J. Webb Mealy

Publication Date

10-1981

Advisor(s) - Committee Chair

John Long

Degree Program

Department of Philosophy & Religion

Degree Type

Master of Arts

Abstract

The rhetoric of narration employed by John in the composition of Revelation was analyzed as a key to interpretation. This analysis was carried out in the context of two test passages, 20:11-21:10 and 6:1-8:5. in the first passage, the single vision-scenes of the Last Judgment (20: 11-15) and the descent of the New Jerusalem (21:1-10) were examined for internal structure and mode of narration, and each was found to be structured in a relatively static, pictorial and descriptive mode rather than a temporal, event-oriented mode. Certain commonly alleged anomalies in the order of the text and other exegetical problems were thus solved by showing the fallaciousness of assuming the narration of John's visions (considered individually) to proceed chronologically. In the second test passage (6:1- 8:5, the Seven Seals and the interlude of chapter 7), the question of chronological versus non-chronological rhetoric of narration was brought to a cluster of single scenes. Temporal and other kinds of relationships between the seven seals, the sealing of the 144,000, and the liturgy of the numberless multitude before the throne were analyzed, and chronology was found not to be an important element in the structuring of the whole. Instead, topical, thematic and theological motivations were observed to be the central influences in the ordering of the text.

Some basic literary-critical principles were developed on the basis of these findings. The first was that identity of context or visual perspective between two scenes was indicative of an important thematic or narrative relationship between them, whether the two scenes were contiguous in the text or not. Careful demonstration was made of the presence of this and other kinds of non-chronological connectors between visions, such as verbal and descriptive similarity, correspondence in overall imagery, and unifying context of Old Testament imagery and language. Attention to these relationships was suggested to be the basis for a new and more effective approach to the interpretation of Revelation.

In an appendix, the assumptions and working vocabulary of narrative criticism as currently being practiced were evaluated as inadequate to the rhetorical structure of Revelation.

Disciplines

Arts and Humanities | Biblical Studies | Christianity | Religion | Religious Thought, Theology and Philosophy of Religion

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