Thinking and Seeing with Women in Revelation 9781472551030, 9780567110244, 9780567064189

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Library of New Testament Studies

475 Formerly the Journal for the Study of the New Testament Supplement Series

Editor Mark Goodacre Editorial Board John M. G. Barclay, Craig Blomberg, R. Alan Culpepper, James D. G. Dunn, Craig A. Evans, Stephen Fowl, Robert Fowler, Simon J. Gathercole, John S. Kloppenborg, Michael Labahn, Robert Wall, Steve Walton, Robert L. Webb, Catrin H. Williams

THINKING AND SEEING WITH WOMEN IN REVELATION

Lynn R. Huber

LON DON • N E W DE L H I • N E W YOR K • SY DN EY

Bloomsbury T&T Clark An imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc

50 Bedford Square 1385 Broadway London New York WC1B 3DP NY 10018 UK USA www.bloomsbury.com Bloomsbury is a registered trade mark of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc First published 2013 © Lynn R. Huber, 2013 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage or retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publishers. Lynn R. Huber has asserted her right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as Author of this work. No responsibility for loss caused to any individual or organization acting on or refraining from action as a result of the material in this publication can be accepted by Bloomsbury Academic or the author.

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978-0-567-06418-9

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Contents List of Illustrations Acknowledgements Introduction: The Veiled Language of the Apocalypse

vii ix 1

Chapter 1: Seeing with John

10

Chapter 2: Seeing Revelation in Context

34

Chapter 3: Thinking with Women in Revelation: Babylon and New Jerusalem

56

Chapter 4: “With a Womb Pierced like a Net”: Reading Revelation’s City-Women with Two Medieval Visionaries

89

Chapter 5: “Coming into Wedding”: Envisioning Revelation’s Women with Two Modern Visionaries

127

Conclusion: Lifting a Veil

168

Works Cited

173

Index

197

List of Illustrations 1. Sister Gertrude Morgan, Canty, ISA.54:5, REV.19. Drawing, mixed media. 4½ x 6½ in. (11.4 x 16.5 cm). n.d. Courtesy of the Collections of the Louisiana State Museum.

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2. Sister Gertrude Morgan, My Darling Dada Jesus. Mixed media. n.d. Courtesy of the Collections of the Louisiana State Museum.

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3. Sister Gertrude Morgan, Rev. 19 Chap. Drawing, crayon. c.1960. Courtesy of the Collections of the Louisiana State Museum.

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4. Sister Gertrude Morgan, New Jerusalem Court. Gloryland St. Acrylic, mixed media. 12¾ x 12¾ in. (32.4 x 32.4 cm). c.1960. Courtesy of the Collections of the Louisiana State Museum.

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5. Sister Gertrude Morgan, The New Jerusalem. Acrylic and tempera on cardboard. 12 x 19 in (30 x 48.3 cm). c.1970. Courtesy of the Collections of the Louisiana State Museum.

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6. Myrtice West, Mother of Harlots. Oil on wood, 42¾ x 30¾ in (109 x 78.5 cm). c.1980. Courtesy of Rollin and Tamara Riggs.

157

7. Myrtice West, Christ Returns as Church Gets Ready; King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Oil on canvas. 33 x 64½ in. (84 x 163 cm). c.1980. Courtesy of Rollin and Tamara Riggs.

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8. Myrtice West, Christ and Bride Coming into Wedding. Oil on canvas. 33 x 64½ in. (84 x 163 cm). c.1980. Courtesy of Rollin and Tamara Riggs.

