Narrative Features of the Book of Revelation

2020 ◽  
pp. 35-52
Author(s):  
James L. Resseguie
Keyword(s):  
Character Traits ◽  
Book Of Revelation ◽  
People Of God ◽  
New Jerusalem ◽  
Promised Land ◽  
Road Signs ◽  
The People ◽  
The World

Four narrative features of the book of Revelation are the focus of this article: masterplot, characters and characterization, architectural and topographical settings, and numerical symbolism. Masterplots are skeletal stories belonging to cultures and individuals that clarify questions of identity, values, or the understanding of life. The masterplot of Revelation is a quest story of the people of God in search of the new promised land, the new Jerusalem. Characters either aid or hinder the questers’ sojourn. Hybrid characters, which blend character traits from the world below with characteristics of this world, or combine the human with the inhuman, underscore the dangers the exodus-people, the followers of the Lamb, encounter on their trek. Other characters—such as the angel of Rev 10—advance their quest with a MacGuffin. Architectural and topographical settings—such as Babylon, the new Jerusalem, the desert, and the sea—amplify peril and solace on the journey. Symbolic numbers are road signs that warn the exodus-people of dangers or proffer divine succor and protection.

scholarly journals Intertekstuele aanduidings van die wêreld van die boek Jubileë

2003 ◽  
Vol 59 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
P.M. Venter
Keyword(s):  
Retributive Justice ◽  
People Of God ◽  
The People ◽  
Religious Festivals ◽  
The World ◽  
The Law

Intertextual indications of the world as portrayed in the book of JubileesAn intertextual analysis of sections containing trends of retributive justice in Jubilees 14:1-28, 24:14-17, 30:1-25 and texts including apoca-lyptic trends in 1:7-29, 23:11-32, gives some indication of the time and world in which the author lived. The article argues that the author reconceptualized ideas of retribution in a unique apocalyptic system. The revealed truth was given in an historical revelation to Moses and is aimed at the collective entity of the people of God who are to stay pure for God. They are to abstain from marriages with members of other nations and keep the law and the religious festivals according to the heptadictical calendar. The author belonged to a tradition running parallel to the Danielic and Enochic stream. He was neither an apoca-lyptic nor an official priest, but was very much influenced by both groups.

scholarly journals MINISTÉRIOS E SERVIÇOS LITÚRGICOS NUMA IGREJA TODA MINISTERIAL A MINISTERIALIDADE EM DOCUMENTOS DO MAGISTÉRIO PÓS-CONCILIAR (I)

2009 ◽  
Vol 38 (106) ◽  
pp. 349
Author(s):  
José Raimundo de Melo
Keyword(s):  
Second Vatican Council ◽  
Christian Community ◽  
People Of God ◽  
The People ◽  
Vatican Council ◽  
The World ◽  
Liturgical Texts ◽  
Christian Commitment ◽  
The Church

A multiplicidade e variedade dos serviços ministeriais que se fazem presentes na celebração litúrgica do povo de Deus é elemento chave na compreensão da comunidade cristã, pois os ministérios, em definitivo, exprimem e definem a própria realidade da Igreja. A inteira assembléia é ministerial porque a Igreja mesma é toda ministerial. E esta ministerialidade se expressa na liturgia através da diversidade de funções e ofícios que cada um é chamado a desempenhar. Ao contrário do que quase sempre sucede no mundo, porém, a hierarquia de funções na Igreja não denota prestígio e nem pode conduzir à acepção de pessoas. Ancorada na mais pura linha evangélica, deve ela indicar compromisso cristão e serviço fraterno em total doação a Deus e aos irmãos. Para uma reflexão sobre esta importante realidade eclesial, que a partir sobretudo do Concílio Vaticano II a Igreja tem aprofundado e se esforçado em viver, empreenderemos a seguir, ancorados em alguns textos litúrgicos, um estudo a respeito dos ministérios presentes no momento celebrativo da comunidade cristã. Publicamos aqui a primeira parte do artigo.ABSTRACT: The multiplicity and variety of ministerial services which are present in a liturgical celebration of the People of God is a key element in the understanding of the Christian community, since ministries, of themselves, express and define the very reality of the Church. The entire assembly is ministerial because the Church itself is all ministerial. And this ministeriality expresses itself in the liturgy through the diversity of functions and offices which each one is called on to fulfill. Contrary to what almost always happens in the world, however, the hierarchy of functions in the Church does not denote prestige, nor can it lead to the classification of persons. Anchored in the purest evangelical tradition, it should indicate Christian commitment and fraternal service in total self-giving to God and to others. For a reflection on this important ecclesial reality, which, especially from the Second Vatican Council, the Church has struggled to live out, we undertake a study – anchored in some liturgical texts – of the ministries present in the celebrative moment of the Christian community. We publish here the first part of the article. 

