100 Fun Facts About Book of Revelation

Where in the Bible does the Book of Revelation sit?

It is also the only apocalyptic book in the New Testament canon.

The book's title comes from its first word in Greek, apokalypsis, which means what?

That is why the book is also called the Apocalypse, and why the plural 'Revelations' is technically a mistake: the Greek word is singular.

On which island does the author say he received his visions?

The Aegean island's Cave of the Apocalypse and its monastery of St John became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1999.

Around what year do most scholars date the writing of Revelation?

Clues in the visions point to the reign of the emperor Domitian, though the seven-headed beast seems to allude to Nero, who died in 68.

How many churches of Asia receive letters at the start of the book?

All seven cities lie in modern Turkey, close together and within reach of the island where John was writing.

Which church is rebuked for being lukewarm, neither cold nor hot?

It is the only one of the seven with no praise at all, and it is told to buy gold refined in fire and eye salve so that it may see.

Which church is told it has left its first love?

It is praised for hating the deeds of the Nicolaitans and for testing false apostles, but told to repent and do the first works.

The church at Smyrna is warned it will suffer tribulation for how many days?

Smyrna is modern İzmir, and the church is promised the crown of life if it stays faithful unto death.

To the overcomer at Pergamum, Christ promises hidden manna and what object bearing a secret new name?

Pergamum is also the church described as living where Satan's seat is.

The famous verse 'Behold, I stand at the door, and knock' is addressed to which church?

It follows straight after the lukewarm rebuke, in the last of the seven letters.

How many elders sit on thrones around the throne of God in chapter 4?

They wear white robes and golden crowns, and are usually read as the twelve tribes plus the twelve apostles.

How many wings does each of the four living creatures around the throne have?

They are like a lion, a calf, a man and an eagle, and cry Holy, holy, holy without rest, echoing the seraphim of Isaiah 6.

The Lamb who is worthy to open the scroll is described as having how many horns and eyes?

The book uses seven for perfection or totality throughout: churches, seals, trumpets, bowls, spirits and thunders.

How many seals are on the scroll that the Lamb opens?

The first four release the horsemen, the fifth reveals the martyrs under the altar, the sixth brings an earthquake and the seventh introduces the trumpets.

What colour is the horse ridden by Death?

He is the only horseman actually named in the text, and Hades follows him.

The rider of the black horse carries what?

A voice quotes famine prices, a measure of wheat for a penny, while the oil and wine are spared.

The rider on the white horse in chapter 6 carries a bow and is given what?

He goes out conquering; interpreters have read him as everything from Christ to the Antichrist.

The four horsemen are given power over what fraction of the earth?

They kill with sword, hunger, death and the beasts of the earth; later plagues in the book strike a third of things.

How many are sealed from the tribes of Israel in chapter 7?

The same number later stands with the Lamb on Mount Zion with the Father's name on their foreheads.

When the seventh seal is opened, what happens in heaven?

The silence is broken by seven angels being handed seven trumpets.

What is the great star that falls at the third trumpet, making a third of the waters bitter?

The name has stuck to bitter things ever since, from the absinthe herb to Chernobyl, whose name is often (loosely) linked to the same plant.

What creatures come out of the smoke of the bottomless pit at the fifth trumpet?

They have human faces, lions' teeth and iron breastplates, and may torment only those without God's seal on their foreheads.

How large is the army of horsemen released at the sixth trumpet?

They are loosed when the four angels bound at the Euphrates are released, and they kill a third of mankind.

John is told to eat a little book that tastes like what in his mouth?

Sweet in the mouth but bitter in the belly, the image is borrowed from Ezekiel, who was also told to eat a scroll.

For how many days do the two witnesses prophesy in sackcloth?

That is three and a half years, the same span the woman spends in the wilderness; the earliest interpreters took the pair to be Enoch and Elijah.

After being killed by the beast, the two witnesses rise and ascend to heaven after how long?

They are called the two olive trees and the two lampstands, with power to shut the sky and turn water to blood.

The woman clothed with the sun in chapter 12 has the moon under her feet and a crown of how many stars?

Catholic tradition identifies her with the Virgin Mary; other readers see Israel or the Church.

Which archangel leads the war in heaven against the dragon?

The dragon is identified as that old serpent, the Devil and Satan, and is cast down to the earth with his angels.

How is the great red dragon of chapter 12 described?

His tail drags a third of the stars from heaven, and the beast from the sea shares his seven-and-ten anatomy.

What is the number of the beast, according to Revelation 13:18?

