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Critiquing the Excess of Empire

A Synkrisis of John of Patmos and Dio of Prusa

Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago, 1100 E 55th Street, Chicago, IL 60615, USA, pperry{at}lstc.edu

Despite their many differences, John the Seer of Patmos and Dio the rhetorphilosopher of Prusa share a basic critique of the Roman Empire. Limiting the comparison to Rev. 18 and Dio's twelfth Olympic Oration (with an important reference to Dio's thirteenth Oration), this essay concludes that John and Dio critique the violence, exploitation and luxury of Rome, grounding their analysis in divine sovereignty over earthly rulers. This common critique suggests that John's message may have been sympathetically heard by a wider audience than simply a few Christian communities, and that Revelation should be reevaluated in this light.

Key Words: Revelation • Dio Chrysostom • Roman Empire • violence • luxury • apocalyptic

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Journal for the Study of the New Testament, Vol. 29, No. 4, 473-496 (2007)
DOI: 10.1177/0142064X07078998


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This Article Abstract Full Text (PDF) Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Saved Citations Download to citation manager Request Permissions Request Reprints Add to My Marked Citations Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Citing Articles via Scopus Google Scholar Articles by Perry, P. S. Search for Related Content Social Bookmarking                   What's this?