The Hebrew mindset, expression, and communication style are often metaphorical, relying on vivid imagery, symbolic language, and layered meanings to convey deep or timeless truths. Biblical Hebrew, in particular, has a relatively limited vocabulary compared to many modern languages. This constraint often results in the frequent use of metaphors, symbols, and figures of speech to express complex ideas, emotions, and spiritual realities. As a result, interpreting biblical thought demands an understanding of cultural, historical, and literary context—often more so than modern languages, which tend to be more direct and explicit.
Rooted in a worldview where the physical and spiritual are deeply interconnected, Jewish apocalyptic literature is highly abstract, often operates on multiple levels of meaning. This multidimensionality allows for nuanced interpretations that go beyond the literal. It makes apocalyptic literature—like the Book of Revelation—especially powerful for conveying deep theological truths. At the same time, it poses significant interpretive challenges, particularly for the Western mind, which tends to favor linear, analytical thinking and may be less familiar with the symbolic richness of Jewish apocalyptic texts.
Symbolism vs. Literalism: A Modern Misreading of the Book of Revelation
The Bible—especially the apocalyptic texts—is filled with vivid, symbolic imagery that would sound utterly absurd if taken literally. In Daniel 7:3-7, four great beasts emerge from the sea—one like a lion with eagle’s wings, another like a bear devouring flesh, a leopard with four heads and wings, and a final beast with iron teeth and ten horns. No one Jewish expected to see these creatures stomping through Jerusalem; rather, they represent kingdoms and rulers. Similarly, Zechariah 5:1-2 describes a massive flying scroll, thirty feet long, soaring through the air as a curse upon the land. Ezekiel 1:5-14 paints an even wilder picture of heavenly beings with four faces—human, lion, ox, and eagle—darting around like flashes of lightning on wheels covered in eyes.
Jewish apocalyptic literature outside the Bible follows the same pattern. In 1 Enoch, nations and rulers are symbolized as animals—rams, sheep, and eagles locked in cosmic struggle. 4 Ezra features a monstrous, many-winged eagle ruling the world, its heads speaking with different voices. These texts use highly imaginative visions to communicate deep spiritual and historical truths, a method Revelation later employed as well.
Symbolism in Everyday Language
While apocalyptic language relies heavily on symbolism and metaphor, its vivid, poetic imagery isn’t completely foreign to the modern mind. Consider the following ten sentences:
1. “My brain is fried.”
2. “That meeting was a trainwreck.”
3. “I’m drowning in work.”
4. “This project is a ticking time bomb.”
5. “He has a heart of stone.”
6. “She’s fishing for compliments.”
7. “That exam was a piece of cake.”
8. “I hit a wall in my training.”
9. “He’s a snake in the grass.”
10. “She’s the light of my life.”
Each of these sentences contains metaphorical or symbolic elements that your brain instinctively interprets as such. However, apocalyptic language amplifies this style, incorporating even more imagery, poetic expression, and symbolic depth while using far less literal language. A closer approximation of apocalyptic expression might sound like the following:
The bridge of trust lay shattered, stones reduced to dust by neglect. Doubt obscured his vision, leaving dreams drifting away like ships abandoned at sea. She had nurtured a garden with seeds of kindness, waiting patiently for his love to bloom. But storms of indifference raged within him, tearing hope from the roots. From shadows emerged another, offering warmth where he had only given coldness, quietly stealing her heart away. In the dim sky above, regret circled like a creature with fiery wings, darkening the glow of memories that flickered like fading lamp-stands. Time flowed onward, carrying whispers of lost chances in scrolls of silent witnesses. His heart became a locked door, rusted shut by remorse, while loneliness grazed upon the ashes of his pride. Still, in the quiet halls of solitude, her voice lingered—a gentle echo of love now forever beyond his reach.
This paragraph is rich in symbolism, painting a vivid picture of a broken relationship while avoiding direct, literal language—much like Revelation’s apocalyptic genre.
Why Use Confusing Symbolism Instead of Clear, Literal Language?
I often come across an argument made by fundamentalists that goes something like this:
“God wants people to understand His plan, so the Bible should be read literally, in a plain and straightforward manner, taking the text at face value.”
For instance, in his Introduction to the Book of Revelation, renowned Baptist preacher Tom Wallace argues:
God had no motivation or need to attempt any sort of codification or camouflage for the written word. So this means we are to read the Bible literally…God wrote what he meant and He meant what He wrote. The same goes for all the books of prophecy in the Bible.
