense of Scripture makes common sense, seek no other sense, therefore, take every word at its primary, ordinary, usual, literal meaning unless the facts of the immediate context, studied in the light of related passages and axiomatic and fundamental truths, indicate clearly otherwise.—
The Golden Rule of Interpretation, D.L. Cooper
3"
-quote from Biblestudytool.com