Bibliography
| Title: A Backgrounds Investigation of the Jewish Temple Imagery in the Book of Revelation Type: Thesis Year: 1996 Abstract: "The main purpose of this monograph was to trace the temple motifs in the book of Revelation vis-a-vis those of the Old Testament, and then to assess the degree to which temple in pre-A.D. 70 non-canonical Jewish literature "influenced" these same themes in Revelation apart from the Hebrew Bible. It was pointed out in chapter one that ancient Near-Eastern societies shared many of the same notions about temple, thus indicating that there was ample opportunity and precedent for borrowing among the various temple ideologies through the first century A.D. Chapter two was an infrastructural exploration of Revelation's temple passages in light of those in the Old Testament. As expected, it turned out that the temple motifs in Revelation exhibit a great degree of congruity in meaning and significance with like figures in the Old Testament. The next step was to determine how large a part the non-canonical Jewish literature played in the exegetical foundation of John's visions as they pertained to temple. Thus chapters three, four, and five surveyed the temple themes in the "Old Testament" pseudepigrapha, the Qumran corpus, the Apocrypha, and Philo's and Josephus' writings. It was seen that there is a most exceptional distinction between John's use of the Old Testament and his use or, perhaps better, his non-use of the other Jewish sources in formulating his temple themes. John found more than enough temple material in the Scriptures to achieve, via religio-aesthetic means, his dual goal of reassuring believing Jews and stimulating them into leading lives which will result in their being overcomers. It became increasingly clear that intertestamental Jewish temple ideologies were highly consistent in their exalting the traditional temple cult and expecting the advent of a great eschatological sanctuary. John, on the other hand, though extolling the heavenly temple in the present age, unequivocally declared that there will be no temple in the eternal state. Paradoxically, however, there will be a temple after all, viz., God and the Lamb". Keywords: New Testament / Early Christianity |