Structure of Revelation

Blessed is the one who reads the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear it and take to heart what is written in it, because the time is near.
-- Revelation 1:3 NIV

John wrote Revelation to be read aloud. For that reason, he blesses the reader (singular) and the hearers (plural) in verse 3. A listener cannot see chapter headings or paragraph formatting to identify changes in topic, so he must listen for cues in the oral reading of the text. Some of those cues are lists (seven letters, seven seals, seven trumpets, and seven bowls) and repetitions (I saw, earthquake, and hail). These clues provide a structure for Revelation.

1. Seven Letters (the saints in distress)

     2. Seven Seals (things that must take place after this)

          3. Seven Trumpets (the Lord assists his servants)

               4. God's Enemies

          5. Seven Bowls (the Lord afflicts his enemies)

     6. Eternal Judgment (the end of the age)

7. The New Jerusalem (the saints in glory)

Sections 2 - 6 are not sequential. Instead, they all summarize this present age from the time of John to the coming of Jesus in judgment. Hence, the sections recapitulate earlier sections and are more or less parallel to each other (see Hendriksen, 1967, pp. 22-31; Beale, 1999, pp. 121-144). Furthermore, each section expands on some aspect of a previous section and elaborates more on the end of the age. The sixth section deals almost exclusively with the end of this age with Christ's final victory over his enemies. This progressive parallelism is based on the structure of Daniel where, for example, the four beasts in Daniel 7 are parallel to and expand on the four parts of Nebuchadnezzar's image in Daniel 2.