What Does "He Made It Known by Signs" Mean?
The first verse of Revelation contains one of the most important clues for understanding the entire book.
John writes,
"The revelation of Jesus Christ...He made it known by sending His angel to His servant John."(Revelation 1:1)
The expression "made it known" comes from the Greek word sēmainō, which means to communicate by signs, symbols, or symbolic indication.
John is telling his readers, from the very beginning, how God chose to reveal this message.
That does not mean every detail of Revelation is symbolic.
The churches were real churches.
John was a real person.
The persecution was real.
The message was real.
But much of what John saw was presented through signs and symbolic visions.
The book itself confirms this repeatedly.
Jesus appears as a Lamb with seven horns and seven eyes.
No Christian believes Jesus literally looks that way.
The Lamb represents His sacrifice.
The horns symbolize complete power.
The eyes symbolize complete knowledge through the Spirit of God.
Satan is pictured as a great dragon.
The church appears as both a woman and a bride.
Christians are sealed on their foreheads.
The New Jerusalem is described as a magnificent city coming down from heaven.
These pictures communicate spiritual realities that are greater than the images themselves.
None of this should surprise us.
The Old Testament prophets often communicated God's message in the same way.
Daniel saw four great beasts representing kingdoms.
Zechariah saw lampstands, flying scrolls, and horses.
Ezekiel described living creatures, wheels within wheels, and a symbolic temple.
Revelation continues that same prophetic style.
The symbols are not intended to hide God's truth.
They are intended to reveal it in vivid and memorable ways.
That is why we should resist two opposite mistakes.
One mistake is forcing every symbol to be understood literally.
The other is giving every symbol whatever meaning we prefer.
Instead, we should allow the Bible itself to explain its own symbols whenever it does.
The context.
The Old Testament.
And the book of Revelation itself.
These are our safest guides.
When John tells us that Revelation was communicated through signs, he is giving us the key to reading the entire book.
We honor that key when we let the symbols speak as symbols and allow Scripture itself to guide our understanding.
Continue Your Study
Why Does Revelation Use So Many Old Testament Images?
Revelation quotes the Old Testament very little.
Yet it echoes it hundreds of times.
Why?
And how does understanding the prophets help us understand John's visions?
Related Bible Studies
Why Did the Prophets Use Symbolic Language?
How Do We Recognize Different Kinds of Bible Literature?
How Does the Bible Interpret Itself?
Reading the Prophets
Companion Video
What Does "He Made It Known by Signs" Mean?
Read First. Conclude Later.