Narrative Features of the Book of Revelation Page 1 of 17 PRINTED FROM OXFORD HANDBOOKS ONLINE (www.oxfordhandbooks.com). © Oxford University Press, 2018. All Rights Reserved. Under the terms of the licence agreement, an individual user may print out a PDF of a single chapter of a title in Oxford Handbooks Online for personal use (for details see Privacy Policy and Legal Notice). Subscriber: OUP-Reference Gratis Access; date: 30 December 2020 Print Publication Date: Sep 2020 Subject: Religion, Christianity, Literary and Textual Studies Online Publication Date: Oct 2020 DOI: 10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190655433.013.2 Narrative Features of the Book of Revelation James L. Resseguie The Oxford Handbook of the Book of Revelation Edited by Craig R. Koester Abstract and Keywords Four narrative features of the book of Revelation are the focus of this article: masterplot, characters and characterization, architectural and topographical settings, and numerical symbolism. Masterplots are skeletal stories belonging to cultures and individuals that clarify questions of identity, values, or the understanding of life. The masterplot of Revela tion is a quest story of the people of God in search of the new promised land, the new Jerusalem. Characters either aid or hinder the questers’ sojourn. Hybrid characters, which blend character traits from the world below with characteristics of this world, or combine the human with the inhuman, underscore the dangers the exodus-people, the fol lowers of the Lamb, encounter on their trek. Other characters—such as the angel of Rev 10—advance their quest with a MacGuffin. Architectural and topographical settings— such as Babylon, the new Jerusalem, the desert, and the sea—amplify peril and solace on the journey. Symbolic numbers are road signs that warn the exodus-people of dangers or proffer divine succor and protection. Keywords: narrative analysis, masterplot, quest story, new exodus, hybrid characters, numerical symbolism, Baby lon, new Jerusalem, MacGuffin, Tower of Babel A narrative analysis of the book of Revelation focuses on how the narrative constructs its meaning and the way diverse narrative features—such as masterplot, character, setting, and rhetoric—coalesce to form an indivisible whole. Some of the questions that amplify the literariness of Revelation are as follows: How does the older biblical masterplot of a people being enslaved in Egypt, pursued by a bloodthirsty pharaoh, wandering in the wilderness, and journeying to the new promised land, clarify Revelation’s plot? In what ways do John’s bizarre hybrid characters that merge traits from the world below and from this world, or the human with the inhuman, intensify plot conflicts and complicate the quest for the new Jerusalem? How do the fierce landscapes of desert and sea accent peril and solace on the journey to the new Jerusalem? In what ways is Babylon the archetypal city of oppression and captivity that the exodus-people—the followers of the Lamb—must flee to realize their quest for the new promised land? And how do symbolic threes, three- and-a-halves, sixes, sevens, and twelves serve as signs of solace and peril for the exodus-