The War Between the Two Beasts and the Two Witnesses: A Chiastic Reading of Revelation 11:1-14:5

Description

Siew seeks to examine the events that will unfold within the three and a half years before the dawn of the kingdom of God on earth. He argues that John composed the textual unit of Rev 11:1--14:5 as a coherent and unified literary unit structured in a macro-chiasm. He pays special attention to the fusion of form and content and seeks to elucidate how the concentric and chiastic pattern informs the meaning of the literary units within 11:1--14:5, and proposes that the text of 11:1--14:5 is best analyzed using Hebraic literary conventions, devices, and compositional techniques such as chiasm, parallelism, parataxis, and structural parallelism. The macro-chiastic pattern provides the literary-structural framework for John to portray that the events of the last three and a half years unfold on earth as a result of what transpires in heaven. Specifically, the war in heaven between Michael and the dragon has earthly ramifications. The outcome of the heavenly war where Satan is defeated and thrown out of heaven to earth results in the war on earth between the two beasts of Rev 13 and the two witnesses of Rev 11. The narrative of the war in heaven (12:7-12) is seen as the pivot of the macro-chiastic structure. Siew pays close attention to the time-period of the three-and-a-half years as a temporal and structural marker which functions to unite the various units in 11:1--14:5 into a coherent and integral whole. The events of the last days will be centred in Jerusalem.

Antoninus King Wai Siew, BTheol (Auck), DipTh, PhD (Otago) is the pastor of an indigenous church in East Malaysia and often lectures at local Seminaries

'This is an impressive piece of work, and is clearly and lucidly written. Its mode of argumentation is coherent and cogent. Siew engages in a wide and broad interaction with the secondary literature, both relating to the book of Revelation itself, and with literature on the Old Testament and non-biblical literature that is deemed to provide background to the ideas and concepts found in the text under consideration.' --Dr Derek Tovey, Head of the Biblical Studies Department, University of Auckland School of Theology * Blurb from reviewer * 'This is a timely thesis and its detailed investigation of an alternative way of understanding the structure and inner relationships of these particular passages in the book of Revelation makes an original contribution to the field. As such, the findings need to enter the public arena in an appropriate academic publication.' --Dr Judith McKinlay, Senior Lecturer, Hebrew and Old Testament, University of Otago * Blurb from reviewer * The important, original, and fresh contribution of this publication to the issue of composition, made possible by the detailed approach, is, therefore, but a first step toward further work that will inevitably require revision of some of its insights... This work impresses with its extensive discussion of secondary mainstream research but also of scholarship from outside traditional centers and countries of learning. More important, it engages thoroughly with the primary text. Its major contribution, however, is to be found in its contribution toward consolidating the trend in scholarship that researches the so-called chiastic readings of New Testament texts and that develops its great potential for biblical interpretation. * Review of Biblical Literature * 'This work impresses with its extensive discussion of secondary mainstream research but also of scholarship from outside traditional centers and countries of learning. More importantly, it engages thoroughly with the primary text. Its major contribution, however, is to be found in its contribution toward consilidating the trend in scholarship that researches the so-called chiastic readings of New Testament texts and that develops its great potential for biblical interpretation.' RBL 02/2007 -- Pieter G. R. de Villiers * Review of Biblical Literature *