word “for them,” that is, for communities of faith removed from us by at least nineteen centuries, and that we are the secondary beneficiaries of the pastoral guidance initially intended for them. John gives some cues that should serve to remind us, as attentive readers, that this book is not in fact about us. In particular, he signals that Revelation is to be read as a letter, specifically a pastoral letter. After an introductory paragraph in which John does not speak in his own voice, but in an