The oldest surviving manuscript of the chapter, Papyrus 115, actually gives 616, and most scholars link either figure by gematria to the emperor Nero.

Which alternative number of the beast appears in Papyrus 115, the chapter's oldest manuscript?

The Oxyrhynchus fragment was identified at Oxford's Ashmolean Museum around 2005; Irenaeus knew of the variant in the second century and rejected it.

Which Roman emperor do most scholars think the number of the beast points to?

Written in Hebrew letters, 'Neron Caesar' adds up to 666, and 'Nero Caesar' to 616, which neatly explains both readings.

The second beast, which rises from the earth, has two horns like which animal?

It speaks like a dragon and makes people worship the first beast's image and take its mark; later chapters call it the false prophet.

How many bowls of God's wrath are poured out on the earth in chapter 16?

They bring sores, seas and rivers of blood, scorching sun, darkness, the drying of the Euphrates and a final earthquake.

The kings of the earth are gathered for battle at a place called, in Hebrew, what?

The name is a Greek rendering of Har Megiddo, the mount of Megiddo, an ancient fortress town overlooking the Jezreel valley.

How many times does the end-times battle site of Revelation 16:16 appear in the New Testament?

Just Revelation 16:16; the Old Testament mentions Megiddo a dozen times without any end-times overtones.

The harlot of chapter 17 sits on a scarlet beast and bears what name on her forehead?

She is arrayed in purple and scarlet with a golden cup, and the angel explains she is 'that great city, which reigneth over the kings of the earth', usually read as Rome.

The rider on the white horse in chapter 19 has what name written on his robe and thigh?

A sharp sword comes out of his mouth and he treads the winepress of the wrath of God.

Where are the beast and the false prophet thrown after the battle in chapter 19?

Death and Hades follow them there after the last judgment, which the text calls the second death.

For how long is the dragon bound in the bottomless pit?

That millennium, and how literally to take it, has divided Christians into pre-, post- and amillennialists ever since.

When Satan is released after his long imprisonment, he gathers which two named nations for battle?

The names come from Ezekiel 38-39, and the horde is said to be as numerous as the sand of the sea.

What name does chapter 20 give to the final punishment after the last judgment?

Those who overcome are promised earlier in the book that the second death will not hurt them.

In the vision of the new heaven and new earth, what does John say there is no more of?

For the ancient world the sea meant chaos and danger, so its absence signals a creation finally at peace.

The New Jerusalem comes down from heaven prepared like what?

The book had already spoken of the marriage supper of the Lamb two chapters earlier.

What shape is the New Jerusalem?

Each side is twelve thousand furlongs, roughly 1,400 miles, and the wall is 144 cubits thick.

Each gate of the New Jerusalem is made from a single what?

That verse is where the phrase 'pearly gates' comes from; the street inside is pure gold, clear as glass.

Whose names are written on the foundations of the city wall?

The tribes get the gates instead, so Israel and the Church are both built into the city.

Why, according to Revelation 21:25, are the gates of the city never shut?

The city needs neither sun nor moon, since the glory of God lights it.

How many kinds of fruit does the tree of life bear in the final chapter?

It yields a crop every month, and its leaves are for the healing of the nations.

'I am Alpha and Omega' refers to what?

The phrase appears in chapters 1, 21 and 22, and the paired letters became a Christian symbol often combined with the Chi Rho.

In the final chapter Jesus calls himself the root and offspring of David and what else?

The verse also identifies the speaker as having sent his angel to testify to the churches.

What are the final words spoken by Christ in the Bible, in Revelation 22:20?

John answers 'Even so, come, Lord Jesus', and the book closes with a blessing of grace.

What does Revelation threaten against anyone who adds to its words?

Taking words away costs the offender his share in the tree of life and the holy city.

Who called Revelation 'neither apostolic nor prophetic' in his 1522 New Testament preface?

He softened his view by 1530; Zwingli called it not a book of the Bible, and Calvin never wrote a commentary on it.

Which major Christian body still does not read Revelation aloud in its Divine Liturgy?

Eastern Christians were long suspicious of the book, partly because heretical Montanists loved it, and the doubt lasted into the 15th century.

Which of the great early codices does NOT contain the Book of Revelation?

There are fewer manuscripts of Revelation than of any other New Testament text, around 310 as of 2020.

Which Old Testament prophet is considered the most influential source for Revelation's imagery?

Over half of the book's allusions come from Daniel, Ezekiel, Psalms, Isaiah and Zechariah, with Daniel the densest in proportion to its length.