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Acknowledgements Like so many long-term writing projects, countless people have contributed in some way to the end product, whether through emotional support, intellectual work, or tangible resources. While it is impossible to thank everyone, there are a number of individuals who must be mentioned by name. This book grew out of interests and questions that emerged for me while a graduate student at Emory University and, although I graduated almost ten years ago my colleagues from Emory have played an important role in bringing this project into fruition. My mentor Gail R. O’Day continues to be a sounding board and source of support and friends Susan Hylen and Robert von Thaden read drafts of chapters and provided helpful conversation. Kent L. Brintnall, who I met at the end of my time in Atlanta, has been an invaluable source of support, encouragement, and laughter. I’m blessed to have such a good friend. While the genesis of this project may have been at Emory, it was realized and completed at Elon, where a number of different people have had an impact on the project. Evan A. Gatti has taught side-by-side with me at the Ara Pacis for the past six years and helped me develop as an interpreter of texts, including visual texts. Kirstin Ringelberg read early drafts of this project, while Charles Irons read a later iteration of my chapter on Gertrude Morgan and Myrtice West. I am especially grateful for my colleagues in the Religious Studies Department – Amy Allocco, Geoffrey Claussen, Rebecca Todd Peters, Michael Pregill, Jeffrey Pugh, LD Russell, Bryan Turley, and Pamela Winfield, as we support one another in pursuing scholarly challenges while maintaining clear commitments to teaching and mentoring. Elon’s Provost Steven House, Associate Provost Timothy Peeples, Dean Alison Morrison-Shetlar, Associate Dean Maurice Levesque, and Elon’s Faculty Research and Development Committee have all contributed resources in support of this project, as have the staff at Belk Library, including Patrick Rudd, Susan Apple, and Lynne Melchor. At Elon I have had the opportunity to share my work with a number of excellent students, including my undergraduate research students Kiva Nice-Webb and Erin Palmer, as well as Sarah Holland who assisted with compiling my bibliography. A number of other individuals have contributed in some way to this project, including Mark Gstohl, who served as a guide to the Lower Ninth Ward where only an empty lot remains of Gertrude Morgan’s “Everlasting Gospel Mission.” Robert Royalty and Greg Carey commented on chapters in progress and Dominic Mattos has been a patient and gracious editor. I would be remiss

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Acknowledgements

if I did not offer a multitude of thanks to Rollin and Tamara Riggs, friends and patrons of the late Myrtice West, for their hospitality and their generous permission to include images from their collection in this volume and to Tony Lewis, visual art curator of the Louisiana State Museum, for time with and conversations about the work of Gertrude Morgan. In addition, I owe a great deal of thanks to my family, especially my dad Archie Huber and my aunts Nelda Bonifacio and Lois Klaus for their support. And, last, but definitely not least, I need to thank Mel Ah Mu for her faithful companionship and encouragement throughout the writing of this book. She stood by me through the ups and downs of this process and happily traveled with me through the Southern United States during the heat of summer listening to the music of Sister Gertrude Morgan and looking at visions of the apocalypse.

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Introduction The Veiled Language of the Apocalypse Engaging the book [Revelation] as a listener forced me to consider the awesome power of metaphor, and how thoroughly it defeats our attempts to contain it. We do not value it for what it is, a unique form of truth-telling, and that is precisely what John’s Apocalypse seemed to be: uniquely true, true in its own terms, and indefinable – or just plain weird – outside them. Its images radically subvert our desire to literalize them, and also expose the flimsiness of our attempts to do so. Kathleen Norris, The Cloister Walk1

By labeling his narrative an apokalypsis (a0poka/luyij) or unveiling of the hidden, Revelation’s author, John, coaxes his audience to envision along with him as he spins his fantastic visionary narrative. The choice of a term similar to the word that describes a bride’s unveiling (anakalypsis) readies the audience to witness one of the final unveilings in John’s story – the wedding of the Lamb to his Bride. In the art and literature of the ancient Roman world, veils and the act of lifting the veil are suggestive of the Roman wedding and marriage. Weddings and veils are so intertwined within the Roman imagination that weddings could be characterized as a bride “putting on a veil for a husband.”2 In this vein, the poet Catullus uses the veil (flammeum) as a metonym for the bride in one of his wedding poems: “Raise aloft the torches, boys: I see the wedding veil coming.”3 Images of veiled brides from myth were part of the Roman visual landscape, adorning homes and funerary monuments.4 Examples of bridal imagery from the ancient Greek and Roman worlds, especially images of the bride lifting back her veil, the anakalypsis,5 point to the symbolic significance of this event 1 Kathleen Norris, The Cloister Walk (Penguin Group, 1997). 2 Karen K. Hersch, The Roman Wedding: Ritual and Meaning in Antiquity (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010), 16. 3 Catullus, Catullus, Tibullus, Perviglium Veneris, trans. Francis Warre Cornish, second ed., Loeb Classical Library (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1962), 61.115. This observation is also made by Hersch, The Roman Wedding: Ritual and Meaning in Antiquity, 95. 4 For a discussion of the paintings at the House of the Tragic Poet in Pompeii, which included depictions of legendary brides and wives, see Bettina Bergmann, “The Roman House as Memory Theater: The House of the Tragic Poet in Pompeii,” The Art Bulletin 76, no.2 (1994). See also Susan Wood, “Alcestis on Roman Sarcophagi,” American Journal of Archaeology 82, no.4 (1978): 499–510. 5 For a discussion of the visual representation of the bride lifting her veil in Greek

