How to read the Book of Revelation

B. B. Warfield wrote a surprising essay in 1904 on the Book of Revelation. The article was mainly about how to see the millennium passage in the 20th chapter, but prior to that he makes general remarks that are very helpful in seeing the structure of Revelation. He also gives four points to keep in mind when reading it. I'll post some relevant paragraphs (and an information-loaded footnote) here. First here's the essay in full:

http://www.lgmarshall.org/Warfield/warfield_millennium.html

[...] The structure of the book, made up as it is of seven parallel sections,6 repeating with progressive clearness, fullness and richness the whole history of the inter-adventual period [i.e. between the first and second coming of Christ, what we are living in now], and thus advancing in a spiral fashion to its climax... We have only to bear clearly in mind a few primary principles, apart from which no portion of the book can be understood, and we need not despair of unlocking the secrets of this section also.

I'm butchering the paragraph above, but see the original for the whole thing. Before I post further paragraphs here is the footnote #6 that has alot of info:

6. The plan of the book [the Book of Revelation] is, then, something like the following: Prologue, I: 1-8; seven parallel sections divided at III: 22, VIII: 1, XI: 19, XIV: 20, XVI: 21 and XIX: 20; Epilogue, XXII: 6-21. The subdivisions of the several sections follow, each, its own course.

Here's the paragraph where he presents four basic principles for understanding the Book of Revelation:

These primary principles are, with the greatest possible brevity, the following: 1. The principle of recapitulation.7 That is to say, the structure of the book is such that it returns at the opening of each of its seven sections to the first advent, and gives in the course of each section a picture of the whole interadventual period - each successive portraiture, however, rising above the previous one in the stress laid on the issue of the history being wrought out during its course. ... 2. The principle of successive visions. That is to say, the several visions following one another within the limits of each section, though bound to each other by innumerable links, yet are presented as separate visions, and are to be interpreted, each, as a complete picture in itself. 3. The principle of symbolism. That is to say - as is implied, indeed, in the simple fact that we are brought face to face here with a series of visions significant of events - we are to bear continually in mind that the whole fabric of the book is compact of symbols. The descriptions are descriptions not of the real occurrences themselves, but of symbols of the real occurrences; and are to be read strictly as such. Even more than in the case of parables, we are to avoid pressing details in our interpretation of symbols: most of the details are details of the symbol, designed purely to bring the symbol sharply and strongly before the mind's eye, and are not to be transferred by any method of interpretation whatever directly to the thing symbolized. The symbol as a whole symbolizes the real event: and the details of the picture belong primarily only to the symbol. Of course, now and then a hint is thrown out which may seem more or less to traverse this general rule: but, as a general rule, it is not only sound but absolutely necessary for any sane interpretation of the book. 4. The principle of ethical purpose. That is to say, here as in all prophecy it is the spiritual and ethical impression that rules the presentation and not an annalistic or chronological intent. The purpose of the seer is to make known indeed - to make wise - but not for knowledge's own sake, but for a further end: to make known unto action, to make wise unto salvation. He contents himself, therefore, with what is efficacious for his spiritual end and never loses himself in details which can have no other object than the satisfaction of the curiosity of the mind for historical or other knowledge.

Here's a remarkable paragraph where he states the book needs a high perspective rather than the more usual pin-point focus books of Scripture are given. Remarkable because Warfield was of the class of types what would and could bring the pin-point focus. He shows a literary understanding here:

One of the effects of the recognition of these primary principles - an effect the perception of which is no more interesting in itself than fruitful for the interpretation of the book - is the transference of the task of the interpreter from the region of minute philology to that of broad literary appreciation. The ascertainment of the meaning of the Apocalypse is a task, that is to say, not directly of verbal criticism but of sympathetic imagination: the teaching of the book lies not immediately in its words, but in the wide vistas its visions open to the fancy. It is the seeing eye, here, therefore, rather than the nice scales of linguistic science, that is needful more obviously than in most sections of Scripture.

In the 1930s William Hendriksen wrote the classic book on Revelation called More Than Conquerors. It really goes into the seven parallel, recapitulation, sections of Revelation.

To make the footnote 6 above more clear:

Prologue - 1:1 through 1:8

Section I - 1:9 through 3:22

Section II - 4:1 through 7:17

Section III - 8:1 through 11:19

Section IV - 12:1 through 14:20

Section V - 15:1 through 16:21

Section VI - 17:1 through 19:21

Section VII - 20:1 through 22:5

Epilogue - 22:6 through 22:21