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.
characterized by suffering and threat. Emerging from the desire for a change in status, the presence of Christ is thus implored equally as urgently as a thirsty person longs for water. The combination of the bride and water metaphors brings the reader to call one more meaning into association. Water (thirst) is often employed in Old Testament and early Judaic times as a metaphor for love or even sexual desire (see Prov 5,15-20)68. The reciprocal determination of the lexemes bride and thirst/water could thus liberate precisely these sexual connota-tions. The bride’s summons will then, however, have received an erotic coloration for the reader. Thus, the summons of the bridegroom into the bridal chamber could become the expression of a passionate and impatient longing for Christ in the hopes of a speedy liberation.
VII. The Bride and harlot metaphors as a structural element
of the whole of Rev
The analyses have made clear that nuptial metaphors are found throughout all of Rev. Below I would like to show, in conclusion, that the nuptial metaphor can be seen, precisely in its contrast to the metaphor of the harlot, as a characteristic structural element of Rev.
The contrastive comparison of two female figures (harlot – bride) is familiar from the metaphoric traditions of OT prophets, in which the relationship of God to Israel is expressed through the metaphor of marriage 69. This betrothal is shifted into an "eschatological" scope even in the oldest biblical writings with this contrastive theme. After the whorish behavior of the woman (Hosea) was first described in detail accompanied by a subsequent judgement, there is the promise of a future betrothal:
I will betroth you to Me forever; Yes, I will betroth you to Me in righteousness and in justice, in loving kindness and in compassion. And I will betroth you to Me in faithfulness. Then you will know the LORD (Hos 2,19-20).
While this depiction of the new betrothal may seem colorless and simply tacked on in contrast to the graphic punishment for the harlot(s) in the older prophesies (Hos, Jer, Ez), it shifts into the center of the