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Thinking and Seeing with Women in Revelation

within the ancient imagination. It was the moment when the bride’s identity was revealed, at least symbolically, to her bridegroom. Plautus humorously exploits the connection between the bridal veil and identity in the play Casina when a male servant is dressed by his mistress as a bride and married to another male servant, in order to thwart a master’s intended dalliance. The bridal veil hides the male servant’s true identity, in spite of the bridegroom’s groping, and it is only when the veil is lifted and the bridegroom feels his “bride’s” beard that he realizes he has been duped.6 Although lacking the bawdy humor of Plautus, the unveiling of the Bride’s identity in Revelation is similarly climactic and, arguably, gender-bending. Moreover, John’s description of his narrative as an unveiling, which culminates in the appearance of a bridal figure, suggests that the revelation of the Bride is a significant aim of the text as a whole. The narrative in toto can be read as a bridal unveiling. The Bride is not the only female image in the Apocalypse.7 The image of the Great Whore actually has more “face time” within John’s narrative. The prominence of the Whore in the text of Revelation corresponds to the visibility associated with prostitutes in the Roman imagination. While veils and veiling communicated bridal modesty in the ancient world, the act of unveiling or revealing the female body was characteristic of the prostitute. For instance, according to the satirist Juvenal, the Empress Messalina played at being a prostitute; sneaking away at night cloaked, only to remove her cloak and stand in front of the brothel with gilded nipples, her body unveiled and visible as a way of attracting customers.8 Through this unveiling, according to the misogynistic rhetoric of Juvenal, the true identity of Messalina as lascivious and shameful is revealed, just as a bride’s identity is made known at her wedding. Unveilings or apocalypses are, in some sense, about revealing identities. Like many of the images of women used in ancient imagistic discourse, Revelation’s Whore and Bride are not literal women. While depicted as polar opposites, these “women” are metaphorical images through which John tries to shape how his audience imagines itself in opposition to the dominant discourses of the day and in relation to the risen Christ. The practice of “thinking with women,” especially the use of visual and literary images of women to characterize people groups and places, plays a role in the different discursive worlds inhabited by John.9 Reflecting a traditional metaphorical connection between women and cities, both imagined metaphorically as containers, women vase painting, see John H. Oakley, “Nuptial Nuances: Wedding Images in Non-Wedding Scenes of Myth,” in Pandora: Women in Classical Greece, ed. Ellen D. Reeder (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1995). 6 Plautus, Plautus, trans. Paul Nixon, 5 vols, Loeb Classical Library (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1917), “Casina,” 4.2. 7 Throughout I use the titles “Apocalypse,” “Book of Revelation” and “Revelation” interchangeably. 8 Juvenal, Juvenal and Persius, trans. Susanna Morton Braund, The Loeb Classical Library (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2004), 6.115–130. 9 Eva Feder Kittay, “Woman as Metaphor,” Hypatia 3, no.2 (1988): 63–86.

Introduction

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represent the secure embrace of cities, as well as the possibility of a city’s vulnerability penetration. Women’s bodies are also employed as metaphors for the moral and social health of a given community, especially in Revelation’s Roman context. Ironically, John employs this popular metaphorical blending of city and woman, depicting the New Jerusalem as a Bride, within a narrative that aims at driving a wedge between the audience and the dominant culture.

