How Does a Catholic Read: Revelation 22:18-19

Recently I had the idea to canvas some of my non-Catholic Christian friends and ask, "What verses of the New Testament do you think Catholics simply don't get?"  One suggestion was Revelation 22:18-19 - a text which is often used to support the doctrine of "Sola Scriptura".

[For background on Sola Scriptura and why it matters, you'll find that discussion -here-]

So today we're going to examine the passage, apply it to the Sola Scriptura controversy... and answer the question:

"What the heck does a Catholic do with Revelation 22:18-19?"

The Passage in Question:

The passage comes at the closing the book of Revelation.  So before we look at the passage, let's talk briefly about the book as a whole.  

The book of Revelation was a letter written by the Apostle John to seven ancient churches in Asia Minor.  It's goal was to warn them about events which were happening, which would happen soon, and to put it all in the context of God's eternal providence.  It began: 

"The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave Him to show His servants what must soon take place.  He made it known by sending His angel to His servant John...

Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of the prophecy, and blessed are those who hear and who keep what is written in it - for the time is near. 

John to the seven churches that are in Asia ..." - Revelation 1:1-4

What unfolds in the letter is a great drama of disasters, plagues, and judgement... all coinciding with events in Heaven.  It concludes with the return of Jesus Christ, the final judgement, and the dawn of the new creation.  

But the final lines of the letter issue a warning.  It reads:

"(18) I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: if anyone adds to them, God will add to that person the plagues described in this book; (19) if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God will take away that person’s share in the tree of life and in the holy city, which are described in this book." - Revelation 22:18-19

The Common Reading:

Let's talk about how this passage is commonly read and why.

The book of Revelation is always arranged as the last book of the Bible.  Thus, the verses in question are the last thing you read before finishing the Bible.

It is common for people to read the end of John's letter as if the Apostle meant to write a closing statement for the Bible as a whole.  So when people read John writing, "I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book..." what is assumed is that the word "book" refers to the Bible as a whole. 

Then you have John's warning, which is to not add or subtract from the contents of the "book".  People - (again, thinking the "book" in question is the Bible) - often read that as warning against any doctrines not found in the Bible.  In other words, they read it as if John said:

"If anyone adds doctrines to the Christian faith which aren't found in the Bible... bad stuff.  If anyone refuses any doctrines found in this Bible... similar bad stuff."

Thus many non-Catholics to read Revelation 22:18-19 as a glowing endorsement for the doctrine of Sola Scriptura.  That includes famous writers like Norman Geisler, who included these passages in his defense of Sola Scriptura:

"Indeed, John closed the last words of the Bible with the same exhortation, declaring:  -[passage in question]- Sola Scriptura could hardly be stated more emphatically. Of course, none of these are a prohibition on future revelations. But they do apply to the point of difference between Protestants and Catholics, namely, whether there are any authoritative normative revelations outside those revealed to apostles and prophets and inscripturated in the Bible. And this is precisely what these texts say." - A Defense of Sola Scriptura, Norman Geisler et Ralph MacKenzie. 

Well... far be it from me to correct such an accomplished scholar...

Oh wait.  That's precisely what I'm going to do.

Original Intent:

When reading the Bible, one cannot impose whatever meaning one wants upon the text.  You have to start with the original intent of the author.  Thus, we have to ask:

What was John originally intending with this passage when he wrote it?

Let's break the passages down into smaller bites:

What is the Warning Against?

First let's look at what John tells the reader not to do.  

"I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: if anyone adds to them, God will add to that person the plagues described in this book.  If anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy..."

The Sola Scriptura interpretation proposes John is talking adding or removing doctrines from the Biblical Christian faith.  But... he doesn't say that.

This is clear simply from the grammar of the sentence.  The direct object in both phrases - the things you're not supposed to mess with - is the word... "words" not "doctrines".  

What is John really doing?  He is warning his readers against adding or removing words from the text... and calling down God's punishment on anyone who does.  

This is important because in ancient times they had neither email nor copy machines.  An author would have been reliant on trustworthy couriers and scribes to propagate the letter unchanged from the original.

But this invites the question... which "text" is John referring to? 


What is "the Book"?

The Sola Scriptura understanding of this passage assumes the word "book" refers to a collection of writings known today as the Bible.  But is that what John would have meant when he wrote Revelation?

A Non-Existant Collection:

Your first clue is that the Bible was not assembled into a whole volume until about 300 years after the book of Revelation was written.  So it would seem unlikely for John to understand himself as writing the closing statement in a nonexistent collection of books. 

Rather, we should keep in mind what John wrote at the beginning of the letter (quoted above).  He was writing a letter written to seven churches in Asia Minor.  This would lead us to believe that when John says "this book", he was referring only to the book of Revelation itself.

Terminology:

This is reinforced when you look at how John refers to his letter at the beginning of the text and compare it to the warning at the end.  At the beginning he says:

"Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of the prophecy..." (Rev 1:3)

And then he says in the warning:

"I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book [...] if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy..." (Rev 22:18)

It is clear at the beginning of Revelation, John is referring only to his letter when he speaks of the written "words of the prophecy".  So when he uses the exact same terminology at the end, we should understand it the same way - referring to the the content of his letter.

Scroll or Codex?

The last thing to point out is how the English translation of "book" in the passage is somewhat deceptive.  

The modern book - also known as the "codex" - was only beginning to appear in history at the time John wrote Revelation.  In other words, the thing you imagine when you see the word "book" barely existed back in 90AD.  Instead, almost all written texts would have looked like this:

Which is why when English translators run across the Greek word "βιβλίου" in Revelation 22, they should not have been translating it as "book".  They should have translated it the same way they do in Revelation 5:1 - as the word "scroll".

Thus, the New International Version (NIV) actually gets it right when it translates the verse as:

"I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this scroll: If anyone adds anything to them, God will add to that person the plagues described in this scroll. And if anyone takes words away from this scroll of prophecy, God will take away from that person any share in the tree of life and in the Holy City, which are described in this scroll."

When read like that, it becomes completely impossible to imagine John referring to a codex of the entire canon of Scripture.  His warning could have only been referring to the book of Revelation.

A Catholic Interpretation:

So how does a Catholic understand Revelation 22:18-19?  

Well, we don't anachronistically read John as warning against adding or subtracting doctrines from a collection of texts which - for reasons both historical and technological - could not exist for another three centuries.

Rather, we just take him at his most obvious meaning:

  He is telling people not to alter the book of Revelation.  

Duh.