Editing Book of Revelation (section)

==== Eastern Orthodox ====
[[File:Apokalipsis XVI.jpg|thumb|An Orthodox [[icon]] of the Apocalypse of St. John, 16th century]]
Eastern Orthodoxy treats the text as simultaneously describing contemporaneous events (events occurring at the same time) and as prophecy of events to come, for which the contemporaneous events were a form of foreshadowing. It rejects attempts to determine, before the fact, if the events of Revelation are occurring by mapping them onto present-day events, taking to heart the Scriptural warning against those who proclaim "He is here!" prematurely. Instead, the book is seen as a warning to be spiritually and morally ready for the end times, whenever they may come ("as a thief in the night"), but they will come at the time of God's choosing, not something that can be precipitated nor trivially deduced by mortals.<ref>{{Cite book
 | author = Archbishop Averky (Taushev)
 | year = 1996
 | title = The Apocalypse: In the Teachings of Ancient Christianity
 | translator-first = Seraphim
 | translator-last = Rose
 | translator-link = Seraphim Rose
 | place = Platina, California
 | publisher = St. Herman of Alaska Brotherhood
 | isbn = 978-0-938635-67-3
 | url = https://archive.org/details/apocalypseintea00aver
 | url-access = registration
 }}
</ref>

Book of Revelation is the only book of the New Testament that is not read during services by the Byzantine Rite Churches, although it is read in the [[Western Rite Orthodoxy|Western Rite Orthodox Parishes]], which are under the same bishops as the Byzantine Rite.