Date of Award

1998

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy

Program

Religious Education, PhD

First Advisor

George H. Akers

Second Advisor

John T. Baldwin

Third Advisor

John Youngberg

Abstract

Problem. In the field of religious education, a need exists for a broad teaching strategy through which the biblical three parts of Babylon (Rev 16:19) and the visual imagery of apocalyptic Babylon (Rev 13 and 17) might be taught effectively within the historicist tradition. This study was designed to present a teaching strategy based upon the historicist apocalyptic three-part construct developed principally by Douglas Waterhouse.

The Theoretical Organizing Principle of Geographic Relationships. The concept that helped guide and bring together this study was the understanding that Rev 17 is based on personification which were well known in the contemporaries of John the Revelator. In this sense, Rev 17 was viewed as a unified picture which encompassed a universal worldview. Each symbol had its own unique contextual interrelationships with one another. Only then, was it seen that geographical relationships were critical. Three geographical relationships were identified by the study. Together with Babylon’s role in history, these geographic relationships serve as a “key" which unlock a biblically rooted teaching strategy for correctly explaining Babylon as an apocalyptic symbol.

Pedagogical Theses. The three geographic relationships function as the hermeneutical foundation of the broad teaching strategy. They are biblically and historically rooted within the historicist school of interpretation: and they provide a systematic and logical pedagogical procedure for teaching the three parts of Babylon within the historicist tradition.

Conclusions. A teaching strategy on apocalyptic Babylon within the historicist tradition was developed. The three major parts of Babylon dominating Rev 13 within a historical setting are biblically represented by the Leopardlike Beast, the Lamblike Beast, and the Sea underneath the Leopardlike Beast. Within the plague setting in Rev 17, the previous three iconographic images have the following corresponding identities, though under alternate guises: the Harlot/Woman/City imageries, the Daughter Cities, and the Scarlet Beast. Further, questions in teaching the Scarlet Beast imagery were resolved according to the Waterhouse construct. The life span of the Scarlet Beast with its seven heads was seen existing during the seven last plagues (Rev 17:1). Subsequently, the seven heads of the Scarlet Beast could not be identified with past historical political powers, nor with the seven heads of the Leopardlike Beast. Further, this study concluded that the Harlot of Rev 17:3 was not sitting upon the Leopardlike Beast (as is generally assumed).

DOI

https://dx.doi.org/10.32597/dissertations/723/

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