The oral style and the faces of God in the Book of Revelation

Abstract

The Book of Revelation is the last book of the Christian Bible. It is a text written to be read aloud, as it is stated in Rev 1:3: Μακάριος ὁ ἀναγινώσκων καὶ οἱ ἀκούοντες, ‘blessed is the one who reads aloud and blessed are those who hear’. For this reason, John of Patmos shapes his work by making use of the oral style, the style designed to be heard, which facilitates the listening of the text to the listener/reader. Among the different resources of this style, the formulas and repetitions play an important role in the Book of Revelation, because they assist the listener/reader in following of complex plot. Nevertheless, it sometimes seems that John of Patmos makes use of the strategies of the oral style with other intentions, in particular when the formulas are applied to ὁ καθήμενος ἐπὶ τῷ θρόνῳ, ‘one who sits on the throne’, and ὅμοιος υἱὸν ἀνθρώπου, ‘one like a son of man’. After the analysis of the texts, it is concluded that John of Patmos utilizes the oral style not only so that the listener/reader recognizes and identifi es the characters of the plot, but also discovers by means of the connotative effect of the oral style, the face of God, the relationship that exists between these two characters and their connection with the image of God in the OT.