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Male µo in Revelation 1.13

Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations, Harvard University 6 Divinity Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA, rainbow{at}fas.harvard.edu

This essay explains the strange occurrence of `male breasts' in the vision of the Son of Man (Rev. 1.13) by appealing to an anomaly in the LXX Song of Songs. The author of Revelation alludes to the difficult reading in Cant. 1.2 in order to signal that Jesus is to be identified with the lover of the Song of Songs. As such, Rev. 1.13 represents an early attestation of the Christian tradition of allegorical interpretation of the Song of Songs. Evidence is adduced from the pseudepigraphic Testament of Solomon to corroborate the notion that early Christian interpreters were aware of the problem in Cant. 1.2 and regarded it as a distinctive feature of the poem.

Key Words: Cant. 1.2 • Rev. 1.13 • Son of Man • body imagery • New Testament use of Song of Songs • LXX and Hebrew vocalization

References

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Journal for the Study of the New Testament, Vol. 30, No. 2, 249-253 (2007)
DOI: 10.1177/0142064X07084777


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This Article Abstract Free Full Text (Free PDF) Free 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 Rainbow, J. Search for Related Content Social Bookmarking                         What's this?