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| -rw-r--r-- | chapter2.md | 81 |
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diff --git a/bibliography.bib b/bibliography.bib index 10e59ed..6539dfd 100644 --- a/bibliography.bib +++ b/bibliography.bib @@ -1,3 +1,16 @@ +@inbook{chaos-new-creation, + title={Chaos and New Creation}, + author={Chester, Andrew}, + booktitle={Revealed wisdom}, + booksubtitle={Studies in Apocalyptic in honour of Christopher Rowland}, + date={2014}, + publisher={Brill}, + series={Ancient Judaism and Early Christianity}, + volume={88}, + address={Leiden}, + pages={333-347}, +} + @book{ncbc-rev, title={Revelation}, subtitle={The New Cambridge Bible Commentary}, diff --git a/chapter2.md b/chapter2.md index 05c285e..4c8d2c7 100644 --- a/chapter2.md +++ b/chapter2.md @@ -323,10 +323,83 @@ Witherington III puts it: > he was living in the midst of the inauguration of these judgments or put > another way in the age when the seals were being unsealed. [@ncbc-rev, p. 131] -St John uses mythological language to place the present tribulations of his -community in a cosmic and eschatological context. This is how the call to endure -can make sense to his audience. In contrast, mere catastrophism does not do -this, and may even emphasise the meaninglessness of individual action. +What then, of the criticisms of apocalyptic language which followed on the basis +of its supposed catastrophism, that it is fatalistic, neutralises radicalism, +and flattens out power relationships? + +It is true that most of the events of John's vision unfold without much input +from the saints. The saints aren't able to stop the seven seals from being +unsealed, or the seven trumpets from being blown, or the seven goldens bowls of +God's wrath from being poured out. The saints have no part in the fall of +Babylon, and when Satan besieges them, they do not fight him in battle, but +Satan and his army is overthrown by fire from heaven. + +However, it would be wrong to accuse St John of fatalism, and worse still to +accuse him of neutralising radicalism and flattening out power relationships. At +the core of his message is an exhortation to endure. John's promise is that +those who endure will participate in God's final fulfilment of the creation. But +what must be endured is a result of human powers distorting God's creation. This +evil requires a radical subversion of actual power relationships, and John +conceives of just such a subversion, and calls his audience to participate in +that event. + +Andrew Chester [@chaos-new-creation] has explored this idea in detail, noting, +for example, that in Rev 6:12-17, God's life-sustaining creative acts of Gen 1 +are threatened with total annihilation: + +> And I beheld when he had opened the sixth seal, and, lo, there was a great +> earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became +> as blood; and the stars of heaven fell unto the earth, even as a fig tree +> casteth her untimely figs, when she is shaken of a mighty wind. And the heaven +> departed as a scroll when it is rolled together; and every mountain and island +> were moved out of their places. And the kings of the earth, and the great men, +> and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every +> bondman, and every free man, hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of +> the mountains; and said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us +> from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the +> Lamb: for the great day of his wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand? + +The sun and moon blocked out, the stars plucked from their place, the heavens +erased, the land disfigured: the key symbols of God's creation in Gen 1 are +being robbed of their ability to support life. Chester also notes that in +ancient cultures, all these events would have been interpreted as portentous +omens, explaining why the people of the earth all hide, knowing that the day of +the Lamb's wrath is come. + +But, as Chester shows, this disfigurement of the creation is not random. Rev 6 +(and a similar vision in Rev 8) shows that the astral powers which were +worshipped by mainstream Greek society are 'under divine control, and not at the +service of emperors.' Rev 9:1-11 suggests that the supposedly great god of +healing, Apollo, is a master only of tormenting locusts, and is anyway a mere +servant of God's angel. The woman in Rev 12 is presented as having dominion over +the sun, moon, and stars, and thus being superior to Artemis and Isis. Jesus +himself appears with the brightness of the sun and the stars in his hand in Rev +1, suggesting that he is in control of all the gods worshipped by Greeks. +[@chaos-new-creation, p. 344] The big idea: Jesus, the Son of Yahweh, the +creator-God, is Lord, and when people reject him and his life-giving creative +power, they tragically bring death and destruction on themselves and the world. + +> The whole earth, and the seas, already corrupted, polluted, and distorted by +> human wickedness and exploitation, now have divine destruction, desolation +> and despoliation brought on them in a dreadful manner. The scenario thus +> created, repeatedly, is one of utter chaos, with the earth torn apart and made +> into a twisted and terrible mess. It is a dystopian vision of the world as it +> might become – as indeed it inevitably will be if the consequences of human +> wickedness simply take their course. Hence if life is to continue, and be +> sustainable, there has to be radical newness. So also the heavens, corrupted +> in order to serve the ruthless and idolatrous ambitions of the great and +> powerful, now hover on the edge of losing completely what distinguishes +> them – the great lights and source of all life. [@chaos-new-creation, p. 346] + +Fatalistic? Conservative? Far from it. The destructive events of John's vision +are the result of human powers distorting God's creation for their own ends. We +can be complicit and accept the mark of the beast, or we can resist. Those who +resist will conquer, but not in the way of God's enemies, who raise up armies to +fight battles: the saints will conquer through the blood of the Lamb, and win +pride of place in God's new creation, while the nations of the earth flood in to +worship and to receive life and healing. 'It is an ethic for martyrdom,' as John +J. Collins, the leading scholar on biblical apocalyptic, puts it +[@apocalyptic-imagination, chp. 9]. John's apocalyptic imagination uses mythological language to reveal the world of appearances for what it really is. The ideology of Empire is a pretender God, |