New Jerusalem is reached. Since the messages to the churches “set up” much of the action of the Apocalypse, it will not do to treat them as discrete passages separated off from the rest of the visionary narrative. We might point out here, as well, that though John’s Apocalypse takes the form of a complex of visions, there is nowhere any talk in the initial chapters concerning John “dreaming” or about him “waking from a dream.” The lively quality of the Apocalypse engages the reader from the very