Taeger, Jens-Wilhelm. Johanneische Perspektiven: Aufsätze zur Johannesapokalypse und zum johanneischen Kreis 1984-2003. Forschung zur Religion und Literatur des Alten und Neuen Testaments, 215, Ed. David C. Bienert and Dietrich-Alex Koch. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2006. 254 pp. Hardcover

Professor, dr. Jens-W. Taeger, who died only 59 years old (see here), did not complete his commentary on Revelation before his death. His doctoral thesis is Johannesapokalypse und johanneischer Kreis. This volume includes a bibliography of Taeger’s publications (p. 241f).

In this collection of essays, published posthumously, Taeger analyses the function or purpose of Revelation seen in the context of the Johannine circle or school.

“Niemand hat die imponierende Größe des Römischen Reiches so grundsätzlich kritisiert wie der Seher der Johannesoffenbarung. Jens-W. Taeger, der früh verstorbene Neutestamentler aus Münster, hat die Offenbarung eine ‘fulminante Streitschrift’ genannt, die Partei ergreift ‘im Streit um die Frage, wie in den Strukturen der Welt der Glaube unter strikter Wahrung der christlichen Identität zu leben ist.’

“In den hier vereinten Aufsätzen analysiert Taeger die theologische Zielsetzung der Apokalypse und stellt sie bewusst hinein in die komplizierte Geschichte des johanneischen Kreises. Die Aufsätze ergreifen dabei selbst Partei in den strittigen Fragen der johanneischen Forschung und geben zugleich Anstöße zu weiteren Untersuchungen.”

From the Table of Contents (a complete list at Eisensbrauns)

• Taeger als Neutestamentler und Theologe, by Dietrich-Alex Koch
• Die Apokalypse—Eine fulminante Streitschrift unter Einfluss des johanneischen Gemeindeverbandes: Jens-W. Taegers Beitrag zur Erforschung der Apk und der joh
• Theologieentwicklung, by Martin Karrer
• Johannesapokalypse und johanneischer Kreis: Zu Jens-Wilhelm Taegers Methode des motivgeschichtlichen Vergleichs innerhalb des Corpus Johanneum, by Friedrich Wilhelm Horn
• Einige neuere Veröffentlichungen zur Apokalypse des Johannes
• Der Konservative Rebell: Zum Widerstand des Diotrephes gegen den Presbyter
• Gesiegt! O himmlische Musik des Wortes: Zur Entfaltung des Siegesmotivs in den johanneischen Schriften
• Eine fulminante Streitschrift: Bemerkungen zur Apokalypse des Joannes
• Begründetes Schweigen: Paulus und paulinische Tradition in der Johannesapokalypse
• Hell oder Dunkel? Zur neueren Debatte um die Auslegung des ersten apokalyptischen Reiters
• Offenbarung 1,1–3: Johanneische Autorisierung einer Aufklärungsschrift
• Bibliography of Jens-Wilhelm Taeger
• Index of subjects and persons

Reviews

• Nicole Chibici-Revneanu, in: TC: A Journal of Biblical Textual Criticism 12 (2007):
• http://rosetta.reltech.org/TC/vol12/Traeger2007rev.pdf
• Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza, in: Review of Biblical Literature (2007) (direct link here)

Horn, Friedrich Wilhelm, and Michael Wolter (eds.). Studien zur Johannesoffenbarung und ihrer Auslegung: Festschrift für Otto Böcher zum 70. Geburtstag. Neukirchen-Vluyn: Neukirchener Verlagsgesellschaft, 2005. xi + 460 pp. Bibliography (of Böcher’s works) pp. 433-460. €34.90.

These essays – presented to professor Otto Böcher – analyse various passages in Revelation as regards the most important themes of the book, the religio-historical background, and its reception history.

Moyise, Steve (ed.) Studies in the Book of Revelation. Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 2001. xvii + 206 pp. ISBN: 0567088146 (hb.), 0567088049 (pbk.).

