Apocalypse and Allegiance

Nelson Kraybill J.

Description

In this lively introduction, J. Nelson Kraybill shows how the book of Revelation was understood by its original readers and what it means for Christians today. Kraybill places Revelation in its first-century context, opening a window into the political, economic, and social realities of the early church. His fresh interpretation highlights Revelation's liturgical structure and directs readers' attentions to twenty-first-century issues of empire, worship, and allegiance, showing how John's apocalypse is relevant to the spiritual life of believers today. The book includes maps, timelines, photos, a glossary, discussion questions, and stories of modern Christians who live out John's vision of a New Jerusalem.

Sujets

• Philosophie et théologie
• New Testament

Informations

• Publié par: Baker Publishing Group
• Date de parution: 01 avril 2010
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781441212559
• Langue: English

Extrait

© 2010 by J. Nelson Kraybill
Published by Brazos Press a division of Baker Publishing Group P.O. Box 6287, Grand Rapids, MI 49516-6287 www.brazospress.com
Ebook edition created 2010
Ebook corrections 6.15.2012, 1.29.2016
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—for example, electronic, photocopy, recording—without the prior written permission of the publisher. The only exception is brief quotations in printed reviews.
Unless appearing in quotations from other works or otherwise indicated, Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright © 1989, by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations labeled NIV are from the Holy Bible, New International Version®. NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com
Scripture quotations labeled RSV are from the Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright 1952 [2nd edition, 1971] by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations labeled KJV are from the King James Version of the Bible.
All photographs and illustrations are by the author unless otherwise indicated.
To my daughter Andrea, visionary artist and intrepid follower of the Lamb
God’s reign is already present on our earth in mystery. When the Lord comes, it will be brought to perfection. That is the hope that inspires Christians. We know that every effort to better society, especially when injustice and sin are so ingrained, is an effort that God blesses, that God wants, that God demands of us.
Words spoken by Archbishop Oscar Romero as he celebrated Eucharist on March 24, 1980, at the chapel of Divine Providence Cancer Hospital in San Salvador. In preceding months Romero had summoned the people of El Salvador to nonviolent resistance against a repressive military regime. As he finished his eucharistic homily, a single bullet from an assassin ended his life (James R. Brockman, The Church Is All of You: Thoughts of Archbishop Oscar Romero [Minneapolis: Winston, 1984], 110).
Contents
Cover
Title Page
Copyright Page
Dedication
Epigraph
Illustrations
Acknowledgments
Abbreviations
Introduction: Worship Is Political
1. A Prophet in Trouble
2. Stampeding Empires
3. Beastly Worship
4. Accuser of Our Comrades
5. The Cosmic Throne Room
6. The Lamb Is Lord of History
7. Seal of the Living God
8. A Harlot Drunk with Blood
9. The Economics of Worship
10. Letters to Seven Churches
11. All Things New
12. Long-Term Hope
Time Line of Events, People, and Empires That Figure in Revelation
Glossary
Relative Value of Roman Coins in the First Century AD
Bibliography
Map
Illustrations
I.1 American and Christian flags
I.2 Bust of Nero
I.3 Ruins of the Roman Forum
I.4 Coin featuring Nero and the temple of Janus
1.1 The harbor on the Island of Patmos
1.2 Mosaic in the Monastery of the Apocalypse
1.3 The harbor and Island of Patmos
1.4 Map of the seven churches addressed in Revelation
1.5 Coin featuring the “divine” son of Emperor Domitian
2.2 First-century Jewish apocalyptic view of history
2.3 Christian apocalyptic view of history
2.4 Christian artwork from the catacombs at Rome
2.5 Coin portraying Antiochus IV as divine
2.6 Ruins of the theater at Ephesus
3.1 Coin featuring Caesar Augustus and his temple at Pergamum
3.2 Ruins of the temples and government buildings at Pergamum
3.3 The Ara Pacis (Altar of Peace)
3.4 Personification of Peace on the Ara Pacis
3.5 The victorious goddess Roma depicted on the Ara Pacis
3.6 Ruins of the temple at Ephesus
3.7 The head from the statue of an emperor from the temple at Ephesus
3.8 Sculpture of the imperial family in religious procession
3.9 Sculpture of a young Nero
3.10 Coin depicting Emperor Nero as divine
3.11 Greek letters and their numerical equivalents in the ancient world
3.12 Hebrew letters and their numerical equivalents in the ancient world
3.13 Jewish men praying at the Western Wall
4.1 Images of Peter and Paul from the catacombs at Rome
4.2 Coin depicting Vespasian victorious over the Jewish nation
4.3 Bust of Emperor Trajan
5.1 Coin featuring Emperor Domitian and his throne
5.2 Images of mythical winged creatures from the Temple of Apollo at Rome
5.3 Coin featuring Caesar Augustus and a sphinx
5.4 Sculpture of a soldier carrying a standard
