The Apocalypse and Apocalyptic Topics

Collected Essays II

edited by Adela Yarbro Collins

Book cover: The Apocalypse and Apocalyptic Topics

Extent: 377 pages

Publisher: Mohr Siebeck

Subjects: Biblical Studies

Series: Wissenschaftliche Untersuchungen zum Neuen Testament

Series volume number: 524

Language: English

Hardback (Published)

(November 2024)

ISBN: 9783161636691

9.09 x 6.06 inches

Price: $187.00

In stock

In this collection of essays, Adela Yarbro-Collins expertly illustrates a wide variety of scholarly methods for interpreting apocalypticism. These include history-of-religion, social-historical, and theological approaches as well as genre studies and rhetorical criticism, especially the device of vivid description (ekphrasis).


In this volume of collected essays, Adela Yarbro Collins provides a wide-reaching insight into her work on the Apocalypse that spanned her professional career from 1973 to 2021. Emphasizing the variety in form and content of the early and late antique Christian apocalypses within the genre, she focusses on the apocalyptic Son of Man sayings in the Synoptic Gospels and raises questions about the impact of Revelation on its ancient and modern audiences regarding ethical norms and the problem of violence. Also examined in detail are a range of themes in the Apocalypse, feminine symbolism, the role of the city of Pergamon in the work, its use of vivid description (ekphrasis), its millennial themes, portraits of rulers, and time and history, especially the author’s contemporary history. The collection is rounded off with a discussion of the challenge of apocalypticism to the project of creating a New Testament theology.

  • Edited by Adela Yarbro Collins