Hearing at the Boundaries of Vision: Education Informing Cosmology in Revelation 9

By Sean Michael Ryan

Book Overview

This study considers how a significant variable, namely level of literary education (enkuklios paideia), might affect an ancient hearer's interpretation of Revelation 9. This volume focuses on how two hypothetical ancient hearer-constructs, with very different "mental libraries", may interpret the rich cosmological imagery of Revelation 9.

The first, ancient hearer-construct (HC1), the recipient of a minimal literary education, retains a Homeric cosmological model. The second ancient hearer-construct (HC2), by contrast, utilises a tertiary-level knowledge of Aratus and Plato to allegorically reinterpret the cosmological imagery of Rev 9 (cf. 'Hippolytus', Refutatio IV.46-50). The volume concludes by critically comparing the hypothetical responses of HC1 and HC2 with the early reception of Revelation 9 by Victorinus, Tyconius and Oecumenius (3rd-6th century CE), attentive to the educational attainment of each commentator.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0567604896
• ISBN13: 9780567604897
• Release Date: April 2012
• Publisher: T&T Clark
• Length: 296 Pages
• Weight: 1.35 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 6.2" x 9.2"