Who Rides the Beast? Prophetic Rivalry and the Rhetoric of Crisis in the Churches of the Apocalypse

by Duff, Paul B.

• ISBN13: 9780195138351
• ISBN10: 019513835X
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2001-05-31
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

The Book of Revelation presents the reader with a frightening narrative world in which the people of God are tormented, threatened, and sometimes killed by various agents of Satan. Scholars have traditionally thought that it was written in order to encourage believers to stand fast in the face of the Roman persecution of the early Church. More recently, however, it has been argued that no such crisis existed at the time the book was written. Here Paul Duff offers a different viewpoint on the origin of the Book of Revelation, resulting in a work which substantially advances the implication of the current consensus and sheds new light on this influential yet enigmatic text.

Author Biography

Paul B. Duff is Associate Professor of Religion at the George Washington University.

Table of Contents

Abbreviations
Was There a Crisis behind Revelation? An Introduction to the Problem	p. 3
Setting the Stage: Urban Christianity in Western Asia Minor	p. 17
The Issues: Evidence from the Letters to the Seven Churches	p. 31
The Actors: People and Parties behind the Book of Revelation	p. 48
Wealth, Commerce, and the Merchant Class	p. 61
The Rhetoric of Innuendo: Opposition, Equivalence, and Indirect Accusation	p. 71
The Women of Revelation: Binding "Jezebel" to "Babylon"	p. 83
The Out-of-Control Female: John's Use of Gender Stereotypes	p. 97
True and False Prophets: Binding "Jezebel" to the Beast from the Earth	p. 113
Conclusion: The Rhetoric of Exclusion	p. 126
Notes	p. 135
Bibliography	p. 169
Index of Biblical Passages	p. 177
Index of Subjects	p. 181
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