This topic deals with works who treat the themes of persecutions and the imperial cult with or without reference to Revelation. Although some scholars have uttered their disagreement, until recently few Revelation scholars have doubted that there were imperially initiated severe persecutions in Asia which was the primary reason for Revelation. Now, however, several scholars [...]
Persecutions
Sordi, Marta. The Christians and the Roman Empire. London; London: University of Oklahoma Press, 1986. Sordi has treated the topic of relationship between the Roman Empire and the Christians earlier (Il christianesimo e Roma (1965) and this is her second book on this theme. Her view has not changed, but this book treats the questions [...]
Keresztes, P.: Imperial Rome and the Christians. Vol. 1. From Herod the Great to about 200 A.D. Lanham, MD./New York/London, 1989. Keresztes focuses on Roman government and law. Chapter 2: “Paul, the Acts and Imperial Rome” (pp. 45-66), chapter 3: “The Profession of Christianity Made Criminal” (pp. 67-82) and chapter 4: “The Terror of Domitian” [...]
Thompson, Leonard L. The Book of Revelation: Apocalypse and Empire. 1990; reprint, New York: Oxford University Press, 1997. In my opinion, Thompson’s study is one of the most important studies on Revelation written in the last decade. Thompson argues strongly that the traditional pejorative view on Domitian is due not to balanced arguments in modern [...]
Cuss, D.: Imperial Cult and Honorary Terms in the New Testament. Paradosis, 23. Fribourg: The UP, 1974. Cuss’s 168 page book treats the topic of imperial cult and honorary terms. After two initial chapters on the sources and a survey of NT implications towards the Roman Empire and the Emperor, Cuss then analyses references to [...]
Friesen, Steven J.: Twice Neokoros. Ephesus, Asia and the Cult of the Flavian Imperial Family. Religions in the Graeco-Roman World, 116. E.J. Brill: Leiden; New York; Köln 1993. Friesen’s Ph.D. dissertation is a well argued treatment of the problem that Ephesus was granted the honour of being “temple warden” twice, which was quite unusual. On [...]