Revelation and the Marble Economy of Roman Ephesus
Title | Revelation and the Marble Economy of Roman Ephesus PDF eBook |
Author | Anna M. V. Bowden |
Publisher | Rowman & Littlefield |
Pages | 247 |
Release | 2020-12-10 |
Genre | Religion |
ISBN | 1978710186 |
In an effort to bring the (im)practicalities of John’s command for withdrawal from cultural participation in 18:4 to the forefront of scholarly discourse, this book reconstructs the marble economy of ancient Ephesus and proceeds to read Revelation by foregrounding the daily lives of its marble-workers. This book argues that Ephesus was a major center of the marble economy in the Roman world and that the infrastructure that went into creating, building, and sustaining such an enterprise generated the need for a large workforce. Anna M. V. Bowden further demonstrates that the majority of marble-workers endured poor working conditions and struggled on a daily basis to ensure subsistence. Finally, Bowden explores the ways marble-workers participated in empire “through the work of their hands” (9:20) and questions John’s characterization of marble-workers as idolaters, sorcerers, murderers, fornicators, and thieves. Bowden concludes that the praxis Revelation requires from its audience of complete withdrawal is pragmatically not sustainable and is ultimately a manifesto leaving marble-workers jobless, hungry, and with a heightened risk for malnutrition, disease, injury, and even death.
They Did Not Repent of the Work of Their Hands
Title | They Did Not Repent of the Work of Their Hands PDF eBook |
Author | Anna Michelle Vestal Bowden |
Publisher | |
Pages | 255 |
Release | 2019 |
Genre | Bible |
ISBN |
How might Jesus-followers living in first-century Ephesus have experienced John's urge to "come out from her," to disengage from imperial accommodation (18:4)? This dissertation explores the praxis Revelation requires from its audience and questions is practicality. Previous scholarship has failed to recognize explicitly that John's command is impossible to heed. This study offers a reading of Revelation within a construction of first-century Ephesus, bringing forward the (im)practicalities of John's command. After a brief description of the methods employed in this project (ch. 2), the study will have two foci. First, it constructs a detailed portrait of Ephesus's marble economy (ch. 3) and the life of the marble-workers, looking in particular at their living and working conditions (ch. 4). Second, it proceeds to read Revelation within my construction of the marble economy by foregrounding the experiences of Ephesian marble-workers in order to press questions concerning the (im)practicality of John's urgings for his audience to stop accommodating. Chapter 5 looks for ways in which Jesus-following marble-workers might identify as those to whom John is addressing in Revelation, focusing in particular on the opening letters (Rev 2-3). It also explores the ways in which the marble-workers participated in empire through "the work of their hands" (9:20) by looking in depth at three primary ways in which the marble-workers might have been seen as accommodating idolatry, materialism, and profiteering. Chapter 6 explores the practical implications of John's urge for zero cultural accommodation (Rev 2-3; 18:4) by asking if John's characterization of the marble-workers as idolaters, sorcerers, murderers, fornicators, and thieves overlooks their daily realities, their pragmatic concerns for food, shelter, and the basic necessities for life. This study concludes that from the cultural context of Ephesian marble-workers, the praxis that Revelation requires from its audience of complete withdrawal from all imperial involvement is pragmatically not sustainable and is ultimately a manifesto providing no concrete strategies to address consequences such as food insecurity. The result would be malnutrition, poor living conditions, and even death.
Revelation and the Marble Economy of Roman Ephesus
Title | Revelation and the Marble Economy of Roman Ephesus PDF eBook |
Author | Anna M. V. Bowden |
Publisher | Fortress Academic |
Pages | 246 |
Release | 2020-12-15 |
Genre | |
ISBN | 9781978710177 |
In an effort to demonstrate the (im)practicalities of John's command for withdrawal (18:4), this book reconstructs the marble economy of Roman Ephesus and reads Revelation through the daily lives of its workers. It concludes that John's call for zero cultural participation is utterly devastating for its workers.
New Documents Illustrating Early Christianity 11A
Title | New Documents Illustrating Early Christianity 11A PDF eBook |
Author | James R. Harrison |
Publisher | SBL Press |
Pages | 434 |
Release | 2024-10-04 |
Genre | Religion |
ISBN | 1628375825 |
This volume of the New Documents Illustrating Early Christianity series introduces scholars and students to the historical, political, civic, religious, cultural, and social context of Ephesian inscriptional evidence. Each of the twenty-five entries in this volume includes one or more original inscriptions, English translation, and a commentary that sheds light on early Christianity, particularly as it relates to Ephesians, Acts, Revelation, and the Pastoral Epistles. Contributors Bradley J. Bitner, James R. Harrison, Phillip Ort, and Isaac T. Soon examine topics such as the gods and the founder of Ephesus, the political and economic relationship between Ephesus and Rome, Ephesian elites and the dynamics of honor, building activity, local sites, and graffiti.
The Nonviolent Apocalypse
Title | The Nonviolent Apocalypse PDF eBook |
Author | Jeffrey D. Meyers |
Publisher | Rowman & Littlefield |
Pages | 201 |
Release | 2021-11-08 |
Genre | Religion |
ISBN | 1978708351 |
Revelation is resistance literature, written to instruct early Christians on how to live as followers of Jesus in the Roman Empire. The Nonviolent Apocalypse uses modern examples and scholarship on nonviolence to help illuminate Revelation’s resistance, arguing that Revelation’s famously violent visions are actually acts of nonviolent resistance to the Empire. The visions form part of Revelation’s proclamation of God’s way as a just and life-giving alternative to the system constructed by Rome. Revelation urges its readers to pursue this radical form of living, engaging in nonviolent resistance to all that stands in the way of God’s vision for the world.
Matthew, Disability, and Stress
Title | Matthew, Disability, and Stress PDF eBook |
Author | Jillian D. Engelhardt |
Publisher | Lexington Books |
Pages | 233 |
Release | 2022-10-25 |
Genre | Religion |
ISBN | 1978712049 |
In Matthew, Disability, and Stress: Examining Impaired Characters in the Context of Empire, Jillian D. Engelhardt examines four Matthean healing narratives, focusing on the impaired characters in the scenes. Her reading is informed by both empire studies and social stress theory, a method that explores how the stress inherent in social location can affect psychosomatic health. By examining the Roman imperial context in which common folk lived and worked, she argues that attention to social and somatic circumstances, which may have accompanied or caused the described disabilities/impairments, destabilizes readings of these stories that suggest the encounter with Jesus was straightforwardly good and the healing was permanent. Instead, Engelhardt proposes various new contexts for and offers more nuanced characterizations of the disabled/impaired people in each discussed scene, resulting in ambiguous interpretations that de-center Jesus and challenge able-bodied assumptions about embodiment, disability, and healing.
The Book of Revelation and the Visual Culture of Asia Minor
Title | The Book of Revelation and the Visual Culture of Asia Minor PDF eBook |
Author | Andrew R. Guffey |
Publisher | Fortress Academic |
Pages | 276 |
Release | 2019-09-15 |
Genre | Bible |
ISBN | 9781978706576 |
Comparing the verbal images of the book of Revelation to the visual rhetoric and images of Asia Minor, Andrew R. Guffey argues that Revelation is to be "seen" and not just read. By engaging Revelation as a visual text, Guffey reinserts it into the visual culture of early Christianity.