The streets of Heaven the imagery and ideology of wealth in the Apocalypse of John
This dissertation studies the wealth imagery of the Apocalypse in the context of the narrative world of the text and the social world of its original audience. The social setting of the Apocalypse is one of struggle and conflict among the Christian commuities of Asia ca. 100 CE. The Apocalypse was s...
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| Format: | Thesis Electronic Book |
| Language: | English |
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1995
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| Summary: | This dissertation studies the wealth imagery of the Apocalypse in the context of the narrative world of the text and the social world of its original audience. The social setting of the Apocalypse is one of struggle and conflict among the Christian commuities of Asia ca. 100 CE. The Apocalypse was sent to the churches in Asia to heighten a sense of crisis and to influence the power struggle within the churches by enhancing the authority of the author. Chapter 1 includes a discussion of rhetorical criticism of the Apocalypse; a model exegesis of Rev 1:1-20; and a narrative study of the wealth imagery in the Apocalypse. Chapter 2 is a study of wealth motifs in the Hebrew prophets and Second Temple Jewish Literature. Chapter 3 is a survey of the ways in which wealth motifs appeared in Greco-Roman literature and culture. Chapters 4-6 apply the results of chapters 2 and 3 to the Apocalypse. The wealth imagery in Revelation challenges Roman authority by casting God and Christ as the wealthy patrons of the Christian communities. Christ is characterized as an aristocratic moral philosopher in the messages to Smyrna and Laodicea. The salient features of the moral portrait of Babylon in Revelation, fornication and commercial wealth, are crafted from passages in the Hebrew Bible so as to obscure the sources while retaining their biblical timbre. The characterization of Babylons wealth as commercially derived differentiates its wealth from the wealth of heaven. The heresiological rhetoric of the Apocalypse categorizes all of Johns opponents in a unified, satanic opposition. Revelation 19-22 presents the Bride of Christ and the New Jerusalem as an ideologically pure inheritance for conquering Christians. The wealth of the New Jerusalem is set in contrast to the wealth of Babylon in order to raise the status of Gods wealth. This vision of the New Jerusalem refers back to the situation of the seven churches and the crisis at hand. The narrator describes the opulent city as a high status dwelling for those who support the author and oppose other Christian teachers and prophets |
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| Item Description: | Director: Susan R. Garrett Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 57-01, Section: A, page: 0280 |
| Physical Description: | 1 online resource (414 p.) |
| Access: | Access is restricted by licensing agreement |