In Rev 13:6, the Beast is said to blaspheme God as well as the ones who dwell in heaven. This paper addresses two questions in relation to this verse, firstly, Who are the heaven-dwellers? And secondly, How were they blasphemed by the Beast? The text of Revelation is read as narrative and in the context of the cosmological dimension of Roman imperial ideology, which is established by examining literary texts and material artefacts. The heaven-dwellers of Rev 13:6 are identified as martyred saints and it is argued that they were blasphemed by Rome’s claim to authority which was both derived from heaven and extended into heaven. The blasphemous implication of Rome’s cosmology was that faithful saints had no place of security and vindication in heaven but were abandoned to an earthly existence of hardship and defeat.
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John J. Collins, “Introduction: Towards the Morphology of a Genre,” Semeia 14 (1979) 9.
Georgi, “True Prophet,” 124. See Sean M. McDonough, “Of Beasts and Bees: The View of the Natural World in Virgil’s Georgics and John’s Apocalypse,” nts 46 (2000) 227-244, for a different approach which finds both similarities and contrasts in comparing the cosmologies of Revelation and the Georgics.
Ryan Leif Hansen, Silence and Praise: Rhetorical Cosmology and Political Theology in the Book of Revelation (Minneapolis: Fortress, 2014) has recently argued for the significance of cosmology in the theology of Revelation and particularly in the rhetoric John employs in attempting to socially distance his audience from the Roman Empire.
Angels: Wilhelm Bousset, Die Offenbarung Johannis (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck and Ruprecht, 1906) 363; R.H. Charles, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Revelation of St. John (2 vols.; Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1920) 2:353; Heinrich Kraft, Die Offenbarung des Johannes (Tübingen: J.C.B. Mohr (Paul Siebeck), 1974) 177; Gordon D. Fee, Revelation: A New Covenant Commentary (Oregon: Wipf and Stock, 2011) 182. Angels as the heavenly counterpart to the saints on earth: Grant R. Osborne, Revelation (Michigan: Baker Academic, 2002) 477-478, 500. Saints on earth dwelling spiritually in heaven: Austin Farrer, The Revelation of St. John the Divine (Oxford: Clarendon, 1964) 153; G.B. Caird, A Commentary on the Revelation of St. John the Divine (New York: Harper and Row, 1966) 167; Gregory K. Beale, The Book of Revelation: A Commentary on the Greek Text (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1999) 697; Stephen S. Smalley, The Revelation to John: A Commentary on the Greek Text of the Apocalypse (Downers Grove: InterVarsity, 2012) 341. Theodor Zahn, Die Offenbarung des Johannes (Leipzig: A. Deichertsche, 1924) 450-451, refers to the heaven-dwellers simply as “alles Heilige” and also the church but does not offer an explanation for the interpretation. Robert H. Mounce, The Book of Revelation (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1998) 250, suggests both angels and saints. Beale, Revelation, 697, and Smalley, Revelation, 341, suggest deceased saints may be in mind in addition to the saints on earth.
Ernst Lohmeyer, Die Offenbarung des Johannes (Tübingen: J.C.B. Mohr (Paul Siebeck), 1970) 112, notes the connection between Rev 13:6 and Rev 7:15 (along with Rev 11:19 and Rev 12:12), as does Pierre Prigent, L’Apocalypse de Saint Jean (Lausanne: Delachaux, 1981) 205, suggesting the identification of the martyred saints with the heaven-dwellers of Rev 13:6.
Adela Yarbro Collins, Crisis and Catharsis: The Power of the Apocalypse (Philadelphia: Westminster John Knox, 1984) 112.
According to Martha Himmelfarb, Ascent to Heaven in Jewish and Christian Apocalypses (New York: Oxford University Press, 1993) 114, the heavenly location of the deceased saints functioned to encourage the righteous enduring hardship on earth.
Gregory K. Beale, The Use of Daniel in Jewish Apocalyptic Literature and in the Revelation of St. John (Lanham: University Press of America, 1984) 244, states that two-thirds of the references from the hb in Rev 13 are from Daniel.
