Book Of Revelation Research Articles

The Book of Revelation and Its Interpreters: Short Studies and an Annotated Bibliography ed. by Ian Boxall and Richard Tresley

Reviewed by: The Book of Revelation and Its Interpreters: Short Studies and an Annotated Bibliography ed. by Ian Boxall and Richard Tresley Russell Morton ian boxall and richard tresley (eds.), The Book of Revelation and Its Interpreters: Short Studies and an Annotated Bibliography ( Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2016). Pp. xi + 282. $80. This book has a complex publication history. The bibliographic heart of the volume (pp. 125-272) was originally contracted for inclusion in the American Theological Library Association (ATLA) bibliography series. The project was delayed, and during this period ATLA no longer worked with the publishers. Nevertheless, the editors again approached the publishers, and, at the suggestion of reviewers, short essays were added. The result is the present volume (p. xi). The book concentrates on interpretation of the Apocalypse in the period before 1700. To that end, Christopher Rowland's introduction, "The Reception of Revelation: An Overview," provides the parameters for the study. Rowland notes briefly how Revelation was understood during major periods of church history. He remarks on the early popularity of the Apocalypse, as well as the growing unease with apocalypticism after the advent of Montanism. This anxiety was partially alleviated by Tychonius's reading. For the medieval period, Rowland discusses Joachim of Fiore's trinitarian understanding of history. Joachim's method, while not copied by later readers, would provide a precedent for Revelation's appropriation by marginalized groups in later centuries, such as adherents of the Radical Reformation and some of the more extreme elements in the English Civil War. In chap. 1, "Praising God in Adversity: Tyconius's Ecclesiastical Exegesis of the Celestial Liturgy (Rev. 4–5)," by Sean Michael Ryan, we learn that Tychonius creatively utilized Victorianus's recapitulation theory. Tychonius read Revelation 4–5 using "a subtle and coherent ecclesiological interpretation" (p. 38), which centered on Christ's birth and passion. Like Victorianus, Tychonius thought that the four living creatures of Rev 4:7 represented the four Gospels. Tychonius's interpretation, however, was more ecclesiastical, since each of the four living creatures also signified a different aspect of the church's character (p. 40). Francis X. Gumerlock ("Chromatius of Aquileia on John 21:22 and Rev. 10:11: Against a Legend about the Apostle John") discusses an early legend based on John 21:22 that John never died but was sleeping. John was waiting to be awakened so he could "preach again" (see Rev 10:11) in the end-times. This legend was modified by Chromatius, who asserted that John had died but died without pain. A new translation of Cromatius's sermon for the feast day of John and his introduction to the apocalypse illustrate this theme. In chap. 3, "The Figure of John of Patmos in Pre-1700 Interpretation of Revelation," Ian Boxall examines the various ways John of Patmos was understood by Christian tradition up to 1700. His purpose is to show "how this rich range of possibilities was exploited by commentators across the centuries, reflecting changed circumstances, fresh contexts, and differing hermeneutical strategies" (p. 67). Some terms applied to John were "martyr," [End Page 543] "exile," "visionary," and "prophet." In patristic tradition, John was viewed as a martyr, since he suffered for his faith. John's status as exile was established early by Tychonius and became a predominant view. Later patristic and early medieval interpreters often understood John as a visionary (see Rev 1:10). On the other hand, portrayals of John as a prophet were relatively rare. In chap. 4, "Seeing the Apocalypse: Pre-1700 Visualizations of Revelation," Natasha O'Hear explores artistic and iconographic representations of the Apocalypse from the High Middle Ages until the early sixteenth century. Anglo-Norman portrayals of the four horse-men of Revelation 6 are preserved at the libraries of Trinity College, Cambridge, and Lambeth Palace. In each, the viewer sees a sequential portrayal of the four figures. On the other hand, Hans Memling's St. John Altarpiece, dated 1474–79, provides a "simultaneous" representation of John's vision. Finally, with the advent of printing, we encounter the woodcuts of Albrecht Dürer and Lucas Cranach. Dürer represents the consummate artistic visualization of Revelation. These representations were made available to a...

Zechariah's Horse Visions and Angelic Intermediaries: Translation, Allusion, and Transmission in Early Judaism

In this article, I examine the interplay of transmission and exegesis in Zechariah's textual history, analyzing the strategies that early interpreters employed to create coherence in a difficult text. I use Zechariah's horse visions as examples, exploring their presentation in the early versions and the Book of Revelation. The following examination explores the form of Zechariah used by these ancient interpreters and the habits of reading that are implied in their presentation of reused material. The evidence suggests that, by the late Second Temple period, the majority of readers conceptualized Zech 1:8 and 6:1-5 as coreferential visions and that this linking was representative of a larger strategy of coherence. This strategy is also part of a wider tradition of correlating Zechariah's horses with other heavenly figures in the Hebrew Bible, a tradition that is most prevalent in Targum Jonathan.

