Final 3 1/2 Years according to John's Revelation

Master of Ministry (Jan 2014)

The Final 3½ Years according to John’s Revelation

Course Description:

This course will examine the events of the last three-and-a half years according to John in the book of Revelation. The focus will be on the middle chapters (Rev 11:1-14:5) where the temporal period of three-and-a half years is mentioned 5 times (11:2-3; 12:6, 14; 13:5) in 3 different ways, namely, 1,260 days, 42 months and a time, times and half a time. It will discuss John’s vision of the holy city and the Temple as the loci of eschatological prophecies in this final period. This study will pay special attention to various characters that John portrays as the main protagonists in these last days, especially the two witnesses of Rev 11 and the two Beasts of Rev 13. A brief survey of Jewish apocalyptic thought in Second Temple period to the time of John’s Revelation in the first century CE will serve as introduction to John’s apocalyptic thought in Revelation. John’s creative and innovative use of the Old Testament in Revelation will be critically examined and highlighted. This course will utilize Hebraic rhetorical methods or rhetorical criticism to analyse the structure and composition of the middle section of John’s Revelation. It seeks to establish that the text of Rev 11:1-14:5 is marked by several key words and motifs with the figure of 3 ½ as the temporal and literary marker that unites seemingly disparate episodes and characters into one literary whole.

Textbook:

1)      Siew, Tony, The War between the Two Beasts and the Two Witnesses: A Chiastic Reading of Revelation 11:1-14:5 (LSNT 283; London & New York: T & T Clark, 2005).

Assessment:

1)      Book Review (1,500 words; 30%): Murphy, Frederick J., Apocalypticism in the Bible and Its World (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2012). Due Date: 7^th Feb 2014.

2)      Main Essay (3,500 words; 70%): Due Date: 2^nd May 2014.

Course Schedule:

1)      Introduction to Apocalyptic thought in Biblical and Extra-biblical Literature

2)      The Text of John’s Revelation & the Structure of Revelation

3)      Hebraic Rhetorical Method (1)

4)      Hebraic Rhetorical Method (2)

5)      A Literary-structural analysis of Rev 11:1-19

6)      A Literary-structural analysis of Rev 12:1-14:5

7)      The temporal period of 3 ½ years in Daniel and Revelation: The Great Tribulation

8)      The Temple and Jerusalem in Eschatological Prophecies

9)      The Two Witnesses (1)

10)   The Two Witnesses (2)

11)   The Dragon & the Woman

12)   The Two Beasts

13)   The Kingdom of God in John’s Revelation

Summary & Revision                                                                                                      Tony Siew