Reading Revelation with Medieval and Modern Visionaries While the images of the Whore and Bride function as part of John’s firstcentury rhetoric, later interpreters have continued to envision and find meaning within these images. The image of the Bride in particular has been used over time as a tool for describing and shaping Christian identity, communal and individual. Among these interpretations are those by medieval and modern visionaries who seemingly imagine themselves within the unfolding of John’s narrative, viewing and recasting Revelation’s imagery within the context of their own visionary texts, written and visual. Engaging the interpretations of these visionaries, including medieval European visionaries such as Hildegard of Bingen and Hadewijch of Brabant, and modern visionary artists of the Southern United States, specifically Sister Gertrude Morgan and Myrtice West, provides an opportunity for us to explore how interpreters appropriate, expand, and redeploy this imagery and Revelation’s metaphors in general. Through their visionary texts we are able to glimpse how certain interpreters see along with John’s imagery. Ultimately, this adds to our understanding of how Revelation’s metaphorical imagery works to persuade. Although some find Revelation’s vivid imagery inspiring, others have found the descriptions of a rainbow throne that looks like an emerald, horses with tails like serpents, and locusts equipped for battle, perplexing, to say the least. As Kathleen Norris explains in the quotation opening this chapter, taken out of the framework of Revelation, John’s images come across as “just plain weird.”10 Some of the earliest existing references to Revelation reveal an element of ambivalence about the authenticity and reliability of John’s vision, partly on account of the text’s profuse and, arguably, obtuse imagery. As Eusebius reports, Dionysius of Alexandria, a third-century bishop, observed that Revelation’s text was met with some resistance: Some before us have set aside and rejected the book altogether, criticizing it chapter by chapter, and pronouncing it without sense or argument, and maintaining that the title is fraudulent. For they say that it is not the work of John, nor is it a revelation, because it is covered thickly and densely by a veil of obscurity…11

10 Kathleen Norris, The Cloister Walk (Penguin Group, 1997). 11 Eusebius, “The Church History of Eusebius,” in Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers: Second Series, ed. Philip Schaff (Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 1890), 7.25.

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Thinking and Seeing with Women in Revelation

Yet Dionysius also notes that for certain interpreters Revelation’s somewhat cryptic imagery signaled its importance and depth of meaning. Dionysius comes down on this side of the debate, explaining, But I could not venture to reject the book, as many brethren hold it in high esteem. But I suppose that it is beyond my comprehension, and that there is a certain concealed and more wonderful meaning in every part. For if I do not understand I suspect that a deeper sense lies beneath the words.12

Just as Dionysius ultimately gives Revelation the benefit of the doubt, so Jerome offers the possibility of meaning within the cryptic images of Revelation, commenting in his prologue to the Apocalypse, “The Revelation of St. John contains as many mysteries as words…in each of its words are concealed many meanings.”13 Early interpreters clearly were conflicted over Revelation’s metaphorical language, although for some it was this aspect of the text that signaled the text’s abundant meaning and significance. This, in fact, is the nature of metaphor and metaphorical language, as we will discuss in Chapter 1. Through the use of few words, an author or speaker conjures concepts that evoke a host of meanings, associations, and relationships. While metaphorical language potentially yields multiple possible meanings, many interpreters try to limit the meaning of a text like Revelation. Judith Kovacs and Christopher Rowland describe how readings of Revelation exist on a continuum between decoding the text and actualizing the text and its images: Decoding involves presenting the meaning of the text in another, less allusive form, showing what the text really means, with great attention to the details. Actualizing means reading the Apocalypse in relation to new circumstances, seeking to convey the spirit of the text rather than being preoccupied with the plethora of detail.14

Among those who fall toward the decoding end of the interpretive spectrum are uneasy bedfellows – modern millenarians who read Revelation as a blueprint for current events and those biblical scholars who use the text as a cipher for the past, reading the text primarily as a description of Roman persecution and/or conflicts among Jesus followers. While the temporal focus of the millenarian and the historian are different, the general tendency in both camps is to limit the text’s meaning by uncovering what the text might mean in either a present or a past context. On the other end of the continuum are the interpreters who use Revelation’s imagery primarily as tools for thinking about the divine, the world, and various spiritual realities and concepts. These 12 Ibid. 13 As quoted in Nigel Morgan, The Douce Apocalypse: Picturing the End of the World in the Middle Ages (Oxford: Bodleian Library, 2007), 15. 14 Judith L. Kovacs and Christopher Rowland, Revelation: The Apocalypse of Jesus Christ (Malden: Blackwell, 2004), 8.

