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Gregory Stevenson
Power and Place
Beihefte zur Zeitschrift für die
neutestamentliche Wissenschaft
und die Kunde der älteren Kirche

In Verbindung mit
James D. G. Dunn · Richard B. Hays
Hermann Lichtenberger

herausgegeben von
Michael Wolter

Band 107

WDE

G_
Walter de Gruyter · Berlin · New York
2001
 Gregory Stevenson

Power and Place

Temple and Identity in the Book of Revelation

wDE

Walter de Gruyter · Berlin · New York

2001
 © Printed on acid-free paper which falls within the guidelines of the ANSI
to ensure permanence and durability.

Die Deutsche Bibliothek - CIP-Einheitsaufnahme

Stevenson, Gregory:
Power and place : temple and identity in the Book of Revelation /
Gregory Stevenson. - Berlin ; New York : de Gruyter, 2001
(Beihefte zur Zeitschrift fur die neutestamentliche Wissenschaft
und die Kunde der älteren Kirche ; Bd. 107)
Zugl.: Diss., 1999
ISBN 3-11-017008-6

© Copyright 2001 by Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co. KG, 10785 Berlin.
All rights reserved, including those of translation into foreign languages. No part of this book
may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical,
including photocopy, recording or any information storage and retrieval system, without permis-
sion in writing from the publisher.

Printed in Germany
Cover design: Christopher Schneider, Berlin
Printing and Binding: Hubert & Co., Göttingen
 To James, Beverly, and Sally Stevenson
Without their support this book could never have been written.
 Acknowledgments

I would like to thank Luke Timothy Johnson whose encouragement and

insight have been invaluable to me from the inception of this project. I thank
Carl Holladay, Carol Newsom, and Walter Wilson for their support and
helpful suggestions. Also deserving of my gratitude for their comments
offered at various stages of this project are David Aune, Adela Yarbro
Collins, Vernon Robbins, Eric Varner, and Bonna Wescoat. Special gratitude
goes to Richard Oster, both for his helpful feedback on certain portions of the
book and for stoking the fires of my interest in archaeology and in the book
of Revelation. Although not responsible for any flaws in this work, their
input has made it a much better book than it otherwise would have been.
Finally, I would like to thank James Walters, whose excellence in the
classroom inspired me to begin walking down the path I am on today.
 Contents

Abbreviations xiii

1. Revelation and the Temple: Introduction 1

1.1 The Problem of the Temple in Revelation 2

1.2 The Language of Apocalyptic 6

(a) Image and Symbol 6
(b) The Genre of Apocalyptic 10
(c) The Function of Apocalyptic Rhetoric 12
(d) Temple as Social Symbol 16

1.3 The Temple and the Interpretation of Revelation 19

(a) Material Culture and the Biblical Text 19
(b) Cultural Perspective of Revelation 24
(c) Interpretations of the Temple Language in Revelation.. 28

1.4 Method and Plan 32

2. Significance of Temples in Greek and Roman Culture.. 37

2.1 Introduction 37

2.2 Temple as Embodiment of Divine Presence 42

(a) Power and Presence 42
(b) Cult Statues and Thrones 44
(c) Purity and Access 48
(d) Epiphanies 52

2.3 Temple as Unifying Force 55

(a) Temple and Religion 55
(b) Temple and Society 68
χ Contents

(c) Temple and Economic Stability 72

(d) Temple and Civic/Political Life 75

2.4 Temples, Civic Pride and Identity 86

(a) Badge of Identity and Source of Pride 86
(b) The City as Protector of Temple and Cult 91
(c) Competition and Civic Pride 94
(d) Conceptualization and Symbolization of Identity 96

2.5 Temple as Place of Protection and Justice 99

(a) Deity as Protector of City and Temple 99
(b) Victory and Authority 102
(c) Asylum and Supplication 103

2.6 Summary and Conclusion 113

3. Significance of the Temple in Jewish Life and Thought 115

3.1 Introduction 115

3.2 The Temple in Jewish Tradition and History: An Overview 116

3.3 Temple and the Divine Presence 121

(a) The Presence of God 121
(b) Covenant and Election 128
(c) Holiness and Purity 131

3.4 Temple as Unifying Force 135

(a) Temple and Religion 136
(b) Temple and Socio-Cultural Environment 143
(c) Temple and Economic Stability 147
(d) Temple and National/Political Life 151
(e) Temple and Cosmology 154

3.5 Temple as Place of Power 157

(a) Protection, Mercy, Wrath 157
(b) The Jews and Temple Asylum 161
(c) Kingship and Justice 164
(d) Victory 166
 Contents xi

3.6 Temple and Jewish Identity 167

(a) Nationalism 167
(b) Continuity 174
(c) Displacement 177

3.7 Summary and Conclusion 180

4. Temple, Power and Identity in Jewish Apocalyptic

Literature 183

4.1 Introduction 183

4.2 Ezekiel 184

4.3 1 Enoch 85-90 187

4.4 Testament of Levi 191

4.5 4 Ezra 195

4.6 2 Baruch 200

4.7 Apocalypse of Abraham 206

4.8 Summary and Conclusion 210

5. The Temple and the Book of Revelation 215

5.1 Revelation and Cultural Pluralism 216

5.2 Displacement and Dating 218

5.3 Temple as Apocalyptic Symbol 220

6. Temple and Identity in Revelation 223

6.1 Rhetorical Situation: People of God or People of the World? 224

xii Contents

6.2 Mediation of Revelation 231

6.3 Temple and the People of God 237

(a) Lampstands and Priests 239
(b) Access and Human Pillars: The Letter to Philadelphia.. 241
(c) Restoration and Universalism (Revelation 7) 251
(d) Prophecy, Kingdom, and Covenant (Revelation 1 1 ) . . . . 257
(e) Sinai and Zion (Revelation 14-15) 265
(f) New Jerusalem: New Place 267

6.4 Temple and the People of the World 272

6.5 Summary and Conclusion 276

7. Power and Place 279

7.1 Rhetorical Situation: Kingdom of God or Kingdom of the

World? 279

7.2 Temple and the Power of God 284

(a) Temple and Divine Power 284
(b) Temple and Supplication 286
(c) Temple and Covenant: The Seventh Trumpet 293
(d) Temple and Divine Judgment 295

7.3 Summary and Conclusion 301

8. Conclusion 303

Bibliography 307

Index of Modern Authors 343

Index of Ancient Sources 351

Index of Scripture Citations 357

 List of Abbreviations

AAnz Archäologischer Anzeiger

AB The Anchor Bible
ABR Australian Biblical Review
AE L'Année Epigraphique
AJA American Journal of Archaeology
ANRW Aufstieg und Niedergang der römischen Welt
ANSNNM American Numismatic Society Numismatic Notes and
Monographs
ANSMN American Numismatic Society Museum Notes
AnSt Anatolian Studies
Ant. Jewish Antiquities
Ar Ariel
AUSS Andrews University Seminary Studies
AvP Altertümer von Pergamon. Vol. 8, 1-2 = Max
Fränkel. Die Inschriften von Pergamon. Berlin: W.
Spemann, 1890, 1895. Vol. 8, 3 = Christian Habicht.
Die Inschriften des Asklepieions. Berlin: Walter de
Gruyter, 1969.
BA Biblical Archaeologist
BAR Biblical Archaeology Review
BASOR Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research
BCH Bulletin de Correspondence Hellénique
Bell Belleten
Bib Biblica
BibK Bibel und Kirche
BibSac Bibliotheca Sacra
BICS Bulletin of the Institute of Classical Studies
BMC, Caria Head, Barclay V. Catalogue of the Greek Coins of
Caria, Cos, Rhodes, &c. A Catalogue of the Greek
Coins in the British Museum. Bologna: Arnaldo
Forni, 1964.
xiv Abbreviations

BMC, Ionia Head, Barclay V. Catalogue of the Greek Coins of

Ionia. A Catalogue of the Greek Coins in the British
Museum. Bologna: Arnaldo Forni, 1964.
BMC, Mysia Wroth, Warwick. Catalogue of the Greek Coins of
Mysia. A Catalogue of the Greek Coins in the British
Museum. Bologna: Arnaldo Forni, 1964.
BMC, Palestine Hill, George Francis. Catalogue of the Greek Coins
of Palestine (Galilee, Samaria, and Judaea). A
Catalogue of the Greek Coins in the British Museum.
Bologna: Arnaldo Forni, 1965.
BMC, Phrygia Head, Barclay V. Catalogue of the Greek Coins of
Phrygia. A Catalogue of the Greek Coins in the Brit-
ish Museum. Bologna: Arnaldo Forni, 1964.
BMCRE Mattingly, H., et al., eds. Coins of the Roman Empire
in the British Museum. 6 Vols. London: British Mu-
seum, 1873-1922; reprint, 1966.
BR Biblical Research
BVC Bible et Vie Chrétienne
CBQ Catholic Biblical Quarterly
Chir Chiron
CIG Corpus Inscriptionum Graecarum, ed. Augustus
Boeckhius. 4 Vols. Hildesheim; New York: G.
Olms, 1977.
Davies, Temple Davies, Philip R., ed. Second Temple Studies. 1. Per-
sian Period. Sheffield: JSOT Press, 1991.
ETL Ephemerides Theologicae Lovanienses
GIBM Hicks, E. L. The Collection of Ancient Greek
Inscriptions in the British Museum. 4 Vols. Oxford:
Clarendon Press, 1874-1916.
GUOST Glasgow University Oriental Society Transactions
HAR Hebrew Annual Review
Hesp Hesperia
HR History of Religions
HTR Harvard Theological Review
ICC International Critical Commentary
IDBSupp Interpreter's Dictionary of the Bible Supplement
IEJ Israel Exploration Journal
IGRR Inscriptiones Graecae ad Res Romanas Pertinentes.
4 Vols. Paris: Ernest Leroux, 1906-27.
 Abbreviations XV

IGS Inschriften griechischer Städte aus Kleinasien. Bonn:

Rudolf Habelt, 1972-.
Int Interpretation
IvEph Die Inschriften von Ephesos, ed. Hermann Wankel, et
al. IGS 11,1-17,4. Bonn: Rudolf Habelt, 1979-1984.
IvPriene Inschriften von Priene, ed. F. FRHR Hiller von Gaer-
tringen. Berlin: Georg Reimer, 1906.
IvSmyrna Die Inschriften von Smyrna, ed. Georg Petzl. IGS 23-
24,1. Bonn: Rudolf Habelt, 1982,1987.
IvTralleis Die Inschriften von Tralleis, ed. Fjoder B. Poljakov.
IGS 36,1. Bonn: Rudolf Habelt, 1989.
JAC Jahrbuch für Antike und Christentum
JBL Journal of Biblical Literature
JETS Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society
JHS Journal of Hellenic Studies
JJS Journal of Jewish Studies
JNES Journal of Near Eastern Studies
JÖAI Jahreshefte des Osterreichischen Archäologischen
Instituts
JQR Jewish Quarterly Review
JR Journal of Religion
JRS Journal of Roman Studies
JSJ Journal for the Study ofJudaism
JSNT Journal for the Study of the New Testament
JSOT Journal for the Study of the Old Testament
JSP Journal for the Study of the Pseudepigrapha
JTS Journal of Theological Studies
Jud Judaism
Koester, Ephesos Koester, Helmut, ed. Ephesos: Metropolis of Asia.
Valley Forge, PA: Trinity Press International, 1995.
Koester, Pergamon Koester, Helmut, ed. Pergamon: Citadel of the Gods.
Harrisburg, PA: Trinity Press International, 1998.
LCL Loeb Classical Library
LIMC Lexicon Iconographicum Mythologiae Classicae, ed.
John Boardman et al. Zurich: Artemis Verlag, 1981-.
Maa Maarav
Madsen, Temple Madsen, Truman G., ed. The Temple in Antiquity:
Ancient Records and Modern Perspectives. Brigham
Young University: Religious Studies Center, 1984.
MAMA Monumenta Asiae Minoris Antiqua
xvi Abbreviations

