Traditions: Johannine apocalyptic Christian,Bahá’í interpretation in Some Answered Questions Motif: temple measurement and symbolic interpretation Connection verdict: explicit later scriptural reinterpretation Article status: Expanded Date: 2026-11-04
Summary
Both texts treat a reed and the measuring of sacred space as meaningful.
Read the two scenes
Revelation 11 begins with a measuring tool and a boundary: temple, altar, and worshippers are measured, while the outer court is left aside. The vision then turns to two witnesses and conflict. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá pauses over the reed itself, treating its hollow capacity to carry melody as an image of a person emptied of selfish inclination and responsive to divine inspiration. He further makes “measure” a call to examine spiritual rank and conduct. The later reading is grounded in a quoted object and verb, yet its humanized symbolism goes beyond the apocalypse’s immediate scene.
What connects—and what does not
Revelation gives a visionary command involving temple, altar, worshippers, and outer court; the Bahá’í commentary identifies the reed with a purified human instrument and measurement with moral evaluation.
The 2014 Bahá’í translation comments directly on Revelation 11:1–2; symbolic identifications are interpretive claims, not the undisputed meaning of the first-century apocalypse.
Why read them side by side?
The pair demonstrates how a later commentary can build an extended religious interpretation from an exact visionary detail.
Sources and reading notes
- Revelation 11:1-12 (NRSVUE) — The visionary measures temple and altar before the two witnesses, their death, and their vindication.
- ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Some Answered Questions, ch. 11, Commentary on Revelation 11 (2014 English edition) — The chapter quotes verses 1–2 and interprets the reed as an emptied instrument and measuring as evaluation.
- Bahá’í Reference Library, Some Answered Questions publication overview — Official overview dates the ‘Akká table talks to 1904–06, first publication to 1908, and extensively retranslated English edition to 2014.
Research limit
A named parallel can establish literary reuse or related tradition; a general resemblance alone cannot prove borrowing. Linked editions and translations vary. Where a source is identified as secondary orientation, the comparison does not claim direct close reading of that tradition’s primary text.