SOURCE: Thompson, Leonard L. “Historical Setting and Genre,” “The Social Setting of Apocalypses,” and “The Seer's Vision of an Unbroken World.” In The Book of Revelation: Apocalypse and Empire, pp. 11-34; 74-93. New York: Oxford University Press, 1990.

In the following essays, Thompson provides background on the apocalypse genre and its social setting and discusses the seer's vision of the world and its boundaries.

The Local Historical Setting

[Now] I shall discuss in detail aspects of the local situation in and to which John writes the Book of Revelation. Here we need only some basic orientation to the origins of the book so that it will not appear as a floating specter from the past. As a way of beginning to orient to the book, I shall consider briefly those hoary questions—Where? When? Who? In what situation?

The Place

The writer of the Book of Revelation identifies precisely...