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

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    Abstract

    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.
    Original languageEnglish
    PublisherBloomsbury
    Number of pages292
    ISBN (Print)978-0567222169
    Publication statusPublished - 23 Feb 2012

    Publication series

    NameLibrary of New Testament Studies
    PublisherBloomsbury
    No.448

    Keywords

    • revelation
    • apocalypse
    • education
    • cosmology

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