Manuscripts of the Book of Revelation

Abstract

The book of Revelation is a disorienting work, full of beasts, heavenly journeys, holy war, the End of the Age, and the New Jerusalem. It is difficult to follow the thread that ties the visions together and to makes sense of the work’s message. This book argues that one way to understand the strange history of Revelation and its challenging texts is to go back to its manuscripts. The texts of the Greek manuscripts of Revelation are the foundation for the words that we encounter when we read Revelation in a modern Bible. But the manuscripts also tell us what other ancient, medieval, and early modern people thought about the work they copied and read. The paratexts of Revelation—the many features of the manuscripts that help readers to navigate and interpret the text—are one important point of evidence. Incorporating such diverse features like the traditional apparatus that accompanies ancient commentaries to the random marginal notes that identify the identity of the beast, paratexts are founts of information on how other mostly anonymous people interpreted Revelation’s problem texts. This book argues that manuscripts are not just important for textual critics or antiquarians, but that they are important for scholars and serious students because they are the essential substance of what the New Testament is. This book illustrates ways that the manuscripts illuminate surprising answers to important critical questions, like the future of the critical edition in the digital age, the bibliography of the canon, and the methods of reception history.

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