Chair: Dr Steve Moyise
Session 1:
'Rev. 11 in the Sixteenth Century'
Protestant exegesis of this passage predominantly uses the figures of the "two witnesses" in the service of a Protestant historiography, replying to the Catholic question, "Where was your Church before Luther?" The true church was to be found in all those figures throughout history who opposed the papal antichrist, the beast spoken of in Rev 11:7. Catholic exegesis usually responded by utilizing a traditional application of the passage to an eschatological encounter between Enoch and Elijah and Antichrist. A new turn was taken by Alcazar, who referred the passage entirely to the early Church's battle with Judaism, and his move stands near the beginning of a process leading towards a historical-critical reading of the passage.
Session 2:
'Orthogonal methodologies in reading and the structure of the Book of Revelation'
Arguments about Revelation's structure, context and purpose very often end up being circular: a thesis is proposed, the evidence is cited, but then it turns out that the evidence itself has to be read in the light of the thesis in order to offer it support (eg. Aune’s composition theory). In Mathematics, ‘orthogonal’ axes are axes that are independent of one another and so provide independent information about a co-ordinate. An independent test for theories of structure in Revelation is to look at word frequencies. There is good evidence that certain words have been used very carefully in the final text of Revelation and occur with significant frequencies. This can be used to provide independent confirmation (or otherwise) of a particular structural theory.
'Singing the Song of Moses and the Lamb (Rev 15:3-4)'
The significance of determining the particular Old Testament background of a passage is well illustrated by ‘the song of Moses the servant of God and the song of the Lamb’ (Rev 15:3-4). In this paper, I will consider the implications for the meaning of the passage of whether (1) It is loosely based on Exod 15; (2) It is loosely based on Deut 32; (3) It is based on passages that can be exegetically linked to Exod 15 or Deut 32; (4) It is a free composition based largely on the Psalms.
Session 3:
‘The Impossibility of Revelations in Revelation: Historical Critics, Feminists, and the Problem of Linguistic Difference’
This paper will analyse the possibilities and problems of letting feminist theory set the agenda for feminist biblical scholarship rather than following and/or criticising the agenda or traditional historical-critical scholarship. It will look at how historical-critical feminist scholars have approached the heavenly men of Revelation and suggest what a more feminist-theoretical approach might contribute, overlook, or conceal concerning these characters. Like all disciplines, feminist theory also has its own blind spots and is culturally, socially, and linguistically located. The paper will address the connection between language and theory development and suggest that feminist exegetes should hold on to a sensitivity toward the variety and multiplicity of languages that is often found in traditional exegesis but not always in feminist theory.