"Linked like a chain": Rev 22.6-9 in the light of an Ancient Transition Technique

Rev 22.69 exhibits an elaborate structure. Fundamental to its structural complexity is the rhetorical technique of chain-link construction, discussed by both Lucian of Samosata and Quintilian. Appearing in at least three other passages in the Johannine apocalypse, this transition device involves a back-and-forth (AbaB) arrangement of ideas that has not been adequately appreciated in modern scholarship. Rev 22.69 has occasionally been characterised as the product of a second-rate or irregular mind. In fact, however, these verses evidence a structural feature commended by ancient rhetoricians concerned with presentational clarity and force.