RT Article
T1 'A Local Habitation and a Name': On the Images of John's Apocalypse
JF Biblical research
VO 63
SP 72
OP 93
A1 Guffey, Andrew R.
LA English
YR 2018
UL https://ixtheo.de/Record/1689800399
AB The images of the book of Revelation have always presented interpreters with challenges. How are we to understand these images? What models or comparand a might produce valuable insights into their use? What is accomplished by such strange language? This paper argues that a central aspect of the images has been frequently overlooked in interpretations of the book of Revelation: their visuality. While visual realia and ancient rhetoric have been employed in the service of interpreting Revelation, they have not frequently been used specifically to unravel the riddle of the imagistic language of the book. By interrogating visual comparanda and drawing on ancient discourse on ekphrasis (vivid description), we can begin to grasp the power of John’s images, which was to “present” his audience(s) with a virtual visual reality that subtly countered the imagination of the divine inscribed in the visual culture of the cities of Asia Minor.
K1 Apocalypse in literature
K1 Bible. Revelation; Criticism, Literary
K1 Ekphrasis
K1 Revelation; Biblical teaching
K1 Symbolism
K1 Visualization