scholarly journals The Political Impact of the Festival - Biblical Statements

1999 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 326-339
Author(s):  
Georg Braulik
Keyword(s):  
Political Activism ◽  
The Political ◽  
Complex Society ◽  
People Of God ◽  
Critical Potential ◽  
Promised Land ◽  
The People ◽  
The Social ◽  
Political Impact ◽  
Acts 2

Liturgy possesses a socio-critical potential which greatly surpasses political activism. It bypasses the systems of a "complex society", such as socialisation, communication and economics, through its factual logic which stands independent of faith. This political fo-rce is already developed by the feast on Sinai, to which Israel is lead out of Egypt (Ex 5:1-3). There, Israel receives the Torah, in order that its life as the people or community of Yahweh may be successful in the Promised Land. The community is to renew itself on occasion of the three pilgrimage festivals. For this purpose, Deuteronomy developed two basic types of popular liturgy within the scope of its theology of the people of God. The first is constituted by the passion commemoration of the passover (Dt 16:1-8). It aims at the social liberation of everyone in Israel, in commemorating their being lead out of Egyptian slavery. The second type is presented in the Feast of Weeks and the Feast of Tabernacles (16:9-12, 13-15). They initiate a fraternal society devoid of poverty, and already realise this in a realistic-symbolic way, through the communal meal of rejoicing in which all are to participate before Yahweh. According to this model, the eucharistic celebrative joy of the first Jerusalem congregation (Acts 2:44-46) reveals its community-changing force in the fact that "no poor were to be found any more" among the believers (Dt 15:4 in Acts 4:32-34).

Building the “Wall of Separation”: Construction Zone for Historians

2010 ◽  
Vol 79 (4) ◽  
pp. 871-880
Author(s):  
W. Clark Gilpin
Keyword(s):  
Religious Freedom ◽  
Church And State ◽  
Thomas Jefferson ◽  
American People ◽  
People Of God ◽  
The Bible ◽  
The People ◽  
The World ◽  
Roger Williams ◽  
The Church

The argument of Mark deWolfe Howe's The Garden and the Wilderness turned on the contrast Howe drew between two uses of a single phrase: “wall of separation.” Thomas Jefferson used the phrase in 1802, in a letter to the Danbury Baptist Association: “I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should ‘make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,’ thus building a wall of separation between church and state.” More than a century and a half earlier, in 1644, the colonial advocate of religious freedom Roger Williams had employed the same phrase in a letter to his theological opponent, the Reverend John Cotton of Boston. According to Williams's reading of the Bible, the people of God—Jews and Christians—were “separate from the world,” and, “when they have opened a gap in the hedge or wall of separation between the garden of the church and the wilderness of the world, God hath ever broke down the wall itself, removed the candlestick, and made His garden a wilderness, as at this day. And that therefore if He will ever please to restore His garden and paradise again, it must of necessity be walled in peculiarly unto Himself from the world; and that all that shall be saved out of the world are to be transplanted out of the wilderness of the world, and added unto his church or garden.”