Neot Neotestamentica
New Documents New Documents Illustrating Early Christianity, ed. G.
H. R. Horsley, S. R. Llewelyn and R. A. Kearsley. 7
Vols. North Ryde, N.S.W.: The Ancient History
Documentary Research Center, Macquarie University,
1981-.
NRT Nouvelle Revue Théologique
NTS New Testament Studies
NT Novum Testamentum
NumChr The Numismatic Chronicle
OGIS Orientis Graeci Inscriptiones Selectae, ed. W. Ditten-
berger. 2 vols. Hildesheim: Georg Olms, 1960.
OJRS Ohio Journal of Religious Studies
OTP The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha, ed. James H.
Charlesworth. 2 Vols. New York: Doubleday, 1983,
1985.
PECS The Princeton Encyclopedia of Classical Sites, ed.
Richard Stillwell. Princeton: Princeton University
Press, 1976.
PEFQS Palestine Exploration Fund QuarterlyStatement
PEQ Palestine Exploration Quarterly
PIBA Proceedings of the Irish Biblical Association
Pr Prooftexts
RA Revue Archéologique
RB Revue Biblique
RE Paulys Real-Encyclopadie
REJ Revue des Etudes Juives
RevExp Review and Expositor
RevQ Revue de Qumran
RSR Revue des Sciences Religieuses
Sardis Buckler, W. H. and David M. Robinson. Sardis:
Greek and Latin Inscriptions. Publications of the
American Society for the Excavation of Sardis. Vol.
7, 1. Leiden: Brill, 1932.
SBLSP Society of Biblical Literature Seminar Papers
SEA Svensk Exegetisk Ârsbok
SEG Supplementum Epigraphicum Graecum. Leiden: A.
W. Sijthoff, 1923-.
Sem Semeia
 Abbreviations xvii

SIG3 Dittenberger, Wilhelm, et al. Sylloge Inscriptionum

Graecarum. 4 Vols. 3d ed. Leipzig: S. Hirzel, 1915-
24.
SJOT Scandinavian Journal of the Old Testament
Sou Soundings
TAPA Transactions and Proceedings of the American Phi-
lological Association
TB Tyndale Bulletin
TDGR Translated Documents of Greece and Rome
TDNT Theological Dictionary of the New Testament. Edited
by Gerhard Kittel. Translated and edited by Geoffrey
W. Bromiley. 10 Vols. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans,
1964-1976.
TE Theologia Evangelica
VT Vêtus Testamentum
WBC Word Biblical Commentary
ZAW Zeitschrift für die Alttestamentliche Wissenschaft
ZNW Zeitschrift für die Neutestamentliche Wissenschaft
ZPE Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik
ZRG Zeitschrift für Religions und Geistesgeschichte
ZThK Zeitschrift für Theologie und Kirche
 1. Revelation and the Temple: Introduction

No physical structure in antiquity held more significance as a place of

access to deity than a temple. It was the supreme locus of communication
between the divine and the human, a place of mediation between heaven and
earth. Since a temple was the abode of deity and the place of divine en-
thronement, access to divine power and mercy resided there, resulting in
supplication for justice, refuge, and divine aid. A temple offered a sense of
security based in a relationship with the deity.
In Greco-Roman and ancient Near Eastern societies, religion was not a
self-contained and isolated phenomenon. The influence of the divine realm
was woven into the fabric of every aspect of existence. Because temples rep-
resented access to the power and presence of a deity, they functioned promi-
nently in virtually every context where divine guidance was sought. Aside
from a temple's role in what we would consider properly religious activities
(worship, sacrifice, festivals, processions), it exerted influence in the social,
political, and economic realms. Temple estates contained various properties
and temples often housed the collective wealth of a people, the ancient
equivalent to banks. Temples aided the organization of athletic competitions,
provided space for honorary monuments and inscriptions, accommodated
social and religious banquets and celebrations, and some even offered
medical services. Given the significant functions of temples within everyday
life, it is clear how a temple could be a vital symbol of identity that structured
one's relationship both with the deity and with his or her surrounding
environment.
Early Christianity was comprised of Jewish and Gentile converts, for
whom temples (be it the Jerusalem Temple or "pagan" temples) had formerly
played a significant role in the ordering of religious and social life. Even
Diaspora Jews, for whom the synagogue had acquired local prominence, still
viewed the Jerusalem Temple as the center of Jewish religious identity. Early
Christianity, however, was distinctive in the ancient Mediterranean world in
having no physical temples at all. Any Jew or Gentile, therefore, who joined
this movement left their temple(s) behind. Consequently, it is surprising
when one turns to the book of Revelation and encounters therein . . . a temple.
2 Revelation and the Temple: Introduction

1.1 The Problem of the Temple in Revelation

A survey of the text of Revelation reveals an abundance of temple and

cultic language.1 After the opening assertion that followers of God have been
made priests (Îepeîs ~ 1:6; cf. 20:6) comes a vision of one "like a son of
man" standing amidst seven golden lampstands (λυχνίας χρυσός ~ 1:12-
13). The first explicit reference to a temple occurs in 3:12 where the reward
for the one who overcomes is to be made a pillar (στΰλον) in the temple
(ναω) of God.
In chapters 4-20, the language centers on the heavenly temple. Chapters
4-5 depict activities that occur in the presence of the heavenly throne. Re-
gardless of whether the setting for this throne is a temple, cultic presence is
indicated by the worship offered to God (4:8-11; 5:9-14), the slaughtered
Lamb (5:6), the harp (κιθάραν - 5:8), and the golden incense bowls (φιάλας
χρυσά? - 5:8). Rev. 6:9 introduces an altar (θυσιαστηρίου) under which
are the souls of martyrs. Following 7:15 where the victorious multitude is
said to serve God in his temple (λατρεύουσιν . . . èv τω ναω αυτοί)), we
encounter in 8:3-5 a golden altar and an angel with a golden censer
(Χι,βανωτόν χρυσοΟν) and incense (θυμιαμάτων). Later that same altar
speaks (9:13). Chapter eleven begins with a command to measure the temple,
the altar and the outer court, and concludes with a vision of the Ark of the
Covenant within God's heavenly temple (11:19). In 13:6, the beast slanders
God's "dwelling place," or perhaps, "tabernacle" (σκηνήν).
The primary concentration of temple language in Revelation is in chapters
fourteen through sixteen. Two angels come from the heavenly temple and
one from the altar to initiate the harvest and gathering of grapes (14:15-18).
Then, with the advent of the seven plagues, the heavenly temple, which is
identified with the "tabernacle of testimony" (ό vaòs της σκηνής του
μαρτυρίου èv τω ούρανω), is opened and seven angels issue forth from it to
receive seven golden bowls like those earlier filled with incense, but now
containing the wrath of God (15:5-7). Following this, the temple fills with
smoke and no one is allowed to enter until the plagues are complete (15:8).
In chapter sixteen a voice from the temple orders the outpouring of the bowls
(16:1) and the altar responds to an affirmation by the angel of waters (16:7).
Then in grand fashion, as the last bowl is emptied, a voice comes "out of the

Although in this study I use the term "temple" to identify the sacred building, I include
in my analysis (where appropriate) all of the architecture (such as the altar, etc.) and
cultic paraphernalia associated with the entire temple complex.
 The Problem of the Temple in Revelation 3

temple from the throne" (èκ του ναοί) άπό του θρόνου) to announce "It is
done" (16:17).
In the final chapters of Revelation, a startling transformation occurs.
Although an angel who had been in the heavenly temple shows off the New
Jerusalem (21:9) and God's tabernacle (σκηνή) is announced as being with
the righteous (21:3), the final word on the temple comes in 21:22 with the
statement that there is no temple in the New Jerusalem because "God and the
Lamb are its temple" (ναός).
What are we to make of the temple language in Revelation? Is it simply
scattered and incidental or structured, purposeful and central to the message
of the text? Any attempt to understand this language faces certain difficulties
that are perhaps best construed as three questions that the interpreter must
address.
1) Why does the temple appear in Revelation? Oddly, this important
question has rarely been asked in studies on the temple in Revelation.
Considering that Christians, both Jew and Gentile, no longer worshipped at
temples, one must question why this symbol appears in a Christian text
addressing what was likely a mixed cultural audience (Jewish and Gentile
Christians) in western Asia Minor. The knowledge of what a temple meant to
individuals and communities in antiquity — be it the Jerusalem Temple for
Jews or Greek and Roman temples for Gentiles - goes a long way towards
explaining why the temple functions as such a positive symbol in Revelation.
More will be said on this issue later in this chapter; but for now, it suffices to
say that one thesis of this study is that John, in addressing a mixed cultural
audience in Asia Minor, employs the symbol of the temple and its associated
imagery because it was a symbol that communicated powerfully to both
cultural groups, making it an appropriate vehicle for his message.
2) What counts as temple symbolism in Revelation? To speak simply of
"the temple" can be misleading due to the complexity surrounding temple
language in Revelation. The term used in Revelation for the temple is vaós
(occurring sixteen times). On three occasions the term for "tabernacle"
(σκηνή) occurs (13:6; 15:5; 21:3). To say that the term vaos identifies the
presence of the temple in Revelation is valid, but does not clarify to what the
term refers. A multiplicity of Greek terms were used in antiquity to identify
what we would call a "temple" (e.g. vaos, lepóv, Τ Έ Μ Ε Ν Ο Σ , OIKOS, etc.),2
and they were not always used consistently. Some terms denote the building
itself (either the whole structure or a part such as the Most Holy Place), while
others specify the larger sanctuary area. The same term might on one occa-

A similar variability occurs in Latin and Hebrew.

4 Revelation and the Temple: Introduction

sion identify the temple building proper and on another identify the whole
temple complex of building, altar, and sanctuary. Revelation offers the
benefit of restriction to only one of these terms, yet the precise nature of that
term is debatable. Does ναός in Revelation represent only the most sacred
area (what the Hebrews call the Holy of Holies), the entire temple building,
or the entire sanctuary/precinct area complete with temple, altar and
worshippers?
Time and space also figure into the identification of the ναός. Is the
temple earthly or heavenly? In many texts it is clear that the heavenly temple
is in view as, for instance, when the heavenly throne or an angel is associated
with it (7:15; 14:15-18; 16:1, 17) or when it is identified as the temple "in
heaven" (έν τψ ούρανφ — 11:19; 14:17; 15:5). In 11:1-2, however, it is less
clear whether the author envisions a temple in heaven or on earth. Even in
texts where the identification of a heavenly temple seems certain, the
temporal issue arises of whether the author speaks of a heavenly temple in the
present or of a future, eschatological temple. Rev. 3:12 and 7:15, for
instance, with their promises of being made pillars in the temple of God and
serving God day and night in his temple seem to speak of eschatological
rewards.
The range of the language also presents problems. Do we translate
σκηνή generally as "dwelling place" or more specifically as "tabernacle"
with all that entails? Does the assertion in 13:6 that the beast blasphemes
God's σκηνή refer to God's earthly dwelling (the Jerusalem Temple) or
God's heavenly dwelling (the heavenly temple)? Should God's "tabernacle"
(σκηνή) be identified with his heavenly "temple" (ναός) as is done in 15:5
and, if so, how then does one reconcile the presence of the "tabernacle"
(21:3) in the New Jerusalem with the absence of the "temple" (21:22)?
A further difficulty arises with texts that do not contain the terms for
"temple" or "tabernacle," but do contain terminology often associated with
temples. Chapters 4-5 are a prime example. Is this a temple scene or a
throne scene independent of any temple? Are the two necessarily mutually
exclusive? Must one assume, however, that the mere presence of cultic
language in a scene necessitates the presence of a temple? Must one demand
a temple every time a lampstand or an incense bowl makes an appearance?
Furthermore, how is the relationship between the temple and the throne to be
construed? Are they separate entities or is the throne assumed to be inside
the temple? Does it matter? Likewise, what is to be done with the altar? Are
there two altars — the one with souls under it (6:9) and the "golden altar"
(8:3; 9:13) -- or just one?
 The Problem of the Temple in Revelation 5

The preceding questions illustrate the difficulty facing anyone who seeks
to make sense of the temple language in Revelation. I highlight the difficulty
in order to guard against a premature simplification of what is in fact a com-
plex and multi-faceted problem. Two principles, however, will be helpful for
navigating this sea of confusion. They are the principle of flexibility and the
principle of circularity.
The principle of flexibility asserts that one must be cautious of forcing a
rigid structure onto what is essentially a fluid and figurative description. The
language of Revelation is symbolic, metaphorical language that uses the
temple to communicate a spiritual message. Because the author does not
attempt a detailed and consistent portrayal of the heavenly temple, one
encounters what appear to be inconsistent assertions. Revelation 3:12, for
example, says that those who overcome will be rewarded by being made
pillars in the temple of God, a temple that is associated with the New Jerusa-
lem; yet, when the New Jerusalem arrives, there is no temple (21:22). Also,
in one text the altar has souls under it (6:9), while other references to the altar
offer no hint of any souls being present (8:3-5). The reason for this inconsis-
tency is that John uses the same language to communicate different ideas in
different texts. The message is the thing, and not the detailed coherence of
the language. Thus, to an extent, each text must be allowed to speak its own
voice without forced harmonization with other texts that may be speaking in a
different tone.
Having said that, one must not abandon the search for coherence in John's
employment of temple language. The principle of circularity asserts that cer-
tain images, terms, and themes scattered throughout the text of Revelation
have a connection with one another so that, to an extent, an image occurring
in one passage can help to interpret and explain the appearance of that same
image in another passage. Leonard Thompson offers a description of this
phenomenon in the text of Revelation.

