Yesterday I was privileged enough to have an article of mine appear on the ABC Religion and Ethics website.

The article is entitled Budgetary nihilism: Deferring foreign aid signals a distorted moral vision. It discusses the recent budgetary decision to defer Australia’s foreign aid commitments under the Millennium Development Goals to 2017–18.

[In this decision to defer our foreign aid commitments] there is, it seems to me, no clearer indication of the nihilism that now permeates politics, for what other than political nihilism could account for the moral obstinacy of diverting foreign aid to help cover a perceived budgetary shortfall? The obscenity of this decision is only compounded when one realises that this shortfall is itself a product of the irrational rhetoric and shameless opportunism of political parties scrambling to annihilate one another and appease a shrill and self-interested minority.

On top of all this, there is the inescapable irony that Prime Minister Julia Gillard recently assumed the role of co-chair of the UN Millennium Development Goal Advocacy Group, charged with “building political will, rallying additional support, and spurring collective action to achieve the [Millenium Development Goals] by 2015.” It is unclear how a leader of our country can do this with any integrity or credibility, given the immorality of one of the world’s most prosperous countries diverting promised money away from programs for the world’s most vulnerable people.

The piece goes on to discuss an approach to the underlying ethics of foreign aid, particularly from a Christian perspective.

The article was also discussed on ABC’s Radio National Drive program (in which I am referred to as a “fiery … obscure PhD student”, which made me laugh).

The article on ABC R&E is largely an updated version of my essay from this time last year (also in response to aid deferrals in the budget) entitled Foreign aid and moral vision.

Enjoy!

MCA

Feature image: http://www.abc.net.au/news/linkableblob/4689470/data/swan-gears-up-for-budget-data.jpg
Small image: http://www.abc.net.au/reslib/201305/r1115368_13599551.jpg

Enjoying a moment with Rabbi Zalman Kastel.
Photo by Doug Sewell

In the meantime I thought I would post an address I gave at the Anabaptist Association of Australia and New Zealand’s (AAANZ) national conference back in January this year. The theme of the conference was From Pieces to Peace: More than Just Neighbours in a Multifaith World.

My talk is titled A (Recovering) Racist’s Reading of Matthew 15:21–28. In it I explore Matthew’s story of Jesus and the Canaanite woman through the lens of Miroslav Volf’s thought on exclusion and identity as well as recent episodes in Australia’s history such as the Cronulla riots.

You can listen to the podcast of my talk here, as well as one by my friend and colleague Dave Andrews. There are also responses to the talks; a response to Dave’s talk by Nora Amath from AMARAH (Australian Muslim Advocates for the Rights of All Humanity) and a response to my talk by Rabbi Zalman Kastel from Together For Humanity.

I’m sure some will find these talks questionable (for any number of reasons), but I found the talks and the whole conference to be a beautiful and energising experience. If you would like to leave a question or comment please feel free.

http://www.anabaptist.asn.au/index.php?type=page&ID=3786

MCA

Arriving at Delhi Airport is, in most respects, much like arriving at any other major airport in the Asia-Pacific. It’s big, it’s busy and it’s boiling. But what was, until the 1980s, according to one local, “a few runways and some dirt” is now a facility rivalling its cousins in Singapore, Shanghai and Sydney. In a sense the airport is a microcosm of India’s massive growth over recent decades, growth that has benefitted some but also left many behind. With a population tipped to be the largest in the world in the next decade, India is complex: it is a fast growing economy (6.5% growth in 2011-12^[1]; as of October 2012 India had 61 billionaires) but it is also home to around one-third of the world’s extreme poor (those living on less than US$1.25 a day).

India is also a place of great beauty. Deserts under the sun’s glow meet lush, green jungles; ancient culture meets modern technology; a multitude of languages meet as neighbours. Stunning ancient architecture and monuments are to be found all over. India is colour personified, both in its natural beauty and in its culture. This colour is particularly striking in the clothing of India’s women—the vibrancy of the sea of saris you experience everyday is hard to describe. And the food…

The first day of our trip was spent meeting with TEAR’s partner organisation EFICOR to discuss the projects we were to visit in the following days. Four projects in three states over five thousand kilometres were on the itinerary: two newer projects which focused primarily on issues of HIV/AIDS and two agricultural and livelihood projects.

Our first travel leg took us to Tirunelveli, a district in far-southern India. In Tirunelveli HIV is a major social issue. It’s hard to imagine life in a community where around 2% of people have HIV. It’s harder still to imagine what it might be like to live with HIV in a community that considers you an outcast. Add to this the health problems and their effects on one’s livelihood and one begins to scratch the surface of the reality.

In the midst of such communities, however, there was hope. TEAR’s partners were working with churches to teach them about the realities of HIV, that the people infected are not dirty or evil, but that they are God’s children, and that the church is called to enact the love of God by caring for these people.

Praveen from Tirunelveli

Through such programs the church was being equipped to be a loving presence in a place of constant rejection. One young pastor by the name of Praveen told me that, like other members of his community, he once believed that people with HIV/AIDS were to be avoided and feared, that the infection was the result of a sinful lifestyle. “I was afraid to even enter the house of an infected person!” he recalled. But through the training of TEAR’s partner Praveen came to understand that his beliefs were mistaken, and that people living with HIV are not to be feared, but to be embraced and cared for. Praveen’s church now provides care, support and empowerment for dozens of people living with HIV, and he and his wife run support groups for people with HIV in which they come together, host discussions, provide teaching and health information, and facilitate a financial savings program within each group.

It was beautiful to see the Church acting in accordance with its call to follow Jesus in caring for the poor and marginalised. Like the stories of Jesus’ encounters with the sick teach us, the issue of healing is not simply about ending sickness, but also about opening up communities to embrace sick people. It wasn’t enough for Jesus to heal physically, he also insisted on ensuring that the wider community accepted the person as a valued member. It was fantastic to see these Indian churches not only meeting the physical needs of the people but also welcoming them into their midst, providing love and ongoing support as a family in Christ. The effect of the churches’ witness was that the stigma against HIV in the wider community was being reduced. It was in such a place that I was privileged to see the kingdom of God coming on earth as in heaven.

Of course HIV does not simply affect those who are infected—it also affects those around them, especially children. A story from the second project of our visit illustrates this well. In the east-Indian town of Chirala we met Dhanalakshmi, a girl of 18 years of age. She lived with her mother, who had HIV, and her two younger sisters (17, 15).

Simply put, Dhanalakshmi’s community was very poor. Before TEAR’s partner got involved in the community there was no secondary schooling. There was also a relatively high prevalence of HIV with no support for those infected and their families. Earning a livelihood was difficult for Dhanalakshmi’s family, especially with no father and a mother living with HIV.

TEAR’s partner helped the community set up the means for children to complete secondary school. As a result Dhanalakshmi was able to complete her schooling and go on to university. At the end of 2012 she was in her first year of a Bachelor of Arts majoring in History, Politics and Economics. TEAR’s partner also helped the family set up a small sewing business as a way of earning income without needing to travel, a huge blessing for the mother.

Dhanalakshmi from Chirala

In addition to studying and working, Dhanalakshmi has also become a leader in her community, facilitating a support group for children affected by AIDS. The name of the group is Velugu, which in the local language means “light”. It has 20 members, ranging from first grade to first-year University, all of whom have been affected by HIV, either through infection or the infection of a family member.  The group provides a place of care and support for the children. When asked what they liked about the group the children responded by identifying things like mutual caring, discussions and help with studies. The group also supports each other financially: they collect 1 rupee (AU$0.02) from each person at each meeting and are able to lend or give the money to someone in the group when a need arises.

Such a story demonstrates well the power of working with communities, rather than imposing pre-determined “solutions” on them. TEAR’s partner worked with Dhanalakshmi’s community to find out what they thought should be done. More than this the community was also central in the planning, implementation and evaluation of the work. By doing this the result was a far more holistic approach addressing all the core needs and root problems identified by the people being helped, whether economic, political or social. It also meant that the community felt a sense of ownership of the work—it was fantastic to see that the self-help groups were almost entirely being run by people within the community. People in the community seemed genuinely energised by the work because they were empowered to take charge and be a solution to their own problems. Such ownership by the community also ensures long-term sustainability since the good work will not come to an end once the project is finished. In other words, empowered communities do not become dependent on foreign donors. The sustainable changes in people’s lives—people like Dhanalakshmi—as well as the improvement in the life of the community as a whole were evidence of the effectiveness of this approach to development.

The fruit of this development approach were also evident in the final two projects we saw, both of which focused on agriculture and livelihood. In one of the villages we visited there were issues with the wealthy coming in and buying up the surrounding land and using it to grow cash crops. This had a severe effect on the agriculture of the surrounding villages because access to water for irrigation became difficult. Moreover the livelihoods of the villages were compromised because of increased pressure to grow cash crops. By working with this particular village TEAR’s partner EFICOR was able to help them establish a better irrigation system and more effective and reliable agricultural methods, both vital elements for their communal well-being and food security.

Cotton Crops in Bhadrachalam

Such stories were repeated many times over as village after village had their economic prospects and food security vastly improved by the holistic approach of EFICOR. In one place, Kandhamal, where violence had struck some villages in recent times, EFICOR was quite literally helping families to rebuild their lives, assisting those villagers whose houses had been burnt down to rebuild. EFICOR was also helping people access government benefits, including pensions and compensation for failed crops. This money helped countless people we met to invest in new vocational schemes. Some of the most popular investments were sewing machines for tailoring, equipment for manufacturing dried foods such as fish, and kitchen gardens for growing specialised crops. One group of women we met even saved up together to buy the equipment to start a wedding hire business, including tables, chairs and cooking equipment.

Perhaps just as important as the meeting of physical needs was EFICOR’s supporting role in the ongoing peace process in Kandhamal. Such support was enabling communities to resolve their conflicts through activities such as peace meetings in the villages, organised rallies, sports events, and the development programs themselves.

It is impossible to tell all the stories of all the fantastic things we saw throughout our trip, and what has been shared is only a fraction of the beautiful things we witnessed. Still, such stories testify to TEAR’s commitment to holistic development that deals with the whole person and empowers them to make the decisions necessary to come out of poverty. Even in the face of such poverty, we could not help but be struck by the kindness and hospitality of the people we met. Though they had little they were always willing to feed us far more than we could eat, give us far more than we could drink, and give us greater gifts than we ever deserved. Such was their generosity—how could a person be happy when those around them were sad?

Such experiences of community and hospitality should cause us to question what is truly important in life. While the hardship of living in poverty and being unable to wield much control over the outcome of your own life is truly terrible, it is also true that people with far less than those of us in rich countries are often more content. Perhaps it is a reflection on the dangers of wealth—we have so much yet so often seem miserable and empty. Certainly development should not be about making poor people more like us; such would be a terrible mistake. On the contrary, good development is about working with poor communities to work out what they think they need to overcome poverty.