Reading the Book of Revelation in the Twentieth Century

1986 ◽  
Vol 40 (3) ◽  
pp. 229-242 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adela Yarbro Collins
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Book Of Revelation ◽  
People Of God ◽  
The People

On the deepest level, the Book of Revelation provides a story in and through which the people of God discover who they are and what they are to do.

scholarly journals World Council of Churches towards Migration and Poverty

2015 ◽  
Vol 15 ◽  
Author(s):  
Przemysław Kantyka
Keyword(s):  
Point Of View ◽  
World Council Of Churches ◽  
People Of God ◽  
Unfair Treatment ◽  
The People ◽  
Christian Perspective ◽  
The World ◽  
World Council ◽  
Pastoral Support ◽  
Parish Work

The article is an outlook on the process of migration from the point of view of the World Council of Churches. It mainly examines the key document of the WCC on this subject: The „other” is my neighbour. Developing an ecumenical response to migration. From Christian perspective the people of God is in constant pilgrimage on this Earth, as proved by story of Israel and in the life of Jesus and his disciples. Migration considerably changes the ecclesial landscape of the country of exodus and of the country of destination. Cultural, linguistic, theological and liturgical enrichment of the countries of settlement means in the same time the impoverishment of the countries abandoned by migrants from the same values. One of the main reasons of migration is poverty. The last however may also be a result of migration, if displacement is caused by war or persecutions. The migrants are often exposed to exploitation and unfair treatment. The diagnosis by WCC leads to issuing of a series of recommendations for the Churches: treating migrants with dignity, providing pastoral support, incorporating migrants into the parish work and liturgical celebrations, etc. By applying the rule of love of one’s neighbour Christians should made every effort to welcome migrants and make them home in the local ecclesial communities.

The People of God in the Book of Revelation

2020 ◽  
pp. 324-340
Author(s):  
Peter S. Perry
Keyword(s):  
Book Of Revelation ◽  
People Of God ◽  
The People ◽  
God's People ◽  
The One

This chapter analyzes how John describes and transforms the people of God as audiences, assemblies, slaves of God, saints, those who are clothed in white, and witnesses. John moves them from being audiences of a reader to audiences in the divine court, where they are transformed from ignorance to knowledge of Rome’s violence and idolatrous economy. As assemblies, they receive messages from their true ruler asking them to deliberate on disengaging from the imperial economy and becoming an alternate society. As slaves of God, they are freed to publicly identify as God’s people, protected for service, and separate from those who serve the empire. As saints, God gives new status to the people of God and they move from passivity to activity on behalf of others who suffer at the hands of imperial consumption. As those who are metaphorically clothed in white, they exchange literal luxury for status in God’s court. As witnesses, they are moved to speak the truth about the One-Who-Sits-on-the-Throne and expose the lies that deceive people to participate in the imperial economy.

The Oxford Handbook of the Book of Revelation

2020 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
Old Testament ◽  
Greek Text ◽  
Book Of Revelation ◽  
People Of God ◽  
Post Colonial ◽  
New Jerusalem ◽  
Greco Roman ◽  
The New Testament ◽  
State Of Research

The Oxford Handbook of the Book of Revelation is the premier reference work for the study of Revelation. Part 1 gives attention to the literary features of the book, including its narrative and rhetorical aspects, imagery, hymns, use of the Old Testament and distinctive Greek style. Part 2 considers the social context in which Revelation was composed and first read, including its relation to Roman rule, Jewish communities, Greco-Roman religions, and various groups of Jesus followers. Part 3 explores major topics in theology and ethics, including God, Jesus, and the Spirit; perspectives on creation, evil, and violence; and the portrayal of Babylon, new Jerusalem, and the people of God. Part 4 deals with the book’s history of reception and influence, including the transmission of the Greek text and inclusion in the New Testament canon, patterns of interpretation in antiquity, middle ages, and modern period, and Revelation’s impact on liturgy and music. Part 5 turns to emerging trends in interpretation, including the use of feminist, African American, and post-colonial perspectives. With contributions from leading international scholars, the volume offers authoritative essays on the current state of research that will help to shape the direction of future studies in the field.

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