In the book of Revelation, John offers a peek at the steady march of society toward Christs kingdom on earth. Exotic language, symbols, and caricatures of the actors on the stage during Johns life provide a study in the intolerable politics of the Roman Empire, which was in power during the life of Christ and of John, his disciple. Author Sandy Millers Understanding the Book of Revelation as Cultural Literature brings a new and different perspective to this important biblical book. She considers such questions as what the vision says about the God John worships, and if Johns God is just, why he delays justice for those martyred for their faith. When the seventh angel trumpets the time for God to destroy those who destroy the earth(Rev. 11:18d), there are no bloody victims in Johns Armageddon. The only weapon used is the Sword of Truth. Christs white robe is stained with the blood of his own self-sacrifice. His armys battle garb is clean and white. This war is differenta battle for the hearts and minds of menfought daily by Christ and his army of truth tellers. Martyrs find comfort when the destroyers hearts are changed, but if they still need a sacrifice, justice demands they sacrifice themselves. Understanding the Book of Revelation as Cultural Literature provides guidelines to help you and your students to understand what some may find complicated. Most importantly, a better understanding of this book in particular can lead to a better understanding of the Bible and God as a whole.

About seventy years after the death of Jesus, John of Patmos sent visionary messages to Christians in seven cities of western Asia Minor. These messages would eventually become part of the New Testament canon, as The Book of Revelation. What was John's message? What was its literary form? Did he write to a persecuted minority or to Christians enjoying the social and material benefits of the Roman Empire? In search of answers to these penetrating questions, Thompson critically examines the language, literature, history, and social setting of the Book of the Apocalypse. Following a discussion of the importance of the genre apocalypse, he closely analyzes the form and structure of the Revelation, its narrative and metaphoric unity, the world created through John's visions, and the social conditions of the empire in which John wrote. He offers an unprecedented interpretation of the role of boundaries in Revelation, a reassessment of the reign of the Emperor Domitian, and a view of tribulation that integrates the literary vision of Revelation with the reality of the lives of ordinary people in a Roman province. Throughout his study, Thompson argues that the language of Revelation joins the ordinary to the extra-ordinary, earth to heaven, and local conditions to supra-human processes.

A groundbreaking first social-science commentary on this popular book of the Bible.

This book considers the relationship between biblical readings and literary writings in early modern England and it explores the impact of how the Bible was read across a variety of writers and genres.

UNDERSTANDING THE BIBLE AS A SCRIPTURE IN HISTORY, CULTURE, AND RELIGION The Bible is a popular subject of study and research, yet biblical studies gives little attention to the reason for its popularity: its religious role as a scripture. Understanding the Bible as a Scripture in History, Culture, and Religion integrates the history of the religious interpretation and ritual uses of biblical books into a survey of their rhetoric, composition, and theology in their ancient contexts. Emphasizing insights from comparative studies of different religious scriptures, it combines discussion of the Bible’s origins with its cultural history into a coherent understanding of its past and present function as a scripture. A prominent expert on biblical rhetoric and the ritualization of books, James W. Watts describes how Jews and Christians ritualize the Bible by interpreting it, by expressing it in recitations, music, art, and film, and by venerating the physical scroll and book. The first two sections of the book are organized around the Torah and the Gospels—which have been the focus of Jewish and Christian ritualization of scriptures from ancient to modern times—and treat the history of other biblical books in relation to these two central blocks of the Hebrew Bible and New Testament. In addition to analyzing the semantic contents of all the Bible’s books as persuasive rhetoric, Watts describes their ritualization in the iconic and expressive dimensions in the centuries since they began to function as a scripture, as well as in their origins in ancient Judaism and Christianity. The third section on the cultural history and scriptural function of modern bibles concludes by discussing their influence today and the controversies they have fueled about history, science, race, and gender. Innovative and insightful, Understanding the Bible as a Scripture in History, Culture, and Religion is a groundbreaking introduction to the study of the Bible as a scripture, and an ideal textbook for courses in biblical studies and comparative scripture studies.