While there are hermeneutical ways to respond to this argument, I’ve addressed those in another book focused on biblical interpretation. Here, I will offer a theological answer instead—recognizing Satan’s failure to understand prophecy.
Biblical prophecy is often veiled in symbolic language and accompanied by the statement that only those with spiritual eyes and ears can truly perceive its meaning. This theme runs through both the Old and New Testaments (Isaiah 6:9–10, Ezekiel 12:2, Matthew 13:13–15, 1 Corinthians 2:14). This is also true in Revelation (2:7, 2:11, 2:17), emphasizing that understanding prophecy requires spiritual discernment. Prophecy is not just about reading the words—it’s about having spiritual sensitivity, something the Devil lacks.
Evil’s ability to understand prophetic imagery appears to be severely limited, as demonstrated by his failure to recognize that the Messiah’s death was not a defeat, but the very means of redemption. The prophets foretold a suffering servant who would bear the sins of many (Isaiah 53:10-12), yet Satan and his followers obliviously failed to interpret the symbolism in these prophecies correctly.
Had the plan of redemption been laid out in a purely literal and obvious way, Satan would have understood it—and sought to prevent it rather than facilitate it. Instead, he played right into God’s hands. He influenced Judas to betray Jesus (Luke 22:3) and pushed the rulers to demand His crucifixion (1 Corinthians 2:8), thinking he was orchestrating the Messiah’s downfall:
None of the rulers of this age understood it, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.
1 Corinthians 2:8
In reality, by crucifying Jesus, evil was ensuring its own defeat.
This demonstrates why God often communicates through symbols, metaphors, visions, and layered meanings—not to confuse, but to conceal truth from those who would misuse it while revealing it to those with “eyes to see” (Matthew 13:11-13) and “wisdom to understand” (Revelation 13:18). The symbolic nature of prophecy acts as a divine filter, allowing God’s plan to unfold without interference from those who oppose Him, while rewarding the faithful with deeper understanding.
Concealing the Truth Behind Symbolism and Metaphors
There’s a reason politicians often use symbolic and metaphorical language—so they can’t easily be held accountable for their words later. But as we’ve seen, this tendency isn’t limited to politics or ancient texts.
Imagine someone whose entire life’s work—a business or a ministry—was forcibly taken from them. Unable to speak openly, whether out of fear or due to a signed non-disclosure agreement, they turn to apocalyptic language to express their experience indirectly, perhaps like this:
In days long past, I birthed a fragile, innocent child, a vision nurtured with love and care. Over time, the child grew, gaining strength and purpose. But in a moment of shadow, a fearless beast cloaked in doctrines foreign to the child’s essence, seized the infant from my arms. The beast twisted its foundations, claiming it as its own, leaving it a hollow vessel, disconnected from its true roots. The child, once vibrant with life and promise, now wanders in a foreign land, its soul torn between the original light and the dark forces that reshaped it into a fortune-making forge.
Beyond merely concealing truth, symbolic language is often seen as superior to literal expression because it communicates on multiple levels at once, enriching thought and deepening emotional impact. Like poetry or visual art, it invites contemplation and allows for nuanced interpretation. Metaphors and symbols can transcend cultural and historical boundaries in ways that literal language cannot; while literal descriptions may become outdated because the meaning of words change over time, symbolic images—such as the shepherd caring for his sheep (Psalm 23:1)—retain their relevance across generations.
Symbolic language is especially effective in expressing abstract, spiritual, or deeply emotional truths, like love, justice, and compassion, which defy precise literal definition. Metaphors reach beyond intellectual understanding and resonate with personal experience, often speaking more powerfully to the heart than to the mind. Therefore, Jewish rabbis, including Jesus, more often than not teach in parables (“All these things Jesus spoke to the multitude in parables; and without a parable He did not speak to them.” Matthew 13:34). Moreover, symbols naturally adapt to diverse contexts, offering layers of meaning that individuals can apply to their own circumstances, which makes them enduring and deeply human. This is especially true of the Book of Revelation!
Understanding this linguistic device helps readers appreciate how Revelation and similar apocalyptic texts communicate their messages, not through straightforward, literal narration, but the Jewish way—through layers of symbolic meaning embedded in dramatic and often surreal imagery.
This is precisely why, as a Jew, I find it somewhat frustrating to see so many Christians in the West insist on reading Revelation as literally as possible.
