When reading the Book of Revelation, one almost needs to adopt a mindset of looking at a picture book, with illustrations that are not necessarily realistic, but vivid, imaginative, and exaggerated. Think viewing Impressionist art.
Obviously Revelation is composed of words, not paintings, but they’re words meant to convey emotion almost as much as they do information. Face it, John was reporting visions he saw, not a lecture he heard or a report he read.
A quick example of what I’m writing about is Revelation 12:3-4, where Satan is pictured as “an enormous red dragon with seven heads and ten horns and seven crowns on his heads.” He stands in front of a woman who is about to give birth so he can devour the baby as soon as he is born. The devil is so huge that “his tail swept a third of the stars out of the sky and flung them to the earth.”
Is Satan literally a dragon? Could our Earth absorb a third of the stars of the sky being flung against it?
No, but doesn’t this word-picture graphically convey both the incredible power and wicked intent of this evil figure?
When you watch an intense movie, like Argo, the mood is enhanced by the music in the background. In real life, does music actually accompany people’s anxious situations? Not really. Does this then mean that honest filmmakers should not be allowed to use music? Of course not. It’s an effective storytelling device we all accept.
First-century writers were limited in terms of the communication techniques available to them. Even so, one has to admit that Revelation conveys its message with all the wallop one could want.
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