In that process of circularity and accumulation, placement in the narrative sequence

is a significant factor; for earlier occurrences of a term, image, or motif become a
given in the narrative line, to be drawn on in the development of a later scene. That
is, a secondary occurrence in the work loops back around the first occurrence of the
term, image, or motif, a tertiary occurrence loops back around the first two, and so
forth. There is, thus, a kind of recursive process in which an earlier usage becomes
a given and provides input into the meaning of a later one. 3

3
Leonard L. Thompson, "Mapping an Apocalyptic World," in Sacred Places and
Profane Spaces: Essays in the Geographies of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, eds.
Jamie Scott and Paul Simpson-Housley (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1991), 119.
6 Revelation and the Temple: Introduction

This concept of cumulative information should not be pressed to the point

where the flexibility of the language is lost, but it can have significant impact
on the interpretation of Revelation. With respect to temple and cultic lan-
guage where one finds recurrent terminology and motifs, this principle allows
one to construct a relatively coherent picture of the heavenly temple in Reve-
lation; that is, a general conception of how John views the heavenly temple
with the recognition of fluidity and flexibility within that general conception.
The principle of circularity also proves helpful in addressing some of the
questions raised above. Later occurrences of temple and throne language, for
example, can shed valuable light upon the identification of the throne scene in
chapters 4-5.
3) How does the temple function as a symbol in Revelation? The first
two questions governing this study address why the temple was chosen as a
symbol and how one identifies the temple in Revelation. Understanding why
the temple is there and where it is to be found, however, does not equal an
understanding of what it does. Any analysis of the temple in Revelation that
does not answer the question of function is truncated in the extreme. In addi-
tion, an adequate understanding of the meaning and function of the temple in
Revelation must be based upon the meaning and function of that symbol for
the individuals and communities addressed by that text. This necessarily
requires an awareness of the meanings and functions of Greek and Roman
temples in addition to the Jerusalem Temple, since a reading of the temple in
Revelation in the light of Jewish temple realities may help to explain the sig-
nificance of that symbol for Jewish Christian readers, but it scarcely exhausts
the significance of such a symbol for Gentile Christian readers. Furthermore,
the analysis of the function of temple language in Revelation is also
predicated upon an awareness of how the language of apocalyptic functions.

1.2 The Language of Apocalyptic

(a) Image and Symbol

That apocalyptic literature is symbolic literature appears straightforward,

but the precise force such a statement carries depends upon what one means
by the term "symbol." Furthermore, defining the relationship between
"symbol" and "image" creates a ripple effect impacting the interpretation of
the temple in Revelation, because the choice of either "imagery" or "symbol-
 The Language of Apocalyptic 7

ism" as the rubric under which to confine the temple can greatly alter the
perceived function of temple language.
Generally, imagery is pictorial language. An image of a temple on a
Roman coin is a visual representation designed to communicate a message.
The image is tailored to the message and thus may or may not conform
strictly to reality. In the context of written language, an image calls forth a
mental picture that communicates through visualization, although at times the
force of the image may seek to "overwhelm the imagination."4 A symbol is
an image, but one that penetrates through the boundaries constraining the
image.
Paul Ricoeur distinguishes symbols and signs (what is here called an
"image"). Signs point beyond themselves representationally and "say only
what they want to say."5 In contrast to signs, symbols are opaque and carry a
double intentionality, whereby the first, literal intentionality points "analogi-
cally" to a second intentionality that leads to deeper meanings.
Consequently, the "depth of the s y m b o l . . . is inexhaustible."6 According to
Ricoeur, a symbol functions to spark thought.7 One must, therefore, live
within the symbol and allow it to lead one to the deeper riches of its meaning.
Ricoeur asserts that although not every sign is a symbol, every symbol is a
sign.8
Philip Wheelwright argues that within poetic language an image empha-
sizes a "concrete element," whereas a symbol insists upon a "semantic out-
reach."9 He offers the following broad definition of "symbol": "A symbol,
in general, is a relatively stable and repeatable element of perceptual
experience, standing for some larger meaning or set of meanings which
cannot be given, or not fully given, in perceptual experience itself."10 He
then distinguishes two types of symbols relative to their referents: steno
symbols and tensive symbols.11 A steno symbol is a form of closed language
in which the symbol bears a one-to-one correspondence with its referent. A
tensive symbol, on the other hand, is characteristic of open or living language

4
G. B. Caird, The Language and Imagery of the Bible (Philadelphia: Westminster Press,
1980), 149.
5
Paul Ricoeur, The Symbolism of Evil, trans. Emerson Buchanan (Boston: Beacon Press,
1967), 15.
6
Ibid., 15.
7
Ibid., 348.
8
Ibid., 14-15.
9
Philip Wheelwright, Metaphor & Reality (Bloomington: Indiana University Press,
1962), 66, 68.
10
Ibid., 92.
11
Ibid., 33, 37, 45, 54, 94-96.
8 Revelation and the Temple: Introduction

and cannot be exhausted by a single referent. A tensive symbol is thus

capable of multiple meanings. Wheelwright's distinction between steno and
tensive symbols essentially corresponds to Ricoeur's distinction between sign
(image) and symbol.
Influenced by the work of Ricoeur and Wheelwright, Norman Perrin
applies the categories of steno and tensive symbols to ancient Jewish and
Christian apocalyptic literature for the purpose of contrasting apocalyptic
symbolism with the symbolism of the Gospels.12 He concludes that
apocalyptic symbols are primarily steno symbols and, like the mathematical
symbol pi, they bear a one-to-one correspondence with a single referent. The
book of Daniel, for example, employs steno symbols that correspond to
individual historical referents, and the meaning of the symbol is exhausted
with that first intentionality. In contrast, the symbol of the "kingdom of God"
in the Gospels is a tensive symbol, alive with meaning, and not "exhausted
nor adequately expressed by any one referent." 13 Perrin's analysis suffers
from the common presupposition of apocalyptic literature as a substandard
literary vehicle for the expression of religious truth claims. Consequently, he
implies that apocalyptic does not contain any "real" symbols — only signs or
steno symbols — and is about the business of calculation and prediction. 14
A number of voices express opposition to Perrin's assessment of apoca-
lyptic symbolism. The counter-assertion is that apocalyptic literature,
although on occasion using language with a one-to-one correspondence, pri-
marily employs true symbols, what Perrin would term "tensive symbols." 15
The common identification of apocalyptic imagery as referential rather than
symbolic is a misunderstanding of the poetic, evocative, and thought-
provoking character of apocalyptic language. John Collins laments the
approach that identifies apocalyptic symbols as "mere codes whose meaning
can be exhausted by single referents" and replies that this "view fails to
account for the perennial ambiguity of some symbols . . . for the fact that

12
Norman Perrin, "Eschatology and Hermeneutics: Reflections on Method in the
Interpretation of the New Testament" JBL 93 (1974): 10-12; Jesus and the Language of
the Kingdom (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1976), 29-31.
13
Perrin, Jesus, 30.
14
André Lacocque, "Apocalyptic Symbolism: A Ricoeurian Hermeneutical Approach,"
BR 26 (1981): 6.
15
John J. Collins, "The Symbolism of Transcendence in Jewish Apocalyptic," BR 19
(1974): 5-6, 15-16; Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza, The Book of Revelation: Justice and
Judgment (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1985; reprint, 1989), 183-184; Lacocque, 6-7.
 The Language of Apocalyptic 9

apocalypses often offer several different images of the future, or for the
evocative power of allusions to ancient myths and traditions."16
Apocalyptic symbolism is "open language," capable of multiple meanings
in different contexts and designed to generate thought.17 An apocalyptic
symbol encourages the seeking out of deeper meanings, rather than the
narrow limiting of meaning to a single definition, and, therefore, allows for
the "possible overtones of meanings" for both author and audience to become
visible.18 These qualities make apocalyptic symbolism "a more flexible tool
for the portrayal of reality than ordinary prose."19 The intermingling of
symbolism and apocalyptic thought is highly appropriate. We regularly use
symbols to order our reality. They allow us to access certain aspects of
reality that are otherwise inaccessible.20 Since a major goal of apocalyptic
thought is to offer a different perspective or different interpretation of
"reality," symbolic language was a ready-made tool for that end.
The nature of apocalyptic symbolism as open, multivalent and multi-
layered makes it a fitting vehicle for expressing language and concepts
relating to the temple, since the very existence of a temple as a widespread
phenomenon "challenges us with its complexity, diverse guises, and seem-
ingly endless range of meanings."21 Wheelwright identifies five grades of
significance of tensive symbols including "ancestral vitality" or literary life
whereby the symbol is passed on and continually given new life in different
poetic contexts, "significance for an entire cultural group," and "archetypal"
significance in which the symbol holds meaning for large portions of
humanity "independently of borrowings and historical influences."22 As a
symbol in antiquity, a temple possesses all three of these aspects. The use of
the temple as a symbol in numerous and diverse literary contexts in antiquity
testifies to its "ancestral vitality." Temples were also highly significant
symbols for individual cultural groups as Jewish temple traditions reveal. In
addition, the widespread existence of temples in divergent geographical

16
John J. Collins, "Apocalyptic Literature," in Early Judaism and its Modern Interpreters,
eds. Robert A. Kraft and George W. E. Nickelsburg (Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1986),
349-350. See also Lacocque, 9.
17
Fiorenza, Book of Revelation, 186, 188.
18
Fiorenza, Book of Revelation, 186.
19
Jon Paulien, "Allusions, Exegetical Method, and the Interpretation of Revelation 8:7-
12" (Ph.D. diss., Andrews University, 1987), 20-21.
20
Mircea Eliade, Images and Symbols: Studies in Religious Symbolism, trans. Philip
Mairet (New York: Sheed and Ward, 1969), 12.
21
David M. Knipe, "The Temple in Image and Reality," in Temple in Society, ed. Michael
V. Fox (Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 1988), 106.
22
Wheelwright, 98-99.
10 Revelation and the Temple: Introduction

locales and cultural environs witnesses to its potential as an archetypal

symbol.
That an apocalyptic symbol, such as the temple, potentially possesses an
inexhaustible depth of meaning does not indicate that this symbol is capable
of meaning whatever any individual interpreter chooses. The potential
meanings of the symbol are constrained both by the culture(s) from which the
symbol derives and from the literary context in which the symbol occurs. In
other words, Greco-Roman and ancient Near Eastern cultures establish
certain boundaries, however flexible, for the potential range of meanings and
functions of a temple within those cultures. Similarly, when the temple is
used as a symbol in a poetic, literary context, the text establishes boundaries
for the symbolic range of meaning of the temple.23 Thus, any interpretation
of the meaning and function of the temple in Revelation must make sense
within the cultural matrix or matrices where the book was written and sent,
within the literary structure and context of the book, and within the historical
situation of the book.24 A more precise understanding of how apocalyptic
symbolism functions requires an awareness of the issues of genre and
rhetoric.