See discussion in Richard Bauckham, Jude, 2 Peter (Waco: Word Books, 1983) 55-63, 261-262, who considers 2 Peter dependent on Jude but takes δόξας to refer to demons in the former and angels in the latter.
Bousset, Offenbarung, 363. Followed by Zahn, Offenbarung, 450-451.
Suetonius, Nero 26.2; Tacitus, Ann. 15.44; Pliny, Ep. 10.96-97.
Leonard L. Thompson, The Book of Revelation: Apocalypse and Empire (New York: Oxford University Press, 1990) 181, applies Peter Berger’s concept of deviant knowledge in his analysis of Revelation and suggests that John presents a deviant cosmology to support his counter-cultural stance. Mark K. George, Israel’s Tabernacle as Social Space (Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 2009) 25, integrates Foucault and Lefebvre to observe that cosmologies are an ideological position on how space operates and so competing cosmologies can emerge.
Karl Galinsky, Augustan Culture: An Interpretive Introduction (New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1996) 24; Diana E.E. Kleiner, Roman Sculpture (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1992) 67; S.R.F. Price, Rituals and Power: The Roman Imperial Cult in Asia Minor (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1984) 186; Jane C. Reeder, “The Statue of Augustus from Prima Porta, the Underground Complex, and the Omen of the Gallina Alba,” ajp 118 (1997) 109; Paul Zanker, The Power of Images in the Age of Augustus (u.s.a.: University of Michigan Press, 1990) 189. More recently, this has been challenged by Bridget Buxton, “A New Reading of the Prima Porta Augustus: The Return of the Eagle of Legio V Alaudae,” Studies in Latin Literature and Roman Historyxvi (Brussels: Éditions Latomus, 2012) 277-306, who argues that the event that best accords with the iconography is the return from Germany of the eagle of the fifth Alaudae legion.
Ann L. Kuttner, Dynasty and Empire in the Age of Augustus: The Case of the Boscoreale Cups (California: University of California Press, 1995) 29-30, suggests the sculpture praises the victory of Augustus in the battle of Actium, securing peace on land and sea. Fittschen, “Zur Panzerstatue,” 203, comments that the symbolism of the statue involves a combination of mythological and militaristic justification of rule that was characteristic of Augustan ideology.
Vassos Karageorghis, “Chronique des fouilles et découvertes archéologiques à Chypre en 1961,” Bulletin de correspondance hellénique 86 (1962) 400-402.
According to Hugh J. Mason, Greek Terms for Roman Institutions: A Lexicon and Analysis (Toronto: Hakkert, 1974) 132-134, ἐξουσία is the Greek term most frequently used to translate the Latin term imperium.
Hans-Josef Klauck, “Die Johannesoffenbarung und die kleinasiatische Archäologie,” in Texte, Fakte, Artefakte: Beiträge zur Bedeutung der Archäologie für die neutestamentliche Forschung (ed. Max Küchler and Karl Matthias Schmidt; Fribourg: Vandenhoeck and Ruprecht, 2006) 212, also sees a centre-periphery dynamic in the Gemma Augustea which has Augustus in the guise of Jupiter above and the defeated barbarians below.
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In Rev 13:6, the Beast is said to blaspheme God as well as the ones who dwell in heaven. This paper addresses two questions in relation to this verse, firstly, Who are the heaven-dwellers? And secondly, How were they blasphemed by the Beast? The text of Revelation is read as narrative and in the context of the cosmological dimension of Roman imperial ideology, which is established by examining literary texts and material artefacts. The heaven-dwellers of Rev 13:6 are identified as martyred saints and it is argued that they were blasphemed by Rome’s claim to authority which was both derived from heaven and extended into heaven. The blasphemous implication of Rome’s cosmology was that faithful saints had no place of security and vindication in heaven but were abandoned to an earthly existence of hardship and defeat.
All Time | Past 365 days | Past 30 Days | |
---|---|---|---|
Abstract Views | 368 | 65 | 4 |
Full Text Views | 320 | 5 | 0 |
PDF Views & Downloads | 132 | 17 | 0 |