The essays collected within this volume ask how literary practices are shaped by the experience of being at sea—and also how they forge that experience. Individual chapters explore the literary worlds of naval ships, whalers, commercial vessels, emigrant ships, and troop transports from the seventeenth to the twentieth-first century, revealing a rich history of shipboard reading, writing, and performing. Contributors are interested both in how literary activities adapt to the maritime world, and in how individual and collective shipboard experiences are structured through—and framed by—such activities. In this respect, the volume builds on scholarship that has explored reading as a spatially situated and embodied practice. As our contributors demonstrate, the shipboard environment and the ocean beyond it place the mind and body under peculiar forms of pressure, and these determine acts of reading—and of writing and performing—in specific ways.

I taught at the University of Southern California for 28 years. During that time I developed a number of courses including "The Bible as Literature," the first such course in the country. which subsequently proliferated in universities around the country. I taught the course for ten years, which attracted upwards of 100 students every semester, deepening my research and knowledge of the Bible and my insights into the Bible's influence on Western Civilization. The ceiling of the Sistine Chapel is the most obvious evidence of the Bible's artistic inspiration. Michelangelo spent years on his back producing his frescos depicting scenes of the Bible. The ubiquitous presence of the Bible and its influence on virtually every facet of Western Civilization have no equal. Yet few are sufficiently familiar with the text to recognize its ubiquity. This book intends to correct that innocence.

The Book of Revelation is a disorienting work, full of beasts, heavenly journeys, holy war, the End of the Age, and the New Jerusalem. It is difficult to follow the thread that ties the visions together and to makes sense of the work's message. In Manuscripts of the Book of Revelation, Garrick Allen argues that one way to understand the strange history of Revelation and its challenging texts is to go back to its manuscripts. The texts of the Greek manuscripts of Revelation are the foundation for the words that we encounter when we read Revelation in a modern Bible. But the manuscripts also tell us what other ancient, medieval, and early modern people thought about the work they copied and read. The paratexts of Revelation—the many features of the manuscripts that help readers to interpret the text—are one important point of evidence. Incorporating such diverse features like the traditional apparatus that accompanies ancient commentaries to the random marginal notes that identify the true identity of the beast, paratexts are founts of information on how other mostly anonymous people interpreted Revelation's problem texts. Allen argues that manuscripts are not just important for textual critics or antiquarians, but that they are important for scholars and serious students because they are the essential substance of what the New Testament is. This book illustrates ways that the manuscripts illuminate surprising answers to important critical questions. We can learn to 'read' the manuscripts even if we don't know the language.

God’s Revelation for Today What did John’s revelations mean to the seven churches who read his letter? The Lamb and the Seven-Sealed Scroll is the second volume in Dr. Richard Booker’s powerful three-volume series. Continuing to examine the Book of Revelation within its original historical, literary, and biblical context, Dr. Booker turns his clear, prophetic explanation to the seven-sealed scroll, which contains the word of the Lord given to Daniel and is sealed until the time of the end. This seven-sealed scroll is God’s revelation of the events of the end times. Dr. Booker boldly challenges some traditional theology and provides biblical and modern-day support for his beliefs. This verse-by-verse study teaches: How to read Revelation within the context of its biblical, Hebraic roots. The historical, spiritual, archeological, and geographic backgrounds of the seven churches. How to read the literary style of the apocalyptic writings of John’s time. The influence of Greek mythology and Roman imperial cult worship are a background to understanding the Book of Revelation. The connection between the context of the Book of Revelation and our world today. There is hope for believers facing the challenging days ahead. God will authorize who can loose the seals, open the scroll, and read His final prophetic word for humankind. Open this book for an inside look at the end times!

Understanding the Bible: A Guide to Reading the Scriptures will inform your reading and enrich your understanding of the Bible from historical, literary, and faith perspectives. It is ideal for use regardless of your background, your beliefs, your questions, or the Bible translation you are reading. Inside are articles that explore the Bible in its faith, historical, and cultural contexts. The Bible is looked at as literature too--its genres and literary forms. There are articles introducing the Old and New Testaments, specifically the Pentateuch, the Historical Books, the Wisdom and Poetry Books, the Prophets, the Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles, the Letters, and Revelation. The history and differences of translations are discussed, and other tools to help you unlock the Bible are introduced. Additional aids include maps, charts, a timeline, and a glossary. Together these aids further investigate the Bible and the world in which it was written, as well as the progression of scholarship that helps us understand the Bible today.