Mother of Gods, Mother of Harlots

One of the primary interpretive challenges in the study of Revelation 17 has been to ascertain the identity of an historical personage or entity evoked by the description “Whore of Babylon.” This paper explores a previously neglected figure, Cybele the “Great Mother” Goddess. Through an examination of the artistic, archaeological, and literary evidence relating to the Mother Goddess during the time of her greatest flourishing in the Roman periods, several elements of the description of the Harlot in Rev 17 can be understood to evoke Cybele. Insofar as the Mother Goddess was closely associated with Roman socio-political-religious systems, this scene constitutes an attack on the Roman Imperial apparatus.</jats:p

Praising Christ the King

Abstract Royal connotations are recognized throughout the book of Revelation, including chapter 5 where the Lamb is depicted upon the heavenly throne (5:6) receiving acts of obeisance and hymnic acclamations from the heavenly retinue (5:8-14). However, the extent to which the hymns themselves manifest royal ideology and discourse has been neglected. In what follows, the author explores various elements of the hymns in light of widespread patterns of kingship discourse in the ancient Mediterranean world, including especially the fact that the Lamb is praised alongside God and in terms otherwise used for God. The author then demonstrates that the hymnic claim that the Lamb has assumed the power to rule on account of his bloody death on the cross (5:9) constitutes an inversion of a popular motif that kings assumed power through violent military conquest.</jats:p

Perplexing Pseudepigraphy

The fragments of the “Pseudonymous Greek Poets” constitute a collection of genuine and spurious quotations of renowned Greek poets – Homer, Hesiod, Aeschylus, etc. – on topics current in Hellenistic Jewish philosophy. The functions of these fragments are most often considered in terms used to characterize Hellenistic Jewish literature more broadly, i. e.: missionary literature, an apologetic defense of Judaism for a non-Jewish audience, an affirmation of Judaism for a Jewish audience, or a testament to the superiority of Judaism in the Hellenistic world. Each of these readings is guided by the presumption that Jews viewed the Hellenistic world as a foreign entity in need of some degree of “assimilation,” “resistance,” or “reconciliation,” and that Hellenistic Jewish literature reflects this process. This paper undermines this premise, demonstrating that the pseudonymous Greek fragments functioned instead to situate Hellenistic Jewish principles – as well as those who shared them – as part and parcel of broader Hellenistic trajectories.</jats:p