Bede and the Future ed. by Darby, Peter, and Faith Wallis

Reviewed by: Bede and the Future ed. by Darby, Peter, and Faith Wallis Anna Wallace Darby, Peter, and Faith Wallis, eds, Bede and the Future (Studies in Early Medieval Britain and Ireland), Farnham, Ashgate, 2014; hardback; pp. 286; 1 b/w illustration; R.R.P. £70.00; ISBN 9781409451822. The Venerable Bede is best known to many for his Historia ecclesiastica, and histories, by their nature, are about past time. However, as the editors note in their introduction to Bede and the Future, historia can also mean ‘description’, ‘and thus histories could be of present conditions’ (p. 2). To consider Bede as a historian only is to do a disservice to his wide-ranging mind and the depth of his works. Through his thinking and writing Bede transcended his time. Faith Wallis and Peter Darby are fitting editors for this volume. Wallis [End Page 167] has published translations of several of Bede’s works, including those most explicitly concerned with time: De temporum ratione (published as On the Reckoning of Time) and De temporibus (with Calvin Kendall, published as On the Nature of Things and on Times), while Darby’s 2012 monograph is titled Bede and the End of Time. The other contributors are no less well known in the field of Bede studies. The title of the collection expands on that of Darby’s monograph, taking Bede’s vision of the future as inclusive of but moving beyond the end of time. ‘Bede looked out on many futures’, the editors write (p. 3), and his ideas developed over time. The volume thus takes a roughly chronological sequence according to the order in which Bede penned his works, inasmuch as this can be known. This method of ordering means that thematically similar essays are not always grouped, but it demonstrates the ways in which Bede returned to certain topics throughout his life. The first essay, by Wallis, asks why Bede wrote his commentary on the Book of Revelation, one of his earlier works. As she notes, ‘the fact that he was selective tends to get lost’ (p. 23). Bede did not write commentaries on every book of the Bible, nor on every topic of science or history. The question is not only why did Bede choose Revelation, but why did he make such an ambitious choice at the beginning of his career? Wallis concludes that Bede’s choice was intended ‘to counter mistaken views about knowledge of the future’ as well as to state his own orthodoxy (p. 44). Alan Thacker continues the theme of Bede’s anxiety about accusations of heresy and unorthodoxy, which followed him throughout his life in one form or another. Christopher Grocock discusses Bede’s anxieties regarding more domestic matters: the possibility of changes to the Wearmouth–Jarrow monastery amid Northumbrian political upheaval. Grocock’s main source text is Bede’s Historia abbatum, but when Paul C. Hilliard visits a similar theme, Bede’s ideas about the future of Northumbria, it is from the later perspective of Bede’s Historia ecclesiastica. Calvin B. Kendall writes on ‘Bede and Islam’, noting that the term Bede actually used was ‘Saracens’. Darby’s contribution addresses the ‘history of the future’ presented by Bede in De temporum ratione, and in particular the ways in which Bede’s eschatology differs from that of Augustine and Jerome. Bede’s use of ad dating in the Historia ecclesiastica is, Máirín MacCarron argues, a way of confirming the Christian future. James T. Palmer also examines De temporum ratione and its vision of the future, but in the context of computistical arguments and controversies, both in England and further afield, arguing that ‘Bede was addressing a disunited intellectual landscape in general’ (p. 146). Scott Gregorio’s essay on Bede’s ideas for monastic reform in his final works closes the volume, rounding out Bede’s many futures. [End Page 168] Anna Wallace Western Sydney University Copyright © 2017 Anna Wallace

Beauty in Creation: John Wesley's Natural Philosophy

Abstract John Wesley's compendium on natural philosophy is comparable to a second book of revelation about God; the first book is scripture. In light of this, scripture can only function as a hermeneutic for creation; it is not a textbook for the discovery of creation. Wesley used the language of Thomas Aquinas to explain that there is a revealed cause and effect, which leads to a First Cause. With this understanding, creation reveals a beauty that is derivative from God and this type of beauty is an interconnected relationship within all of creation. Because of humanity's limitation of knowledge, empiricism cannot assume a primary source of knowledge for natural philosophy since it can become a misleading source. Natural philosophy, as a result, remains its own objective source of knowledge.