The truth is that in listening to the poor we may discover things missing in our own lives.

MCA

Since I didn’t have time to memorise much of my sermon beforehand, I wrote much of it down. This means you get to read it! (Huzzah!)

Though I haven’t been able to post much lately this sermon represents some of the things I have been thinking about. I hope it challenges and comforts.

—

We come to the end of the year, for many of us a time of exhaustion.

For those who have done their best to walk the path of discipleship such exhaustion is compounded by the weariness of the pilgrimage more generally.

Perhaps it is providence that we find ourselves entering into the Christmas season where we join with the Magi, also suffering exhaustion after their long journey, in asking “Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews?” (Matt 2:2)

Stained glass window at the Melkite Catholic Annunciation Cathedral in Roslindale depicting Christ the King with the regalia of a Byzantine emperor. January 2009 photo by John Stephen Dwyer, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Melkite-Christ-the-King.jpg

In fitting with this the lectionary cycle this week reflects on the theme of ‘Christ the King’ as we again celebrate his coming. For those feeling the strain of walking the road of discipleship what hope and encouragement comes from reflection on this theme? As we will see, the encouragement offered to us by Christ as king is often not what we want, though it is what we need.

What does it mean for our discipleship that Christ is king?

Colossians 1:15-20 ^[1]

He is the image
            of the invisible God
the firstborn of all creation
            for in him were created all things
            in heaven and earth
            things visible and invisible
            whether thrones or dominions
            whether rulers or powers
            all things have been created through him and for him

And he is before all things
            and in him all things hold together
And he is the head
            of the body, the church

He is the beginning
            the firstborn from the dead
            so that he might come to have first place in everything
                        for in him all the fullness
                        was pleased to dwell
                        and through him God was pleased to reconcile to himself
                        all things
                        whether on earth or in heaven
                        by making peace through the blood of his cross

This powerful statement of the identity and meaning of Christ is well rehearsed amongst Christians, but often without much in the way of reflection on what it may have meant to Paul’s audience.

Place yourself in their world, a world colonised by images of Caesar:

• Caesar, the one taken to be the son of god, preeminent in all things.
• Caesar, the penultimate power in the world and the head of the body politic of the Roman Empire, considered to have brought peace to the whole world.
• Caesar, the one who has first place in everything, to whom all of creation bows and for whom all creation is exploited.

I am saying nothing original when I point out that Paul’s poem subverts the image of this king with the proclamation of another king:

• Christ, the image of God himself, preeminent in all things.
• Christ, the heir and originator of all creation and the head of the body politic called the Church of God.
• Christ, through whom peace has come to the world.
• Christ, first in everything, to whom all creation bows and through whom all creation is restored to its fullness.

It is a beautiful, powerful, subversive description that has the power to keep us on our feet. We can be truly encouraged to endure as we remember the true ordering of the cosmos—Christ is above all!

But it is precisely here that we are in danger of doing what too many have done—while affirming Christ as king we make him into our own image in order to fulfil our own desire for effectiveness in the world.

Christ’s kingship is distorted in order to be used as the justification for all kinds of evil and social engineering.

Case in point: Christendom—that large, lumbering, latrine of a project, the direct product of having confused Christ’s kingship with worldly forms of power. Christendom is the place where Christ and Caesar kiss.

In such a project Christ becomes the lackey upon whom we justify our deepest desires in shaping the world how we want. His power becomes nothing less than a tool for us to effectively direct the course of history itself!

In other words, what I’m saying is that we conceive of Christ’s kingship in such as way as to try to justify our making the world how we want rather than obeying God and trusting him to shape history.

And it is here that disciples must remember the wisdom of Walter Brueggemann—“the key pathology of our time, which seduces us all, is the reduction of the imagination so that we are too numbed, satiated and co-opted to do serious imaginative work.”^[2] The lack of imagination precludes the possibility of perceiving beyond the confines of the imperial horizon.

Luke’s thieves on the crosses beside this ‘king of the Jews’ serve as a timely reminder: one ridicules until his dying breath, unable to conjure up the imagination to see a different reality beyond imperial violence; the other perceived what could not simply be seen, a true ‘king of the Jews’.

What then is the kingship of Christ truly like? What does this mean for our identity and meaning in the world? In reality it takes an act of imagination to comprehend what this might even mean. Without such imagination Christ is simply a Christianised form of Caesar.

By Chris Koelle, http://thehasbeenhymn.files.wordpress.com/2012/02/1366×768-chriskoelle-job-lamb.jpg

Perhaps the most poignant image of Christ’s kingship in the New Testament is that of Revelation 5, namely the image of a slain Lamb.

If the temptation is for Christians to conceive of Christ as a Caesar-like figure, a conquering warrior Messiah, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, then Revelation 5 subverts any such attempt to do so (for more on this see the relevant part of my Revelation studies).

While John is told to look for a lion, he turns to find that Christ is no lion—he is a slain lamb, throat cut and bleeding out.

Strangely when God looks upon the Lamb he declares “victory!”

Of course, to believe that this is the way in which God wins his victory is insanity, at least by normal standards.

It is certainly a form of extremism. But as Brueggemann has quoted—“Moderation is a delusion, and only extremists are in touch with reality.”^[3]

To imagine that a dead lamb is the way in which God will have victory, over-against the mighty power of the Beast of Revelation 13 or the seductive power of the Great Prostitute of Revelation 17-18, is to challenge the status quo of might is right. It is to truly live freed from the numbness of our particular culture.

(When I say culture I mean it in the sense of what M. Scott Peck describes in his book People of the Lie—“basically a group of people who agree to believe the same set of lies about how the world works,” lies we convince ourselves we shouldn’t challenge.)

To worship and trust the Lamb is to have an imagination awakened to an alternative reality, God’s perspective on things. In God’s economy victory is won through the faithful testimony and suffering of the Lamb.

In this perspective Christ is a model for discipleship in which doing what is right, faithful and just always takes precedence over what is effective.

Anabaptist theologian John Howard Yoder says it like this:

The lamb that was slain is worthy to receive power!” John is here saying, not as an inscrutable paradox but as a meaningful affirmation, that the cross and not the sword, suffering and not brute power determines the meaning of history. The key to the obedience of God’s people is not their effectiveness but their patience (13:10). The triumph of the right is assured not by the might that comes to the aid of the right, which is of course the justification of the use of violence and other kinds of power in every human conflict. The triumph of the right, although it is assured, is sure because of the power of the resurrection and not because of any calculation of causes and effects, nor because of the inherently greater strength of the good guys. The relationship between the obedience of God’s people and the triumph of God’s cause is not a relationship of cause and effect but one of cross and resurrection.^[4]

The way of the slain King is one of letting go of our own desire to control the flow of history. We cease to see our own desired outcome of history as an autonomous ‘good’.

Rather, like Christ, we accept apparent defeat rather than colluding with evil if necessary. Suffering with Christ is, as Yoder says, “not a tool to make people come around” to our way of thinking.^[5] Rather it is the result of faithfully walking in the steps of the King who is also a slain Lamb. In taking up our crosses we trust that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ will raise us also with him.

As Revelation 12 says, “they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they loved not their lives even unto death.”

This is not to say that a commitment to being Christ’s radical nonviolent disciples is a way to “conquer” the world in the commonly understood sense. Indeed it is tempting to see nonviolence as a better way to get the same result that violence seeks. But this is not the point. Nonviolence is not first and foremost a rejection of violence; it is a rejection of manipulating and violating others to achieve our goals.

Nonviolence is, as part of our participation in the life and suffering of the Lamb, what Yoder calls a “readiness to renounce our legitimate ends whenever they cannot be attained by legitimate means.”

This strategy for living only works of course if Christ is truly who the Scriptures say he is—it makes no sense to live obediently in this fashion if Christ is not raised and vindicated!

But God, who being over history made the seeming historical failure of Jesus on the cross into the ultimate redemptive event for all creation, will do the same with our lives of faithful discipleship.

And so we find ourselves in that crisis point of Luke 23, on a cross next to Jesus. Do we accept his foolish messianic vocation, or reject it and expect a more ‘effective’ messiah?

This is both a challenge and a source of comfort:

A challenge because we must renew daily our commitment to worship the Lamb and embody his testimony for the world;

A comfort because for those of us who are tired or broken we can rest in the fact that ultimately we do not control history. It is not our responsibility to control the outcome, nor our calling to be ‘successful’, but our vocation is simply to be faithful witnesses doing what is right and just and true in the midst of a broken world. In all of this we can trust that God in his strange ways is using such faithfulness to restore creation.

We must remember, remember, remember the king we serve, because in our life of worship we will become like the thing before which we bend our knee. Warrior conqueror or slain Lamb?

Part 1—Revelation in Context
Part 2—The Beast: Might and Power
Part 3—The Prostitute: Seduction and Luxury

Part 4—The Lamb: The Witness of the Cross

In the previous parts of this study I have discussed two of the malevolent characters in Revelation, namely the Beast and the Great Prostitute, representing on the one hand military might and violence and on the other luxury and economic exploitation respectively.

These are powerful critiques on the part of the author. But critique and challenge are not enough for faithful discipleship—we also need to embody an alternative. With this in mind, what positive model does John give us to follow? What hope do we have in the midst of a world of violence and greed?

OUT OF EMPIRE: THE LAMB AS A MODEL THEN AND NOW
We must remember that in Revelation Rome is simply the then-current manifestation of empire!^[1] Though John himself was not envisioning future empires, such as those in our time, the images can nonetheless be indirectly applied to them because the phenomenon of empire is, as John knew, an ongoing reality. The challenge for us is to identify empire and “come out” of it.

If we are called to come out of Empire, what does this mean exactly? What models does John give?

I want to suggest that John offers us very strong models, but unfortunately they are often unacknowledged or ignored. One of the most important images is that offered as an alternative to the powerful and monstrous Beast and the seductive and inebriating Prostitute: The Lamb in Revelation 5.

THE LAMB

Revelation 5

Then I saw in the right hand of him who was seated on the throne a scroll written within and on the back, sealed with seven seals. And I saw a mighty angel proclaiming with a loud voice, “Who is worthy to open the scroll and break its seals?” And no one in heaven or on earth or under the earth was able to open the scroll or to look into it, and I began to weep loudly because no one was found worthy to open the scroll or to look into it. And one of the elders said to me, “Weep no more; behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has conquered, so that he can open the scroll and its seven seals.”

And between the throne and the four living creatures and among the elders I saw a Lamb standing, as though it had been slain, with seven horns and with seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent out into all the earth. And he went and took the scroll from the right hand of him who was seated on the throne. And when he had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, each holding a harp, and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints. And they sang a new song, saying,

“Worthy are you to take the scroll
and to open its seals,
for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God
from every tribe and language and people and nation,
and you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God,
and they shall reign on the earth.”

