Question: why is there so little use of this portrayal in historical Jesus study? here
I tend to, at the moment, place Revelation between 70ish and 90ish. It is not about the future, although, maybe, the ultimate future makes an appearance at the end. I tend to think that Revelation is a multi-leveled work, something I’ll explore later.
Anyway, I’m not sure I would use this so much as a portrayal of the Historical Jesus as I would the portrayal of the Historical Jesus Communities (/an/Christianity). Why? Because we rarely see Jesus. Granted, I do think that Revelation is our Fifth Gospel, interpreting not just the death of Christ (the sixth seal), but his resurrection and eventual exaltation. All of this is centered around the Jewish Revolt and in encapsulated in a Jewish liturgical hymn.
There you go.
Joel L. Watts holds a Masters of Arts from United Theological Seminary with a focus in literary and rhetorical criticism of the New Testament. His interests include exploring the role of mimesis in human civilization, specifically in the study of religion and media, as well as science fiction and the way in which it has allowed mythology to be explored in light of scientific discoveries of the past century. He is the author of Mimetic Criticism of the Gospel of Mark: Introduction and Commentary (Wipf and Stock, 2013) and a co-editor and contributor to From Fear to Faith: Stories of Hitting Spiritual Walls (Energion, 2013).
Website: → Unsettled Christianity
Connect
Revelation is a compilation/reconciliation of all major OT prophesies of the future.
Jesus barely figures in them by name. No more than could be accounted for by a few lines of scribal interpolations.
“Beware of the scribes,” and their “false pen.”
I’m not sure I would go that far…barely figures. He’s front and center