How far does blood flow from the winepress of God's wrath in chapter 14?

The blood rises as high as the horses' bridles, one of the book's most violent images.

The one like a son of man in chapter 1 has hair white like wool and what coming out of his mouth?

His feet are like fine brass and his voice like many waters; the seven stars are in his right hand.

According to Revelation 20, what is Satan's status during the millennium?

Only after his release and final defeat is he thrown into the lake of fire with the beast and false prophet.

Which famous end-times title, found in the Bible only in the letters of John, never appears in Revelation?

The antichrist is named only in 1 John and 2 John. Revelation's villains go by other names, such as the beast and the false prophet.

In Revelation 5, the one worthy to open the sealed scroll is called the Lion of which tribe?

Judah was King David's tribe, and the same verse adds the title Root of David. Jacob's blessing in Genesis 49 had already pictured Judah as a lion's cub.

Which great river dries up at Revelation's sixth bowl to prepare the way for kings from the east?

Euphrates is also where four bound angels are set loose at the sixth trumpet, so the same river marks the sixth judgment in both the trumpet and the bowl series.

The seven churches addressed in Revelation stood in the Roman province of Asia, in which modern country?

Turkey holds the ruins of all seven, which lay in Greek-speaking Anatolia when the letters were written. The island where John saw his visions lies across the water in Greece.

Which chorus, closing Part II of Handel's Messiah, takes its words from Revelation 19 and 11?

Hallelujah draws on Revelation 19:6, 19:16 and 11:15. Handel finished the whole oratorio in just 24 days.

At the close of Revelation 11, heaven's sanctuary opens to reveal which sacred object from Israel's past?

The ark of the covenant, the sacred chest that held the Ten Commandments, appears amid lightning, an earthquake and great hail.

In Revelation 15, those who conquered the beast sing the song of the Lamb and the song of which prophet?

Moses sang after Israel crossed the Red Sea in Exodus 15, and Revelation's singers likewise stand beside a sea, this one made of glass.

At the last judgment in Revelation 20, the dead whose names are missing from what are condemned?

The book of life is opened alongside other books that record each person's deeds, and the dead are judged by what those volumes contain.

Revelation 17 says the beast's seven heads are seven mountains, an image most often tied to which city?

Rome was famous as the city on seven hills, and a coin minted under the emperor Vespasian pictures the city as a woman seated on them.

Which building does John find missing from Revelation's New Jerusalem, a city of high walls and twelve gates?

A temple is unneeded because, John writes, the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are themselves the city's sanctuary. Earlier chapters had shown one in heaven, with an altar and incense.

Which US president, writing in 1825, the year before he died, dismissed Revelation as a maniac's ravings?

Thomas Jefferson told Alexander Smyth the book was no more worth explaining than a night's dreams. Five years earlier he had pieced together his own gospel with a razor and glue.

Which Royal Society scientist left a study of Daniel and Revelation that was published after his death?

Isaac Newton's Observations upon the Prophecies of Daniel and the Apocalypse appeared in 1733, six years after he died. It followed his Chronology of Ancient Kingdoms Amended, another posthumous work.

Which Old Testament queen's name is given to a false prophetess in one of Revelation's seven letters?

Jezebel was the wife of King Ahab, and she promoted the worship of Baal over Israel's God. Revelation borrows her name for a teacher accused of leading believers into idolatry.

Which of Revelation's seven churches is told it has a name for being alive but is really dead?

Sardis is told to wake up and strengthen what remains before it dies. Only a few of its members, the letter adds, have kept their garments clean.

In Revelation 21, the street of the New Jerusalem is made of which material, said to be clear as glass?

Pure gold, yet transparent like glass, paves the street. The same chapter says the entire city is built of it, on foundations set with every kind of jewel.

With what will the male child born to the woman of Revelation 12 rule all the nations?

A rod of iron comes from Psalm 2, where God's anointed king shatters the nations like a potter's jar. Revelation uses the phrase three times.

Where does the woman of Revelation 12 flee after giving birth, to a place God has prepared for her?

The wilderness is where she is fed and kept out of the dragon's reach. Later in the chapter she is given the two wings of a great eagle to fly there.

Three unclean spirits come from the dragon, beast and false prophet in Revelation 16 looking like what?

Frogs recall the second plague of Egypt in Exodus. These spirits work miracles and gather the world's rulers for the great day of battle.

In most English Bibles, which single word closes Revelation's final verse, and with it the whole Bible?