Essays included:

• The Words of Prophecy: Reading the Apocalypse Theologically, by Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza (pp. 1-20)
• Seventh-Day Adventism: Self-Appointed Laodicea, by Robert Surridge (pp. 21-42)
• The Enthroned Christ of Revelation 5:6 and the Development of Christian Theology, by Jonathan Knight (pp. 43-50)
• The Many Faces of Babylon the Great: Wirkungsgeschichte and the Interpretation of Revelation 17, by Ian Boxall (pp. 51-68)
• Praise and Politics in Revelation 19:1-10, by Jean-Pierre Ruiz (pp. 69-84)
• The Millennium and the Second Coming, by R. Jack McKelvey (pp. 85-100)
• Waiting for the End that Never Comes: The Narrative Logic of John’s Story, by David L. Barr (pp. 101-112)
• Criteria and the Assessment of Allusions to the Old Testament in the Book of Revelation, by Jon Paulien (pp. 113-130; also available here)
• The Book of Revelation: Image, Symbol and Metaphor, by Ian Paul (pp. 131-148)
• Out of the Wilderness: Feminist Perspectives on the Book of Revelation, by Alison Jack (pp. 149-162)
• The Apocalypse and Its Ambiguous Ethos, by Greg Carey (pp. 163-180)
• Does the Lion Lie down with the Lamb, by Steve Moyise (pp. 181-194; also available here)

Christopher Rowland has written the Foreword (pp. ix-ixvii). The back matters consists of Indices of Bible and Ancient Sources, Modern Authors, and Subjects.

“This is a specially commissioned set of state-of-the-art studies on the most important aspects of Revelation and its significance for the 21st century–by the world’s leading scholars. The studies can be grouped in relation to three main themes: strategies of interpretation (theological, literary, feminist, metaphorical); the nature of the violent imagery; and passages of particular interest (the letter to Laodicea, ‘praise and politics’, Old Testament allusions, the second coming of Christ).This book will provide an invaluable resource for researchers and students alike,” according to the publisher.

Reviewed by John M. Court, in Journal of Theological Studies 54, no. 2 (October 2003): 726-729.

Aune, David E. Apocalypticism, Prophecy and Magic in Early Christianity: Collected Essays. (Wissenschaftliche Untersuchungen zum Neuen Testament, 199). Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2006. Cloth. xii + 482 pp. €119.00. ISBN: 978-3-16-149020-0

David E. Aune, the author of the three-volume Word Biblical Commentary on the Book of Revelation, has also written extensively several very important essays and articles on Revelation. This volume makes available twenty of his essays, including many on Revelation. A very welcome book!

Here is the information provided by the publisher: This book contains a collection of twenty of David E. Aune’s essays on the subjects of apocalypticism, the Apocalypse of John, early Christian prophecy and early Christian magic. Several essays on the Apocalypse of John explore contextual relationships of the Apocalypse to apocalyptic literature from Qumran, Palestinian Jewish apocalyptic, Roman imperial court ceremonial, Greco-Roman revelatory magic and the social setting of the book. Other essays center on aspects of the content and interpretation of the Apocalypse itself by investigating such issues as discipleship, narrative Christology, genre, the problem of God and time, an intertextual reading of the book, the form and function of the proclamations to the seven churches (Rev 2-3), and interpretations of Rev 5 and 17. Essays on early Christian prophecy deal with charismatic exegesis in early Judaism and early Christianity, the relationship between Christian prophecy and the messianic status of Jesus, and the prophetic features found in the Odes of Solomon.

Note at least the following articles:

• “Understanding Jewish and Christian Apocalyptic (1–12)
• “From the Idealized Past to the Imaginary Future: Eschatological Restoration in Jewish Apocalyptic Literature,” with Eric Stewart (13–38)
• “The Apocalypse of John and the Problem of Genre” (39–65)
• “Following the Lamb: Discipleship in the Apocalypse” (66–78)
• “Qumran and the Book of Revelation” (79–98)
• “The Influence of Roman Imperial Court Ceremonial on the Apocalypse of John” (99–
• 119)
• “An Intertextual Reading of the Apocalypse of John” (120–49)
• “The Apocalypse of John and Palestinian Jewish Apocalyptic” (150–74)
• “The Social Matrix of the Apocalypse of John” (175–89)
• “Stories of Jesus in the Apocalypse of John” (190–211)
• “The Form and Function of the Proclamations to the Seven Churches (Revelation 2–3)” (212–32)
• “Revelation 5 as an Ancient Egyptian Enthronement Scene?” (233–39)
• “Revelation 17: A Lesson in Remedial Reading” (240–49)
• “The Prophetic Circle of John of Patmos and the Exegesis of Revelation 22:16” (250–60)
• “God and Time in the Apocalypse of John” (261–79)
• “The Apocalypse of John and Graeco-Roman Revelatory Magic” (347–67)

Reviews:

• New Testament Abstracts: 51 (2007), S. 395-396
• Reference & Research Book News: Www.booknews.com
• Journal for the Study of the NT: 29.5 (2007), S. 113 (Nicholas H. Taylor)
• The Expository Times: 119 (2007), S. 2 (Christopher Tuckett)
• Review of Biblical Literature (2007) (Lorenzo DiTommasio)