Then I looked, and I heard around the throne and the living creatures and the elders the voice of many angels, numbering myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands, saying with a loud voice,

“Worthy is the Lamb who was slain,
to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might
and honor and glory and blessing!”

And I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea, and all that is in them, saying,

“To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb
be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever!”

And the four living creatures said, “Amen!” and the elders fell down and worshiped.

JESUS IN REVELATION: THE FIRST AND THE LAST
While the Jesus (as the Lamb) is not introduced until chapter 5, Revelation does begin with the assertion that the vision and prophecy of John is in fact a revelation of Jesus Christ (1:1). Christ is pictured in 1:12-16 as a glorious heavenly being. When John falls at his feet, Christ says to him, “Fear not, I am the first and the last, and the living one. I died, and behold I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of Death and Hades.” (1:17-18)

The statement “I am the first and the last” corresponds to God’s statement in 1:8 (“I am the Alpha and the Omega”). Christ is equated with God, arguably more clearly than in any other NT writing.

This identification, and the other attributes expressed by Christ about himself, are not simply uttered in a vacuum – they are a direct challenge to any sovereign claims made by Caesar and Rome. That Christ is the first and the last expresses that all things find their origin and purpose in him, vis-à-vis the claims of the emperor. In addition Christ is risen from the dead, that is, the death inflicted by Rome. But more than that, in his resurrection Christ has overcome Death and Hades themselves!

JOHN’S VISION OF THE LAMB
Moving to chapter 5, the portrayal of the Lamb is central to how John portrays Christ, and thus how he portrays God. References to the ‘Lamb’ occur 28 times (7 x 4; the two most common numbers in Revelation, 7=completeness, 4=the world).

We are first introduced to the Lamb when John is weeping because no one in heaven or on earth or under the earth was able to open the scroll in God’s hand (5:1-4). One of the elders says to John, “Weep no more; behold the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the root of David has conquered, so that he can open the scroll and the seven seals.” (5:5) In this description, which John hears, we are led to expect what many in Israel had expected—a nationalistic warrior messiah, a militaristic conqueror as envisioned throughout the history of Israel (like David), who will win God’s victory.

This expectation is turned upside down when what John sees is the opposite of what he had heard. The conqueror is not a mighty Lion, but a Lamb who has been slain.

The death and resurrection of this Lamb is, as John will learn, how God’s victory is embodied. This image shakes up the assumption that God will win his victory through Lion-like violence and power. It is the Lamb’s sacrificial death has ransomed the people from all nations—the militaristic and nationalistic overtones are muted. Strangely sacrificial death is the means by which God will conquer the world. This is a theme that will run throughout Revelation.

The episode of the Lamb communicates to us many things, but there are three I want to explore.

1. The Lamb’s sacrificial death tells us about what God is like
I mentioned this before—Jesus, the Lamb, is equated with God. If we want to know what God is like, we look at Jesus, who is characterised as a slain Lamb. God’s nature, according to Revelation, is like the crucified Christ. While there is no space here to engage in discussion of the apocalyptic images of divine violence in Revelation, what can be said in brief is that we must look at these portrayals of apparent divine violence through the lens of the slain Lamb, the paradigmatic image of Christ in the book.

That worship is a central theme in Revelation is not to be ignored. Of the many things we can say about worship, there are two we must draw out here. The first is that worship is mimetic. What I mean by this is that we invariably conform to the image of that which we worship. Idolatry is a problem, and indeed is forbidden, since the worship of idols leads to the distortion of the person in the image of the idol.

The second thing is that the content of the doxologies in Revelation glorify God, yes, but they also challenge all other claims to sovereignty.

• 4:11—“Worthy are you Lord God, to receive glory and honour and power, for you created all things, and by your will they existed and were created.”
• 5:9-10—Worthy are you (the Lamb) to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation, and you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God, and they shall reign on the earth.”

These are direct challenges to the sovereign claims of Rome!

If worship truly is mimetic as I have said, the nature of God and Christ is extremely important, since distorted notions of God will lead to distorted worshipers. What Jesus is like is what God is like! We are meant to be like this!

 2. The Lamb is the model for all disciples (“Witness Wins”)
One of the key myths of Rome was Victoria! The myth that the empire was founded on victory, and that this was how order and prosperity was maintained. This essentially meant military conquest, and so Victoria was intimately related to the myth of Pax Romana (discussed in Part 1).

The early Christians, worshiping a crucified person as they did, had a counter-myth about what true victory actually was.

In 1:5 Jesus Christ is called “the faithful witness” (also 1:2, 9; 3:14). It is no surprise then that perhaps the most important title given to his followers in Revelation is “witnesses” (martys; “martyr”). These followers hold “the witness (testimony) of Jesus” (1:2, 9; 12:11, 17; 19:10; 20:4). This does not mean that they witness about Jesus, but that they bear the same testimony that Jesus himself bore, namely witness to God and his kingdom over-against all other claimants to sovereignty and victory.

This was also Israel’s role in the OT (Isa. 43:10, 12; 44:8): to be a light to the nations, revealing the true God and the way of life he desires for all. Israel was meant to be a nation of witnesses!

In Revelation 11 we are given an image of faithful witnesses: They are characterised as Elijah (“They have the power to shut the sky, that no rain may fall during the days of their prophesying”; v.6) and as Moses (“they have power over the waters to turn them into blood and to strike the earth with every kind of plague, as often as they desire”; v.6), the two paradigmatic prophets and witnesses of the Old Testament (cf.19:10). In the Old Testament two witnesses were required for a truthful (faithful) testimony in a legal setting, and it is no coincidence that Revelation depicts a pair of witnesses.

They give their witness, and then are killed by the violence of the Beast (11:7). The empire apparently strikes back.

Their bodies lie in the street of the great city symbolically called Sodom and Egypt “where their Lord was crucified.” (11:8) This is a thinly veiled reference to Jerusalem, but it is also more than that. Jerusalem had become a place of violence and idolatry, hence the reference to the fact that Jerusalem crucified the Lord! John is here comparing Jerusalem to Egypt and Sodom; in other words the Holy City had become like any other empire, and as a result had been destroyed. Judgment is apparently not limited to foreign empires—God does not play favourites! (Equally, salvation is not limited to one group!)

In short, the witnesses lie dead in the symbolic streets of empire, which can be “here” as much as it can be “there” (take care!).

The witnesses are not given a proper burial, that is, they are shamed and humiliated (as in near-Eastern culture) (11:9). The people of the earth rejoice over their death because the witnesses ”had been a torment” to them (11:10). Their testimony, by revealing the truth about the world, the kingdom of God and the way things really are, besieged the people of the earth.

Though the witnesses are killed, they are resurrected to life. Their enemies watch as they are raised and as judgement comes on the earth. (11:11-13) The people of the earth are said to give glory to God in response, that is, they believe the testimony of the witnesses and become faithful to God and his kingdom. (11:13)

This is the way in which true victory is won in Revelation, and for all time…

Of course, the witnesses are not literal people, but they are symbolic of the Church. The Church’s job is, according to Revelation, to be witnesses of Jesus in the world, even under the threat of violence and death. When Jesus says to the churches in chapters 2-3 “To the one who conquers I will… (insert some reward) (2:7, 11, 17, 26; 3:5, 12, 21) he is subverting the nature of conquering in the imperial world. Conquering is normally all about beating down your enemy until they submit, but for Jesus “conquering” is all about bearing witness to the reality of God’s kingdom over against the empires of the world.

3. The Lamb is an image of what empire does
The violence of the empire, characterised later by the Beast (ch. 13), is revealed in the fate of the Lamb, and indeed of the witnesses who follow after him. Empire is violent, and attempts to erase all who would witness to an alternative story. Victory comes through destroying the enemy.

The victory of God, on the other hand, is somehow won in death and suffering. My sense is that this is because faithfully suffering at the hands of empire without offering a violent response actually serves to reflect the true violent nature of empire.

This is why disciplined nonviolent actions in our world, especially martyrdom, are so effective in changing public opinion in the long term—they reveal the true and terrible nature of oppressive regimes.

(How many people knew anything about Syria until the last little while?)

THE END OF THE STORY…(?)
It is worth finishing by outlining what Revelation teaches about where the world is headed. Many people use Revelation as a road map for the future, believing that it gives a detailed account of what is to come in “the last days”.

But it is important to stress that Revelation, as I have said in previous parts of this study, is not about the end of the world—it paints a picture of what was the case in John’s time, and continues to speak to us about imperial realities in our world and the need for faithful witness.

Revelation, however, does offer a vision of the end of empire, of a world in which “the empire of this world has become the empire of our Lord and of his Messiah, and he shall reign forever and ever.” (11:15)

The end of empire is not the end of the world as is commonly taught. The end of Revelation gives us an image of not a world that is destroyed, but rather a world that is restored!

In Revelation 21 John sees a vision of a renewed heaven and earth, and as N.T. Wright says, the earth is not pulverised, but rather it is joined together with heaven, the fullness of creation is finally united! The end of Revelation paints a beautiful picture of a world in which everything is turned upside-down, or perhaps more correctly a world in which things have been turned right-way up—everything has been restored to how it should be.

In the meantime we are given the opportunity to enact that upside-down reality in the present, to embody the new creation in our lives here and now. We must choose between:

• Worshiping the Beast or the Lamb
• Entering the luxury of the Prostitute, or being the Bride of Christ
• Living in the city of Babylon with its oppression and exploitation of the poor and marginalised, or living in the city of the New Jerusalem in which the river of life flows for all people
• Embodying and enjoying the violence of the Dragon and the Beast, or being willing to nonviolently lay down our lives as witnesses of Christ

What are some ways we can embody the reality of the New Creation, the restored world, here and now?

In other words, How can the Church be the Church in the face of powerful and seductive empire?

—
Note: At this point, when delivering this study, there was a discussion about faithful witness and discipleship in our own world and the imperative for the Church to be the Church in embodying alternative ways of living, both local and global.

Part 1—Revelation in Context
Part 2—The Beast: Might and Power
Part 4—The Lamb: The Witness of the Cross

Part 3—The Prostitute: Seduction and Luxury

Hans Burgkmair the Elder: ‘The Whore of Babylon’, 1523

In this, the third part of this study, I will discuss another of Revelation’s major characters, the Great Prostitute of chapter 17-18.

A PRIVILEGED MALE SPEAKING HARSHLY ABOUT A PROSTITUTE?
Now, before I begin, I must follow the wisdom of Howard-Brook and Gwyther^[1] and comment on the fact that it is a privileged male from the First World who is about to talk about a prostitute.