Morphological and Syntactical Irregularities in the Book of Revelation: A Greek Hypothesis by Laurentiu Florentin Mott

Morphological and Syntactical Irregularities in the Book of Revelation: A Greek Hypothesis by Laurentiu Florentin Mott

The Book of Revelation: Currents in British Research on the Apocalypse ed. by Garrick V. Allen, Ian Paul, and Simon P. Woodman

The Book of Revelation: Currents in British Research on the Apocalypse ed. by Garrick V. Allen, Ian Paul, and Simon P. Woodman

Understanding What One Reads III: Essays on the Gospels and Paul by Jan Lambrecht

Reviewed by: Understanding What One Reads III: Essays on the Gospels and Paul by Jan Lambrecht Frank J. Matera jan lambrecht, Understanding What One Reads III: Essays on the Gospels and Paul. ( Annua Nuntia Lovaniensia 71; Leuven: Peeters, 2015). Pp xv + 323. Paper €68. Jan Lambrecht was for many years Professor of New Testament at the Catholic University of Leuven in Belgium. After his retirement, he continued to write and publish numerous essays on the Gospels, Paul, and the Book of Revelation, as well as teach at the [End Page 365] Pontifical Biblical Institute in Rome. The present volume is the third he has published under the title Understanding What One Reads. The first volume contained essays from 1992 to 2002; the second, essays from 2003 to 2011; and this volume, essays from 2011 to 2014. There are forty-two essays in this volume, twenty-two of which have not been published previously. Except for a few extended essays, most are brief, often in the form of notes and responses to recently published books, essays, and academic articles. A constant theme of these writings is the flow of the argument and the line of thought of the biblical text in question. Paying careful attention to the grammar, structure, and translation of the text, Lambrecht seeks its literal meaning in order to arrive at its theological content. He is always respectful of the work that others have done and is careful to present their thesis fairly before critiquing it. But when he does, it is evident that he has little use for esoteric and convoluted theories that are not supported by the grammar, structure, and line of thought revealed in the text and its wider context. Twenty-five essays deal with the Synoptic Gospels, and one with the Fourth Gospel. The essays on the Gospel of Mark investigate the relationship between Mark and Q. Lambrecht argues that Mark knew and skillfully redacted Q. In his essays on Matthew and Luke, he critiques and responds to recent positions taken by other scholars in books and journal articles. The essays in this section are: "The Stronger-Saying of the Baptist (Q 3,16-17 and Mk 1,7-8)"; "Grammar and Logic in Mark 3,26"; "The Parable of the Strong One (Q 11,21-22 and Mk 3,27)"; "Mark's Use of Q 12,8-10: The Holy Spirit (Mk 3,28-29) and the Son of Man (Mk 8, 38)"; "Mark's View of the Mission (Mk 6,7-13)"; "Mark 7,1-23: Flow of the Argument"; "The Line of Thought in Mark 8,14-21"; "Mark 9,37-42: Redaction and Reasoning"; "The Reasoning of Mark in 10,1-12: A Critique of John P. Meier"; "Mark 10,15 and Grammatical Parallels in Mark"; "The Cleansing of the Temple (Mk 11:15-19)"; "Faith, Prayer, and Forgiveness in Mark 11:22-25"; "Jesus' Cry on the Cross and the Centurion's Statement (Mk 15:33-39)"; "Matthew 1,18-25: A Chiastic Vignette? A Close Reading"; "Salvation by Forgiveness: A Response to Thomas R. Blanton IV"; "The Threefold Motivation in the Fourth Q-Beatitude"; "'You Shall Not Swear Falsely' (Mt 5,33c): A Response to John A. L. Lee"; "Measure for Measure: A Response to John S. Kloppenborg"; "Matthew's Parable Theory according to Peter Yaw Oppong-Kumi: A Critical Note"; "Whitewashed Tombs (Mt 23,27-28): Sober Exegesis"; "'In those Days'" (Lk 2,1): A Reply to Michael Wolter"; "The Narrow and Closed Door (Lk 13,22-30): A Response to Matthias Adrian"; "Does the Parable of the Lost Coin (Lk 15,8-10) after All Belong to Q?"; "The Reasoning in Luke 17,20-21"; "Naherwartung in Luke? A Note on M. Wolter's Explanation of Luke 21"; "Reading and Preaching John 21,15-23." The fourteen essays on Paul focus on Romans, and 1 and 2 Corinthians, with a single essay on Galatians. Many of these are also in the form of critical notes and responses to other scholars. There are, however, extended essays on Paul's line of thought in Romans 4, the use of "I" in Romans 7, and the proclamation of the...

