Let us begin with the noun “prophecy.” To the average reader of Revelation, it will be obvious that Revelation is a prophetic book. After all, it explicitly calls itself this. “Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of this prophecy,” the author says, near the book’s very beginning (1:3). Again, four times in the final chapter the book uses the word “prophecy” to describe itself. “Blessed is he who keeps the words of the prophecy of this book” (22:7)—“Do not seal the words