(b) The Genre of Apocalyptic

The nearly universal consensus that such a phenomenon as "apocalyptic

literature," of which Revelation is an example, exists must be balanced over
against the equally universal consensus regarding the extreme difficulty of
defining such a genre in an all-encompassing and completely satisfactory
manner. The problem is that the examples of revelatory literature commonly
analyzed contain such a variety of content and structure that a single
definition is hard-pressed to account for the innumerable variations. A
general survey of the genre discussion will, however, highlight two issues
relevant to this study.
Traditional schemes of identification construct a list of characteristics of
apocalypses.25 The problem with this approach is that many apocalypses do
23
Fiorenza states that Revelation utilizes rhetorical markers, such as when the text offers
its own interpretation, to ensure that multivalent symbols are understood in a particular
way, Book of Revelation, 189.
24
Fiorenza makes the point that the poetic language of Revelation must make sense within
the structure of the book and within its historical situation, Book of Revelation, 187. I
add that such language must also make sense within its social and cultural context.
25
For examples see Klaus Koch, The Rediscovery of Apocalyptic, trans. Margaret Kohl
(London: SCM Press, 1972), 23ff; Philipp Vielhauer and Georg Strecker, "Apocalypses
 The Language of Apocalyptic 11

not have all of these characteristics, while most of the characteristics are also
found in works deemed non-apocalyptic.26 The Apocalypse Group of the
Society of Biblical Literature Genres Project has attempted a "comprehensive
definition of the genre" that is based upon Jewish, Christian, Gnostic, Greco-
Roman, and Persian revelatory literature. The definition reported by John
Collins is worth repeating.

'Apocalypse' is a genie of revelatory literature with a narrative framework, in

which a revelation is mediated by an otherworldly being to a human recipient,
disclosing a transcendent reality which is both temporal, insofar as it envisages
eschatological salvation, and spatial insofar as it involves another, supernatural
world.27

The above definition analyzes the genre from the standpoint of form and
content, but does not adequately address the question of function. David
Hellholm, in reply, offered the addition "intended for a group in crisis with
the purpose of exhortation and/or consolation by means of divine
authority."28 This emphasis on apocalyptic literature as a response to some
form of crisis is helpful so long as one allows for a broad definition of
"crisis" that includes the element of perception.29
David Aune emphasizes the element of transcendence that was mentioned
in Collins' definition. Apocalyptic literature offers a transcendent perspec-
tive on human experience.30 In addition, he argues that a more precise under-
standing of the literary function of apocalypses should accompany the social
function highlighted by Hellholm. This literary function is threefold in that it
involves the legitimation of the transcendent authority of the message, the re-
presentation of the author's original revelatory experience, and the encour-

and Related Subjects: Introduction," in New Testament Apocrypha, ed. Wilhelm

Schneemelcher; rev. ed. by Edgar Hennecke (Louisville, KY: Westminster/John Knox
Press, 1992), 545-554.
26
E. P. Sanders, "The Genre of Palestinian Jewish Apocalypses," in Apocalypticism in the
Mediterranean World and the Near East, ed. David HelÚiolm (Tübingen: J. C. B. Möhr,
1983), 449.
27
John. J. Collins, "Introduction: Towards the Morphology of a Genre," Sem 14 (1979): 9.
28
David Hellholm, "The Problem of Apocalyptic Genre and the Apocalypse of John," Sem
36 (1986): 27. Interpreting the social function of apocalypses in the light of some form
of crisis or alienation is a common practice: P. D. Hanson, "Apocalypticism," in
IDBSupp, eds. Keith Crim et al (Nashville: Abingdon, 1976), 30; D. S. Russell,
Prophecy and the Apocalyptic Dream: Protest and Promise (Peabody, Mass:
Hendrickson, 1994), 14-18.
29
A. Y. Collins, "Persecution and Vengeance in the Book of Revelation," in
Apocalypticism in the Mediterranean World and the Near East, ed. David Hellholm
(Tübingen: J. C. B. Möhr, 1983), 729.
30
David E. Aune, "The Apocalypse of John and the Problem of Genre," Sent 36 (1986):
65.
12 Revelation and the Temple: Introduction

agement of cognitive and behavioral modification on the basis of the

transcendent message.31
Of primary importance is the dual emphasis on transcendence and func-
tion, both social and literary. To understand how the author of Revelation
utilizes temple symbolism, it is first necessary to understand what the author
seeks to accomplish with the work as a whole. How does transcendence and
the opening of human experience to the purview of the spiritual realm allow
the author of Revelation to communicate his message? What role does tran-
scendence play in the literary function of the document? To these questions
we now turn.

(c) The Function of Apocalyptic Rhetoric

David Aune's analysis of the literary function of apocalyptic literature as

offering a transcendent perspective on human experience for the purpose of
changing the way individuals think and behave is an important general state-
ment of the literary function of apocalyptic rhetoric. This literary function
addresses certain sociological realities. Apocalyptic rhetoric addresses per-
ceptions of injustice, suffering, incompatibility between one's desired place
in the world and one's place in the world as determined by social and
political institutions and structures, and challenges to self and group identity
and survival.32 These are in part emotional issues that cannot be dealt with
adequately on the basis of intellectual clarification alone. An apocalyptic
argument engages the audience on both an intellectual and emotional level.
The value of apocalyptic lies in its ability to make a holistic argument, pre-
cisely because it is tailor-made for addressing both the mind and the heart.
How exactly apocalyptic, and specifically Revelation, accomplishes this is a
matter of much debate.
Apocalyptic rhetoric involves a mixture of emotional appeal and intellec-
tual argument. Analyses of apocalyptic rhetoric frequently focus upon one
or the other of these aspects without fully appreciating the interaction of the
two. The argument of apocalyptic discourse is imbedded in the narrative
construct of a story, a story that seeks to persuade both by connecting with

31
Ibid., 89-90.
32
For a fuller discussion of some of the questions and issues that apocalyptic addresses see
Amos N. Wilder, "The Rhetoric of Ancient and Modern Apocalyptic," Int 25 (1971):
440-49.
 The Language of Apocalyptic 13

the emotions and by making a point.33 The creation of this narrative is done
in large part through symbols, and it is often on the level of the symbols that
the message is communicated.
It is generally recognized that the author of Revelation creates a symbolic
world or universe that is set in juxtaposition with the social-political world of
the Roman Empire.34 What needs to be determined is the literary and social
function of this symbolic world. The majority of approaches to the interpre-
tation of John's symbolic world may be categorized according to the follow-
ing four functions: the explanatory/legitimating function, the therapeutic
function, the imaginative function, and the transformative function.35
According to the explanatory/legitimating function, the book of
Revelation creates a symbolic world in order to explain why the world looks
as it does and/or to legitimate a particular aspect of that world. Stephen D.
O'Leary provides an example of this approach with his argument that
apocalyptic literature functions as a "symbolic theodicy" that both explains
and legitimates the presence of evil in the world by the way that it constructs
time.36
The therapeutic approach offers a psychoanalytic interpretation of Revela-
tion that views the book as a form of therapy. John Gager reads Revelation
as mythic therapy designed to help the readers conquer their despair over
their present situation by offering the hope of a mythical future.37 Adela
Yarbro Collins argues that Revelation functions to control aggressive
feelings. The author encourages the audience to recognize and experience
their feelings of fear and resentment by heightening the sense of conflict
between what is (their perception of the world as it is) and what ought to be
(their perception of how a world ruled by God ought to look). Then,

33
Awareness of the narrative structure of Revelation has led to comparisons with Greek
drama. See, for example, John Wick Bowman, "The Revelation to John: Its Dramatic
Structure and Message," Int 9 (1955): 436-453; James L. Blevins, "The Genre of
Revelation," RevExp 77 (1980): 393-408.
34
Fiorenza, Book of Revelation, 187; Hanson, 30; Leonard Thompson, "A Sociological
Analysis of Tribulation in the Apocalypse of John," Sem 36 (1986): 165. Some use the
term "theopoetic" to describe this symbolic world; see Richard B. Hays, The Moral
Vision of the New Testament: Community, Cross, New Creation (San Francisco:
HarperSanFrancisco, 1996), 173.
35
These categories are my own and are intended to be representational rather than
exhaustive. Also, one must allow for overlap and interaction between them.
36
Stephen D. O'Leary, Arguing the Apocalypse: A Theory of Millennial Rhetoric (New
York: Oxford University Press, 1994), 14, 34, 63.
37
John G. Gager, Kingdom and Community: The Social World of Early Christianity
(Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1975), 51-55.
14 Revelation and the Temple: Introduction

Revelation offers an outlet or catharsis for these feelings through symbolic

narratives and the structure of the document.38
The "imaginative" approach highlights the manner by which the symbolic
world/universe addresses the imagination of the audience. E. S. Fiorenza
asserts that apocalyptic language is imaginative, rather than descriptive or
explanatory, language.39 Revelation, in particular, is a mixture of "visionary
rhetoric" that seeks to persuade and poetry that seeks to engage the imagina-
tion. In short, Revelation is a "poetic-rhetorical work" that "seeks to
persuade and motivate by constructing a 'symbolic universe' that invites
imaginative participation."40 This approach shares much in common with the
previous one. A. Y. Collins argues, for example, that the psychological
catharsis occurs "in an act of literary imagination" that offers an
interpretation of present reality and allows the audience to share in that
interpretation.41 John creates a symbolic vision of what ought to be.42 This
approach depicts the readers/hearers of Revelation as retreating into the
imagination as a means of coping with the harsh realities of their real world.
It thus gives them strength to return to the real world and deal with it. Collins
even compares Revelation to a schizophrenic who uses "elaborate fantasies"
to cope with reality.43
The transformative approach asserts that the symbolic rhetoric of apoca-
lyptic effects real change. John does not create an "alternative" symbolic
universe set in juxtaposition to the "real" world; neither does he counsel a
temporary retreat from reality. Rather, he seeks to transform reality in the
minds of his readers. David L. Barr argues that readers who allow
themselves to be drawn into the symbolic world of Revelation "would be
transformed, and so would the world they live in for they would understand
that world differently . . . This is just what the Apocalypse does. This is no
ephemeral experience. The hearers are decisively changed. They now live in

38
Adela Yarbro Collins, Crisis & Catharsis: The Power of the Apocalypse (Philadelphia:
Westminster Press, 1984), 141, 152-154.
39
E. S. Fiorenza, "The Phenomenon of Early Christian Apocalyptic. Some Reflections on
Method," in Apocalypticism in the Mediterranean World and the Near East, ed. David
Hellholm (Tübingen: J. C. B. Möhr, 1983), 305.
40
Fiorenza, Book of Revelation, 187.
41
Collins, Crisis & Catharsis, 141, 144; see also "Persecution and Vengeance," 729, TAI.
42
Collins, Crisis & Catharsis, 142.
43
She states: "The solution of the Apocalypse is an act of creative imagination which, like
that of the schizophrenic, withdraws from empirical reality, from real experience in the
everyday world," Collins, Crisis & Catharsis, 155.
 The Language of Apocalyptic 15

another world."44 D. S. Russell similarly asserts that those who enter this
apocalyptic world become "new people."45
Although all four of the above approaches are capable of shedding light
on the text of Revelation, it is the transformative approach that offers the best
insight into the function of John's symbolic world. John views Satan as a
grand illusionist who has deceived humanity into believing that Rome rules
the world, that God's justice is no longer operating, that faithfulness will not
be rewarded, and that Christians have been overcome. Consequently, John
seeks to identify for his readers the illusory nature of this "reality" and, in so
doing, alter their perception ofthat "reality." Apocalyptic symbolism offers a
transcendent perspective on the world and the human situation.46 By allow-
ing his audience to glimpse the spiritual realm and by allowing that realm to
critique his readers' perception of reality, John asserts that the only true real-
ity is that which is seen through a transcendent lens. He seeks to transform at
a fundamental level the way his readers experience and understand the world
they live in and their place in it. For John, it is his symbolic world that
pierces Satan's illusions and offers access to true reality — that God, not
Rome, rules the universe, that God's justice is working itself out in the world,
that faithfulness does achieve a reward, and that the believers are the victors.
Indeed, for those convinced by John's symbolic construct, the world has
become a different place.
In his critique of crisis theories, Leonard Thompson shows some affinities
with the transformative approach. He attacks crisis theories, which assert that
the symbolic world of Revelation was created in direct response to some form
of crisis, for unduly separating the social from the symbolic. Crisis theorists,
he argues, tend to support a uni-directional flow of causality in which a re-
constructed social situation generates a symbolic, literary expression that is
"malleable to the more 'real' social, political situation; while social
experience . . . exists as an impenetrable entity, unaffected essentially by
religious, mythic, and literary symbols."47 In contrast, Thompson rightly
argues that the symbolic and the. social are inextricably linked.