Indeed, John’s negative use of the image of a prostitute has, in some circles, been very controversial for its patriarchal and sexist depiction. Feminist biblical scholar Tina Pippin claims the disembodiment of the Prostitute in Revelation 17:16 “points to the ultimate misogynist fantasy!”^[2]
Pippin’s point is that these images can be quite dangerous, particularly in the hands of man who can exert power over the bodies of women. Howard-Brook and Gwyther point to the example of the church’s burning of women as “witches” as the consequence of taking these depictions as the “word of God”.^[3]

It will not do for a male like myself to simply say that this language was a product of the time. This would be to pass over, and even excuse, the real pain, violence and degradation that many women across the world have felt because of the use and abuse of such passages. I must acknowledge this pain. My only response is to say that the images of women used by Revelation were not produced with the intent to legitimate violence against women. Faithfulness to the text requires that no reading ever contradict this intention.

Ultimately the image of the Prostitute in Revelation, though a product of a different time, is not about human women: as we shall see the image represents a city and an empire.

Revelation 17:1-14 (The Great Prostitute)

Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls came and said to me, “Come, I will show you the judgment of the great prostitute who is seated on many waters, with whom the kings of the earth have committed sexual immorality, and with the wine of whose sexual immorality the dwellers on earth have become drunk.” And he carried me away in the Spirit into a wilderness, and I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast that was full of blasphemous names, and it had seven heads and ten horns. The woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet, and adorned with gold and jewels and pearls, holding in her hand a golden cup full of abominations and the impurities of her sexual immorality. And on her forehead was written a name of mystery: “Babylon the great, mother of prostitutes and of earth’s abominations.” And I saw the woman, drunk with the blood of the saints, the blood of the martyrs of Jesus.

When I saw her, I marveled greatly. But the angel said to me, “Why do you marvel? I will tell you the mystery of the woman, and of the beast with seven heads and ten horns that carries her. The beast that you saw was, and is not, and is about to rise from the bottomless pit and go to destruction. And the dwellers on earth whose names have not been written in the book of life from the foundation of the world will marvel to see the beast, because it was and is not and is to come. This calls for a mind with wisdom: the seven heads are seven mountains on which the woman is seated; they are also seven kings, five of whom have fallen, one is, the other has not yet come, and when he does come he must remain only a little while. As for the beast that was and is not, it is an eighth but it belongs to the seven, and it goes to destruction. And the ten horns that you saw are ten kings who have not yet received royal power, but they are to receive authority as kings for one hour, together with the beast. These are of one mind, and they hand over their power and authority to the beast. They will make war on the Lamb, and the Lamb will conquer them, for he is Lord of lords and King of kings, and those with him are called and chosen and faithful.”

JOHN’S DESCRIPTION OF THE PROSTITUTE
In terms of the text itself, John describes the “Great Prostitute” (17:1) as being seated on many waters, and with whom the kings of the earth have committed sexual immorality and the dwellers of the earth have become drunk. (17:2) The sea is the paradigmatic symbol of death and chaos in Israel’s history (e.g. Noah’s Flood, the Exodus). The Prostitute is seated on death itself, the place of the Beast (13:1).  The kings have committed sexual immorality with her, a point we will explore below.

She also sits upon a scarlet beast that was full of blasphemous names and had seven heads and ten horns. (17:3; more on this below)

The Prostitute is “arrayed in purple and scarlet, and adorned with gold and jewels and pearls, holding in her hand a golden cup full of abominations and the impurities of her sexual immorality.” (17:4) In other words, she is obscenely rich and luxurious, and her golden cup is the exact opposite of the golden bowls in heaven (5:8)—the bowls hold the prayers of the saints, but her cup holds abominations.

What, then, is John trying to “do” with the image of the Prostitute? We will return to these descriptions momentarily. First we must identify the Prostitute.

THE PROSTITUTE AS BABYLON
John says that on the forehead of the Prostitute is written “a name of mystery: ‘Babylon the great, mother of prostitutes and of earth’s abominations.’” (17:5) The reference here is reasonably clear: Babylon was the greatest empire of the ancient world, and had become the typical, paradigmatic image of empire in Israel’s tradition.

The prophetic sections of the Old Testament denounce heavily the political and economic tyranny of Babylon For example, Jeremiah 50:23-27:

How the hammer of the whole earth
is cut down and broken!
How Babylon has become
a horror among the nations!
I set a snare for you and you were taken, O Babylon,
and you did not know it;
you were found and caught,
because you opposed the Lord.
The Lord has opened his armory
and brought out the weapons of his wrath,
for the Lord God of hosts has a work to do
in the land of the Chaldeans.
Come against her from every quarter;
open her granaries;
pile her up like heaps of grain, and devote her to destruction;
let nothing be left of her.
Kill all her bulls;
let them go down to the slaughter.
Woe to them, for their day has come,
the time of their punishment.

It is also worth remembering that “Babel” in Genesis 11 is agreed by most scholars to be an allusion to Babylon – Babel was destroyed because it was (put simply) an attempt by humankind to construct an empire. In the Genesis story Babel was a move away from the Garden existence where human beings enjoyed communion with God, toward a city existence of oppression.

By the time of the late first century, Babylon became a label used in Jewish and Christian circles to refer to Rome (see for example 4 Ezra 3:1-2, 28-31; Sibylline Oracles 5.213-218)

One of the reasons for this was probably that Rome, like Babylon, had destroyed Jerusalem and the Temple therein. And so this Prostitute in Revelation, as Babylon, represents the Roman Empire. This is further evidenced by the fact that the Prostitute is said to sit on seven mountains (17:9), a well-known reference to Rome, which was built on seven hills.

In addition, Bauckham claims that in this description the readers would have recognised characteristics of the goddess Roma, who was a personification of Rome.^[4] Interestingly she also takes on characteristics of Jezebel from the Old Testament (18:7, 23-24) in addition to being a prostitute, no doubt a comment by John on the nature of the Empire.

THE PROSTITUTE AS LUXURY AND ECONOMIC EXPLOITATION
Like the Beast, the Prostitute is not simply a generic depiction of the Empire, but rather is an image that emphasises certain characteristics of it.

If the Beast represents the violence and coercive power of Rome, then the Prostitute, with her ornate clothing and luxurious seductiveness (17:4, above), represents the economics of the Empire that seduces the imaginations of the people, particularly the “kings of the earth” (17:2, above).

We are told of the Prostitute that she causes the inhabitants of the earth to become drunk (17:2), and that even John, when confronted by her, is moved to “marvel greatly” (17:6b-7). This is significant:

The word used for prostitute is porneuō, the same word used in the Greek version of Exodus 34:15-16:

You will not make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, lest when they whore after their gods and sacrifice to their gods and you are invited, you eat of his sacrifice, and you take of their daughters for your sons, and their daughters whore (porneuō) after their gods and make your sons whore after their gods.

The issue here in Exodus is not sexual immorality, but the people’s worship of other gods and thus the selling out of the radical message of YHWH in distinction to the practices of the other people who lived around them. As Howard-Brook and Gwyther point out, idolatry was not merely about falling down before this statue or that tree – it was about adopting a cult and culture that was at odds with its covenant with YHWH.^[5]

This covenant was, at its core, a way of life in faithfulness to the character of YHWH. The Law was simply an expression of this in a particular time and place. One of the central concerns of Israel’s covenant with YHWH was in fact economics—the Israelites are, again and again, commanded to treat each other fairly in terms of economic dealings.

One of the ways that Israel in the Old Testament was most unfaithful was in its constant entering into alliances with neighbouring empires for protection, thus abandoning their covenant with YHWH. These alliances were both military and economic, that is, they were trading alliances. (See Isaiah 23: 15-17; Ezekiel 16, esp. 26, 28-29)

Israel, in making such alliances, was being seduced into economic relationships that were contrary to its covenant with YHWH. By connecting Israel’s past covenant unfaithfulness with the Prostitute in Revelation, the implication is clear – the entire world has become drunk with the intoxicating and hypnotic seduction of the Prostitute, that is, an embodiment of an imperial economics that is in conflict with the will of YHWH. In other words, the people have fornicated with a lord other than YHWH, namely the Roman economic system under Caesar.

THE IMMORALITY OF KINGS AND MERCHANTS
This is why John goes out of his way to indict the “kings of the earth” (17:2; 18:9) and “the merchants of the earth” (18:11-13)—they are the ones who benefit from the seduction of the Prostitute, from the oppressive economic system of the Empire.

When it is said in chapter 18 that Babylon (the Prostitute) is fallen, the kings of the earth “who committed sexual immorality and lived in luxury with her” weep and wail (18:9) and the merchants “weep and mourn for her, since no one buys their cargo anymore (18:11). What is John talking about here? It must be said that the kings of the earth, namely the powerful members of society, and the merchants were those who became wealthy because of the oppressive economic system in place in the Empire.

It is important to have some background into this economic system to fully comprehend why John might be so antagonistic to it.

Lenski’s Model of an “Advanced Agrarian Society” (e.g. the Roman Empire) [Gerhard E. Lenski, Power and Privilege: A Theory of Social Stratification (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1966).]

The problem with the existence of surplus production was that it opened up the possibility of an “exploiter” class to come about, people who could live off the surplus of others without having to do any physical work. Cities led to the consolidation of the power of such exploiters who developed means of coercing agriculturalists to give over a portion of their produce. These coercive measures typically amounted to threats of armed violence.

Such extraction of produce from the agriculturalists was a form of what we might call taxation. In return the elites promised safety and security, though in truth they had little concern for the poorer members they exploited.

As this trend continued, the exploiter class gained more and more wealth, and thus the power to employ more coercive tactics, such as standing armies. The agriculturalists on the other hand became a peasantry. With the rise of elite bureaucracies that were necessary to support this system, the wealthy could begin to keep records, such as debt, and thus debt became perpetual.

Eventually the elite became so wealthy that there began to be a demand for rarer luxury goods. This necessitated the creation of a merchant class, people who would travel between places transporting luxury goods and selling them for high prices. They would typically buy these from artisans (like Joseph and Jesus) for low prices and sell them to the elite for much more. (This was the beginning of a widespread money economy, since prior to travelling merchants there was no real need for a money currency).

And so advanced agrarian societies were those where a tiny fraction of the population lived in luxury at the expense of the vast majority, who lived a life of subsistence. The elite worked out numerous ways of extracting all surplus from the peasantry, leaving them with just enough to survive.

The Roman Empire was such a society. Everyone from Caesar and his bureaucracy down to the more well-off merchants made a killing from a system that heavily taxed the majority of rural peasants, leaving them in poverty and constantly in danger of many afflictions and dangers.

Revelation 18:14-17 says of the merchants who are standing weeping over the death of the Prostitute:

“The fruit for which your soul longed
has gone from you,
and all your delicacies and your splendors
are lost to you,
never to be found again!”

