The geographical and adversarial orientation of the Book of Revelation

مرکز و کتابخانه مطالعات اسلامی به زبان های اروپایی

منو

" The geographical and adversarial orientation of the Book of Revelation "
Deborah Furlan Taylor R. F. Collins

Document Type	:	Latin Dissertation
Language of Document	:	English
Record Number	:	55099
Doc. No	:	TL25053
Call number	:	‭3154389‬
Main Entry	:	Deborah Furlan Taylor
Title & Author	:	The geographical and adversarial orientation of the Book of Revelation\ Deborah Furlan Taylor
College	:	The Catholic University of America
Date	:	2005
Degree	:	Ph.D.
student score	:	2005
Page No	:	570
Abstract	:	This historical-critical study of the Book of Revelation focuses on its implicit spatial (cosmological and geographical) order with the purpose of clarifying the nature of the characters and events in its narrative. Revelation's author, John, was a Jewish Christian who wrote a genuine letter to seven congregations in Asia Minor. Most of Revelation's OT allusions reflect an actualizing interpretation of the Prophets in the manner of the Qumran pesharim. Revelation's numbered visions provide a schematic, chronological review of Jewish history. The “four horsemen of the Apocalypse” represent the eras of King David, the divided kingdom, Israel's conquest by Mesopotamian powers, and the Hellenistic period, the last regarded as an age of collaboration (between “Death and Hades”) in which Jewish kings allied themselves with Roman emperors, creating a beast with seven heads (emperors) and ten horns (Hasmonean-Herodian kings). John regards the Jewish War of A.D. 66–70 as fulfilling the oracles of Isaiah 13–35, beginning with Isaiah's oracle against “Babylon” (= Jerusalem), whose “morning star” John understands to be Jesus. Revelation's apocalyptic spatial order is fundamentally real rather than symbolic, a two-level cosmos in which God's throne is centered on the heavenly firmament and Jerusalem is centered on the earth's surface below. Just as the firmament divides heaven horizontally into two parts (God's realm and the sky), the earth is subdivided horizontally into regions above and below its surface. Celestial bodies are angels whose orderly movements inform Revelation's calendar of twelve thirty-day months; unusual celestial events are omens (“signs”) from God. Angels can change form at will, sometimes appearing as people. John believes that the Roman general Titus is an incarnation of Satan, and that Agrippa II is really an “angel of the abyss.” John's interpretation of OT prophecies has convinced him that Titus's destruction of Jerusalem will be quickly followed by Jesus' parousia, inaugurating a thousand-year messianic kingdom that will culminate in a failed attempt by the Scythians(“Gog and Magog”) to destroy Jerusalem. Only then will the firmament be abolished and a new cosmos created, with a “new Jerusalem” at its center.
Subject	:	Philosophy, religion and theology; Social sciences; Adversarial orientation; Apocalypse; Geographical orientation; Revelation (Book of); Bible; Ancient civilizations; Science history; 0579:Ancient civilizations; 0585:Science history; 0321:Bible
Added Entry	:	R. F. Collins
Added Entry	:	The Catholic University of America