44
David L. Ban, "The Apocalypse as a Symbolic Transformation of the World: A Literary
Analysis," Int 38 (1984): 49.
45
Russell, 60.
46
Collins, "Symbolism of Transcendence," 11-12, 21; Wayne A. Meeks, The Moral World
of the First Christians (Philadelphia: Westminster, 1986), 143-45. Paul S. Minear adds
that with apocalyptic, as with prophecy, future expectations function as reflections on
present experience, New Testament Apocalyptic (Nashville: Abingdon, 1981), 62.
47
Thompson, "Sociological Analysis," 163.
16 Revelation and the Temple: Introduction

Those theorists assume that there is an ordered, central reality to the social world,
and separate from that is another ordered world created by John. Each forms a
separate circle. As an alternative to that model, I propose that John's symbolic
world is both comprehensive and coherent. It is comprehensive in that John offers
his symbolic structure as an all-inclusive world embracing the whole of Christian
existence including social, political exchanges in everyday life. His symbolics are
misinterpreted if they are seen aá an alternative order situated at the periphery of the
'real social world.' John's symbolic world is coherent in that, if appropriated, it
integrates human experience and makes Christian existence whole. Rather than
imagining John's symbolics as a separate circle, they are better understood as a grid
or an overlay that orders all experience.48

A nuanced understanding of the social aspects of John's symbolic world

allows for a greater appreciation of the appropriateness of the temple as an
apocalyptic symbol. As an institutional reality operating within the social,
political, and economic life of a community, a temple impacted virtually
every aspect of everyday life. On the other hand, a temple was also a
religious phenomenon that mediated between heaven and earth, offering
access to the divine. Consequently, no other symbol was more appropriate
for addressing the social needs of a people and for offering access to a
transcendent perspective on the world.

(d) Temple as Social Symbol

In the above discussion it was argued that apocalyptic symbols have both
social and literary significance. Having highlighted some of the literary ele-
ments in the previous section, the discussion now turns to a brief analysis of
one aspect of the social significance of the temple as symbol in Revelation.
In antiquity, a temple was an important social and political place, but
above all it was a religious place — sacred space where one could access the
divine. As a place of intersection between the social, political, and religious,
a temple often became an important symbol by which a community
conceived of its identity and sense of place in the world.
Jonathan Z. Smith argues that societies and individuals create their
identity through "an understanding and symbolization of place," which is
both geographical and social.49
48
Ibid., 166.
49
Jonathan Z. Smith, Map Is Not Territory: Studies in the History of Religions (Leiden: E.
J. Brill, 1978), 143.
 The Language of Apocalyptic 17

The question of the character of the place on which one stands is the fundamental
symbolic and social question. Once an individual or culture has expressed its vision
of its place, a whole language of symbols and social structures will follow. 50

Consequently, because the symbolic and social are intertwined, a change in

one's social "place" necessitates a change in one's symbols. Thus, Smith can
assert that "social change is preeminently symbol or symbolic change."51 So,
for instance, with the destruction of the Jerusalem Temple in 70 C.E., a large
portion of Judaism lost its central, sacred place. This sparked a reconfigura-
tion of Judaism's symbols as the law came to take on greater priority as a
symbol and recourse to a heavenly or eschatological temple gained
frequency.
Smith constructs a typology of religious communities in antiquity on the
basis of their "place in the world": locative groups and diasporic groups. A
locative view of the world emphasizes a specific, "real" place and develops
structures and traditions around that homeplace. The Jewish community in
Jerusalem would be a locative religious group. A diasporic view of the
world, on the other hand, acknowledges the lack of a homeplace.52 Diasporic
Judaism is obviously an example of this type. Since social change (as in the
shift from a locative to a diasporic situation) often necessitates symbol
change, diasporic religious communities tend to develop cultic alternatives
for the previous sacred center (such as temples), view themselves as spiritual
exiles from their true heavenly home, and develop new means of accessing
the deity independent of any particular place (such as visions, epiphanies, and
heavenly journeys).53 Diasporic religions tend to be religions of transcen-
dence.54
Without debating the accuracy of all of Smith's distinctions, this study
picks up on one central feature of his work ~ that one's self-identity and
sense of social place is inextricably bound up with one's symbolic world.
Two points are important to my employment of this concept. First, social
change should not be understood simply in geographical terms. A commu-
nity like that at Qumran may be in geographical proximity to the central

50
Ibid., 141.
51
Ibid., 143.
52
Ibid., xii, xiv, 101.
53
Ibid., xiv. See also J. Ronald Engel, "The Question of the Place on Which We Stand:
An Agenda for Religious Social Ethics," in Liberation and Ethics: Essays in Religious
and Social Ethics in Honor of Gibson Winter, ed. Charles Amjad-Ali and W. Alvin
Pitcher (Chicago: Center for the Scientific Study of Religion, 1985), 5-6.
54
Smith, xiv.
18 Revelation and the Temple: Introduction

religious place (the Jerusalem Temple) and yet feel displaced, leading to the
creation of a new symbolic world in which the community becomes the
temple. Second, the idea that a change in either one's social "place" or in
one's view of the world necessitates symbol change can also be reversed, i.e.
that a change in symbol can affect one's view of the world and of one's place
in it. If a community like Qumran perceives that the Jerusalem Temple (as a
symbol of Jewish faith and identity) has become corrupt, that recognition can
spark a réévaluation of community identity and status.
The book of Revelation was written to diasporic communities, and this is
true with regards to both Jews and Gentiles. Although Gentile Christians
were not geographically separated from their previous sacred centers, their
conversion to Christianity caused them to be cut off from the temples and
cultic activities that had functioned prominently in their lives and played a
constitutive role in their identity. Of course, many Jewish communities in
Asia Minor had adapted to daily life without a temple and had transferred
their worship to the synagogue. Nevertheless, for Diaspora Jews in the first
century C.E., the Jerusalem Temple still played an important ideological role
in the makeup of their identity as Jews so that conversion to Christianity,
involving as it did exclusion from temple and synagogue, would have held
significant repercussions for the self-identity of those individuals.55 Conse-
quently, diasporic religious groups tend to seek out new symbols or new con-
struals of old symbols (such as temple) in order to address issues about their
identity, their understanding of the world and of God, and their relationship to
both. Also, the need for addressing these issues is heightened in a time of
ideological tension. Smith states:

When the world is perceived to be chaotic, reversed, liminal, filled with anomie.
[sic] Then man finds himself in a world which he does not recognize; and perhaps
even more terrible, man finds himself to have a self he does not recognize. Then he
will need to create a new world, to express his sense of a new place. 56

I do not mean to suggest that the book of Revelation was written for the
purpose of responding to the loss of the temple(s) or for the purpose of
providing Christians with a "new place." The point is rather that an under-
standing of the social location of the original audience of Revelation as
people without a temple changes our sense of the symbolic force the temple

55
That the book of Revelation may have been written after the destruction of the
Jerusalem Temple also impacts the potential displacement of Jewish Christians. The
effect of the date of Revelation on this discussion is dealt with in chapter five.
56
Smith, 145-46.
 The Temple and the Interpretation of Revelation 19

language in Revelation might have had for them.57 Jews and Gentiles in
antiquity looked to their temple(s) for identity, group cohesion, justice and
authority, protection, guidance, and security. Because a temple was both a
social institution and the place for accessing deity, it mediated the deity or
deities' interaction within the social life of a community.
In the case of Revelation, the Christian communities appear to have been
experiencing various forms of suffering, identity conflicts, conflicts with the
surrounding culture and with Rome, injustice, insecurity, and fear. Revela-
tion, with its heavenly journeys, divine epiphanies, and heavenly temple,
expresses how they have access to God in a way that addresses all these
issues. In essence, the temple in Revelation functions in many ways as a real
temple did — by providing symbolic access to God.

1.3 The Temple and the Interpretation of Revelation

(a) Material Culture and the Biblical Text

In recent decades, methodological discussions within the discipline of

archaeology have addressed the often uneasy relationship between archaeo-
logical materials and literary texts.58 The great gulf between archaeological
and textual studies is normally traversed only for the purpose of utilizing
archaeological materials either to "prove" a text or to offer footnote support
to reconstructions based on texts.59 In other words, textual evidence takes

57
Paul's use of temple language in 1-2 Corinthians provides an analogy. Neither book
was written because Christians no longer had a temple nor for the purpose of offering a
new temple, but recognizing what is involved for Christians in having left temples
behind aids an understanding of what Paul's assertion that the church is the temple
would have meant for them.
58
Roland de Vaux, "On Right and Wrong Uses of Archaeology," in Near Eastern
Archaeology in the Twentieth Century: Essays in Honor of Nelson Glueck, ed. James A.
Sanders (Garden City, New York: Doubleday, 1970), 69-70; G. Ernest Wright, "What
Archaeology Can and Cannot Do," BA 34 (1971): 70-76; Stephen L. Dyson, "A
Classical Archaeologist's Response to the 'New Archaeology,'" BASOR 242 (Spring
1981): 7-13; Arnaldo Momigliano, "Biblical Studies and Classical Studies: Simple
Reflections About Historical Method," BA 45 (1982): 224-228; Fredric Brandfon, "The
Limits of Evidence: Archaeology and Objectivity," Maa 4 (1987): 5-43; David W.
Jamieson-Drake, "Text vs. Tell: Which Sets the Agenda?" in SBLSP 1989, ed. David J.
Lull (Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1989), 458-465.
59
Jamieson-Drake, 460; Johan Burger, "Archaeology - An Important Historical Source,"
TE 25 (1992): 44.
20 Revelation and the Temple: Introduction

priority and archaeology,60 when employed at all, functions as a sub-

disciplinary partner.
What is needed is an ongoing dialogue between archaeology and literary
studies, with archaeology offering an inter-disciplinary rather than a sub-
disciplinary perspective.61 Each discipline brings its own contributions and
limitations to the table and the contributions of the one can help to offset the
limitations of the other. Neither discipline offers a complete and objective
view of ancient life.62 Both material remains and written documents are
socially produced texts that require interpretation and must be used in accord
with the distinct rules and methods of each separate discipline.63
Literary analyses of texts can benefit from the peculiar insight offered by
archaeology. As with literary documents, material remains provide only a
fragmentary and partial glimpse into ancient life, but they do so from a differ-
ent perspective. Material culture provides a physical context for disembodied
texts.64 Relatively few people in antiquity spent a significant amount of time
interacting with literary texts, but they interacted with their material world
constantly. In certain instances, material remains provide insight into other
strata of society, allowing other voices to speak and, thus, offering a balance
to the aristocratic biases of much ancient literature.65 As Johan Burger states:
"The written source and the artifact together must tell the story."66
Maintaining a dialogue between material and literary sources can be diffi-
cult at times due to the state of the evidence. In the analysis of early
Christian worship practices, for instance, the New Testament and other early
Christian texts necessarily take priority as witnesses because of the general
lack of distinctively Christian remains from Christianity's early, formative