The merchants of these wares, who gained wealth from her, will stand far off, in fear of her torment, weeping and mourning aloud,

“Alas, alas, for the great city
that was clothed in fine linen,
in purple and scarlet,adorned with gold,
with jewels, and with pearls!\
For in a single hour all this wealth has been laid waste.”

If that system were to fall apart it would indeed be the kings of the earth and the merchants who would weep because they are the ones who have become rich off of it.

In 18:11-13 it is said that “no one buys their cargo anymore, cargo of gold, silver, jewels, pearls, fine linen, purple cloth, silk, scarlet cloth, all kinds of scented wood, all kinds of articles of ivory, all kinds of articles of costly wood, bronze, iron and marble, cinnamon, spice, incense, myrrh, frankincense, wine, oil, fine flour, wheat, cattle and sheep, horses and chariots, and slaves, that is, human souls.”

This list is representative of the trade in commodities at the time, both the luxuries (gold, jewels etc.), but also the staples of life (oil, flour, wheat cattle) – Babylon extracts everything from the entire earth, even humans!

This is the very system that John critiques when he portrays it as a Prostitute.

THE TRUTH ABOUT THE PROSTITUTE
It is no surprise then that the Prostitute is said in Revelation 17:3 to ride on the Beast—John is aware that the exploitative economic system of the Empire is achieved and maintained only by the presence of the Beast, namely Rome’s imperial military and political power.

This takes us back to the last part of this study and the mark of the Beast—those who have not given their allegiance to the Beast, the military power of Rome, cannot participate in the economic system.

The imperial economic system is also held in place by the myths and propaganda controlled by the elites. The nations are indeed drunk on her, hypnotised by her seductive myths. She offers them a golden cup, and they drink deeply, to the point of intoxication. This cup no doubt includes the myth and propaganda about Pax Romana, according to which Rome had brought peace, security and prosperity to the whole world.

But John’s critique is devastating—the cup offered by the Prostitute, despite its seductiveness, is filled with the wine of her impurities, including according to 17:6 the blood of the saints, the blood of the witnesses of Jesus. The Prostitute may seduce the inhabitants of the earth, and indeed even John is entranced at first (17:6b-7), but the “heavenly” perspective on her is that she is, to put it offensively, a wily whore whose baubles and trinkets are merely illusions.^[6]

“COME OUT OF HER, MY PEOPLE!”
John’s warning is to avoid the seduction of the Prostitute, who will ultimately come to ruin. Unlike the kings and the merchants, who fornicate with such exploitative systems, John’s audience is called to not drink from her cup, but to resist her oppression.

This was apparently a real issue for John’s audience. Even if one didn’t like the economic system of the Roman Empire, they were nonetheless forced to place their faith in it. It was easier to accommodate the Empire than to resist, especially since there was always the promise of prosperity (even though it was never fulfilled).

To resist was to risk much. As John says, the Prostitute is drunk on the blood of the saints (17:6)—Rome would not allow a group of misfits who follow an unknown crucified prophet from some backwater hick town in a minor province called Judea to create instability in its Empire.

Nonetheless, the call of God in Revelation is this – “Come out of her, my people, lest you take part in her sins…” (18:4).

Though the kings and merchants of the earth weep and wail when Babylon falls, those who have come out of her have no need to weep. John calls the people of God to continue to resist the oppressive and exploitative economic system of Rome. He also warns those who have colluded and compromised with Rome to get out of her now.

As Revelation goes on we find that the people of God are not merely called to come out of Babylon; they called also to come into the New Jerusalem. This is not a call to move geographically, as Howard-Brook and Gwyther point out – it is a call to the audience to discern the true character of Babylon/Rome, and to distance themselves from its seduction.^[7] In other words, to give their allegiance to a kingdom alternative to that of Rome—God’s kingdom of justice and peace—and to create alternatives in fitting with this kingdom.

For us today we must turn our attention to our own economic situation and think about what it means for us to resist exploitative and oppressive systems here and now.

In other words, How can the Church be the Church in the face of powerful and seductive empire?

—
Note: At this point, when delivering this study, there was a facilitated discussion about economic exploitation in our own world and the imperative for the Church to be the Church in embodying equity and offering alternatives to exploitation, both local and global. If you wish to explore this more check out the fantastic resources available from TEAR Australia and also Manna Gum.

MCA

Part 1—Revelation in Context
Part 3—The Prostitute: Seduction and Luxury
Part 4—The Lamb: The Witness of the Cross

Part 2—The Beast: Might and Power

Revelation 13:1-10 (The Beast from the Sea)

And I saw a beast rising out of the sea, with ten horns and seven heads, with ten diadems on its horns and blasphemous names on its heads. And the beast that I saw was like a leopard; its feet were like a bear’s, and its mouth was like a lion’s mouth. And to it the dragon gave his power and his throne and great authority. One of its heads seemed to have a mortal wound, but its mortal wound was healed, and the whole earth marveled as they followed the beast. And they worshiped the dragon, for he had given his authority to the beast, and they worshiped the beast, saying, “Who is like the beast, and who can fight against it?” 

And the beast was given a mouth uttering haughty and blasphemous words, and it was allowed to exercise authority for forty-two months. It opened its mouth to utter blasphemies against God, blaspheming his name and his dwelling, that is, those who dwell in heaven. Also it was allowed to make war on the saints and to conquer them. And authority was given it over every tribe and people and language and nation, and all who dwell on earth will worship it, everyone whose name has not been written before the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb who was slain. If anyone has an ear, let him hear:

If anyone is to be taken captive,
to captivity he goes;
if anyone is to be slain with the sword,
with the sword must he be slain.

Here is a call for the endurance and faith of the saints.

Who/what is the Beast?

THE FOUR BEASTS IN DANIEL 7
John borrows this image of a Beast from Daniel 7:1-8 which describes four beasts, with the fourth being the most horrifying. These beasts represent successive empires with whom Israel was confronted, as explained in Daniel 7:15-28, though these empires are not explicitly identified. Scholars basically agree though that the beasts represent the Babylonian Empire, the Median Empire, the Persian Empire, and Alexander’s Macedonian (Greek) Empire (the most terrifying).

The fourth terrible beast has a “little horn” (7:7), which in the world behind Daniel probably represents Antiochus IV Epiphanes, the despotic ruler of the Seleucid Empire. This empire was an offshoot of the larger Macedonian Empire and ran into trouble later with the rising Roman Empire.

Soon in Daniel, however, the focus shifts from the beasts to the “Ancient of Days” (7:9-12). He ultimately kills the fourth beast and takes the authority of the other three away. In the place of the beasts authority is given to one like a son of man, whose kingdom will never be destroyed (7:13-14).

JOHN’S USE OF DANIEL’S BEASTS
By the time of Revelation the fourth beast in Daniel was interpreted by some to represent Rome (such as in 4 Ezra 12:11-30).

Revelation pictures Rome differently—it is not merely the fourth beast of Daniel, but in fact a conglomerate of all four beasts in Daniel’s vision. This is the Beast from the sea in chapter 13:

The first was like a lion and had eagles’ wings. … asecond one, like a bear. … another (the third), like a leopard, with four wings of a bird on its back. … a fourth beast, terrifying and dreadful and exceedingly strong. It had great iron teeth … and it had ten horns. (Daniel 7:4-7)

Ten horns … And the beast that I saw was like a leopard; its feet were like a bear’s, and its mouth was like a lion’s mouth. And to it the dragon gave his power and his throne and great authority. (Revelation 13:1-2)

Rather than reinterpret Daniel’s four beasts, John creates an entirely new beast, one that is all four of Daniel’s beasts in one. This is one bad figure, worse than anything Daniel could have imagined.

It should be clear by now that the Beast out of the sea in Revelation 13 represents the Roman Empire. John uses the image of a Beast in the same way as it is used in Daniel, namely for a great empire or kingdom. The difference is that John’s Beast is more fearsome, more terrifying. This makes sense of Rome’s power, even in comparison to previous empires.

THE APPEARANCE OF THE BEAST AND ITS MEANING
What do we make of the ten horns, seven heads and ten diadems of the first Beast? We find out later in Revelation’s narrative:

This calls for a mind with wisdom: the seven heads are seven mountains on which the woman is seated; they are also seven kings, five of whom have fallen, one is, the other has not yet come, and when he does come he must remain only a little while. As for the beast that was and is not, it is an eighth but it belongs to the seven, and it goes to destruction. And the ten horns that you saw are ten kings who have not yet received royal power, but they are to receive authority as kings for one hour, together with the beast. These are of one mind, and they hand over their power and authority to the beast. (Revelation 17:9-13)

The seven heads, which are seven mountains, represent emperors that have succeeded one another, from Augustus, through to Domitian (commentators note the issues with this, but this is not the time to discuss it). Moreover, it was well known at the time that Rome was built on seven hills (mountains).

The ten horns, each with a diadem or crown (13:1), represent smaller regional powers under the auspices of the larger Beast (empire). Rome had ten provinces, and this probably refers to them. They have no independent authority apart from the Beast.

Thus the Beast is a symbol that embodies all these realities, namely empire. The beast comes from the sea, that is, the place of chaos and death according to the thought of ancient Israel (e.g. Noah’s flood, the Exodus, the Leviathan myth [Job]).

The first beast also has a healed mortal wound (13:3). This is likens the beast to the emperor Nero who had committed suicide in 68CE. There was in fact a rumour that he would return, called the Nero Redivivus legend, and John seems to be referencing this.

The other hint that the beast is a depiction of Nero is the number 666 (later, in 13:18). So often obsessed over, this number is simply a construction of Hebrew “gematria“, which is the practice of assigning numeric value to letters. 666 is simply the total of the numbers which make up Nero’s name:

Neron Caesar = Nrwn Qsr

R (resh) — 200
S (samekh) — 60
Q (qoph) — 100
N (nun) — 50
W (vav) — 6
R (resh) — 200
N (nun) — 50
—
Sum = 666

That the Beast is described according to the legend about Nero implies much about its character. Nero was a particularly brutal emperor, and of course had persecuted the Christians in Rome after using them as a scapegoat for the burning down of the city in 64CE.

Historically speaking, after Nero’s death the Empire almost collapsed, with four emperors taking the throne within the space of one year. It was the dynasty of the Flavian emperors, including Domitian (most probably emperor at the time of Revelation), which brought the Empire back from the brink. And so the Empire had almost died, but alas had come back to life! This is perhaps what John is trying to allude to in his use of the Nero image.

WORSHIP OF THE BEAST
Given the apparent resurrection of the Beast it is no wonder that the people worship it, proclaiming in 13:4 – “Who is like the beast, and who can fight against it?”

The people absolutise the power of the Beast, the Empire, asserting that no other power can come to defeat it – they claim it is invincible. The statement “Who is like the Beast?” is an obvious allusion back to Exodus 15:11: “Who is like you, O LORD?” The Beast is only ever a parody of the true reality:

• The Beast has been resurrected, but this is a poor man’s version of the Resurrection of the Lamb depicted in Revelation 5
• The Beast is a parody of the God of Israel – “Who is like you?”

