The Evangelical Pespective of Rev 19.7-9 and More

7 χαίρωμεν καὶ ἀγαλλιῶμεν καὶ δώσωμεν τὴν δόξαν αὐτῷ,
ὅτι ἦλθεν ὁ γάμος τοῦ ἀρνίου καὶ ἡ γυνὴ αὐτοῦ ἡτοίμασεν ἑαυτὴν
8 καὶ ἐδόθη αὐτῇ ἵνα περιβάληται βύσσινον λαμπρὸν καθαρόν·
τὸ γὰρ βύσσινον τὰ δικαιώματα τῶν ἁγίων ἐστίν.
9 Καὶ λέγει μοι· γράψον· μακάριοι οἱ εἰς τὸ δεῖπνον τοῦ γάμου τοῦ ἀρνίου κεκλημένοι. καὶ λέγει μοι· οὗτοι οἱ λόγοι ἀληθινοὶ τοῦ θεοῦ εἰσιν. (Rev 19.7-9)


As I have been working through Rodney Decker’s chapter on Revelation 19 in his fantastic “Koine Greek Reader”, I have been also working through Beale’s excellent commentary in the NIGTC series.

On Rev 19.7-9 Beale writes:

Verse 9 presents a different perspective on the wedding metaphor from vv 7–8. There the bride, the corporate church, was viewed as about to wed the Lamb, but now individual Christians are portrayed as guests at the marriage banquet. Both pictures portray the intimate communion of Christ with believers, but the first focuses on the corporate church and the second on individual members of the church. The same alteration of focus on the community as a whole and the members of the community has been seen in ch. 12 with the woman and her seed (e.g., 12:17). (Beale, G. K. 1999, The book of Revelation : A commentary on the Greek text p.945)

Here Beale manages to affirms a basic evangelical tenant, namely that of “the intimate communion of Christ with believers.” Beale though brilliantly recognizes that here in Revelation the text portrays that communion as not only personal (aka the individual), but also, and this has been a weak point of evangelicalism, the corporate. It won’t do to try and play one against the other.