War Between the Two Beasts and the Two Witnesses
A Chiastic Reading of Revelation 11:1-14:5
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Hardback
£180.00
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Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
ISBN: 9780567030214
Number of Pages: 352
Published: 07/08/2005
Width: 15.6 cm
Height: 23.4 cm
Siew seeks to examine the events that will unfold within the three-and-a-half years before the dawn of the kingdom of God on earth. He argues that John composed the textual unit of Revelation 11:1-14:5 as a coherent and unified literary unit structured in a macrochiasm. He pays special attention to the fusion of form and content and seeks to elucidate how the concentric and chiastic pattern informs the meaning of the literary units within 11:1-14:5, and proposes that the text of 11:1-14:5 is best analyzed using Hebraic literary conventions, devices, and compositional techniques such as chiasm, parallelism, parataxis, and structural parallelism. The macro-chiastic pattern provides the literary-structural framework for John to portray that the events of the last three-and-a-half years unfold on earth as a result of what transpires in heaven. Specifically, the war in heaven between Michael and the dragon has earthly ramifications. The outcome of the heavenly war where Satan is defeated and thrown out of heaven to earth results in the war on earth between the two beasts of Revelation 13 and the two witnesses of Revelation 11.
The narrative of the war in heaven (12:7-12) is seen as the pivot of the macro-chiastic structure. Siew pays close attention to the time-period of the three-and-a-half years as a temporal and structural marker which functions to unite the various units in 11:1-14:5 into a coherent and integral whole. The events of the last days will be centred in Jerusalem. Volume 283 in the Journal for the Study of the New Testament Supplement series.
Chapter One: Introduction; Chapter Two: The Literary Unity of Rev 11:1-14:5; Chapter Three: A Literary-Structural Analysis of Revelation 11:1-19; Chapter Four: A Literary-Structural Analysis of Revelation 12:1-14:5; Chapter Five: The ABCDD'C'B'A' Parallels: Testing the Macro-Chiasm; Chapter Six: The Identity of the Two Witnesses and the Two Beasts; Chapter Seven: Summary and Conclusions; Bibliography
"'This is an impressive piece of work, and is clearly and lucidly written. Its mode of argumentation is coherent and cogent. Siew engages in a wide and broad interaction with the secondary literature, both relating to the book of Revelation itself, and with literature on the Old Testament and non-biblical literature that is deemed to provide background to the ideas and concepts found in the text under consideration.' Dr Derek Tovey, Head of the Biblical Studies Department, University of Auckland School of Theology; 'This is a timely thesis and its detailed investigation of an alternative way of understanding the structure and inner relationships of these particular passages in the book of Revelation makes an original contribution to the field. As such, the findings need to enter the public arena in an appropriate academic publication.' Dr Judith McKinlay, Senior Lecturer, Hebrew and Old Testament, University of Otago"