The Law of Recurrence in Bible Interpretation

When studying Revelation—or any part of the Bible—one scholar says there are at least four laws

of interpretation that are helpful to keep in mind: 1. There’s the Rule

of Plain Sense. 2. The Law of Double Reference. 3.

The Law of Recurrence. 4. The Law of Context. But let’s focus on just one of them.

The Law of Recurrence. This law says the Bible will sometimes describe an event once… then go back

and describe the same event again, not because it happened twice, but to add detail.

There’s a clear example in Genesis chapter 1. We’re given the full creation week.

Then in Genesis 2, Scripture goes back—not to create again— but to zoom in on