Revelation reveals that the people, by saying such magnificent things about the beast, by esteeming the Empire, are in fact worshipping the Dragon, or Satan (13:4), that horrible figure from Revelation 12 who attempted to kill the woman and her child. Indeed, what gives authority to the Beast, and indeed the source of his power, is in fact according to John the great source of evil himself!

THE ACTIONS OF THE BEAST
And so the Beast goes about doing what a Beast does:

And the beast was given a mouth uttering haughty and blasphemous words, and it was allowed to exercise authority for forty-two months. It opened its mouth to utter blasphemies against God, blaspheming his name and his dwelling,that is, those who dwell in heaven. Also it was allowed to make war on the saints and to conquer them.And authority was given it over every tribe and people and language and nation… (Revelation 13:5-7)

Why is he given authority for forty-two months? What does this mean? The answer is reasonably simple when biblical numerology is understood: 7=completion, wholeness; 6=incompletion, imperfection.

42 = 7 x 6 (if anyone has ears to hear, let him hear…)

The time of the Beast one of completion (7), in that God is ultimately in control, but the beast’s time is also incomplete (6), inasmuch as it is limited and will not go on forever. During this time of reigning on earth the Beast will blaspheme against God and make war on his people (the saints). The result is that:

… all who dwell on earth will worship it, everyone whose name has not been written before the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb who was slain. (Revelation 13:8)

That is to say, the beast will capture the imagination and thus the loyalty of the people. In this way these people’s names are not written in the book of life, since life does not come from the Beast.

THE SECOND BEAST
In Revelation 13 there is a second beast:

Then I saw another beast rising out of the earth. It had two horns like a lamb and it spoke like a dragon. It exercises all the authority of the first beast in its presence, and makes the earth and its inhabitants worship the first beast, whose mortal wound was healed. It performs great signs, even making fire come down from heaven to earth in front of people, and by the signs that it is allowed to work in the presence ofthe beast it deceives those who dwell on earth, telling them to make an image for the beast that was wounded by the sword and yet lived. And it was allowed to give breath to the image of the beast, so that the image of the beast might even speak and might cause those who would not worship the image of the beast to be slain. Also it causes all, both small and great, both rich and poor, both free and slave,to be marked on the right hand or the forehead, so that no one can buy or sell unless he has the mark, that is, the name of the beast or the number of its name. This calls for wisdom: let the one who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man, and his number is 666. (Revelation 13: 11-18)

What is quite clear from this passage is that the second beast acts to legitimate the rule of the first beast. It does great signs that seemingly authenticate the power of the beast and cause (coerce?) the people to worship it.

Note well that this second beast speaks with the voice of a dragon—it is a speaker of lies.

It is clear what this beast might represent to John’s audience – if the first beast represents the might of the empire and its rulers then the second beast is the imperial religion and propaganda machine, creating the myths that support this regime. After all, every imperial regime needs an official “religion” to legitimate it and to create digestible propaganda.

THE MARK OF THE BEAST

Also it causes all, both small and great, both rich and poor, both free and slave,to be marked on the right hand or the forehead, so that no one can buy or sell unless he has the mark, that is, the name of the beast or the number of its name. This calls for wisdom: let the one who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man, and his number is 666. (13:16-18)

The mark of the beast, far from being some future conspiracy, is simply the antitype to the mark of the saints from back in Revelation 7, and also in the very next verse (14:1):

“Then I saw another angel ascending from the rising of the sun, with the seal of the living God, and he called with a loud voice to the four angels who had been given power to harm earth and sea, saying, “Do not harm the earth or the sea or the trees, until we have sealed the servantsof our God on their foreheads.” (7:2-3)

Then I looked, and behold, on Mount Zion stood the Lamb, and with him 144,000 who had his name and his Father’s name written on their foreheads. (14:1)

Those who worship God are marked with this symbolic seal, while the mark of the beast is the symbolic designation given to those who worship the Beast. Neither are literal seals/marks.

The Beast’s mark on the forehead and right hand is a sign that the minds and hands (work) of these people are characterised by loyalty to the Beast, particularly in their economic transactions. Indeed, the clearest sign of the emperor was his likeness on coins. By accepting the Beast’s symbolic “mark” (not least his coins and thus the imperial economy) the people displayed their loyalty to and worship of the emperor and his empire.

John is aware that to refuse to worship the Beast is to upset the proverbial apple cart. This of course has dire consequences for one’s place in the local community, and thus in the local economy – how can one buy and sell if they have been marginalised in their community for not worshipping the Beast? This is why it is said that those who refuse the symbolic mark (i.e. to refuse to collude in the false worship  and unjust practices of the empire) cannot buy or sell—they have opposed the empire and its economy, and suffer exclusion as a result.

Why would John describe Rome as a Beast?

THE BEAST AS ROMAN IMPERIAL VIOLENCE AND MILITARY POWER
John’s description of Rome as a Beast is the heavenly perspective on what is apparently invisible to most humans – Rome is a monstrous, murderous, maniacal entity.

But the Beast is not merely an image of Rome generally, since Revelation uses numerous other metaphors for Rome (a prostitute, Babylon). The image of a beast emphasises certain characteristics of the empire – might, power, cruelty, violence.

In other words, the beast represents Roman military power.

There was a myth that Roman propagandists circulated throughout the empire called Pax Romana. This narrative stated that Roman military force and conquest had brought peace to the whole world! John challenges this – this so-called “peace”, enforced by the constant threat of force, is possible only through beastly, even inhuman, coercion and violence.

What is interesting is the final line of the section about the Beast (13:10):

Here is a call for the endurance and faith of the saints.

John is not merely describing Rome’s military power as a beast because he thinks it would make a good book. He is describing a terrible reality in his world that must be opposed. Thus the question from Part 1 of this study, the question that frames Revelation, becomes crucial—How should followers of Jesus, who was crucified by the empire but raised by God, negotiate Rome’s empire in their daily lives?

In other words, How can the Church be the Church in the face of powerful and seductive empire?

This is the question of Revelation in light of the Roman “beast”.

—
Note: At this point, when delivering this study, there was a facilitated discussion about violence in our own world and the imperative for the Church to be the Church in embodying peace and offering alternatives to violence, both local and global. If you wish to explore this more check out the fantastic resources available from TEAR Australia and also Pace e Bene Australia.

MCA

I have been asked by quite a number of people for a copy of my notes. While my originals would have been quite indecipherable to anyone but me, I have attempted here to provide a rough version of my study in prose form. I don’t intend these to be highly detailed, much less scholarly, since they were given as a Bible study for all ages. Still, I hope they help out some of my readers.

Before getting into the notes I want to recommend a series of posts entitled Reading Revelation that my friend Josh Dowton has started writing over on his blog. Josh is doing his PhD in Revelation, and is far more knowledgeable on the subject than am I. His posts will no doubt be very helpful for those wanting to understand more about Revelation (and it happens to be great timing that he is currently in the middle of writing them!) In truth my many conversations with Josh have been a big influence on my own understanding of Revelation.

My original study was in three parts, but I will split these next posts into four:

Part 1—Revelation in Context
Part 2—The Beast: Might and Power
Part 3—The Prostitute: Seduction and Luxury
Part 4—The Lamb: The Witness of the Cross

Part 1: Revelation in Context

INTRO TO STUDY & DISAGREEMENTS
Revelation is a divisive book. The two main approaches I have experienced are avoidance and obsession. I have no doubt that I will say something that you will disagree with—prepare yourself for that now! My approach may even make you angry, if you come to Revelation with an entirely different view to that which I take. That’s OK, but I encourage you to listen anyway and see if what I am saying does in fact make sense of the evidence. In the end I’m not saying I have all the answers, just that I have done quite a bit of reading in Revelation and related topics.

HOW I APPROACH THE TEXT: INTERPRETATION AND ASSUMPTIONS
When we study any text have to take a number of considerations into account. Two of the most important are the literary context (What kind of text is this? What is it saying?) and the historical context (What historical situation gave reason for the author to compose this text?). Revelation is no different in this regard to any other text. Sure, Revelation is complicated, but that doesn’t mean we should treat it as fundamentally different than, say, Luke or Ephesians in the way we read it. To do so (say for example when we avoid or obsess over Revelation) is to treat the book as if it were not really part of the New Testament.

Here are some assumptions I hold when reading Revelation:

• Intentionality: that the humans who wrote and read this text did so for a reason
• Humanity: that what they were trying to do matters just as much as the fact that God inspired it
• Integrity: that we should not read Revelation in a way that approaches it with our conclusions already decided
• Non-uniqueness: that we should not read it completely differently from any other NT text
• Narrative coherency: that we should not read it with the Millennium, a mere few verses toward the end of the book, as the central interpretive feature that pushes everything else to a place of minor importance
• Their Context: that what was going on in the world of the author and original audience shapes what was written and what it means. In this way the book should not be interpreted in a way that would make absolutely no sense to the original readers to whom it was written. Interpretations that make the whole book a prediction about our future automatically make it a book that would have no relevance or meaning to John’s audience
• Our Context: that we should be very, very aware of our own background when we read this book – most of us are relatively wealthy, white, Western people. That’s fine, but the original readers were not, and we must take that into account

CONTEXTS

Author – John, probably not the apostle
Location – a letter circulated across the seven cities of Asia Minor mentioned in Ch.2-3
Date – probably the early-mid 90s CE

Literary Context
What kind of literature is Revelation? Like when reading a newspaper, we need to know what kind of text we are reading.

Revelation is a mix of three genres: 1) Apocalyptic, 2) Prophetic, 3) Letter/Epistle

Letter/Epistle
I start with this because it is the genre with which we are most familiar – Revelation is a letter, just like many of the other NT writings. It is worth noting that the fact of Revelation being an epistle is the most obvious reason to abstain from interpretations of the book that claim it can only be understood by generations subsequent to the original recipients (like us). In truth it was written to a specific audience for specific reasons, and it must have made sense to them.

Prophetic
Revelation borrows a multitude of images from the Old Testament, and Richard Bauckham claims that, “Its continuity with Old Testament prophecy is deliberate and impressively comprehensive.”^[1]

Images and symbols such as beasts, different cities, different trees and rivers, and horses and riders all echo Old Testament prophetic images, and we should be wary of divorcing Revelation from the Old Testament as with many contemporary approaches and interpretations. In terms of its prophetic genre, Revelation is very much in continuity with Old Testament prophecy in both form (vision and transmission) and themes (including resistance to empire, social justice, and hope for the coming of God’s universal kingdom on earth).

Apocalyptic
This is the strangest of the three genres for Christians because most have never read apocalyptic texts except for Revelation and parts of Daniel.