For instance, one of the most popular websites among Christians in America is “Got Questions,” a fundamentalist website that frequently promotes Calvinistic teachings. Nevertheless, in its article titled “How Can I Understand the Book of Revelation?” it states:
The key to understanding the book of Revelation is to interpret it as literally as possible—it says what it means and means what it says.
Got Questions Website
Likewise, the author of Left Behind, Tim LaHaye, states in the introduction of his book on Revelation that one should “take every word at its primary, ordinary, usual, literal meaning.”
Interpreting the Book of Revelation “As Literally as Possible”
While there are hundreds of symbolic depictions in the book of Revelation, we’ll explore only a few examples to demonstrate why reading Revelation literally is not just impractical, but resulting in an utterly bizarre and nonsensical narrative that defies logic, science, and even basic coherence. If taken at face value, the book turns into a surreal nightmare where physics is meaningless, creatures are grotesque beyond belief, and divine justice plays out like a chaotic fantasy novel. Consider just how absurd this would be:
– In Revelation 3:12, God promises to turn people into pillars in His temple. Imagine standing in heaven one day, only to find yourself transformed into a giant marble column, forever stuck in place while angels dust you off for eternity. Do you get to pick your architectural style? Corinthian, Ionic, or maybe something more modern?
– In Revelation 8:12, “a third of the sun was struck,” along with the moon and stars, as if celestial bodies could be neatly divided like slices of a pie without obliterating the entire solar system. How exactly does a third of the sun get destroyed while the rest continues shining?
– Revelation 8:13 describes an “eagle flying in midair” speaking with a loud voice. A literal reading would have us believe that, instead of a prophet or angel, God chose to deliver a cosmic message through a talking bird.
– The locusts in Revelation 9:7-8 supposedly have human faces, golden crowns, women’s hair, lion’s teeth, and scorpion-like stingers. If taken literally, these creatures would be an absolute nightmare of evolutionary confusion—part insect, part human, part mammal, part reptile. The horror film industry could only dream of inventing something this grotesque.
– Revelation 9:17-19 introduces horses with tails that are actually snakes, because, why not? Are these horses or mutant serpentine monstrosities? Imagine a battlefield where soldiers ride giant, fanged snake-tailed stallions into war—an utterly ludicrous scene.
– In Revelation 10:9-10, John is instructed to eat a book, which tastes sweet but turns bitter in his stomach. If taken literally, this means he sat down for a divine snack, munching on paper like a celestial goat.
– Revelation 12:3-4 gives us a red dragon with seven heads and ten horns, whose apparent pastime is eating newborn babies. Are we expected to take this as a literal creature roaming the heavens, waiting for an infant buffet?
– In Revelation 17:1-3, John sees a prostitute riding a scarlet beast (does the beast come with saddle options?), a woman decked in luxury yet “drunk with the blood of the saints.” It is also said to have committed fornication with the kings of the earth. If this isn’t figurative, this would mean that instead of a chariot or airplane, she chose a giant red monster as her preferred mode of transportation, while drinking human blood and sleeping around with kings. If taken literally, it has diplomatic incident written all over it!
– In Revelation 19:17-18, an angel invites birds to a gruesome feast where they will gorge themselves on human flesh. If this is taken literally, then God is apparently hosting a celestial barbecue with vultures as the VIP guests.
– The rider in Revelation 19:15 wields a sword that comes out of his mouth to strike down the nations. One can only imagine the sheer impracticality of swinging a weapon with one’s teeth while trying to deliver a battle speech.
– Revelation 12:1 presents a woman standing on the moon, clothed with the sun, and wearing a crown of twelve stars. A literal reading suggests she is some kind of celestial acrobat, defying gravity while accessorizing with flaming balls of gas.
– In Revelation 12:15-16, the earth opens its mouth and swallows a river. At this point, the planet has developed a digestive system, complete with a gaping maw to gulp down natural disasters.
When taken as a straightforward factual account, Revelation becomes a bizarre, impossible, and even comical spectacle. The absurdity of these images, when forced into a literal framework, reveals just how unnatural and illogical such an approach is. Instead of recognizing the book for what it is—an apocalyptic vision filled with profound symbolic messages—a literal interpretation turns it into an incoherent fantasy that disregards reason and reality entirely.
What Would a Symbolic Reading of the Book of Revelation Look Like?
Interpreting a text symbolically does not necessarily contradict literal application. Symbolism and reality often coexist in biblical prophecy, where vivid imagery conveys deeper truths without necessarily linearly describing physical events in detail. Take Daniel 7, for example, where four beasts rise from the sea. While it’s amusing to picture enormous creatures storming out of the ocean, trampling buildings, and causing mayhem like a Hollywood sci-fi spectacle, the passage is clearly not meant to be read as a literal event. Rather, each beast represents a kingdom or empire—historically understood as Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, and Rome.