60
My use of the term "archaeology" encompasses inscribed materials such as inscriptions
and coins in addition to the "mute" remains.
61
Dyson, 11; de Vaux, "Archaeology," 65, 78; Jamieson-Drake argues that for this
dialogue to be achieved, textual studies will need to "adopt a more sociological bent,"
463.
62
de Vaux, "Archaeology," 70; Jamieson-Drake, 459..
63
Shanks and Tilley argue that interpreting material culture is "an act of translation"
dependent on the contexts of both the physical remains and the interpreters who
determine the questions to be asked of the remains, Michael Shanks and Christopher
Tilley, Social Theory and Archaeology (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press,
1987), 211. See also Dyson, 11; Jamieson-Drake, 458-59; de Vaux, "Archaeology," 69-
70, 78; Wright, 76.
64
Burger, 46.
65
Ibid., 46.
66
Ibid., 47.
 The Temple and the Interpretation of Revelation 21

years.67 In contrast, the study of early Indian Buddhism demonstrates that

archaeological data takes priority since it predates the sacred texts.68 The
book of Revelation, however, offers a case of contemporaneous and
geographically circumscribed material and literary evidence. We can firmly
place the book in western Asia Minor in the last half of the first century in a
context relatively rich with material remains. Clearly the opportunity for a
dialogue between the archaeological and literary disciplines is present.
Unfortunately, New Testament interpreters have not taken advantage of this
opportunity.
One reason for insufficient dialogue in the case of Revelation is the
general lack of awareness of ancient material culture among interpreters of
the New Testament. Writing nearly thirty years ago, Robert Grant lamented
this lack of awareness as "one of the major weaknesses of NT study."
Discussing what happens when scholars do encounter the ancient world,
Grant states:

they often lack the time or the inclination to go into it at any depth. They skim the
surface, relying upon manuals that summarize other people's researches . . .
Neglecting the concrete actuality of the ancient historians, of papyri, inscriptions,
coins, and other archaeological remains, they then seek to advance learning in their
field by reading one another's books. 69

The situation has improved little today.70 Exacerbating the situation is the
general neglect of archaeological materials outside of Palestine in New

67
Graydon Snyder asserts that "distinctively Christian archaeological data does not appear
until about 180," Ante Pacem: Archaeological Evidence of Church Life before
Constantine (Macon, GA: Mercer University Press, 1985), 2.
68
The study of Indian Buddhism offers a good example of the incredible bias towards
literary texts in religious studies. Despite the later date for the sacred texts, these texts
have been given priority as sources for early Indian Buddhism by interpreters who have
even used them to correct the earlier archaeological data when it conflicts with the later
texts, Gregory Schopen, "Archaeology and Protestant Presuppositions in the Study of
Indian Buddhism," HR 31 (1991): 1-23. Goodenough wrestles with a similar issue
when he addresses the practice of prioritizing the Palestinian Mishnah and Midrashim
over "the actual artifacts in Rome and Dura" as evidence for Jewish thought in those
cities, Erwin R. Goodenough, Jewish Symbols in the Greco-Roman Period (New York:
Pantheon Books, 1965), 12.185.
69
Robert M. Grant, "American New Testament Study, 1926-1956," JBL 87 (1968): 48.
70
For discussions of the frequent neglect of inscriptions and coins in New Testament study
see G. H. R. Horsley, "The Inscriptions of Ephesos and the New Testament," NT 34
(1992): 167; Richard Oster, "Numismatic Windows into the Social World of Early
Christianity: A Methodological Inquiry," JBL 101 (1982): 195, 218.
22 Revelation and the Temple: Introduction

Testament interpretation.71 Considering that the church rapidly moved out

into the larger Roman world, this neglect is puzzling.72
Despite this neglect, Revelation offers a rich field for exploring the inter-
action of biblical text and material culture. Revelation is a highly visual book
in the sense that its descriptions and imagery are intended to appeal to the eye
as much as to the heart and mind. Fantastic visions, rich visual imagery, and
elaborate descriptions make it a book to be seen (in the mind's eye) as much
as heard or read. Considering that first century culture was dominated by
visual imagery (statues, coins, sculpture, reliefs, paintings and frescoes, etc.),
one might argue that any interpretation of the imagery and symbolism of
Revelation that did not take into account the visual makeup of ancient society
was deficient.
To use numismatics as an example, Richard Oster argues that the visual
messages on coins provide valuable information for understanding the lan-
guage of the early church. Because ancient culture was "not undergirded by
the dissemination of the printed page, visual language was part of the lingua
franca in a way foreign to our present experience" so that "iconography was
no less powerful or cogent than written or spoken communication."73 Conse-
quently, the visual imagery on coins can offer useful insight into the interpre-
tation of the visual language of Revelation.

The iconographie technique of the Revelation of John with its phantasmagory of

grotesque beasts (Rev 4:6-8; 6:1-8; 9:7-9; 19:4), sacerdotal censers, altars, and
offerings (Rev 5:8; 8:3-5; 14:18; 15:7; 16:1-4, 8, 10, 12, 17; 17:1; 21:9), regal
paraphernalia of diadems, crowns, thrones scintillating with thunderbolts, etc. (Rev
3:21; 4:2-10; 5:13; 7:10-17; 14:14; 19:4-5, 12; 20:11; 22:1-3), prowess of eques-
trian soldiers (Rev 6:2-8; 19:11-14, 21), and use of animals to emblematize
individuals, religions, and deities (Rev 5:6, 8, 12-13; 7:9, 10, 14, 17; 12:3, 4, 7, 9,
14-15; 13:11; 14:1, 4, 10; 16:13; 20:2; 21:9, 14, 22, 23, 27) is mirrored in
contemporary visual language of coins which utilized many of the same symbols
and images to communicate related ideas. 74

71
Oster identifies this trend as the "Holy Land captivity" of archaeology, Richard E. Oster,
A Bibliography of Ancient Ephesus (Metuchen, NJ: Scarecrow Press, 1987), xxiii. See
also Steven J. Friesen, "Revelation, Realia, and Religion: Archaeology in the
Interpretation of the Apocalypse," HTR 88 (1995): 292.
72
Referring to the unbalanced emphasis on Qumran and Nag Hammadi, Grant asserts that
the "rise of early Christianity remains incomprehensible apart from the life of the early
Roman empire," Grant, 48.
73
Oster, "Numismatic Windows," 200.
74
Ibid., 219. Since Oster's admonition, a few authors have employed numismatic
materials to illuminate select concepts or specific texts in Revelation, Ernest P. Janzen,
"The Jesus of the Apocalypse Wears the Emperor's Clothes," in SBLSP 1994, ed.
 The Temple and the Interpretation of Revelation 23

Unfortunately, the vast majority of Revelation studies ignore material culture

completely in favor of various forms of literary criticism or conventional his-
torical criticism. If material culture is employed at all, it is in the form of an
occasional reference in the footnotes to an inscription or coin.75 Those stud-
ies that do engage material culture on some level generally do not combine
that analysis with a literary/exegetical analysis of the text. A number of
articles deal with material culture in a limited fashion for the purpose of
highlighting potential background sources for certain images or themes in
Revelation, but these studies do not adequately exploit the literary signifi-
cance of these connections for interpreting Revelation.76
Studies utilizing archaeological materials in a more systematic and exten-
sive fashion focus on two areas. One is the local allusions to the seven
churches of Revelation.77 These are essentially background studies and do
not correlate the evidence they discuss with a systematic literary analysis of
the letters. The second area of concentration is the social, economic and
political aspects (imperial cult) of Revelation's historical situation.78 These

Eugene H. Lovering, Jr. (Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1994), 637-661; Robert Beauvery,
"L'Apocalypse au Risque de la Numismatique," RB 90 (1983): 243-60; Larry Rreitzer,
"Sibylline Oracles 8, the Roman Imperial Adventus Coinage of Hadrian and the
Apocalypse of John," JSP 4 (1989): 69-85.
75
This problem is especially acute in the commentaries.
76
Howard Wallace, "Leviathan and the Beast in Revelation," BA 11 (1948): 61-68;
Stephen J. Patterson, "A Note on an Argive Votive Relief of Selene," HTR 78 (1985):
439-43; H. D. Saffrey, "Relire l'Apocalypse a Patmos," RB 82 (1975): 385-417; Roland
Bergmeier, "Altes und Neues zur 'Sonnenfrau am Himmel (Apk 12)': Religions-
geschichtliche und quellenkritische Beobachtungen zu Apk 12:1-17," ZNW 73 (1982):
97-109; Jan Willem van Henten, "Dragon Myth and Imperial Ideology in Revelation 12-
13," in SBLSP 1994, ed. Eugene H. Lovering, Jr. (Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1994), 496-
515. In contrast, Adela Yarbro Collins' substantial and valuable study on the combat
myth in Revelation deals with material culture, but primarily gathers the material
evidence together in an appendix in order to demonstrate the widespread presence of the
mythical patterns established earlier in the book through literary analysis, The Combat
Myth in the Book of Revelation (Missoula, Montana: Scholars Press, 1976). Robert M.
Royalty, Jr. makes use of some inscriptions in analyzing the theme of wealth in
Revelation, The Streets of Heaven: The Ideology of Wealth in the Apocalypse of John
(Macon, GA: Mercer University Press, 1998).
77
William M. Ramsay, The Letters to the Seven Churches of Asia and Their Place in the
Plan of the Apocalypse (1904; repr. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 1979); Colin J. Hemer,
The Letters to the Seven Churches of Asia in Their Local Setting (Sheffield: JSOT Press,
1986).
78
Steven Friesen, "The Cult of the Roman Emperors in Ephesos: Temple Wardens, City
Titles, and the Interpretation of the Revelation of John," in Ephesos: Metropolis of Asia.
An Interdisciplinary Approach to its Archaeology, Religion and Culture, ed. Helmut
Koester (Valley Forge, PA: Trinity Press International, 1995), 229-250; Steven Friesen,
"Ephesus - Key to a Vision in Revelation," BAR 19 no 3 (1993): 24-37; P. J. J. Botha,
"God, Emperor Worship and Society: Contemporary Experience and the Book of
Revelation," Neot 22 (1988): 87-102; Hans-Josef Klauck, "Das Sendschreiben nach
Pergamon und der Kaiserkult in der Johannesoffenbarung," Bib 73 (1992): 153-82; J.
24 Revelation and the Temple: Introduction

works provide much significant and useful archaeological and cultural

information, but do not use the information in dialogue with a focused
literary analysis of the text of Revelation.
Steven Friesen has recently called for more emphasis upon archaeological
materials in the interpretation of Revelation, arguing in particular that
material culture can provide a better appreciation of Greco-Roman religion
and "the fabric of life in a polytheistic setting."79 Studying the temple
language of Revelation in the light of a dialogue between literary and
archaeological/social methods can lead to a better understanding of what the
literary language about the temple in Revelation might have communicated to
individuals who spent each day living in a material world of temples, incense
bowls, altars, and sacred space.

