Revelation Through the Centuries

Kovacs & Rowland's Blackwell commentary is a rich reception history tracing Revelation's impact on Western art, theology, and culture, but it has notable weaknesses. Several factual errors undermine confidence: Dionysius of Alexandria is wrongly said to have suggested Cerinthus wrote Revelation (it was Gaius of Rome and the Alogoi; Dionysius explicitly distanced himself from that claim, as Aune's WBC confirms); "2 Esdras 21:31" is cited but 2 Esdras has only 16 chapters; the works-based judgment criterion is attributed to Rev 20:11 when it belongs to 20:12–13; and 1 Cor 6:9 is oddly cited as a "hint of the millennium" when it concerns moral qualifications for the kingdom, not an earthly messianic reign. Theologically, the commentary's most troubling move comes in its Hermeneutical Postscript, which describes Revelation's "catalogue of disaster and destruction, apparently sanctioned by God, its cries for vengeance, and its terrible gloating over the fall of Babylon" as "so contrary to the spirit of Jesus." But Revelation presents itself as "the revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him" (1:1), so characterizing its content as contrary to Jesus' spirit effectively sets Christ against his own revelation; Jesus' own teachings include extensive judgment oracles (Matt 23; 25:31–46; Mark 13), and the cry for divine vengeance in Rev 6:10 echoes his parable in Luke 18:7–8; the exultation over Babylon's fall (18:20; 19:1–3), far from "terrible gloating," is rooted in OT precedent (Jer 51:48; Deut 32:43) and reflects the vindication of martyrs — as Beale (NIGTC), Osborne (BECNT), Fanning (ZECNT), Mounce (NICNT), and Schreiner (ESVEC) all argue; and the qualifier "apparently sanctioned by God" introduces doubt about whether the judgments truly reflect God's character, approaching derogation of the divine nature as portrayed in canonical Scripture. Similarly, Jung's reading of the wrathful Lamb as "an aggressive and irascible ram" representing repressed archetypes — effectively treating Christ's wrath as psychological regression from the teaching of divine love — is presented without critique, even though Rev 5–6 deliberately integrates the slain Lamb with the one who opens the seals of judgment, holding sacrificial love and righteous wrath together. Rev 14:4 is flatly stated to commend "male celibacy" despite the dominant scholarly view (Beale, Osborne, Fanning, Koester, Smalley) that the virginity language is metaphorical for faithfulness against idolatry, and the claim that "resistance to the Beast and Babylon can be discerned in all those who instinctively do what is required of them by God (cf. Rom 2:13–14)" imports a contested Pauline passage into Revelation's final judgment to suggest a quasi-universalist ethic unsupported by the text's own language, which ties salvation to the book of life and to those who have "washed their robes in the blood of the Lamb" (7:14; 21:27). Methodologically, while reception history is a legitimate genre, the commentary's practice of presenting hundreds of interpretations side by side — from Victorinus to Blake to liberation theologians — without consistently evaluating them against the text leaves the impression that Revelation's meaning is essentially indeterminate, and the inconsistency of applying critical criteria to some readings (e.g., the Münsterite Anabaptists) but not others (Jung, Adela Collins' catharsis model, Girard's scapegoat theory) weakens its scholarly balance. As a cultural and literary resource the volume is genuinely valuable, but readers seeking exegetical engagement with what Revelation actually says will need to look elsewhere.

 

Auf der Suche nach neuen Wegen und in der Auseinandersetzung mit neuen Fragestellungen ist die wissenschaftliche Exegese biblischer Texte mehr und mehr dabei, die Rezeptionsgeschichte der Bibel wiederzuentdecken. Dass innerhalb weniger Jahre nahezu gleichzeitig eine Kommentarreihe wie Ancient Christian Commentaries on Scripture oder das Projekt Novum Testamentum Patristicum (im deutschsprachigen Raum) ins Leben gerufen wurden, ist Zeichen eines sich anbahnenden Trends. Nun sind soeben die ersten beiden Bndezum J ohannesevangelium und zur Offenbarungeiner neuen Serie mit dem Titel Blackwell Bible Commentaries erschienen, die sich ebenfalls auf die Rezeption biblischer Texte konzentriert. In einem eigenen Vorwort beschreiben die Herausgeber, John Sawyer, Christopher Rowland und Judith Kovacs, ihre Idee: Die Interpretation biblischer Texte im Verlauf der Geschichte sei hufig genauso interessant und historisch bedeutsam wie die ursprngliche Bedeutung de r Texte. Die neue Reihe mchte sich nicht auf die literarisch festst ellbare Rezeption biblischer Texte beschrnken, sondern auch ihren Einfluss auf Kunst, Musik, Film, auf politische, soziale und religise Entwicklungen beleuchten. Dabei soll das reiche interpretative Potential eines jeden Buches illustriert werden. In Anlehnung an Aussagen von U. [Full Review]