The Time Periods in the Central Part of the Book of Revelation - Academic versus Faith Interpretations

Looking broadly at the central part of the Book of Revelation, one notices a very special concern with chronology. This central part of the text (Rev 11-13) describes events occurring during various periods of time, all of which appear to be of more or less the same duration and equivalent to three and a half years. Three different expressions of time are mentioned: 1260 days is found twice (at 11,3 and 12,6), 42 months is also found twice (at 11,2 and 13,5), and the expression ‘time, times and half a time’ is used once (at 12,14). The use of these time periods not only binds these central chapters together into a single literary unit, but also indicates how the narrated events are related to each other. As the author of one recent monograph wrote “this chronological marker is the interpretive key to this middle section of Revelation...understanding how this 42 months/1260 days/ ‘a time, times and half a time’ period is used by John to bind together the events found in Rev.11-13 will be vital to understanding John’s central message.” As with so many aspects of the Book of Revelation, the Old Testament provides the key to the significance of these temporal expressions. In the Book of Daniel, similar expressions are used to prophesy a final, shortened period of time during which temple sacrifices will be suspended and the saints will be oppressed and persecuted by a tyrant (Dan 7,23-25; 8,9-14.2326; 9,27; 12,1.7.11). This prophecy is reiterated in the eschatological discourse of the gospels of Matthew and Mark, where it refers to a final, shortened period of tribulation and deception immediately preceding Christ’s Parousia at the End of Time (cf. Matt 24,15-28; Mark 13,14-23). The same prophecy appears to have been interpreted by Luke to refer to the ‘time of the gentiles’, understood as the entire, un-shortened interval starting with the destruction of the temple in AD 70 and lasting until ‘the times of the gentiles are fulfilled’ at the End of Time (Luke 21,20-24). Returning to the central chapters of the Book of Revelation, it is therefore widely assumed that the analogous expressions of time all represent the same final period of trial and tribulation for the people of God. Almost all modern commentators consider the temporal expressions to be ‘synchronous’ (i.e. they are equal and refer to the same period of time), although they are divided into those who interpret this period as symbolic of the entire inter-advent interval (following Luke), and those who take it to represent a final shortened period immediately preceding the Parousia (following Matthew and Mark). This synchronizing approach implies that all the following events take place during the same time-period: the trampling of the Holy City for 42 months (Rev 11,2), the prophetic mission of the two witnesses for 1260 days (11,3-13), the protection of the woman in the desert for 1260 days (12,6) and for ‘time, times and half a time’ (12,14), and the reign of the beast from the sea for 42 months (13,1-8). As long as the interpretation of these events remains on the non-literal level, the inconsistencies of the synchronizing approach do not become apparent. Indeed it is only possible to view all the events described in these chapters as contemporaneous, if the literal details of the