REASSESSING THE USE OF IMAGERY OF THE BEAST, THE SEA, AND THE SEVEN HEADS IN REVELATION 13
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.47754/jaa.v22i1.712Keywords:
Revelation 13, Imagery, Chaos Imagery, Ancient Near East, ApocalypticAbstract
A line of scholarship on Revelation assumes that its imagery blends elements from the Hebrew Bible, ancient myths, and the Greco-Roman world. This study challenges that reasoning by showing that the writer of Revelation not only draws primarily on the Hebrew Bible but also intentionally de-mythologizes its chaos motifs. In Revelation 13, the “sea” is not an autonomous force in cosmic conflict with God but a narrative backdrop for the rise of imperial evil, subverting the standard “sea = chaos” reading. Likewise, the seven heads invert the Hebrew Bible’s symbolic completeness into a counterfeit sovereignty, parodying Rome’s claims to total rule. By foregrounding immediate literary context and socio-political setting over speculative mythic parallels, this article contends that Revelation’s imagery reshapes inherited biblical motifs into a symbolic grammar that equips communities under empire to discern, resist, and hope.
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