I am doing a Bible Study on Revelation 1:1-20 and Revelation 2:1-29. What questions and answers might help me get started?
I recommend that you not study as complicated a book as Revelation without some study helps. In particular, I urge you to buy two resources: 1) C. Keener’s Application Bible Commentary on Revelation (published by Zondervan); 2) B. Metzger’s “Cracking the Code.”
Apocalyptic literature such as we find in Revelation is complex and requires extra help to understand. It involves symbolic visions and many dramatic metaphors. The metaphors are not to be taken literally, but they are referential–for example, see how Rev. 1 refers to Christ in various ways.
—Ben Witherington III