Literary genre
Apocalyptic
Apocalyptic (“unveiling”) uses dramatic symbols, numbers, and visions to pull back the curtain on the spiritual realities behind history and to assure a suffering people that God reigns and wins.
How to read it
Read the symbols as symbols — they evoke and reveal rather than diagram a timeline. Anchor interpretation in the Old Testament imagery being reused, and let the big message (the Lamb has conquered) govern the disputed details.