So what is an apocalyptic text? There is lots of debate, and often the statements of scholars are quite hard for non-theologians to understand. Here is an example from J.J. Collins:

[Apocalyptic is] a genre of revelatory literature with a narrative framework, in which a revelation is mediated by an otherworldy being to a human recipient, disclosing a transcendent reality which is both temporal, insofar as it envisages eschatological salvation, and spatial, insofar as it involves another, supernatural world.^[2]

Such a statement is at best difficult for the average Christian to understand. Simply put, apocalyptic is a genre which tells a story about a person’s visionary experience. In this story the world is imagined symbolically. The reason for the symbols is that it forces the audience to look at the world in a different way.

Apocalyptic comes from a Greek word (apokaluptō) meaning simply “to lift the veil” or “to reveal”—apocalyptic texts reveal something otherwise hidden from human view, but which can be seen from a heavenly perspective, or God’s perspective (hence 3:17; “For you say, I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing, not realising that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked.”)

It is important to note that John’s Revelation is not original, but is one of many apocalyptic texts from the same time period. These texts were not about the future, but were written to explain the difficult circumstances in which the people addressed found themselves in their own time. The only reason these texts ever look to the future is to help explain the present and to offer hope. The audience of an apocalyptic text is always a marginalised or oppressed group in the midst of a traumatic experience, and apocalyptic texts are intended to help them view the world through a different lens so that they can endure through their suffering.

The symbols, hard as they are for us to understand, would have been a part of the language of the audience. We know this because John’s symbols are not always original. For example:^[3]

… and the blood flowed from the winepress, up to the bridles of the horses, for 1600 stadia. (Revelation 14:20b)

… and there shall be blood from the sword as high as a horse’s belly and a man’s thigh and a camel’s hock. (4 Ezra 15:35-36, probably contemporary to or possibly earlier than Revelation)

And the horse will walk up to its chest in the blood of sinners, and the chariots will sink up to its height. (1 Enoch 100:3, c. first or second century BCE i.e. earlier than Revelation)

And:

And the sea gave up the dead which were in it, And Death and Hades gave up the dead which were in them. (Revelation 20:13)

And the earth shall give back those who sleep in it, and the dust those who dwell silently in it, and the chambers shall give back the souls which have been committed to them. (4 Ezra 7:32, probably contemporary to or possibly earlier than Revelation)

And in those days the earth will return that which has been entrusted to it, and Sheol will return that which has been entrusted to it, that which it has received, and destruction (Abaddon) will return what it owes. (1 Enoch 51:1, c. first or second century BCE i.e. earlier than Revelation)

It should be clear that Revelation stands in a tradition of apocalyptic writings.

In summary, it seems John saw a vision but wrote it down in a way that would poetically capture his marginalised audience by the imagination, pulling them into a participatory response affecting their worldview and behaviour. It “revealed” what was otherwise hidden from human sight—God’s sovereignty over even an oppressive situation. John used numerous literary techniques, not least symbols and imagery to do this, but he did not invent most of his material, rather he used that which was already part of a previous apocalyptic tradition or social reality with which his audience would already be familiar.

Historical Context
If John’s audience was marginalised and oppressed, who was the oppressor?

The answer is quite obvious—the dominant power in the world at the time of Revelation was the Roman Empire. It is important to realise that Revelation and the rest of the New Testament originate in a world overshadowed and dominated by the Roman Empire. This Empire was ever present in the world of the New Testament, even when the text seems to be silent about it. The Empire provided the social, political, economic and religious context for the New Testament, including Revelation.

Revelation was probably written in the 90s CE, under the reign of the emperor Domitian. While contemporary films often give us a glorified perspective on the Roman Empire, the historical reality is not so simple or pleasant. By the first century Rome’s empire spread from present-day Britain, France and Spain across to Turkey and Syria and down to North Africa, ruling over approximately 60-65 million people of a diversity of ethnicities and cultures.

This hierarchical Empire employed an economic and political system that meant vast disparities of wealth and power – for the 2-3% who were aristocrats/elite life was generally comfortable, but for the remaining non-elite life was “at best livable and at worst very miserable.”^[4]

This system was held in place in the context of what is called by social scientists an advanced agrarian society. There were no banks, so wealth and power did not exist in cash but rather in land and labour. The Roman world was not a democracy and rule was held in place by the elite through owning the vast majority of land. They consumed some 65% of the land’s production, exploited cheap labour with slaves and tenant farmers and imposed tributes, taxes and rents.^[5]
Taxes were usually paid in goods, and a peasant would have to hand over about 20-40% of their produce (catch, crop, herd etc.).^[6]
To not pay taxes was rebellion against the Empire because it failed to recognise its sovereignty.

Rome was able to enforce such heavy taxation through its legionary system; the Roman army held together order through coercion. This was probably typified in the Pax Romana, or “Roman Peace,” which after a couple of centuries of warfare was a period of relative peace in the Roman Empire stretching from the late first century BCE to the end of the second century CE. This “peace” was kept intact through brutal military repression against anyone who would threaten it. In the absence of rebellion legions were placed throughout the Empire ensuring obedience and loyalty because their presence would remind people of the threat of military action. All up the Roman military machine consisted of 25 legions of about 6,000 troops, with the expense bill for their food, shelter and supplies being footed by non-elite taxes.

The elite, in addition to everything else, also controlled communication, or “media.” This would include designs of coins, the building of monuments and building construction all of which communicated elite Roman values and shaped the way people perceived the world. This system was headed up by the emperor who was always male and thus embodied the male-centred and -dominated societal structure. He was called “Father of the Fatherland” (pater patriae), “lord” (kurios) and “saviour” (sōtēr). People were required to have “faith” (pistis) in him, which meant loyalty or faithfulness. When he returned home to Rome from a trip his arrival ceremony was called a parousia, and when a new emperor was crowned the announcement message was called the “gospel” (euangelion).Power was secured for the emperor by claiming the divine sanction and favour of the gods, and imperial theology “proclaimed that Rome was chosen by the gods, notably Jupiter, to rule an “empire without end” (Virgil, Aeneid 1.278-79).”^[7]
This sanction for emperors was recognised through the imperial cult which was embodied through temples, images, rituals, personnel and theological claims honouring the emperor.

Though this is a vast diminution of the Roman world in which Revelation originated, it gives us a snapshot of what life may have been like for John’s communities. Some commentators have argued that Revelation was written in response to an empire-wide systematic persecution of Christians. The picture is often painted of evil emperors ordering the torturing and killing of Christians, sometimes in the Colosseum, if they failed to recant their faith in Jesus.

There is no actually no evidence for this. It is well known that Rome was generally very tolerant of religions in their Empire, and in fact were quite pious, with soldiers worshipping the god of the locality they were in at the time. It is also true that though there was an imperial cult dedicated to the emperor, it was not compulsory. Persecution of Christians occurred locally, but not systematically across the empire at this time.

The problem for Christians was not that they held different religious beliefs, but that they denied the sovereignty of Rome and the emperor over the Empire. It is no surprise then that a new movement which referred to an alternative “Lord,” “Saviour” and “Father,” who put their “faith” (loyalty) in him, who proclaimed a “gospel” about him as King, and who promoted a different “kingdom/empire” was persecuted.

Rome was OK with you so long as you weren’t a political threat.

The Christians did not oppose Rome because Rome persecuted them. Rather they opposed Rome because they needed to oppose those systems of power that oppressed people and sought to displace God.

SUMMARY
This portrayal of the context of Revelation is of course very brief, and only a scratching of the surface. To sum up:

John wrote Revelation in the apocalyptic tradition, to a specific set of communities, using common apocalyptic symbols to portray the world in a new way, forcing his audience to take a new perspective. He did this to confront the oppression and marginalisation that his audience was experiencing under the Roman Empire. As people who challenged the violence and exploitation of the Empire, worshipping another King as they did, the Christians were targets for local persecution.

So what is Revelation trying to say? I think John wrote Revelation to encourage his audience that God was in fact ultimately sovereign, even if it could not be seen clearly in the present. Imperial power would eventually be overcome, and in the meantime people must endure to the end, resisting the empire, its propaganda and its way of life. John wrote Revelation to raise the question—How should followers of Jesus, who was crucified by the empire but raised by God, negotiate Rome’s empire in their daily lives?^[8]

In other words, How can the Church be the Church in the face of powerful and seductive empire?

—
Look out for Part 2 of this series.

We were each given seven minutes to give a perspective (no problem!), and thus this is only a sketch of some ideas. There was then some Q&A. I was asked to bring a perspective from a) a Christian and, b) the context of TEAR Australia’s work with the global poor. As a rich, white, educated, Western male I did my best to speak on behalf of the bottom 3-or-so-billion…

—

Law is a mere tool, a political construction, used by humans to achieve a certain social ends. Like any tool, it is subject to the use and abuse of the one wielding it.

Much of the time law can be understood positively – law created by those elected representatives for the good of most, of not all, people. So long as law serves in this capacity it demands our respect. Such laws help society to construct more just, albeit impersonal, structures.

However law does not always work this way. Laws too often reflect what is beneficial for the powerful in a society, not for those at the bottom, since laws are a product of those who are privileged enough to have access to the process of the legislature. I suppose such a statement places me alongside Nietzsche and his assertion that law is the embodiment of the will to power (On the Genealogy of Morals, 2.11). Some (rather cynical) opinionists will argue that the rule of law is nothing more than something shown by the officials of the political and legal systems to justify or to explain what they are already doing. The truth in this view demands attention. Truly, many of the people with whom TEAR works overseas, and indeed many Aboriginal people here in Australia, would testify to the injustices entrenched in their respective legal systems.

Even law that is beneficial for all (if there is such a thing) will only ever mark off the limits of what is deemed immoral or harmful in a society, or dictate how to appropriate resources in a generalised and impersonal way. Law is not designed to legislate any true forms of altruism or good will, let alone justice in any meaningful sense.

Does this mean that good laws are irrelevant to justice? Of course not. The rule of law can hold the state accountable to protect and deliver the rights of its people, as well as giving the people a voice in shaping political outcomes.

But rule of law is always a political construct, and as such can be manipulated by forms of hard and soft power. This is perhaps nowhere more obvious than in the field of aid and development. TEAR’s partners, found as they are in countries such as Afghanistan, Burma and Sudan, often find themselves in political situations in which the rule of law is violent, particularly towards the poor. Even in so-called “developed” nations the vast majority of wealth belongs to a small fraction of individuals who are overwhelmingly white and male. This is, at least on the surface, a situation deemed legal. Whether or not it is just is another story.

This is not in any way a problem with law, but simply an acknowledgement that laws reflect the nature and collective will of human societies, characterised as they are by inequitable relations and access to power. That is to say, the problem is not a deficiency in law (so long as we recognise its limits), but with the dislocation of human relationships.

