Revelation 21-22 in Light of Jewish and Greco-Roman Utopianism ISBN: 9789004251540 Platform/Publisher: BRILL / BRILL Digital rights:Users: Unlimited; Printing: Unlimited; Download: Unlimited Subjects: Social sciences;
In Revelation 21-22 in Light of Jewish and Greco-Roman Utopianism , Eric J. Gilchrest offers a creative and compelling reading of Revelation 21-22 as understood through the lens of ancient utopianism. The work is in two parts beginning with a detailed portrait of ancient utopianism based on Greco-Roman and Jewish traditions. The portrait sketches the "topography" of the utopian landscape, which includes a thorough account of various traditions using fourteen utopian topoi or motifs.
The author then moves to a description of Revelation's new Jerusalem in light of these two utopian traditions. With sensitivity to how this text would have been read by each utopian perspective, the author constructs a unique reading of a classic passage that highlights the variety of ways the text originally may have been heard.