(b) Cultural Perspective of Revelation

One prominent trend in Revelation studies confines the document solely

within Jewish thought and practice. The argument is that Revelation's sym-
bols and imagery must be interpreted solely from the Old Testament alone80
or from the Old Testament and Jewish traditions.81 When carried to an
extreme, Revelation is identified as a Jewish apocalypse, with a few scattered
Christian additions and interpolations.82 A good example of this bias towards
the Jewish context of Revelation comes from W. K. Hedrick who cites as a

Nelson Kraybill, Imperial Cult and Commerce in John's Apocalypse (Sheffield:

Sheffield Academic Press, 1996); Leonard Thompson, The Book of Revelation:
Apocalypse and Empire (New York: Oxford University Press, 1990), 95-167.
79
Friesen, "Revelation, Realia, and Religion," 314.
80
Austin Farrer, A Rebirth of Images: The Making of St. John's Apocalypse (Westminster:
Dacre Press, 1949); Ibid., The Revelation of St. John the Divine (Oxford: Clarendon
Press, 1964). R. Dean Davis asserts that Revelation reflects the Old Testament and
Hebrew faith rather than the world of Jewish apocalyptic, The Heavenly Court Judgment
of Revelation 4-5 (Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 1992), 5-6.
81
John Court primarily interprets the imagery of Revelation from a Jewish perspective and
although acknowledges the possibility of limited "pagan" influence on chapter twelve,
he downplays its significance indicating that the real concern is that it "can be
understood in a Jewish or Christian way," John M. Court, Myth and History in the Book
of Revelation (Atlanta: John Knox Press, 1979), 108-9. Court also makes the suggestion
that because Revelation is so allusive, the best method for sorting through all the
possible traditions is to select the "traditional context that is nearest temporally and
geographically," 18. For Court, this is the Palestinian context, even though the context
that is closest to Revelation both "temporally and geographically" is late first century
western Asia Minor.
82
For example, see J. Massyngberde Ford, Revelation, AB (Garden City, NY: Doubleday,
1975); Sarah Alexander Edwards, "Christological Perspectives in the Book of
Revelation," in Christological Perspectives: Essays in Honor of Harvey K. McArthur,
eds. Robert F. Berkey and Sarah A. Edwards (New York: Pilgrim Press, 1982), 139-146.
 The Temple and the Interpretation of Revelation 25

governing principle of his work that "if everything in Rev. 12 can be

explained on the basis of Jewish and Christian traditions, then there is no
basis (italics mine) for an argument that he used any other tradition." It is
only when a particular feature cannot be explained at all by Jewish or
Christian traditions that one can consider viewing Revelation "as a part of the
world of Hellenistic syncretism."83 This limiting of Revelation's source-pool
to the Old Testament and Jewish tradition implies an understanding of the
document as being written in a vacuum. John, writing in the vicinity of Asia
Minor, addresses to seven Christian communities in Asia Minor a book
completely isolated from any cultural or environmental influence.
This common resistance to the idea that Jewish apocalypses in general,
and Revelation in particular, drew from the larger Greco-Roman environment
derives from the theological presupposition that anything non-Jewish is
"false," "pagan," and "idolatrous." It is believed that proving the background
for a particular concept or image as Palestinian makes it more theologically
palatable than if its background were Hellenistic. Even in those instances
where the recognition of Hellenistic influence within Christianity is unavoid-
able, the response is that it must have entered through Judaism first. At times
this devaluation of anything non-Jewish or non-Christian extends to the lan-
guage of Revelation itself. Steven Thompson argues for strong Semitic influ-
ence on the Greek of Revelation to the extent that it is merely a thin
membrane "stretched tightly over a Semitic framework."84 He concludes that
John was indebted to the Old Testament "not only for symbols and metaphors
but for his very language."85 The theological import is that John deliberately
wrote in this "Jewish Greek" to guard against the corruption of pagan culture.
Thompson concludes: "Perhaps the necessity of expressing sacred themes in
a Gentile tongue was rendered less distastefiil so long as it preserved the
tenses and other essential syntactical features of the sacred language?"86
This theological bias against Hellenistic and ancient Near Eastern culture
as a source for the imagery of Revelation must be avoided. The idea that
"pagan" imagery and ideas lessens the theological worth of Revelation falters

83
W. K. Hedrick, "The Sources and Use of the Imagery in Apocalypse 12" (Th.D. Diss.:
Graduate Theological Union, 1971), 14.
84
Steven Thompson, The Apocalypse and Semitic Syntax (Cambridge: University Press,
1985), 108.
85
Ibid., 106.
86
Ibid., 108. Stanley Porter responds to Thompson's work by demonstrating that there is
little basis for positing any form of Semitic Greek and that the language of Revelation
falls within "the range of possible registers of Greek usage of the 1st century," Stanley
E. Porter, "The Language of the Apocalypse in Recent Discussion," NTS 35 (1989):
582-603, esp. 603.
26 Revelation and the Temple: Introduction

in at least two respects. First, it fails to draw precise enough distinctions con-
cerning ancient culture and John's attitude towards it. Objections to Hellenis-
tic influence on Revelation have primarily been objections to the use of
mythological ideas and abstractions and not material culture. In addition,
those objections do not allow for John's creativity in reworking mythological
materials, just as he does biblical allusions, in a way that multiplies associa-
tions, thus enriching "the communicative power of the language."87
Likewise, the idea that Revelation opposes Gentile culture in totality
lacks precision. John clearly opposes idolatry, immorality, and the social and
political structures of Hellenistic culture that encourage such behavior. This,
however, is by no means equal to a rejection of Hellenistic culture itself.
John, for instance, gives no indication of being opposed to the idea of a
temple; what he opposes is the worship of any deity other than God. Conse-
quently, there is no reason to assume that John could not draw upon imagery
and ideas from the religious environment of Asia Minor that Gentile converts
were familiar with and recast them in such a way as to make assertions about
God that would communicate to Gentile Christians. Second, the refusal to
recognize Hellenistic influence on apocalyptic literature, particularly Revela-
tion, tends to confuse the identification of source with theological validity.
John Collins makes this point admirably:

we may note the widespread tendency to confuse the theological evaluation of

apocalyptic literature with the historical identification of its sources. Frequently,
scholars who have assumed extensive Persian influence have assumed that apoca-
lypticism is therefore unbiblical and theologically suspect. . . This theological con-
clusion would not be warranted, even if the historical derivation were correct . . .
Conversely, apologetic attempts to affirm continuity with OT prophecy or more
broadly with indigenous Palestinian or Northwest Semitic traditions are misplaced.
The theological importance of apocalypticism depends on the intrinsic value of its
perspective, not on the origin of its imagery or the locale where it developed. 88

The recognition that the Old Testament and Jewish tradition is a primary
source (even the main source) for the ideas and images in Revelation is valid;
yet, this recognition should not lead to a neglect of other possible cultural and
environmental influences. Apocalyptic literature, and Revelation is no excep-

87
John J. Collins makes this point with reference to apocalyptic literature in general, but it
certainly applies to Revelation, The Apocalyptic Imagination: An Introduction to the
Jewish Matrix of Christianity (New York: Crossroad, 1992), 16.
88
Collins, "Apocalyptic Literature," 354.
 The Temple and the Interpretation of Revelation 27

tion, combines allusions to a great variety of culturally diverse sources.89 An

approach that limits the analysis of Revelation's imagery to traditional Jewish
contexts lacks sensitivity to the complex cultural interaction of the imagery
within Revelation and the setting of the document within the material context
of Western Asia Minor. It unnecessarily assumes a monolithic culture for the
churches in Asia Minor. Given the setting of Revelation, one cannot simply
assume that the churches of Revelation were primarily Jewish. If one
acknowledges the likelihood of a mixed cultural makeup of the churches,
then one must at least entertain the possibility that the author of Revelation
deliberately mixes and intertwines imagery and traditions drawn from both
Greco-Roman and Jewish culture in such a way that the final product can
communicate powerfully to both cultural groups.
Hans Dieter Betz argues that Revelation cannot be properly understood
on the basis of Jewish tradition alone, but must be read in the light of
Hellenistic syncretism.90 Responding to Betz, Adela Yarbro Collins agrees
with the assertion that analysis of the Hellenistic environment is vital to a
proper understanding of Revelation, but that one must not go to the opposite
extreme of relying on the Hellenistic context to the neglect of the Jewish.
She states that "any treatment of the background of Revelation which limits
itself either to Jewish or to Hellenistic tradition will be one-sided and
misleading. The actual situation was characterized by a complex interaction
of inherited tradition and environment."91 John draws upon traditions and
imagery from both Jewish and Hellenistic culture, reworking them and fusing
them together into a single Christian message that is thus capable of
communicating cross-culturally. Unfortunately, acknowledgment of John's
fusion of diverse cultural images and traditions has not been extended to his
employment of cultic imagery.

89
Ibid., 354. Beale states: "Though the OT, Judaism, NT, and immediate context of the
Apocalypse provide the primary background for its imagery, much work remains to be
done on surveying the various sources of the Greco-Roman world to broaden the
multiple ideas associated with many of the images in the Apocalypse," G. K. Beale, The
Book of Revelation: A Commentary on the Greek Text (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1999),
58.
90
Hans Dieter Betz, "Zum Problem des religionsgeschichtlichen Verständnisses der
Apokalyptik," ZThK 63 (1966): 409; see also David E. Aune, "The Influence of Roman
Imperial Court Ceremonial on the Apocalypse of John" BR 28 (1983): 23.
91
Adela Yarbro Collins, "The History-of-Religions Approach to Apocalypticism and the
'Angel of the Waters' (Rev. 16:4-7)," CBQ 39 (1977): 367-68.
28 Revelation and the Temple: Introduction

(c) Interpretations of the Temple Language in Revelation

The neglect of temple symbolism in Revelation may be due in part to the

general neglect of Revelation in New Testament study. Two major examina-
tions of temple and cultic language in the New Testament virtually ignore the
temple in Revelation.92 Even those studies that recognize the importance of
cultic imagery and liturgical materials in Revelation tend to subordinate the
significance of the temple as a symbol, addressing it only indirectly if at all.93
An exception is the work of Hans Wenschkewitz who briefly analyzes the
Christian spiritualization of Jewish cultic practices in Revelation, i.e. the
sacrificial Lamb, the temple, and the priesthood.94
Research that does focus on the temple symbolism in Revelation is symp-
tomatic of the problems outlined in the previous two sections. These studies
do not employ archaeological materials in their analyses and, without
exception, they interpret all of the imagery solely from Jewish and ancient
Near Eastern perspectives. What research has been done on the temple in
Revelation falls roughly into three broad categories.
The first comprises discussions of the temple in focused exegetical treat-
ments or background investigations of specific passages or themes.95 Those
92
Bertil Gärtner's study of the temple in Qumran and the New Testament does not contain
even one whole paragraph devoted to the temple in Revelation. He cites nine texts from
Revelation, seven of which occur only as brief footnote references and two that are
mentioned briefly in the text as supporting evidence, Bertil Gärtner, The Temple and the
Community in Qumran and the New Testament (Cambridge: University Press, 1965).
Georg Klinzing's similar study is only slightly better in this regard. He likewise offers
no discussion of the function of the temple in Revelation, opting instead for utilizing
texts from Revelation as supporting material (primarily in footnotes), Georg Klinzing,
Die Umdeutung des Kultus in der Qumrangemeinde und im NT (Göttingen: Vanden-
hoeck & Ruprecht, 1971).
93
Lucetta Mowry, "Revelation 4-5 and Early Christian Liturgical Usage," JBL 71 (1952):
75-84; Pierre Prigent, Apocalypse et Liturgie (Neuchâtel: Delachaux and Niestlé, 1964);
Massey H. Shepherd, Jr., The Paschal Liturgy and the Apocalypse (Richmond, VA:
John Knox Press, 1960); Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza, "Cultic Language in Qumran and
in the NT," CBQ 38 (1976): 175-76; Leonard Thompson, "Cult and Eschatology in the
Apocalypse of John," JR 49 (1969): 330-350; Ibid., Book of Revelation, 53-73; Robert
L. Thomas, "The Imprecatory Prayers of the Apocalypse," BibSac 126 (1969): 123-131.
94
Hans Wenschkewitz, Die Spiritualisierung der Kultusbegriffe: Tempel, Priester und
Opfer im Neuen Testament (Leipzig: Eduard Pfeiffer, 1932), 149-155, esp. 152-55.
Fiorenza takes issue with the frequent usage by New Testament interpreters, including
Wenschkewitz, of the term "spiritualization" in an anti-cultic sense. Instead, she opts
for the term "transference" to indicate the shifting of cultic concepts to "designate a
reality which was not cultic," "Cultic Language," 159-161.
95
André Feuillet, "Essai d'lnterpretation du Chapitre XI de l'Apocalypse," NTS 4 (1957-
58): 184-88, 198-99; Kenneth A. Strand, "An Overlooked Old-Testament Background
to Revelation 11:1," A USS 22 ( 1984): 317-25 ; Richard H. Wilkinson, "The ΣΤΥΛΟΣ of
Revelation 3:12 and Ancient Coronation Rites," JBL 107 (1988): 498-501; Michael
Bachmann, "Himmlisch: Der 'Tempel Gottes' von Apk 11.1," NTS 40 (1994): 474-480;
Dale C. Allison, "4Q 403 Fragm. I, Col. I, 38-46 and the Revelation to John," RevQ 12
 The Temple and the Interpretation of Revelation 29