Similarly, Isaiah 46:11 refers to “a bird of prey from the east,” which does not describe an actual predatory bird but likely symbolizes Cyrus the Great of Persia. This demonstrates how prophetic language often uses striking imagery to depict historical figures or geopolitical realities.
Now, let’s apply this to the Book of Revelation. Take, for example, the Mark of the Beast (Revelation 13:16–18). Many contemporary evangelicals interpret this as a literal microchip, barcode, or vaccine that will be enforced in the end times. But to the first-century Jewish reader, the imagery of marks on the forehead and hand echoes Deuteronomy 6:8, where God’s commandments are to be bound “as a sign on your hand” and “as frontlets between your eyes.” The mark was not seen as a technological product but as a symbol of allegiance—just as “the mark of the Lamb” (Revelation 7:3) signified loyalty to God.
Another example is the Beast (Revelation 13). John’s original audience would have likely recognized the beast as a reference to Rome, the oppressive empire of their time. The seven heads (Revelation 17:9) are explicitly said to be “seven hills,” a clear allusion to Rome, known as the city of seven hills. Nero, the emperor infamous for persecuting Christians, is strongly linked to the beast, especially when his name is calculated to the number 666 (using Hebrew numerology).
Why is a Symbolic Reading of the Book of Revelation is Often Taboo?
Among many Christians, the idea of reading parts of the Bible symbolically rather than literally is often seen as a compromise, a sign of weak faith, or even a lack of trust in the God’s word. This sentiment, however, is not based on reason but on emotion—an appeal to fear and loyalty rather than careful interpretation. In reality, refusing to take Revelation at face value does not mean dismissing its truth; it means reading it as it was intended—in the rich, symbolic tradition of Jewish apocalyptic literature. To insist that only a literal reading is faithful is to ignore the genre, the historical context, and the way biblical prophecy has always functioned in Judaism. Ironically, the very act of forcing a rigid, literal interpretation onto a highly symbolic text is what distorts its message, not the other way around!
Here is an example of this attitude—motivated by fear—from a sermon given in Calvary Chapel Community Church Oregon in 2024 titled, “Can We Take it Literally? | Revelation 1”, where the pastor explains:
It’s a literal interpretation of the future. You will find out that most of my interpretations are literal. I take things literally unless the Bible uses the words “as” or “like” and that shows us that it’s symbolic, but I take things as literally as I can until proven otherwise because I know that what I say is being listened to by The King and I have to give an account to him as to what I’m teaching.
CCC Church Oregon
It’s certainly important to remain faithful to what the Bible teaches, as you will one day recount how you represented God. However, in this case, I believe fear led to the very opposite of the desired outcome.
The Purpose of Revelation: Encouragement, Not Spooky Futuristic Speculation
When read in its Jewish context, Revelation ceases to be a cryptic codebook for end-time prophecy and becomes what it was meant to be: a message of hope! It reassures the suffering church that, despite the apparent power of Rome (or any oppressive system), God reigns. Jesus, the slain Lamb, has already won the decisive victory. The imagery of judgment is not a prediction of a literal cataclysm but a dramatic way of affirming that the empires of this world will fall before God’s justice.
By placing Revelation in its proper Jewish context, we avoid the sensationalism that often accompanies its interpretation in modern evangelical circles. The book clearly wasn’t intended to fuel endless obsessions about spooky blood moons, sinister microchips, magical whisking away of a chosen few, or convenient political conspiracies. Instead, it was, and remains, a call to faithfulness. The New Jerusalem is not simply a future paradise; it is the fulfillment of God’s covenant promises to Israel, now open to all who follow the Lamb. The cosmic battle is not just an end-time war, but the ongoing struggle between God’s kingdom and the forces of darkness in every generation.
Thus, the Jewishness of Revelation is not an obstacle to understanding it, but the key to unlocking its meaning. By reading it through the lens of Jewish apocalyptic thought, we move beyond a shallow literalism and see the book for what it truly is: a bold declaration that Jesus, the Messiah of Israel, is the Lord of history, and that his kingdom will prevail—not just in some distant future, but even now, wherever his followers remain faithful.
This was a chapter from my new book, Revelation: A Jewish Perspective, which is available via Amazon. It’s really awesome, and I promise you won’t regret reading it!