Introduction

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interpreters may excise Revelation’s images from the narrative, combine them with other images and texts, and even use John’s images toward a completely new rhetorical end.15 As we will see, actualizing readings are not necessarily, as Kovacs and Rowland suggest, light on detail; rather, they take the details of Revelation’s metaphors as invitation to move in new directions. Actualizing readings of Revelation tend to be expansive, although they may draw upon only a few of John’s words. However, these readings still tend to limit the possible meanings of a text, even while moving the imagery in new directions. Throughout the following chapters I argue that it is Revelation’s visionary nature that leads to the interpretive abundance highlighted by actualizing interpreters. The visionary account of Revelation shapes the text’s structure and provides a means through which John prompts his audience to envision or actualize the images within the narrative. Echoing Jewish prophetic and apocalyptic predecessors and employing classical rhetorical techniques, such as ekphrasis, Revelation creates a symbolic world in which the audience is invited to move and by which the audience is shaped. In this vein, Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza characterizes Revelation as “visionary rhetoric,” since the text not only works to organize the imaginative experience of its audience through images and metaphor, but it does this in order to persuade the audience to think and act in a particular way.16 Revelation’s images prompt audiences to see the realities in which they live in new ways and to imagine new possibilities for existence. Revelation invites and even compels its audience to actualize the narrative. In light of this, Schüssler Fiorenza calls for a paradigm shift among academic interpreters of Revelation, encouraging us to move from approaching the text and its imagery as descriptive toward reading the text’s imagery as constructive and evocative of meaning.17 The call to explore the ways Revelation’s images have been constructive and evocative has been answered primarily in the work of interpreters who engage the text through rhetorical criticism, focusing mainly upon the complex ways that the text evokes attitudes and actions in its immediate historical context, firstcentury Asia Minor.18 The ways in which Revelation’s imagery, especially its depiction of the Whore and Bride, participate within the discourses of John’s day to construct and evoke attitudes and actions will be the primary focus of Chapters 2 and 3. 15 David Armstrong-Reiner, “You Opened the Book”: An Instrumental Understanding of the Patristic Use of the Revelation to John (VDM Verlag Dr. Müller, 2009). 16 Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza, “Visionary Rhetoric and Social Political Situation,” in The Book of Revelation: Justice and Judgment (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1998), 187. 17 Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza, “Babylon the Great: A Rhetorical-Political Reading of Revelation,” in The Reality of Apocalypse: Rhetoric and Politics in the Book of Revelation, ed. David L. Barr (Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 2006), 252. 18 Some of the most recent rhetorical critical treatments of Revelation include, Greg Carey, Elusive Apocalypse: Reading Authority in the Revelation to John (Macon: Mercer University Press, 1999); L. Gregory Bloomquist and Greg Carey, Vision and Persuasion: Rhetorical Dimensions of Apocalyptic Discourse (St. Louis: Chalice Press, 1999); David A. de Silva, Seeing Things John’s Way: The Rhetoric of the Book of Revelation (Louisville: Westminster/ John Knox Press, 2009).

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Thinking and Seeing with Women in Revelation

This, however, is not the only way Revelation’s imagery is constructive. Rather, the evocative aspects of this text extend beyond its original rhetorical context, as it continues to be read and repurposed in light of new rhetorical situations. The difference between reading Revelation as constructive within its historical/ rhetorical setting and reading it as constructive within new settings is evidenced in two recent works on Revelation by Brian K. Blount, his recent commentary in The New Testament Library and the monograph Can I Get a Witness? Reading Revelation through African-American Culture.19 Like other commentaries designed for scholars, preachers, and teachers, Blount’s commentary offers a detailed analysis of Revelation’s language and imagery, offering an explanation of what each piece of the text might mean in its historical milieu. The focus is primarily upon what the text means in the context of the Roman Empire. In contrast, in Can I Get a Witness? Blount explains that traditional historical-critical interpretation, the method he employs in the commentary, tries to limit the meaning of the text by situating it within its supposed and reconstructed historical context. And yet, Blount suggests, these readings, which can be understood as attempts at decoding, still struggle with the multiplicity of meaning, for interpreters often fail to recognize that all readings are themselves shaped by their cultural locations, producing multiple interpretations of the text. Far from negative about this prospect, Blount proclaims that this interpretive reality is actually “good news.”20 Readings within different cultural contexts allow interpreters to see the multiple meanings within the text and the imagery’s potential for meaning-making. In light of this, Blount suggests that one of the best ways of understanding the meaning of Revelation’s metaphorical language is by exploring how actual readers interpret and employ its images: “This is the paradox: Global comprehension of the book occurs only when readers surrender the quixotic quest for the one objective meaning that overrides all cultural limitations.”21 It is within this trajectory that I hope the following work is understood, as I read Revelation in conversation with the writings and artwork of actual readers, medieval and modern visionaries. In Chapters 4 and 5, I answer a call in biblical studies to examine the way “real” readers engage the text. Although there are exceptions, scholarly discussion of the history of biblical interpretation, including Revelation, tends to focus on more explicitly scholarly or authoritative works of biblical interpretation, such as biblical glosses, commentaries, exegetical works, etc. Vincent L. Wimbush, 19 Brian K. Blount, Can I Get a Witness?: Reading Revelation Through African American Culture (Louisville: Westminster/ John Knox, 2005); Brian K. Blount, Revelation: A Commentary (Westminster/ John Knox, 2009). 20 Blount, Can I Get a Witness?: Reading Revelation Through African American Culture, 6. 21 Blount’s suggestion that we can best understand the meaning of text by engaging the interpretations of actual readers reflects a broader trend in biblical studies. For a discussion of this phenomenon in relation to pre-critical interpretations of biblical texts, see Kyle Keefer, The Branches of the Gospel of John: The Reception of the Fourth Gospel in the Early Church (London: T&T Clark, 2006).

