The Book of Revelation: Apocalypse and Empire
About
seventy years after the death of Jesus, John of Patmos sent visionary
messages to Christians in seven cities of western Asia Minor. These
messages would eventually become part of the New Testament canon, as The
Book of Revelation. What was John's message? What was its literary
form? Did he write to a persecuted minority or to Christians enjoying
the social and material benefits of the Roman Empire? In search of
answers to these penetrating questions, Thompson critically examines the
language, literature, history, and social setting of the Book of the
Apocalypse. Following a discussion of the importance of the genre
apocalypse, he closely analyzes the form and structure of the
Revelation, its narrative and metaphoric unity, the world created
through John's visions, and the social conditions of the empire in which
John wrote. He offers an unprecedented interpretation of the role of
boundaries in Revelation, a reassessment of the reign of the Emperor
Domitian, and a view of tribulation that integrates the literary vision
of Revelation with the reality of the lives of ordinary people in a
Roman province. Throughout his study, Thompson argues that the language
of Revelation joins the ordinary to the extra-ordinary, earth to heaven,
and local conditions to supra-human processes.
No comments:
Post a Comment