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.
to now was reserved for the celestial Jerusalem is quite naturally transferred to the church assembled for the worship of God. Thus the polar foundation metaphor remains also at the end of the book. As in the city of Babylon when the happy voices of the bridal pair fall silent (Rev 18,23), the lascivious people are in analogue shut out of the community in the holy city (Rev 22,15). In contrast, the union of bride and bridegroom is upcoming because the longing summons of the bride (Rev 22,17) shows that the bridegroom has come to within summoning distance.
The dualistic gender metaphors of fornication and wedding can be seen as one of the structural patterns of Revelation as a whole. That which is explicitly implemented in the culminating final vision of the judgement on the harlot and the wedding of the bride is prepared by the author in varying elements (see Table 2). The incorporation of the metaphor in the epistles (chap. 2–3)75, as well as sections of visions and the end of the book have thus above all the function of linking that which is graphically displayed in the city codes explicitly to the addressees, here the Christian churches. In this way, the statements of fornication, to be seen as the worship of false gods, in Rev 2 and 3 are aimed clearly at the cult of the emperor, which is interpreted as unfaithful toward Christ. The female figure who is threatened in Rev 12 can also be understood as a figure of identification for the persecuted church while at the same time reminding of its sovereign origin that can be understood intertextually as the anticipation of the promised heavenly bride. Like the bride, the chosen ones who were previously placed into the figurative world of bride and wedding through door (3,20), crown (2,10; 3,11; 4,4; 9,7; 19,13) and above all clothes metaphors (see 3,5; 19,8; 22,14) are also described as undefiled and virginal (Rev 14,4).