THE HEAVENLY COURT SCENE OF REVELATION U-5

The Heavenly Court Scene of Revelation 4-5

MICROSTRUCTURAL ANALYSIS OF REVELATION 4-11

/pdf/microstructural-analysis-of-revelation-20-1pyi7l6n56.pdf

Microstructural Analysis of Revelation 20

Anyone about to explain a text faces the vexing problem of how precisely to pose the state of the question. His initial option will determine the results of the inquiry and will also immediately capture the interest of his readers or lose it. Initial options in approaching an apocalyptic text like Rev. 11. 1–13 boggle the mind. Valuable analyses have appeared,1 but a cutting-edge of criticism is difficult to discern.2 I propose to try a new method, namely, to explain the narrated action and discourse of Rev. 11. 1–13 by considering the ‘causes’ of the text. The initial option to focus on narrative should prove welcome, if only because no one else seems methodically to have attempted it.3 This approach will require addressing the key issues of the climactic point of a given story, the way the elements of the story (who, what, where, when, etc.) build to that climactic point, and the integration of the story into a set of related, sequential narratives.

Revelation 11. 1–13: its Form, Function, and Contextual Integration

1. A question of relevance 2. Relevance theory in biblical interpretation 3. A cognitive environment for the Apocalypse 4. Souls under the altar - a martyr ecclesiology 5. Companions of the Lamb - a messianic ecclesiology 6. The new Jerusalem, bride of the Lamb 7. Summary and conclusions.

The People of God in the Apocalypse: Discourse, Structure and Exegesis

Jacques Ellul published LApocalypse: Architecture en Mouuement in 1975. The English translation by George W. Schreiner was published by Seabury in 1977, entitled simply Apocalypse: The Book of Revelation. Before saying anything else, let me begin by giving a few quotations that may help to provide something of the tone and direction of Ellul’s treatment of the book of Revelation. He contends that &dquo;there never has been a

Jacques Ellul's Apocalypse:

L'A. preconise un dialogue entre exegese traditionnelle (historico-critique) et l'exegese structurale, celle-ci lui paraissant a priori specialement bien adaptee a un livre aussi decousu, logiquement, que l'Apocalypse. Il se refere a des travaux recents (J. Calloud, J. Delorme, J.-P. Duplantier) sur ce texte johannique. En fin de compte, le parti pris des structuralistes d'ignorer les acquis de la critique litteraire est insoutenable et nuit a l'ensemble de leurs resultats, dont certains sont pourtant positifs. Une synthese entre les deux types d'exegese permet, selon l'A., de toucher du doigt le but ultime de l'auteur de l'Apocalypse: s'il a recouru a des categories temporelles ou meme chronologiques avec tant de perseverance pour parler toujours a nouveau de la meme periode actuelle, c'est qu'il entend donner une revelation du temps present, determine par la victoire du Christ.

P. Pringent

Papers

L'Apocalypse: Exégèse Historique et Analyse Structurale