Date of Award

1987

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy

College

Seventh-day Adventist Theological Seminary

Program

Religion, New Testament PhD

First Advisor

Kenneth A. Strand

Second Advisor

William H. Shea

Third Advisor

Hans K. LaRondelle

Abstract

This dissertation attempts to overcome a significant obstacle to the development of a comprehensive exegetical method that can enable an interpreter to unlock the meaning of such difficult apocalyptic passages as Rev 8:7-12.

The first chapter utilizes a survey of previous research to explore four issues whose resolution is vital to the interpretation of the book of Revelation: (1) the sources of the Apocalypse, (2) how the Revelator used them, (3) the language and text tradition of the Old Testament that he used, and (4) the nature and location of his allusions to earlier literature. The literature survey indicates that a major obstacle to the accurate interpretation of Revelation is the lack of an objective method for evaluating the allusions to prior literature that characterize the book.

Chapter II opens with a brief outline of a comprehensive exegetical method for the study of the Apocalypse. The bulk of the chapter focuses on a proposed method that can enable interpreters to more objectively evaluate the allusions in Revelation. Through a pains-taking analysis of the verbal, thematic, and structural parallels to the Old Testament in Rev 8:7-12, the process of evaluating proposed allusions to the Old Testament is clearly demonstrated. The results of that analysis have implications for many of the issues raised by the literature survey of Chapter I.

Chapter III offers an interpretation of Rev 8:7-12 in the light of the comprehensive method outlined at the beginning of Chapter II. The imagery of the passage is compared to its context, to the author's sources, and to the overall structure of the Apocalypse. Relevant insights from the first two chapters are incorporated. The resulting interpretations help to illuminate the basic meaning structures of the first four trumpets.

Subject Area

Bible. Revelation 8:7-12 --Criticism, interpretation, etc

DOI

https://dx.doi.org/10.32597/dissertations/123/

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