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God’s people perish without vision, the Hebrew Scriptures tell us (Proverbs 29:18). We might be tempted to think that the author was discussing nothing more than human foresight, but the fact is that visions and dreams were major means of revelation in biblical times. Visions were seen as messages from an outside, objective source that gave God’s perspective on the world or the future, or some part of it. Visions were certainly not seen as the product of an overactive imagination or some other aspect of the human psyche.
As we modern readers search for the historical Jesus or the historical Paul or the historical Peter or the historical John of Patmos, author of Revelation, we must not forget that they were all visionaries, or seers who could see things others could not.
Jesus’ baptism as recorded in our earliest gospel, Mark, has all the features of an apocalyptic vision. In Mark 1:10–12, heaven is said to be torn open; Jesus “sees” the Spirit descending like a dove (even though the Spirit is not a visible entity); a voice speaks out of heaven; the voice addresses Jesus alone (the you here in the Greek is singular), “You are my Son.” This is a transcript of a vision that Jesus had at his baptism when he was anointed with the Holy Spirit. In early Jewish and Christian literature, it is typical for a vision to be connected with endowment by the Spirit (see, for example, Revelation 4:2). That Jesus had other visions is confirmed by Luke 10:18, where we hear that Jesus saw Satan fall from heaven like lightning.
Peter, too, was a visionary. In Mark’s account of the Transfiguration (Mark 9:2–8), Peter and others ascended a mountain where they saw Jesus transfigured with Elijah and Moses, both of whom were long dead—a strong indication that this is a vision. Here, too, a divine voice cries out from heaven: “This is my Son, my Beloved” (Mark 9:7). That this is a description of a vision is confirmed in 2 Peter 1:17–18, which includes a report of what Peter saw: “For he received honor and glory when the voice came to him from the Majestic Glory, saying ‘This is my Son whom I love …’ We ourselves heard this voice that came from heaven when we were with him on the sacred mountain.” Further proof that Peter was a visionary is found in Acts 10, where he is recorded as falling into a trance and having a vision of animals on a sheet; he hears the voice of God explaining that they should no longer be reckoned as unclean.
Paul openly portrays himself as a visionary in 2 Corinthians 12:1–6, in which he describes a vision in which he was taken up into heaven and was told unutterable truths—“things that no mortal is permitted to repeat.” His own account of his conversion is suggestive of a vision; he writes, “God revealed his Son in me” (Galatians 1:16). Luke’s version of the same event in Acts 9—with its light from heaven and voice from above—makes it very clear Paul had a vision while on the road to Damascus that forever changed his life.
Lastly, there is of course John of Patmos, who recorded his multiple visions of heaven and the future in the Book of Revelation. In Revelation 1:10 John tells us he was in an ecstatic state (that is, “in the Spirit on the Lord’s day”). Once, while in this condition, he heard a loud voice commanding him to write down a revelation to seven churches in Asia Minor. Similarly, in Revelation 4:1–3, John recounts the beginning of another vision, one in which he sees into heaven even though his body remains firmly on the terra firma of Patmos. (Contra popular modern fictional accounts, it is not a description of John being raptured, or lifted bodily, into heaven.)
Modern thinkers tend to see John of Patmos as different from other early Christians. He is an isolated example of the early Spirit-filled Christian seer. But it is wrong to look at John as an aberration. Instead he should be seen as part of a visionary movement inaugurated by Jesus and sustained by the seers Peter and Paul (all of whom saw the heavens open, heard heavenly voices and experienced the Spirit). Indeed, one reason the fledgling Christian movement did not perish is precisely because it had the visionary leadership and new revelations, quite literally, that were necessary to sustain the movement.
God’s people perish without vision, the Hebrew Scriptures tell us (Proverbs 29:18). We might be tempted to think that the author was discussing nothing more than human foresight, but the fact is that visions and dreams were major means of revelation in biblical times. Visions were seen as messages from an outside, objective source that gave God’s perspective on the world or the future, or some part of it. Visions were certainly not seen as the product of an overactive imagination or some other aspect of the human psyche. As we modern readers search for the historical Jesus or […]
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