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Title: Bilder entschlüsseln?
Subtitle: Einige Überlegungen zur zeitgeschichtlichen Auslegung der Johannesapokalypse
Author(s): WITETSCHEK, Stephan
Journal: Ephemerides Theologicae Lovanienses
Volume: 99    Issue: 3   Date: 2023   
Pages: 411-443
DOI: 10.2143/ETL.99.3.3292099

Abstract :
During the last 20-30 years, the historically informed approach to the Apocalypse of John has been largely dedicated to correlating John’s imagery to events, situations, structures, rituals, texts and images from the contemporary Roman empire. This article attempts to provide this approach with some hermeneutical and methodological nuances in three areas: (1) The wealth of possibly pertinent source material requires sifting by the criterion of relevance. (2) The images presented in the Apocalypse are to be taken seriously as images, hence as bearers of meaning in their own right, not just allegorical depictions of other objects. Insights come from visual/image studies. (3) It is anachronistic to read the Apocalypse of John as an encoded text requiring decipherment by quasi-cryptographic means.

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