Just as nonliteral doesn’t mean “not real,” biblical symbols aren’t invitations to interpret Scripture however you want. Symbols not only have true meanings, but their meanings can be incredibly powerful. The meanings of biblical symbols aren’t open to our imagination. They are rooted in their usage in Scripture and informed by the worldview of the original writers and readers. They have clear, knowable contexts that must be observed and followed for interpretation.
So in order to understand a biblical symbol used in Revelation, that symbol can’t be given a meaning that would be utterly foreign to the biblical writer and his original readers. The goal of biblical interpretation is to interpret Scripture in its own context, not ours. Bible students are fond of that mantra, but when it comes to interpreting Revelation, it is too quickly forgotten.
Many approach Revelation as though modern times unlock its meaning. The locust plague of Revelation 9 describes military helicopters, the grotesque horsemen must surely be tanks and other armored vehicles. The ten heads on the beast from the sea must be a ten-nation European confederacy. The biblical writers didn’t know about helicopters or tanks, and there was no Europe when John wrote the book. But there were armies and empires. By taking things in context, and especially noting how John uses the Old Testament, we can discern meaning in symbols that transcends time.
The examples above illustrate what happens when we impose our context on the symbols. We’re forced toward the false conclusion that Revelation really couldn’t be accurately interpreted before modern times and modern warfare. To insist that Revelation only has meaning in our modern context is to assert that it was meaningless before our time.
Imposing our context onto Revelation is interpretively flawed for another reason. Many of the symbols in Revelation have no coherent modern counterpart. What is the modern filter for the twenty-four elders and the living creatures that surround the enthroned lamb in Revelation 5? The golden censer of Revelation 8? The two witnesses of chapter 11? The great prostitute of chapter 17? All of these have secure Old Testament contexts.
When it comes to symbols, we must discern the symbol’s background and trace its usage and repurposing throughout the biblical canon. Revelation’s original readers could do that. Like us, they could know in broad strokes what John was saying. Pressing meaning beyond that point forces the book into a precision that was never intended.