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the epistolary forms that frame the work (chs. 1–3 and 22:21) suggest that it was written to be sufficiently transparent to audiences of Christ believers among a series of churches in Asia Minor.
(1:3; chs. 2–3; 13:9; 14:12; 18:4; 22:18–19). A significant
Instead, through “participatory imagination,” late first-century AD audiences in Asia Minor were invited to position themselves within or in relation to the book’s symbolism.
While the book often requires more careful study than many armchair theologians are prepared to invest, Revelation may well be, as Ian Paul promises, “the most remarkable text you will ever read.”2
Accordingly, reading Revelation responsibly, as most second-year biblical studies students will know, requires careful consideration of a passage’s historical-cultural context.3 This is particularly so for an apocalypse like Revelation, whose rhetorical strategy and communicative artistry require special hermeneutical attention.
Although it is true that some contextual awareness is better than none, it is also true that failure to immerse oneself within the literary and religious environment of the New Testament world will likely result in not only unconscious imposition of alien meaning onto the biblical text but also a poorer understanding of the otherworldly creatures and apocalyptic symbolism revealed in John’s visions.
The history of interpretation demonstrates just this problem. Representatives from several of the major interpretative approaches to Revelation—especially from the so-called futurist and historicist perspectives—have a track record of too hastily identifying concrete referents of John’s images without ad...
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whether the papacy, the Nazis, the Russians, or Muslim extremists.4 It is as G. K. Chesterton remarked: “Though St. John the Evangelist saw many strange monsters in his vision, he saw no creature so wild as one of his own commentators.”
according to Collins, a Jewish-Christian apocalypse like Revelation “may on occasion achieve its effect precisely through the element of uncertainty.”7 A deeper understanding of how apocalyptic literature functions is therefore required.
When biblical scholars use the language of apocalyptic, they are normally referring to a constellation of ideas often featured in texts composed in the literary form known as apocalypse, of which Revelation is an example.8 “Apocalypse,” as Collins famously defined it, “is a genre of revelatory literature
For this reason, it is the interpreter’s primary responsibility not so much to decode the vision by identifying the concrete referent of a revealed image, but to recalibrate one’s perceptions of their lived experience in light of the revelation received.
From this an apocalypse derives its power to comfort those who are discouraged or marginalized, admonish those whose responses in their situation are not in line with their religious values, and provide the necessary motivation to take whatever action the seer recommends.”11
Aplication
Charles maintained that these sources offer such valuable contextual insight for exegesis that “the New Testament Apocalypse cannot be understood apart from Jewish Apocalyptic literature.”14
Charles is not alone in his appreciation for this body of texts and its significance for unlocking Revelation.16 In the decades that have followed, his contention has come to be shared by many others, including Bauckham, who remarks, “The tradition of apocalyptic literature is the living literary tradition to whose forms and content [John of Patmos] is most indebted.”17 Yet even as scholars now routinely acknowledge the value of studying Revelation within the context of apocalyptic literature, sustained attention to the book’s Jewish historical and literary context is still too often bypassed
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The range of results produced by these disparate perspectives, however, accentuates the difficulty modern readers face when seeking to specify what John was actually reacting to within the social world of ancient Rome. While
Given, then, the nature of the apocalyptic genre and its development during the Second Temple period, it is critical to read Revelation alongside antecedent Jewish apocalyptic traditions.
For others, this avoidance is a matter of canonicity. Although aware of the existence of extrabiblical Jewish literature, these readers often consider ancient religious books lying outside of Scripture to be theologically irrelevant or even dangerous. Accordingly, they bar these works from hermeneutical consideration, basing such avoidance on their commitment to sola Scriptura or related post-Reformation doctrines on the clarity and sufficiency of Scripture.
They therefore disregard early Jewish literature, being either regretful they do not have the training to apply extrabiblical insights or anxious they might distort the New Testament message if they tried.
is not too much to regard these intertestamental books as an historical hyphen that serves a useful function in bridging what to most readers of the Bible is a blank of several hundred years. To neglect what the Apocrypha have to tell us about the development of Jewish life and thought during those critical times is as foolish as to imagine that one can understand the civilization and culture of America today by passing from colonial days to the twentieth century without taking into account the industrial and social revolution of the intervening centuries.23
Yet the appropriate solution to the misuse of comparative literature is not its outright dismissal but responsible handling by students of Scripture. As
To interpret Revelation responsibly, then, students must not ignore Second Temple Jewish literature, but engage it with frequency, precision, and a willingness to acknowledge theological continuity and discontinuity.
This volume seeks to fill this void. In this book we investigate the relation between John’s Apocalypse and Second Temple Judaism by bringing together a series of accessible essays that compare and contrast the perspectives and hermeneutical practices of John the Seer and his various kinsmen.
this book examines select passages in Second Temple Jewish literature to illuminate the context of John’s visions and the nuances of his message.
cried over its unimpressive stature (Ezra 3:10–13; Hag 2:3). Israel’s promised restoration had not arrived at the hands of Ezra and Nehemiah. As the centuries to follow would demonstrate, the peace and prosperity God swore to his people had yet to be realized in the period immediately following the Babylonian exile. Instead, generation after generation witnessed subjugation and suffering at the hands of still other foreign powers—namely, Medo-Persia, Greece, and Rome—and these experiences significantly colored the texts these Jews produced.
numerous Second Temple Jewish literary works preserve their thoughts and hopes about God and life in the covenant. These reflections survive in the numerous literary works produced during this period.
genres below.31 The first early Jewish literary genre to be familiar with is history.
second early Jewish literary genre is tales.