Introduction

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an advocate for “excavating” how humans make scriptures “work,” suggests that New Testament scholarship “has been overdetermined in terms of a type of investigation (exegesis), but oddly and curiously rather under-determined in terms of phenomenology, anthropology, and political and psycho-social criticism of origins, ongoing usages, functions, and effects.”22 This book tries to balance the exegetical investigation of Revelation’s Bride and Whore imagery with an attempt at excavating later visionary appropriations of the text’s metaphors. Visionary accounts are relatively unexamined resources for understanding the history of biblical interpretation.23 By engaging the writings of visionaries, authors who possess a range of exegetical training and experience, we glimpse how different interpreters negotiate Revelation’s imagery and metaphor. This offers a new sense of how the text’s metaphorical language simultaneously limits and invites new meaning. These are readers who have gone along with John on his visionary journey, even though, as we will see, these are readers who think very much for themselves. While Chapters 4 and 5 engage the work of female interpreters of Revelation it is important not to assume that there is a singular “women’s interpretation” of Revelation’s female imagery. In fact, as we will see, the interpretations of these individuals are quite distinct, reflecting different social locations and rhetorical aims. To echo Caroline Walker Bynum in the preface to an English translation of Hildegard’s Scivias, this project is not aimed at finding an “eternal feminine,” even though there may be some shared patterns and concerns in how women read Revelation’s female imagery.24 The reason for exploring the writings of these interpreters is not primarily on account of their sex, but because their writings and artwork, as visionary accounts, parallel and draw upon Revelation as a visionary account. They echo the text of Revelation and position themselves in relationship to John. In some sense, John serves as a visionary model for each. Medieval visionary accounts are,

22 Vincent L. Wimbush, “TEXTures, Gestures, Power: Orientation to Radical Excavation,” in Theorizing Scriptures: New Critical Orientations to a Cultural Phenomenon, ed. Vincent L. Wimbush (Piscataway: Rutgers University Press, 2008), 1. 23 See, for example, Alan J. Hauser and Duane F. Watson, A History of Biblical Interpretation: The Medieval Through the Reformation Periods (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans, 2009); C. Ocker, “Biblical Interpretation in the Middle Ages,” in Dictionary of Major Biblical Interpreters, ed. Donald K. McKim (Downers Grove: Intervarsity Press, 2007). Two works that do stray from the more traditional track are Kovacs, Rowland, and Callow, Revelation: The Apocalypse of Jesus Christ and Henry Wansbrough, The Use and Abuse of the Bible: A Brief History of Biblical Interpretation (London: T&T Clark, 2010). While Kovacs, et. al. focus on Revelation, Wansbrough covers biblical interpretation in general. In so doing, Wansbrough includes a chapter on biblical interpretation in the mystical writings of Julian of Norwich and Margery Kempe. 24 Caroline Walker Bynum, “Preface,” in Hildegard of Bingen: Scivias (Mahwah: Paulist Press, 1990), 1–7. See also Bynum’s discussion of women authors’ use of symbol in Caroline Walker Bynum, “Women’s Stories, Women’s Symbols: A Critique of Victor Turner’s Theory of Liminality,” in Fragmentation and Redemption: Essays on Gender and the Human Body in Medieval Religion (New York: Zone Books, 1991), 27–51.

