SOURCE: Fiorenza, Elisabeth Schüssler. “Visionary Rhetoric and Social-Political Situation.” In The Book of Revelation: Justice and Judgment, pp. 181-203. Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1985.

In the following essay, Fiorenza concentrates on the first five verses of chapter 14, particularly in assessing the meaning of “the 144,000 followers of the Lamb on Mount Zion.”

Our visions, stories and utopias are not only aesthetic: they engage us. 

Amos Wilder

In his summary of the overall outline and analysis of the Apocalypse, W. Bousset stresses that Rev. 14:1-5 was not taken over from a source but that it is formulated as “contrast-image” by the author. But he concludes: “It is not quite clear what the author means by this scene.”¹ This exegetical helplessness before the passage is confirmed by I. T. Beckwith (1919) and repeated by R. H. Mounce (1977): “Verses 1-5 are often referred to as in some respects the most enigmatic in the book...