works that perform an extensive examination of temple texts, language or

themes in Revelation do so strictly in a Jewish context. R. Dean Davis argues
that the numerous allusions to the Hebrew cult of the Old Testament in Reve-
lation 4-5 proves the identification of this scene as a temple/palace.96 James
Valentine traces the use of four themes (community as temple, holy war,
judgment, ethical response) in the Old Testament and Revelation.97 Robert
Alan Briggs examines the influence of the Old Testament and pre-70 non-
canonical Jewish literature on the temple language of Revelation.98
The second category contains those works that offer an ecclesiological
interpretation of Revelation's temple language. Yves Congar argues that
Revelation's temple language corresponds to the temple language of the rest
of the New Testament in which the temple is the church.99 Likewise, Andrea
Spatafora focuses on the concept of divine presence to argue that the church
has taken over the function of the Jerusalem Temple.100 One frequent argu-
ment is that the New Jerusalem is both temple and church,101 so that God is

(1986): 409-414; Celia Deutsch, "Transformation of Symbols: The New Jerusalem in

Rv 21:1-22:5," ZNW1% (1987): 113-115. Also to be included under this category is the
study by Mary A. Doll on the temple as symbol in Exodus and Revelation. Rather than
a functional analysis of the temple in Revelation, she reads the book as a Jewish-
Christian, a-historical piece of poetry that is best understood when interpreted according
to the methods of rabbinical mysticism, Mary A. Doll, "THE TEMPLE: Symbolic Form
in Scripture," Sou 70 (1987): 150-53.
96
Davis, 20-21, 118-147. Although Davis provides much helpful information and the
identification of Revelation 4-5 as a temple/palace may be correct, he often asserts what
he intends to prove, engages in "parallelomania," and draws unwarranted conclusions
from insufficient evidence. As evidence of the latter, Davis asserts that the 144,000
gathered before the Lamb at Mt. Zion are a "cleansed temple," but he bases this on
nothing more than that they are described as "chaste" (14:4) and "blameless" (14:5),
designations that hardly demand a temple identification, 228.
97
James Valentine, "Theological Aspects of the Temple Motif in the Old Testament and
Revelation" (Ph.D. diss., Boston University, 1985). Like Davis, Valentine tends to-
wards "parallelomania" and sometimes makes tenuous connections between the lan-
guage of Revelation and temple motifs. For example, he connects the "key of David" in
Rev. 3:7 with the keys to the temple; see 209.
98
Robert Alan Briggs, "A Backgrounds Investigation of the Jewish Temple Imagery in the
Book of Revelation" (Ph.D. diss., Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, 1996).
Briggs concludes that pre-70 non-canonical literature had little influence on Revelation
and that John restricts himself to the Old Testament, 337.
99
Yves M. -J. Congar, The Mystery of the Temple or the Manner of God's Presence to His
Creatures from Genesis to the Apocalypse, trans. Reginald F. Trevett (London: Burns &
Oates, 1962), 206-7, 212-13, 218; see also Simon J. Kistemaker, "The Temple in the
Apocalypse," JETS 43 (2000): 433-441.
100
Andrea Spatafora, From the "Temple of God" to God As the Temple: A Biblical
Theological Study of the Temple in the Book of Revelation (Roma: Editrice Pontificia
Università Gregoriana, 1997), 9, 303-4.
101
Congar, 215-16; R. J. McKelvey, The New Temple: The Church in the New Testament
(London: Oxford University Press, 1969), 169, 172, 176; Deutsch, 113-15. Koester
similarly argues that both New Jerusalem and the church are depicted with tabernacle
language, Craig R. Koester, The Dwelling of God: The Tabernacle in the Old Testament,
30 Revelation and the Temple: Introduction

the Christians' temple and they are his temple.102 C. F. D. Moule seeks to
place the temple language of the New Testament in the context of Christian
apologetic. Suggesting that Jewish opponents were accusing Christians of
having no cultic system of worship, Moule argues that Christians developed
the standard response that the church itself is a spiritual temple made up of
spiritual priests.103
The final category consists of readings of particular sections or even the
entire text of Revelation in the light of certain Jewish festivals, particularly
the Feast of Tabernacles.104 Some claim that the structure of Revelation is
based upon one or more of these festivals.105 Most of these interpretations
deal with the temple (if at all) only as it relates to these particular festivals.106
Two works that address the temple in more extensive fashion deserve special
mention. An article by William Riley, which has been virtually ignored in
studies on Revelation, discusses enthronement ceremonies of the ancient
Near East, arguing that temples were the throne room of the deity and the seat
of the deity's power on earth.107 He then attempts to connect these concepts
to the Old Testament enthronement celebration that he considers to have been
an aspect of certain festivals, particularly the Feast of Tabernacles.108 Riley's
study is a valuable contribution to the understanding of the temple in Revela-
tion, yet it could be strengthened by including ancient Near Eastern texts and
material remains contemporary with Revelation and by addressing related
concepts in Greco-Roman culture.

Intertestamental Jewish Literature, and the New Testament (Washington, D.C.: Catholic
Biblical Association of America, 1989), 120-23, 127.
102
Congar, 230; McKelvey, 176.
103
Moule applies this argument to the text of Revelation at a few points in his discussion,
C. F. D. Moule, "Sanctuary and Sacrifice in the Church of the New Testament," JTS ns
1 (1950): 29-41.
104
Hakan Ulfgard, Feast and Future: Revelation 7:9-17 and the Feast of Tabernacles
(Lund: Almqvist & Wiksell International, 1989); J. A. Draper, "The Heavenly Feast of
Tabernacles: Revelation 7:1-17,'" JSNT19 (1983): 133-47; McKelvey, 162-64.
105
Farrer, Rebirth of images; D. T. Niles, As Seeing the Invisible: A Study of the Book of
Revelation (London: SCM Press, 1962), 106-115.
106 ulfgard, for example, addresses the temple only in limited fashion, 86-88. He does deal
with some archaeological materials, but only for their depictions of objects related to the
Feast of Tabernacles, 131-145.
107
William Riley, "Temple Imagery and the Book of Revelation: Ancient Near Eastern
Temple Ideology and Cultic Resonances in the Apocalypse," PIBA 6 (1982): 81-102.
108
Riley acknowledges that the existence of such an annual enthronement ceremony in
Israel is questioned; yet, he contends that the elements of enthronement theology would
have been nonetheless present, 86.
 The Temple and the Interpretation of Revelation 31

Jon Paulien undertakes a literary analysis of the Hebrew cult and temple
in Revelation.109 Much of his analysis is structural, based both on seven
introductory scenes and on a division of the document into two halves.
Paulien finds that references to temple and cultic language tend to be
clustered around seven introductory scenes (Rev. 1:9-20; 4:1-5:14; 8:2-6;
11:19; 15:5-8; 19:1-10; 21:1-8). Assuming that the author of Revelation and
his audience shared a highly detailed knowledge of the Old Testament,
Paulien argues that these seven introductory scenes are part of an intentional
structuring of the book according to Jewish feasts and festivals. He finds
structural parallels with the royal enthronement ceremony, Day of
Atonement, Feast of Trumpets, daily sacrifices (tamid), Passover, Pentecost,
and the Feast of Tabernacles.110 He argues particularly that the first half of
Revelation is structured according to the daily sacrifices, enthronement
ceremony, and the spring festivals, while the second half is based upon the
annual sacrifices and fall festivals.111
Paulien's study suffers from the ubiquitous bias towards solely a Jewish
context for the work. He has created such a detailed and intricate framework
for the text on the basis of Jewish feasts, sacrifices, and festivals that Revela-
tion would be wholly incomprehensible to virtually any Gentile Christian
who dared try to make sense of the book. Paulien assumes that the ideal
reader of Revelation was a Jewish Christian deeply steeped in the "texts and
liturgical practices of the Hebrew cult" and this assumption leads him to the
inevitable conclusion that either early Christian liturgy was tremendously
influenced by the Hebrew cultus or Revelation targets "a rather limited num-
ber of historical readers, perhaps a specific subgroup of Jewish Christians."112
He acknowledges that any reader without this technical knowledge would
have "great difficulty" understanding this book.113 Elsewhere Paulien asserts
that since "all seven introductory scenes center around worship, the actions of
priestly figures, and/or temple/sanctuary structures, their relationship to the
Hebrew cultus is relatively explicit."114 Certainly, the Hebrew cultus is cen-
tral to the book of Revelation, but this statement ignores the fact that worship,
priestly figures, and temple/sanctuary structures were just as much a part of

109
Jon Paulien, "The Role of the Hebrew Cultus, Sanctuary, and Temple in the Plot and
Structure of the Book of Revelation," AUSS 33 (1995): 245-264.
110
Ibid., 251-260.
111
Ibid., 262.
112
Ibid., 263.
113
Ibid., 263-64.
114
Ibid., 254.
32 Revelation and the Temple: Introduction

the fabric of life of Greco-Roman culture in western Asia Minor, and would
have held particular significance for Gentile readers.
This survey of studies on the temple language in Revelation reveals the
need for an analysis involving a dialogue between the literary text and rele-
vant archaeological materials, as well as a sensitivity to the mixed cultural
matrix of Revelation. Previous examinations have not been attuned to the
sociological importance of the temple and temples for Jews and Gentiles, nor
have many addressed the types of questions and issues that arise for those
who are without a temple. A temple was a complex and multi-faceted insti-
tution and this complexity should not be downplayed in favor of concise and
simplistic interpretations. Furthermore, there is the need for a systematic
analysis that examines the meaning and function of this elusive symbol in the
book of Revelation. This book addresses these issues by developing the
thesis that a literary analysis in dialogue with an archaeological/sociological
analysis of the symbol of temple (and associated imagery) in Revelation, in
light of the meaning and function of temples in both Jewish and Greco-
Roman cultures, reveals that temple symbolism in Revelation makes impor-
tant theological assertions about access to God and Christian identity with
respect to both God and the world.

1.4 Method and Plan

This book affirms that placing the book of Revelation within its
historical/cultural/social context relative to both the positive meanings and
functions of temples and to negative experiences with temples leads to a more
precise and substantive understanding of the meaning and function of temple
symbolism within the text of Revelation. To demonstrate this, the argument
proceeds in three stages: an analysis of temple realities in Greco-Roman and
Jewish societies, an examination of temple symbolism within select Jewish
apocalyptic documents, and an analysis of the text of Revelation.
Chapter two takes up the meaning and function of temples in western
Asia Minor and, to a lesser extent, Greece. I use the term "Greco-Roman" to
identify a widespread cultural phenomenon permeating the geographical areas
of Greece and western Asia Minor. When speaking of temples, however, I
refer to Greek and Roman temples since there was no such thing as a "Greco-
Roman temple." There were Greek temples and there were Roman temples.
The Jerusalem Temple and Greek and Roman temples were such complex
and, in the case of Greek and Roman temples, widespread phenomena that a
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