Hearing at the Boundaries of Vision: Education Informing Cosmology in Revelation 9

This study considers how a significant variable, namely level of literary education (enkuklios paideia), might affect an ancient hearer's interpretation of Revelation 9. This volume focuses on how two hypothetical ancient hearer-constructs, with very different "mental libraries", may interpret the rich cosmological imagery of Revelation 9.

The first, ancient hearer-construct (HC1), the recipient of a minimal literary education, retains a Homeric cosmological model. The second ancient hearer-construct (HC2), by contrast, utilises a tertiary-level knowledge of Aratus and Plato to allegorically reinterpret the cosmological imagery of Rev 9 (cf. 'Hippolytus', Refutatio IV.46-50). The volume concludes by critically comparing the hypothetical responses of HC1 and HC2 with the early reception of Revelation 9 by Victorinus, Tyconius and Oecumenius (3rd-6th century CE), attentive to the educational attainment of each commentator.

• Table of contents
• List of Figures
• Abbreviations
• Acknowledgements
• 1. Introduction
• 2. Greek Encyclical Education
• 3. Graeco-Roman Cosmologies
• 4. Hearer-Construct One (HC1): Interpretation of the Cosmology of Rev 9:1-19
• 5. Hearer-Construct Two (HC2): Interpretation of the Cosmology of Rev 9:1-12
• 6. Victorinus, Tyconius and Oecumenius\: Interpretation of the Cosmology of Rev 9
• 7. Conclusion
• Bibliography
• Index of References
• General Index