Our third genre is rewritten Scripture.
Fourth among the early Jewish literary genres is apocalypse, which normally consists of otherworldly visions given to a human recipient (seer) through the mediation of a supernatural, sometimes angelic, being. Most Jewish apocalypses were written in the second and third centuries BC during times of great distress. They therefore seek to bring comfort to suffering Jewish communities by providing a heavenly perspective on past, present, and future events.
Enoch’s figure is most often referred to as “Chosen One,” which reflects the Lord’s chosen servant in Isaiah (42:1; 43:10). The figure is also called “Righteous One” (1 En. 38:2; 53:6) and “Anointed One,” signifying that he is the Messiah (1 En. 48:10; 52:4).
In the Parables, then, the designations Righteous One, Anointed One, Chosen One, and Son of Man all refer to the same figure.
This figure will judge the kings of the earth after being seated on the Lord of Spirits’ throne
Parables of Enoch also depicts the Son of Man as a preexistent figure, since he was named before creation and was hidden in God’s presence “before the world was created” (48:2, 6; 62:7).
with Davidic messianic expectation, just as the Enochic figure is called “Anointed One.” In Revelation, Jesus is called Christ (“Messiah”), the Lion of Judah,
John sees Jesus present among the seven golden lampstands, which signifies his presence with the seven churches (Rev 1:12, 20).
First, there exists a disconnect between John’s expectations of hostility for the people of the kingdom (cf. 1:9) and the present experience of many in the church. Second, he is grappling with how Christians can accumulate wealth, on the one hand, and remain faithful to God, on the other.3 This concern over the accumulation of wealth among the people of God finds significant parallels in the Second Temple literature, especially those works that are apocalyptic in nature. The most obvious parallels are found in the Epistle of Enoch.
“Woe to you sinners for your riches give you the appearance of righteousness but your hearts convict you of being sinners, and this fact will serve against you—a testament to your evil deeds!”7
These denouncements of the wicked are further expressed in terms of their oppression of the faithful (94:7; 96:5), their trusting in riches (94:8–9), their decadence (98:2–3), and their independence of God’s authority to live however they wish (97:8–10).
Know this! Your souls will be taken down to Sheol, and there they will be in great distress—8 in darkness, in snares, and in blazing fire—and your souls will enter into the Great Judgment, and this great judgment will last all the generations of eternity. Woe to you! You will have no peace. (103:5–8)
KNOW YOUR AFFLICTIONS AND YOUR POVERTY—YET YOU ARE RICH”
Wealth and the Wicked, Poverty and the Pious. Given the economic language in these texts and the linguistic connections to Jezebel, one can see in the message to the church (chs. 2–3) that John intends to undermine her view of wealth in relation to the faithful community. That is, John opposes the idea that the pious and faithful can accumulate individual wealth through activity with the immoral Roman Empire while remaining faithful to God. And this not simply because he sees the Roman world as evil, but because of his apocalyptic worldview that understands the present age as one in which the
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The mark of covenant faithfulness to God, then, is not affluence in the present age, but hostility and conflict, even persecution—a situation that will be reversed in the coming age when the righteous receive their blessing in Christ along with his consummated kingdom (cf. Rev 21:1–22:5). Hence, the angel lauds the Smyrnans,
First, like the epistle, John does not view wealth and affluence as a feature of the present age for the Christian community. Rather, he presupposes a postponement of the Deuteronomic promise of material blessing to the coming age. John envisions the world in the present age as irretrievably evil and ruled temporarily by Satan. This follows the same pattern developed in the Second Temple period in which external evil forces deceive humankind (1QS 3:20–21; 1QM 14:9) and lure them into a life of affluence and away from worshiping God (CD 4:13–17).
John’s discourse is not set against the social injustices of the Roman Empire; Rome is not the enemy of the church per se. John’s worldview is based on his apocalyptic understanding that the present age is irredeemable because the eschatological age has been inaugurated and Satan and his angels have been cast down to the earth (12:7–17).
The very nature of the eschatological age, as John sees it, is that people will be lured into seeking affluence in order to find some sense of false security and establish their self-sufficiency.
Aplication
This correlates with John’s admonition to the rich that they “buy” from Christ gold refined by fire so that they might become rich (3:18),
Thus, John is encouraging the rich in the church to reject riches in the present age and receive the reproof and discipline of God (3:19), which reflects an alternative, otherworldly economic system.
them as they gave shape to their faith and canon.
The seven lamps, which John himself explains as “the seven spirits of God,” were taken to represent the one Holy Spirit (Primasius, Commentary on the Apocalypse 4.5).
The Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs were preserved and handed down not in
