Date of Award

1994

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy

College

Seventh-day Adventist Theological Seminary

Program

Religion, New Testament PhD

First Advisor

Jon K. Paulien

Second Advisor

Richard M. Davidson

Third Advisor

Kenneth A. Strand

Abstract

The purpose of this dissertation is to carry out a microstructural analysis of Rev 4-11 which is one of the essential procedures in an accurate exegesis of the Apocalypse.

Chapter 1 of this study deals with the method of analysis. A brief review of literature is presented. The study of modern contributions to the macrostructure and especially to the microstructure of the Apocalypse paves the way for a description of the present investigator's methodology.

The second chapter concentrates on the syntactical display of Rev 4-11. First, a detailed description of sigla and other techniques is given to allow the reader to understand the details of the syntactical display. Then, the full syntactical display of Rev 4-11 is offered.

In spite of a strict methodology, it is here and there possible to display certain phrases in different ways. In cases like these, a decision must be taken as to which possible arrangement is the best option. In the first section of chapter 3, the proposed method is applied to Rev 4 as a test case. The reader is walked through this passage so that the process involved in creating a syntactical display can become clear. In a second section, this study wrestles with the ambiguities of Rev 5-11. The arguable choices made in the syntactical display of Rev 5-11 are justified.

Chapter 4 is designed to observe micro structural features of Rev 4-11. Surface structures of verses and small passages are presented. Verbal and structural similarities between sections are pointed out. Charts are employed. Furthermore, implications for interpretation and macrostructure are presented.

Three appendices are provided to enhance further study. Appendix A contains the syntactical display of the entire Book of Revelation. Appendix B lists the vocabulary of Revelation in a kind of concordance in order to facilitate a fast reading of the tables which contain only numbers and no references to texts. Appendix C furnishes tables which compare the vocabulary of the main parts of Revelation with each other.

Subject Area

Bible. Revelation 4-11 --Criticism, interpretation, etc

DOI

https://dx.doi.org/10.32597/dissertations/99/

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