5.5 Reconstruction of Emperor Caligula’s likeness
5.6 Bust of General Vespasian and his son Titus
5.7 A mikveh at Qumran
5.8 Roman as coin depicting Judea as a defeated woman
5.9 Detail of the frieze inside the Arch of Titus
6.1 Signet ring with image of the god Mars
6.2 Representation of the Lamb from the catacombs at Rome
6.3 Sculpture of Apollo playing a cithara harp
6.4 Coin featuring a cithara harp
6.5 Image of a cross superimposed on a menorah from ruins of Laodicea
6.6 Coin featuring Emperor Domitian
6.7 Mosaic depicting a Christian facing lions in the arena
7.1 Early Christian baptistery
7.2 Model of first-century Rome
7.3 Sculpture from the catacombs at Rome of a Christian praying
7.4 Coin featuring Salus (Salvation) pouring libations
7.5 Fourth-century statue of Jesus as the Good Shepherd
8.1 Model of the temple at Jerusalem
8.2 Ruins of the temple complex at Caesarea
8.3 Sculpture of the goddess Roma
8.4 Bust of the Emperor Domitian
8.5 The word autokrator in the ruins of Ephesus
8.6 Sculpture of Emperor Claudius preparing to kill Britannia
8.7 Etching of Jonah from the catacombs at Rome
8.8 Fourth-century Christian sarcophagus portraying scenes of deliverance
9.1 Footpath to the top of the Monte Testaccio in Rome
9.2 Ruins of the Coliseum in Rome
9.3 Coin featuring the Coliseum in Rome
9.4 John of Patmos’s view of the Roman Empire’s patronage system
9.5 Model of the harbor and temple at Caesarea Maritima
9.7 A Jewish shekel
9.8 A denarius , featuring Emperor Tiberius
9.9 Ruins of ancient Megiddo
10.1 Tomb of a late first-century merchant
10.2 Ruins of ancient Sardis
10.3 Sculpture of the goddess Nike
10.4 Coin featuring Nero and the goddess Roma
11.1 Jewish worshiper at the Western Wall
11.2 Gigantic stones that were once part of the temple at Jerusalem
11.3 Tombs of Yo.anan ben Zakkai and Maimonedes
11.4 Aqueduct servicing Caesarea Maritima
11.5 Grid of the ideal Roman city
11.6 Ruins at Hierapolis
12.1 Cross formed of stakes representing victims of 9/11
12.2 Coin featuring Emperor Augustus seated before worshipers
Acknowledgments
Thirty years ago students at an urban high school in San Juan, Puerto Rico, dared me to teach the book of Revelation. Accepting the challenge, I steeped myself in commentary and history to understand John’s vision. When placed in historical and literary context, Revelation began to make sense. By the end of the semester, my students had made a poster-sized cartoon strip of John’s vision that encircled the classroom, and I had acquired a lifelong fascination with Revelation. In subsequent years I learned more about the last book of the Bible from teachers, colleagues, and students, including the following:
• Professor Paul Achtemeier, my adviser when I wrote a doctoral dissertation on Revelation at Union Theological Seminary in Virginia. The dissertation was published as Imperial Cult and Commerce in John’s Apocalypse (Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1996), and as Culto e Comércio Imperiais no Apocalipse de João (São Paulo: Paulinas, 2004).
• Students in my classroom in Uruguay—some of whom had been incarcerated and tortured by a military regime in that country—who helped me understand that modern empire can warp values and allegiances in ways similar to ancient Rome.
• Loren Johns, my faculty colleague at Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary in Elkhart, Indiana, whose specialties include Lamb Christology. We taught Revelation together and jointly led a study tour to the seven cities of Revelation and Rome.
• People at congregations, denominational assemblies, seminaries, colleges, and universities in the United States, Canada, England, Ireland, Japan, Korea, Spain, and Uruguay who contributed insights when I had the privilege of teaching Revelation in those countries.
In addition to studying Revelation on a scholarly level, I aspire to teach John’s vision in ways that are accessible to a general audience. This book grew out of such efforts. It includes photos and graphics throughout, a minimum of footnotes or rehearsal of scholarly debates, and some contemporary application. Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary generously granted me a summer sabbatical, during which I wrote much of this volume. I took many photos on these pages on the three occasions when I collaborated with Tour-Magination of Waterloo, Ontario, to lead study groups to biblical sites in Israel/Palestine, Turkey, and Italy.
I am grateful to Rodney Clapp of Brazos Press for encouraging me to write this book and for shepherding it through the editorial process. The editorial team of Brazos Press masterfully ironed out theological, historical, and hermeneutical wrinkles throughout the manuscript. Others who contributed by critiquing drafts at various stages include Barbara Nelson Gingerich, Loren Johns, Alan Kreider, Eleanor Kreider, Gene Lackore, Mary Lackore, and Heidi Siemens Rhodes. To each of these generous persons I owe much, with the greatest debt to my wife, Ellen Graber Kraybill, who read this book at several stages and was a constant source of encouragement.
J. Nelson Kraybill Elkhart, Indiana Good Friday, 2009
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