Ruben Zimmermann, «Nuptial Imagery in the Revelation of John», Vol. 84 (2003) 153-183
In this article is argued that the nuptial imagery of the Book of Revelation is not limited to chapters 19 and 21 but rather runs throughout the book. While the imagery is certainly most pronounced in the final part of the book, it also appears in the letters to the churches (bridal wreath in Rev 2,10; 3,11), in the scene depicting the 144,000 as virgins (Rev 14,4-5), and is encountered again in Rev 18,23 (silencing of the voice of bridegroom and bride) and Rev 22,17 (summons of the bride) at the end of the book. Thus the wedding metaphors can be seen as one of the structural patterns of Revelation as a whole directly in contrast to the metaphors of fornication.
But who is making the request here? Who is the bride? Up to this point the bride has been introduced as the wife of the Lamb (Rev 19,7) or as the city of Jerusalem descending from heaven (Rev 21,2.9). However, a combination with the Spirit did not take place. The seer is carried away in the Spirit in order to see the celestial Jerusalem as a bride (Rev 21,9). While the (holy) city in Rev 22,14.19 no longer appears as an independent person, the bride in Rev 22,17 becomes even more concretely portrayed as the speaker than in the metaphors up to this point. Further, the direct context shows clear lines of connection to the introductory section of the epistle. The connection between hearing and spirit can be found there in a stereotypically repeated sentence: "Hear, you who have ears to hear, what the Spirit says to the churches" (Rev 2,7.11.17.29; 3,6.13.22, cf. 13,9). If the hearers here are thus identified as the direct addressees in the congretations that are addressed, then in Rev 22,17 the hearer will be conceived of precisely as the pars pro toto of the congregation as a whole. The strict parallelizations with the hearer, however, make it clear that the bride in Rev 22,17 is also not (only) regarded as an eschatological quantity but primarily stands for the concrete church66. This assumption is supported by the fact that the motif of the upcoming arrival to which the bride exhorts is known to the concrete churches from the epistle (Rev 2,5.16.25; 3,11). The Spirit speaks to the churches in the epistle while in Rev 22,17 the Spirit and the bride together address Christ.
Finally we must ask what dimension of profundity is implied by the summons to come. It is hardly possible to demonstrate a clear reference to the Last Supper67, for example, by way of the Aramaic prayer "Maranatha" (1 Cor 16,23; Did 10,6). Within the imagery, the water of life is linked to the reference to creation in Rev 22,1, which, because of the title in Rev 21,1, exists in the framework of a new creation. The old order is gone and a new being is there to see. The connotations of the imagery of a bridal summons come together seamlessly here. The summons to the bridegroom implies for the bride not only an intensified union but simultaneously the hope for the end of her preceding situation that, for the church addressed, in Rev is