over and over, that the victory has already been won by “the Lamb who was slain since the foundation of the world” (13:8). Among others, Craig Koester has recognized this odd aspect of the document when read as a thoroughgoing example of an apocalyptic literary form. He points out that “Revelation departs from the usual pattern” of apocalyptic literature, but he does not carry this recognition far enough. He states that “the eschatological struggle had already begun with the Messiah’s exaltation