Amen ends the closing blessing of grace in most versions, though some manuscripts lack it. Revelation 3:14 even uses the word as a title for Christ himself.

What flows from the throne of God and of the Lamb through the city in Revelation 22?

The river of life runs clear as crystal down the middle of the city's street, with the tree of life growing on both its banks.

In Revelation 1, which objects around the Son of Man figure are said to stand for the seven churches?

Lampstands, or candlesticks in the King James Version, stand for the churches, while the seven stars in the figure's right hand are their angels.

On which day does John say he was in the Spirit when a trumpet-like voice began Revelation's visions?

The Lord's day is a phrase found nowhere else in the New Testament. Christian tradition has generally read it as Sunday, the day of worship.

Which sect is condemned by name in two of Revelation's letters, the first for deeds Christ says he hates?

Nicolaitans appear by name nowhere else in the Bible. Irenaeus and other early writers traced them to Nicolas, one of the seven deacons chosen in Acts 6.

In Revelation 4, what encircles God's throne and is said to look like an emerald?

A rainbow circles the throne, echoing the sign of God's promise to Noah after the flood. Another one crowns the mighty angel of chapter 10.

In Revelation 5, what do the bowls of incense held by the elders stand for?

The prayers of the saints rise again in chapter 8, where an angel offers them with incense on the altar before the trumpets begin to sound.

In Revelation 7, what does the countless multitude in white robes hold while standing before the throne?

Palm branches were waved at the Feast of Tabernacles and at Jesus's entry into Jerusalem. This crowd, John is told, has come out of the great tribulation.

Revelation 9 gives the angel of the abyss the Hebrew name Abaddon and which Greek name?

Apollyon means Destroyer, much as Abaddon means destruction. He is king over the tormenting swarm released when the fifth trumpet sounds.

On which mountain does the Lamb stand with followers marked with his Father's name in Revelation 14?

Mount Zion is the Jerusalem hill long tied to King David's city. The followers gathered there sing a new song that no one else is able to learn.

In Revelation 14, the one like a son of man seated on a white cloud holds which tool?

A sharp sickle is swung twice in the chapter: first for the grain harvest, then by an angel who gathers the grapes of the earth for the winepress.

In Revelation 22, the leaves of the tree of life are said to be for what purpose?

Healing the nations is the work of its leaves. In Genesis the same tree was put beyond humanity's reach after Eden.

In Revelation 10, whose message is John forbidden to write down and told to seal up instead?

The seven thunders speak when a mighty angel roars like a lion. Theirs is a rare secret in a book whose final chapter tells John not to seal up its words.

Which tribe of Israel is left out of Revelation 7's list of the sealed, though Levi and Joseph both appear?

Dan is missing, while Ephraim is covered by the name of his father Joseph. In the Old Testament the town of Dan housed one of King Jeroboam's two calf idols.

Which school of interpretation reads Revelation's visions as events already fulfilled in the first century?

Preterism often treats the fall of Jerusalem in AD 70 as the turning point. Futurism, by contrast, places most of the visions still ahead.

Which bishop of Alexandria listed Revelation among the 27 New Testament books in his Easter letter of 367?

Athanasius gave the earliest known list matching today's New Testament exactly, and he was the first to describe those books as canonized.

Which Renaissance scholar, lacking a full Greek manuscript, translated Revelation's last six verses back from Latin?

Erasmus was preparing the first published Greek New Testament in 1516. The leaf with those verses was gone from his manuscript, so he turned the Vulgate's Latin into Greek himself.

Tradition places John's exile and the writing of Revelation under which emperor, the last of the Flavians?

Domitian was assassinated by his own court officials, and the Senate then condemned his memory to oblivion.

Which Old Testament figure, hired to curse Israel, is named in one of Revelation's seven letters?

Balaam is best remembered for his talking donkey. Revelation says he taught King Balak to lure Israel into idol feasts and sexual immorality.

In Revelation 18, a mighty angel hurls what into the sea to show how the great city will fall?

A millstone sinking without trace is the angel's picture of the city's end. The image echoes Jeremiah 51, where a scroll is tied to a rock and sunk as a sign.

The wall of the New Jerusalem in Revelation 21 is built of which gem, also its first foundation?

Jasper is also what the one seated on the throne looks like in chapter 4, and the city's own radiance is compared to it, clear as crystal.

In Revelation 1, the risen Christ tells John that he holds the keys of what?

Death and Hades are his to unlock because, he says, he was dead and is now alive for evermore. Peter's famous keys, by contrast, are those of the kingdom of heaven.