The Rhetoric of Digressions
Revelation 7:1-17 and 10:1-11:13 and Ancient Communication
by Peter S. Perry
Revelation 7:1-17 occurs between the opening of the sixth and seventh seal and Rev 10:1-11:13 between the sixth and seventh trumpet blasts. Interpreters often explain these passages as interludes, parentheses, or expansions, but not in terms of ancient communication. Peter S. Perry analyzes these interruptions in the seals and trumpets in light of digressions in ancient rhetorical theory and practice. Digressions are described by Hermagoras, Cicero, and Quintilian and widely used, including in Josephus’ works, Jubilees, Sibylline Oracles I/II, Zechariah, and Exodus. As with other ancient digressions, Rev 7:1-17 and 10:1-11:13 are unessential to the logical flow but essential to the book’s impact. These passages excite the emotions, shape character, and give insight into John’s rhetorical strategy and goals.
Peter S. Perry, Born 1971; 1996 M.Div. from Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary; 1997-2004 Pastor, Our Savior’s Lutheran Church, Mesa, Arizona, USA; since 2007 Instructor of Biblical Greek, Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago; 2009 PhD in Biblical Interpretation/New Testament from the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago.
- By (author) Peter S Perry
Other Titles in this Series
Teaching through Song in Antiquity
Didactic Hymnody among Greeks, Romans, Jews, and Christians
Volume 302
Allegory Transformed
The Appropriation of Philonic Hermeneutics in the Letter to the Hebrews
Volume 269
Makrothymia im Neuen Testament
Semantik und Ethik einer vergessenen ethischen Norm. Kontexte und Normen neutestamentlicher Ethik / Contexts and Norms of New Testament Ethics. Band XV
Sunde als Zielverfehlung bei Paulus
Eine Studie zum stoisch-sokratischen Kolorit paulinischer Hamartiologie
Volume 614
The Memory of Ignatius of Antioch
The Martyr as a Locus of Christian Identity, Remembering and Remembered
Volume 581
John 4:1-42 among the Biblical Well Encounters
Pentateuchal and Johannine Narrative Reconsidered
Volume 542
Redescribing Jesus’ Divinity Through a Social Science Theory
An Interdisciplinary Analysis of Forgiveness and Divine Identity in Ancient Judaism and Mark 2:1-12
Volume 438
Jesus Tradition in the Apostolic Fathers
Their Explicit Appeals to the Words of Jesus in Light of Orality Studies
Volume 311
Proclaiming the Kerygma in Athens
The Argument of Acts 17:16-34 in Light of the Epicurean and Stoic Debates about Piety and Divine Images in Early Post-Hellenistic Times
Volume 596
The Lord of the Gospel of John
Narrative Theory, Textual Criticism, and the Semantics of Kyrios
Volume 478
Similar Books
Apocrypha, Magic, Liturgy
The Multiple Identities of Coptic Prayers in Late Antique and Early Islamic Egypt
Athanasius of Alexandria, Epistula ad episcopos Aegypti et Libyae
Old Slavonic Version and English Translation
Volume 261
Contesting Labeled Identities
The Sociology of Gentilics in Biblical and Northwest Semitic Literature
Cyril of Alexandria’s Christological Exegesis
Explorations of Partitive Exegesis in the Dialogues on the Trinity
Volume 70
Epiphanies of the Divine in the Septuagint and the New Testament
Fifth International Symposium of the Corpus Judaeo-Hellenisticum Novi Testamenti (CJHNT), 14-17 May 2015, Nottingham
Extracanonical Traditions and the Holy Land
Texts, Rituals, and Material Culture in Late Antique Palestine
From Joseph to Jesus
The Joseph Narrative as a Compositional Template from Old Greek Esther to the Gospel of Luke
Volume 125
Nicholas of Lyra’s Commentaries on the Gospels of Matthew and Luke
Franciscan Exegesis in a Time of Crisis
Paradise Lost in Transmission
The Return to Eden in the Apocalypse of Peter within Its Ethiopic and Early Christian Contexts
Punning in Odd or Elegant Constructions in Jeremiah
The Convergence of Linguistics, Rhetoric, and Textuality in the Hebrew Text of Jeremiah