Since law is the tool and justice is the ends, the greater question should be ‘what is true justice?’ Our definition of justice should, in my view at least, take primacy and guide our conceptions of the place of law.

Now, our concepts of justice will always be varied, since what is just is, to a large degree, subjective. In a sense all I can do is to give account of my own perspective and hope that it resonates with others.

Discussions of law and social justice tend to, at least at a public level, focus on retributive forms of justice. That is to say, justice is defined punitively.

From my own perspective, rooted as it is in certain forms of Christianity, this is fundamentally inadequate. As many of you are law students you would know that restorative forms of justice are equally (if not more) important, but given less acceptance in the public arena, and basically none in the socialising realm that we call entertainment.

In Christian terms the belief in justice for all comes from the conviction that all people are made in the image of God. In this view justice is not based in any legal system, but only ever expressed in those systems. Justice itself is the ordering of the world according to the will of God who loves all people and who desires this justice for them.

In this sense justice is about more than the reparation for wrongdoing – it is about forming communities in such a way that every person can have a full life.

The Old Testament laws provide some descriptions of what this might have looked like in terms of the social life of human communities. Strange as these laws seem to us thousands of years later, the core concept behind these laws was an equitable society by way of limits on production and regular times of redistribution according to need, not want.

Like all laws, these biblical laws were contextual according to the social situation of the time and what would result in a previously conceived notion of justice, a social vision in which everyone had enough, no one too much or too little.

In this way justice is not primarily conceived of in terms of good laws, although that is important. Instead, justice is the fostering and presence of human relationships that authentically seek the good of “the other”.

Forms of justice that are legislated are only ever provisional. That is to say, they are at best a pathway to true and lasting justice. A carbon tax or capped emissions trading legislation can, for example, lead to a certain level of justice in that some reparations could potentially be made to the victims of the effects of climate change, and the costs of certain environmental externalities are covered by those who, for whatever reason, benefit from environmental destruction. Such a form of justice is, however, only intermediate because all parties involved have not necessarily come to the table as willing participants seeking the benefit of the other.

Lasting justice can only ever come about through transformed relationships, that is, personal and social relationships which authentically seek the good of the other, of all involved. Legislation mainly provides the acceptable limits of what is deemed unjust, and can provisionally move society toward a more equitable system. However a truly just and equitable society requires more than mere law – it requires a prior conception of justice that can undergird any attempts to implement policy and law, a coherent and compassionate social vision that esteems the benefit of all above the advantage of the one. My concept comes from the long tradition of Christian thinkers with whom I resonate (though it seems to me many Christians today in the West do not feel the same way).

I want to close with a very brief story to illustrate true justice from this perspective. It is the story of a man who runs one of TEAR’s partner organisations in Poipet in the North-West of Cambodia. He was a young man during the 1975-1979 rule of the Khmer Rouge under Pol Pot. At one point he and some of his friends made a break from a collective farm, code for a forced labour camp, to reach a refugee camp in Thailand. Along the way most of this man’s friends were killed, either by gunfire or by one of the millions of landmines strewn around the country. Eventually this man made it, though without most of his friends.

Fast forward to the current day in Cambodia and this man’s organisation works doing community development in and around Poipet, for him a fundamental expression of justice for the poorest people. One of the villages around Poipet is in fact one that contains former members of the Khmer Rouge, including Pol Pot’s widow. I remember one night in Poipet this man telling us this story, recounting his agony over whether he should lead his organisation to help those who had caused so much misery for the Cambodian people.

Some would say that true justice in this case would be retribution, certainly prosecution and possibly the withholding of community programs. For this man it was the opposite – he came to realise that true justice, rooted in his faith in a gracious and forgiving God, was in fact the forgiveness of these people and a genuine attempt, as far as it was up to him, to reconcile the broken relationships. To this day his organisation continues to work amongst this community, because for Chomno true justice looks to the restoration of all people and the holistic reconciliation of human relationships.

Law is a crucial tool in the fight for justice across our world, but prior to the rule of law must come personal and societal reflection on what really matters. It is from this point that we can find ways to create laws that foster human connection and relationships in which holistic justice is forged.

MCA

The vow, which is expected to be approved at the synod of the Sydney Diocese in October, and which may not in fact comply with federal laws, would require a minister to ask the bride regarding her groom, “Will you honour and submit to him, as the church submits to Christ?” and for her to pledge ”to love and submit” to her husband.

These words are taken unmistakably from Ephesians 5:22:

Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord.

Complementarians regularly claim that their understanding of this text is in line with its “plain meaning” or “plain sense”. In other words, women submitting to men in marriage (and often in other areas) is the literal meaning of the text.

But the idea of a “plain meaning” of a text, particularly ancient texts far removed from our own chronological and geographical context, is at best questionable. How can anyone decide, without prior engagement with a text, whether that text is to be taken at face value? There is often a world of difference between the intended meaning of a text and its literal face-value meaning.

Case in point – most of you are probably enjoying the use of a right hand and a right eye at the moment. Why have you not taken Matthew 5:29-30 literally?

Stupid example? Probably because appealing to the plain meaning of a text is itself pretty foolish and, in truth, the rhetorical equivalent of crying to end an argument – people may stop arguing with you if you do it, but they will still think you are wrong and will never want to discuss anything with you again.

The so-called “plain meaning” of Ephesians 5:22 is great, so long as you take the verse in isolation and do absolutely no exegetical work. By this I do not mean to say that the complementarian position is stupid or lazy, since many complemantarians have thoughtfully approached Ephesians 5:22. What I do mean to say is that being a complementarian solely on the basis of a “plain reading” of a single text is to walk on thin interpretive ice.

No doubt it is obvious that I do not hold a complementarian view. Here are some interpretive thoughts.

As many authors have pointed out, the Roman imperial context in which Paul wrote Ephesians was organised by a strict household structure. The household in this world was not merely a reference to a small group of blood relatives, but rather an economic and juridical estate, almost like a kind of business. Within the household the male/father (the pater familias) held ultimate power, including the right to leave unwanted children to die. This was not merely a cultural preference – it was a legal mandate.** This system condemned all women, children and slaves to a sub-human existence. To subvert this structure was to act treasonously since such a subversion would be a challenge to the very social and economic basis of the Empire. It is within this context that Paul exhorts wives to submit to their husbands.

The question that arises is this: is Paul setting out a universal code for all households at all times, or is he instructing families to live wisely and contextually within the confines of a violent imperial system?

Western interpreters of biblical texts have, because of their relatively privileged position, often overlooked the subversive pedagogy present in New Testament texts. Discourse from the oppressed, however, is often dangerous since it challenges the structures and myths which legitimate the dominant order. This includes the discourse found in the New Testament, inspired as it was by a young prophet crucified between two failed revolutionaries.

For Paul to challenge the household structure of the Roman Empire would have been to challenge the Empire itself. The household structure was not simply a neat set up – it was the product of myths that legitimated patriarchy and the social positions of the powerful. Paul needed to be extremely careful about the challenges he mounted, lest he end up suffering the wrath of the powers. This is not a unique position – many marginalised and oppressed peoples have found themselves in the same situation throughout history.

A common sociological response of oppressed people has been to employ subtle forms of reframing reality that subvert the “official” stories of the world but that do not gain the attention of the authorities. These could be called “codes” or “hidden transcripts”. Such codes allow the marginalised to find hope in a new narrative of the world and begin to resist oppression whilst avoiding the retribution of the powerful who are unable to decipher what is truly being said. A prime example would be the old black gospel spirituals; the content is highly subversive (“Wade in the water / God’s gonna trouble the water”) but was not comprehended by the white slave owners.

My suggestion would be that Paul is doing the same, encoding a subtle subversion of the oppressive household structure of the Empire within a discourse which would have seemed acceptable to the authorities.

The subtle key to interpreting 5:22 within the entire passage is 5:21 and its exhortation to submit (hupotasso) to one another out of reverence for Christ. Even more crucial to the understanding of this section of Ephesians is Paul’s overall purpose for writing the letter, namely to promote the breaking down of all walls of hostility and the unity of all people, particularly between Jews and Gentiles, in light of Christ. In my view the index to the entire letter is what Paul calls the plan of God set out in Christ, “a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.” (Eph. 1:10)

This of course has strong resonances with other texts in the Pauline corpus, not least the assertion that in Christ there is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female. (Gal. 3:28)

With this in mind, Paul addresses households in Ephesians 5-6. He specifically addresses the marginalised parties first (wives before husbands, children before fathers, slaves before masters), knowing that the convention of the time was to always mention the superior or preeminent party first when listing people (check out all the lists of people in the Bible for proof). In other words, Paul gives preference to wives (and children and slaves). This is enough to give hints of Paul’s subversive destruction of all social barriers, ultimately a Christological conviction, without openly and thus dangerously stating his liberating position.

We must also allow for the possibility that those wives, children and slaves being addressed come from households whose head does not share their commitment to Jesus. This suggestion, if true, could have significant effects on our interpretations.

Of course none of this is comprehensively articulated in this post. Even so, it is hopefully food for thought.

And if not, then complementarians should attempt to tackle what I think is an insurmountable barrier for their position. Earlier I asked whether Paul was setting out a universal code for all households at all times, or if he was instructing families in his particular time to live wisely and contextually within the confines of a violent imperial system. If complementarians opt for the former option (a universal code), then this universalising tendency must apply to the entire household code. My question is: if we no longer seek to enforce the obedience of slaves to masters (in fact we have actively worked against modern slavery – was Paul wrong, or is there something else going on?), why do complementarians continue to enforce the submission of wives to husbands?

This is a particularly difficult question in light of Old Testament tradition about Sabbath, Jubilee and slavery – if it was God’s will that slaves were to be freed after a certain amount of time, does this will apply to slaves in the first century, even those whose masters are not in fact Christians? If so, what might this mean for wives?

MCA

P.S. If anyone is interested, here are the vows my wife and I composed for our wedding:

I, _____,
Take you _____ to be my wife/husband;
On this special and Holy day I establish with you, in the presence of God, family and friends
a covenant of love and faithfulness
From this day forward I promise to abide by your side as your faithful husband/wife
In laughter and in weeping
In prosperity and in poverty
In wholeness and in brokenness
I will respect, trust, protect and care for you
I will share my life with you
I will forgive you as we have been forgiven
I will lead with you a simple, just and peaceful life
as Christ has called us to live

I will love you and be thankful for the blessing of your love

As long as we both shall live.
This is my solemn vow and promise.

—
* In regard to the video on this link, and on an unrelated tangent, when did “honour” become part of the lexicon-of-excessively-used-words of Christians outside of Pentecostal megachurches? It wasn’t that way a few years ago (or was it?). I don’t have a point, I just find it interesting, and wonder what it reflects.
** See for example D. 50.16.195.1-5 (Ulpianus libro quadragensimo sexto ad Edictum)