Seven Congregations in a Roman Crucible: A Commentary on Revelation 1-3

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Wipf and Stock Publishers, Mar 5, 2013 - Religion - 290 pages
While commentaries continue to be published on the book of Revelation, few, if any, attempt to interpret the Apocalypse in light of the political, historical, and cultural setting of John's original audience. The purpose of Seven Congregations in a Roman Crucibile is to provide fresh and illuminating exegesis of Revelation that takes seriously ancient literary and archaeological evidences. This book seeks to bring the reader into the world of John's Apocalypse with pictures of numerous sites and artifacts from the first and early second centuries AD. Moreover, the book also attempts to interpret John and his message through the lens of the Jewish prophetic tradition of Isaiah, Jeremiah, Daniel, Ezekiel, and other pertinent Second Temple works. Thus John stands in the prophetic heritage of Israel in his attempt to challenge, threaten, admonish, and praise the seven churches of Roman Asia whose members are suffering at the hands of the idolatrous Graeco-Roman culture in which they reside.
 

Contents

Introduction
1
John the Prophet on Patmos
49
Introduction to the Seven Letters
90
The Prophecy to Smyrna
116
The Prophecy to Pergamum
133
The Prophecy to Thyatira
146
The Prophecy to Philadelphia
173
The Prophecy to Laodicea
184
Johns Crisis Real or Imagined?
199
Did Johns Prophecies Fail?
205
Fictive Globalism
213
Bibliography
229
Author Index
247
Subject Index
253
Ancient Documents Index
261
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About the author (2013)

Richard Oster (PhD, Princeton Theological Seminary) is Professor of New Testament at Harding School of Theology. He has written a commentary on 1 Corinthians and participated in a commentary on the Acts of the Apostles.

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