38 Fr. Sieg an insight to heaven and a contact23 with the “Divine Reality”24. However, such interpretations require, in the light of the context, some kind of cor- rection, namely, the visionary saw “a door open in heaven” not in order to observe what is passing inside25, but in order to enter “heaven” in a mystical way. The interpretation is proved by the context, where we find a command to enter and a mention of an ecstatic state that is entering “in spirit”26. Just as the image of “heaven”, also the image of “open heaven” evolved from a primitive, cosmological concept to the transcendent, spiritual understanding, to be noted in the call visions (Ezek 1:1 ff; Isa 6:1 ff: sim- ultaneous an auditive experience), and especially in the New Testament (Mark 1:9, par.). We can, however, raise a question of how to evaluate the motif occurring in Judaic literature of the intertestamental period in the light of biblical tradition. Undoubtedly, some connections with this tradition exist. It would, however, require an independent study of the broader context to determine, in which Judaic texts the motif acquired the transcendent character. As far as the motif of Rev 4:1b is concerned, we should distinguish between the form, which is traditional, and the function of the motif, including its transcendent character, to which the broader context of the Book testifies. It is the theological context that provides the basis for understanding and interpreting the meaning of the traditional image of “a door open in heaven” in its context of Rev 4:1b. Since the term “heaven”, seen in the light of the broader context of Rev, does not denote heaven in the horizontal or theological, but rather in the visual sense27, it seems logical to conclude that in the phrase “a door open in heaven” it refers to the visual heaven as well. Therefore the whole phrase determines subjective conditions of the ecstatic vision. 23 In this way “the author is given an access to the contact with the supernatural, so that he could learn future events, known to God only”. (Michon, “Znaczenie”, 189). See also Swete, Apocalypse, 66, “In this vision a door only is opened, and not heaven as a whole, i.e. the vision is limited to the Seer; only one who has been lifted up into the heavenly places can see what is passing within”. See also, J. Könn, Gott und Satan. Schriftlesungen über die Geheime Offenbarung (Einsiedeln, Köln 1949) 145, “Nur durch heilige Schau können wir zu einem Ahnen der göttlichen Grösse gelangen”. 24 Michon, “Znaczenie”, 189, “During the vision ‘the opening of heaven’ functions as the stepping stone into the transcendent and into the meeting with Divine Reality as well as testifies to God’s intervention into the world”; Lentzen-Deis, “Das Motiv”, 310, concludes his discussion of the “open heaven” motif in 2 Bar 22:1 [and the context] with the words: “Die Himmelsöffnung hat also im Rahmen dieser Elemente die Funktion, die Überschreitung der Schwelle der „Transzendenz“, die Eröffnung der himmlischen Sphäre zu markieren”. 25 A. Bisping, Erklärung der Apokalypse des Johannes (Münster 1876) 92. 26 J.A. Bengal, Gnomon, Bd 2. Briefe und Offenbarung (Leipzig 41932) 780. 27 F. Sieg, Niewiasta i Syn w Apokalipsie sw. Jana 12 (Warsaw 1987) 105.