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Thinking and Seeing with Women in Revelation

however, more likely to be by women, according to Barbara Newman.25 As we will discuss below, this is related to women’s authority, or lack thereof. Thus, while our attention to Hildegard, Hadewijch, Morgan, and West is not about finding a particularly gendered reading, the issue of the authors’ gender(s) necessarily asserts itself. In fact, by focusing upon the work of medieval and modern women visionaries this project helps to redress the neglect of women interpreters within histories of biblical interpretation. In the High and Late Middle Ages visionary experience, along with the emergence of writing in the vernacular, provided women an unprecedented opportunity to engage in Christian theological and interpretive discourses. One might argue that visionary experience provides a similar sense of religious authority to West and Morgan, whose interpretations of Revelation are located primarily within Southern Evangelical Protestantism. Given the range of interpretations that this project engages, it necessarily draws upon fields beyond traditional biblical studies, including ancient, medieval, and modern history, metaphor theory and cognitive linguistics, art history and the study of visual culture, and feminist theory. Still this book should be understood first and foremost as a work of biblical studies. Even though my wish would be that readers from other fields find this project interesting, it is primarily about the biblical text of Revelation and the complex contours of the text’s metaphors. In my conversations with scholars from outside of biblical studies I hope to convey a sense of scholarly humility and respect, as I hope to learn from other fields in order to engage the readings of other interpreters. Through this conversation across fields of study, I believe it is possible to see ways that the text uses imagery to shape thought, delimit possible textual interpretations, and prompt new ideas. This also makes it possible to see some of the ways in which readers make meaning of the text’s imagery, using it as raw material for crafting new ideas and perspectives. Finally, before moving on, it is important to note that I approach the Book of Revelation not as an innocent bystander, but as someone who has experienced the text’s ability to persuade. Raised in an evangelical Christian church, the language of millennialism rings very familiar. While the people around me rarely agreed upon how Revelation and other apocalyptic texts should be read and applied, they did agree that the text’s images were real and that their meanings were somehow tangible. For some around me taking Revelation seriously meant reading the text as a guide for Christian spiritual and moral behavior. In particular, the image of the virginal Lamb’s Bride was read as an idealization of virginity before marriage and the wedding of the Lamb understood as a model for human marriage.26 Although positioned at the end 25 Barbara Newman, “The Visionary Texts and Visual Worlds of Religious Women,” in Crown and Veil: Female Monasticism from the Fifth to the Fifteenth Centuries, ed. Jeffrey F Hamburger and Susan Marti (New York: Columbia University Press, 2008), 153. 26 J. Budziszewski, “What’s Good About Sex?,” Focus on the Family, 1999, http://www. focusonthefamily.com/marriage/sex_and_intimacy/gods_design_for_sex/whats_good_about_ sex.aspx.

Introduction

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of the canon, Revelation actually provided many in my community and even in my family with a starting point for thinking about the Bible as a whole and for understanding the unfolding of history. Reading Revelation meant taking seriously those who set dates for millennial events, including the rapture of the faithful (an event not specifically in Revelation) and Christ’s judgment of humankind. Specifically, Edgar C. Whisenant’s booklet, 88 Reasons Why the Rapture Could Be in 1988, had many of the first-year students at my rural college, myself included, concerned about the possibility of being “raptured” while away from our families.27 I remember worrying that if I were raptured, for surely I would never be “left behind,” I might not be able to find my parents. Still, given my love of learning, I was relieved by the failure of the rapture to occur. As one might imagine, this was about the time that I began to think more critically about prophecy belief and evangelical religion. As for the Book of Revelation, it was not until graduate school that I would pick it up again, although this time I was more interested in Revelation’s historical and literary context and in exploring the different ways interpreters had made sense of the text throughout history. It is on account of my experience with the rhetorical power of Revelation’s imagery that I came to study the text and its use of women “to think with.” However, it is also because of this context that I possess a certain investment in highlighting its diversity of meaning and its elasticity. I know the text’s power to limit people’s options and perspectives and yet I am also aware of the text’s ability to inspire. I hope that exploring Revelation’s metaphorical imagery can be an avenue for better understanding how the text accomplishes both.

