Book of Revelation Apocalyptic

Book of Revelation What do we have? Revelation or Revelations? Revelation or Revelations? Visions and/or compositions Visions and/or compositions Reading perspectives Reading perspectives

Genre “A literary genre consists of a group of texts that exhibit a coherent and recurring pattern of features constituted by the interrelated elements of form, content, and function”(Aune, lxxi).

Revelation as Genre Letter Letter Formal framework Formal framework Possibly functioned to be read in worship Possibly functioned to be read in worship Mostly deemed of little interpretive importance Mostly deemed of little interpretive importance Prophecy Prophecy Distinction from apocalyptic fuzzy Distinction from apocalyptic fuzzy Call and vision report Call and vision report Threat and benevolence Threat and benevolence Conditional rather than deterministic Conditional rather than deterministic

Revelation as Apocalyptic Insights and definitions from class

Apocalypse definition Apocalypse is a genre of revelatory literature with a narrative framework, in which a revelation is mediated by an otherworldly being to a human recipient, disclosing a transcendent reality which is both temporal, insofar as it envisages eschatological salvation, and spatial, insofar as it involves another, supernatural world. (Semeia 14 [1979] 9; Apocalypse, 4)

Apocalypse form First person prose narrative Episodic structure Revelatory visions Often mediated by supernatural revealer Reached a literary climax Framed by a narrative offering an explanation of surrounding circumstances

Apocalypse content Transcendent, eschatological perspective

Apocalypse function Legitimate the authorization of message Legitimate the authorization of message Encourage the readers to pursue or modify their thinking and behavior in conformity with transcendent perspectives. Encourage the readers to pursue or modify their thinking and behavior in conformity with transcendent perspectives.

Literary Form of Vision Section Seven Seals, Seven Trumpets, Seven Bowls ( 4-16) Seven Seals, Seven Trumpets, Seven Bowls ( 4-16) Two Paired Angelic Revelations frame a middle section (17-22:9) Two Paired Angelic Revelations frame a middle section (17-22:9)

Structure Seals Sealing of 144,000 Seventh Seal Trumpets Angel with little Scroll

Structure The Two Witnesses The seventh Trumpet The woman, child and dragon The beasts from the sea and the land Several visions

Structure