Breaking Open the Seals: An Outlook on the Book of Revelation and its Artistic Inspiration

Breaking Open the Seals: An Outlook on the Book of Revelation and its Artistic Inspiration

The Exhortation to Messianic Martyrdom in the Book of Revelation

The Exhortation to Messianic Martyrdom in the Book of Revelation

Testing the Apocalypse: The History of the Book of Revelation . By David G. Muller, Jr.

<i>Testing the Apocalypse: The History of the Book of Revelation</i> . By David G. Muller, Jr.

Picturing the Apocalypse: The Book of Revelation in the Arts Over Two Millennia by Natasha O'Hear and Anthony O'Hear, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2015, pp. xxi + 333, £20.00, hbk

Picturing the Apocalypse: The Book of Revelation in the Arts Over Two Millennia by Natasha O'Hear and Anthony O'Hear, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2015, pp. xxi + 333, £20.00, hbk

Heavenly Choirs In Earthy Spaces: The Significance Of Corporate Spiritual Singing In Early Pentecostal Experience

The phenomenon known as the heavenly choir was a common feature of early Pentecostal worship and revival, rivaled only by speaking in tongues. Participation in the heavenly choir was transformative of both singer and hearer, producing a desire for a fuller experience of God. The experience of participation in the communion of singers transformed the marginalized into prophetic leaders, their earthy meeting places became sanctuaries of ‘heaven below’. This transformation was subversive in that dominant cultural constructs based on race, gender, class, ethnicity, and age were weakened if not toppled. Interpretation of this phenomenon by participants involved an approach to Scripture more dynamic than the later biblicism, interpreters finding resonance with the worship scenes in the book of Revelation rather than dependence upon a one-to-one correspondence of events in the Acts narrative or discourse by Paul, subverting later doctrinal construction beholden to Evangelical schemes.

Peter of Cornwall's Book of revelations. By Robert Easting and Richard Sharpe. (Studies and Texts, 184. British Writers of the Middle Ages and the Early Modern Period, 5.) Pp. xvi + 615. Toronto: PIMS Publications/Oxford: Bodleian Library, 2013. $150. 978 0 88844 184 3; 978 1 85124 254 2

Peter of Cornwall's Book of revelations. By Robert Easting and Richard Sharpe. (Studies and Texts, 184. British Writers of the Middle Ages and the Early Modern Period, 5.) Pp. xvi + 615. Toronto: PIMS Publications/Oxford: Bodleian Library, 2013. $150. 978 0 88844 184 3; 978 1 85124 254 2

Scriptural Allusions in the Book of Revelation and the Contours of Textual Research 1900-2014: Retrospect and Prospects

This article traces the contours of the past century of discourse surrounding the underlying textual form of allusions embedded in the book of Revelation. Special attention is paid to the rapid developments on this issue in the past thirty years, a period in which New Testament scholarship has grappled with the textual complexity of the Hebrew Bible presented by the scrolls from the Judaean Desert. The question of textual form is of foundational importance for analysing the reuse or interpretation of Scripture in the book of Revelation. Despite this reality, it is common to find assumptions or misconceptions in recent studies that obfuscate the textual reality of the Hebrew Bible and its early Greek versions the first century ce. The appraisal of scholarship on this issue allows scholars to better contextualize their own approaches to the text of allusions in the light of previous research. This analysis also highlights the changing methods and approaches by which scholars analyse the text of allusions and suggests some avenues for future research on the allusions embedded in the Apocalypse.

Holy War, Martyrdom, and Terror: Christianity, Violence and the West, by Philippe Buc

