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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