Philippe Buc’s ambitious new study concerns the relationship of what is described as religion to certain forms of violence over the last two thousand years in ‘the cultural areas located in what was, circa 1500, Roman Catholic Europe (plus, an offshoot of the Protestant branch, what became the United States of America)’. He expressly omits Eastern Orthodox Christianity, claiming that Byzantium ‘did not know holy war’ (Heraclius?), and Islam, although he includes the Jewish war of 66–73 CE, primarily as an archetype for subsequent Christian violence. Categories analysed are restricted to holy war, the use of terror and terrorism, and martyrdom, seen as an exchange of violence between oppressor and victim. The wider contexts of social or judicial violence, for example the blood feud or legal punishment, are not considered. The case-studies range from Josephus’ account of the Jewish wars to the crusades (especially the First), the sixteenth-century French wars of religion, the English Civil War, colonial America, the French Revolution, the modern United States, Stalin’s show trials of the 1930s, and the Baader-Meinhof gang in 1970s Germany. A central unifying theme is the ubiquity of utopian models of assumptions and action precisely derived from Christian apocalyptic writing, especially the Book of Revelation. This strenuous display of comparative erudition is deployed to support two related arguments. One is specific, that so-called Modernity in the ‘West’ betrays close inheritance and continuity from its pre-Modern, Christian past, primarily in public and political attitudes and performance. In part, this tackles current questions of how religion informs theories and practices of justified violence as an intrinsic element or specious excuse. More generally, Buc insists that such mimetic behaviour operates at a level beyond superficial or familiar rituals. Utopian movements—crusades, religious war, secular revolutionary radicalism, Christian fundamentalism—do not simply assume the guise of religion or pseudo-religious ideology as a cover for ‘actual, concrete problems and crises’. Their utopian vision, derived from Christian eschatology, ‘orients and constrains action’. This conclusion reconfigures discussion of whether religions necessarily are nurseries of violence by concentrating not on their general transcendent theological claims but in detail on Christian ideas of the End of Time, and hence on the nature of historical processes and of the individual’s or society’s place in them.

“Write as I bid you”: Eruptive Baroque Aesthetics in Wycherley’s The Country Wife

Abstract This article argues that J. Douglas Canfield’s idea that baroque characteristics “persisted” in neoclassical literature can do more than just mark moments of exuberant rhetoric and imagery in Restoration texts. Rather, combining scholarship on the baroque by Peter Davidson and Walter Benjamin with Restoration studies reveals that the baroque is an underappreciated feature of Restoration drama that erupts from its neoclassicism and emblematizes aristocratic ideology about the constructed social, economic, and political order of the Restoration. Taking stock of specific historical issues negotiated by Charles II’s regime, therefore, provides the inventory of meanings a baroque eruption signals. Mr. Pinchwife’s surprising and violent threat to his wife Margery in The Country Wife is the article’s primary example. Allusions to Shakespeare’s Othello and the Whore of Babylon from the book of Revelation are revealed to be couched in Pinchwife’s outburst; they demand an allegorical reading in light of contemporary ideology about noblemen and anti-Catholicism.

Good versus Evil: Representations of the Monstrous in Thirteenth Century Anglo-French Apocalypse Manuscripts

This paper examines one of the oldest ideological conflicts of all time: that between the divine powers of good and evil in the Book of Revelation, as represented in thirteenth century Anglo-French apocalypse manuscripts. Using a theoretical framework based on medieval conceptions of the monstrous and the monstrous body, this paper will explore contrasting representations of moral ideology in three different Apocalypse manuscripts (the Trinity Apocalypse, the Douce Apocalypse, and the Getty Apocalypse), arguing that the monstrous body is employed throughout these manuscripts in order to delineate between the forces of good and evil.

Narratiewe tersydes in die vertelling van die Openbaring aan Johannes

Narrative asides in the narrative of the book of Revelation to John. Concerning the language (le parole) of the narrative of the book of Revelation, many ignorant and negative remarks have been thrown around. Therefore, to properly excavate the deadly accurate meaning of the narrative of the text requires narratological knowledge and skills from the informed linguist and exegete. Every hint of information to lighten up the text is very important. In the dramatic narrative of the book of Revelation we find most valuable references which have to be taken into consideration in analysing the text. They are called narrative asides, inter alia to awaken emotion in the reader, provide semantic explanations, give functional meaning to the sequence of the narrative or can just be causal. Combined with vocalisation these narrative aside enables the linguist and exegete hermeneutically to a better understanding of the message of Revelation and 4 Esra. The narrative of 4 Esra is chosen as a comparable and contemporary narrative to put the narrative of Revelation even more into narratological perspective.

Another Look at p.ifao ii 31 (𝔓98)

The article provides a fresh edition and analysis of p.ifao inv. 237b (𝔓98), supposedly the earliest manuscript of the Book of Revelation. The new edition includes corrections to Hagedorn’s 1992 edition, an updated transcription (including two previously undeciphered lines of text), and a colour image of the papyrus. The text of the papyrus is then inspected and classified based on the manner of transmission and the textual quality it reflects.

Book Review: Stephen D. Moore. Untold Tales from the Book of Revelation: Sex and Gender, Empire and Ecology

Book Review: Stephen D. Moore. <i>Untold Tales from the Book of Revelation: Sex and Gender, Empire and Ecology</i>