27 Edgar C. Whisenant, “88 Reasons Why The Rapture Could Be in 1988” (World Bible Society, 1988).

Chapter 1 Seeing with John There is a current and exceedingly stupid doctrine that symbol evokes emotion, and exact prose states reality. Nothing could be further from the truth: exact prose abstracts from reality, symbol presents it. And for that very reason, symbols have some of the many-sidedness of wild nature. Austin Farrer, A Rebirth of Images1

A visit to the churches or museums of Europe almost guarantees an encounter with the Apocalypse. Images from the Book of Revelation, including scenes of the heavenly throne surrounded by the four living creatures and twentyfour elders, the woman clothed in the sun, and the last judgment, have fed the imaginations of artists throughout history. In addition to the use of Revelation on walls and ceilings, beginning as early as the 9th century, although possibly earlier, manuscripts of the Apocalypse were illustrated apart from the rest of the canon.2 These stand-alone apocalyptic picture-books, called “apocalypse cycles,” included anywhere from twelve to ninety illustrations and resided in monasteries, churches, and even in some private collections of wealthy families.3 With the advent of the printing press, illustrations of Revelation became more accessible to the general public. The Lucas Cranach workshop furnished twenty-one woodcuts depicting Revelation for Martin Luther’s 1522 German translation of the Bible.4 Illustrations of Revelation have not been limited solely to biblical or religious contexts. In the late 19th century the English poet, artist, and critic of organized religion, William Blake, offered his interpretation of Revelation in a series of watercolor paintings. During one of 1 Austin Farrer, A Rebirth of Images: The Making of St. John’s Apocalypse (Boston: Beacon Press, 1949), 20. 2 The Trier Apocalypse cycle is the earliest extant manuscript and dates from the ninth century. In his discussion of the manuscript, James Snyder argues for a precedent, dating perhaps to the sixth century. James Snyder, “The Reconstruction of an Early Christian Cycle of Illustrations for the Book of Revelation: The Trier Apocalypse,” Vigiliae Christianae 18, no.3 (1964): 146–62. For a recent discussion on visual representations of Revelation, see Christopher C. Rowland, “Imagining the Apocalypse,” New Testament Studies 51 (2005): 303–27. 3 Suzanne Lewis, Reading Images: Narrative Discourse and Reception in the ThirteenthCentury Illuminated Apocalypse (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995). 4 Frances Carey, The Apocalypse and the Shape of Things to Come (London: British Museum Press, 1999), 102.

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the bleakest points of the 20th century, World War II, the German painter Max Beckmann completed his own Apocalypse cycle, capturing the cacophony of the heavenly throne room and the sexual violence experienced by the Great Whore.5 Other artists who have treated the subjects of Revelation include J. M. W. Turner, Benjamin West, Wassily Kandinsky, Otto Pankok, Rudolf Schlichter – to name a few. More recently, Revelation has been a popular subject for American self-taught artists, including Howard Finster, William Thomas Thompson, Robert Roberg, as well as Myrtice West and Getrude Morgan, whom we will discuss in detail later. Likewise, pointing to the enduring popularity of Revelation’s imagery, the text has found its way on to the silver screen (e.g. Twelve Monkeys, Southland Tales) and into the colorful pages of graphic novels (e.g. DC Comic’s Kingdom Come).6 Certainly, Revelation has been a significant inspiration for visual artists over time. Revelation’s lineage within the visual arts points to the inherently visual nature of this text and its ability to prompt the visual imagination. As I will argue in this chapter, the visual appeal of Revelation is not accidental. The narrative employs visualizing rhetoric and a visionary framework that prompt the text’s audience to envision the text’s imagery alongside of John. This use of the visual is essential to its rhetorical aims, encouraging the audience to “see” its reality in new terms and from a divine perspective. This rhetorical tactic is linked, moreover, to John’s of metaphor. Specifically, Revelation’s imagery and its persuasiveness lay in its ability to encourage readers and hearers to envision one thing as another, which is the classic definition of metaphor. This use of metaphor, however, is not simply a rhetorical ploy or decorative feature; rather, as we will see, Revelation’s use of metaphor serves to shape its audience’s thought and action.7

Revelation as Visual Rhetoric As mentioned in the introduction, the very first word of the book called Revelation, apokalypsis (a0poka/luyij) translated as “apocalypse,” refers to the act of removing a veil. The word, which provides the text with its title, implies the experience of seeing, as lifting a veil means bringing something into sight. To use the language of Page DuBois an apocalypse is an “unhiding.”8 That which could not be seen or should not have been seen is now made visible. 5 For reproductions of both Blake and Beckmann’s images, see Carey, The Apocalypse and the Shape of Things to Come. 6 See John Walliss and Lee Quinby, eds, Reel Revelations: Apocalypse and Film (Sheffield: Sheffield Phoenix Press Ltd, 2010); Dan W. Clanton Jr, The End Will Be Graphic: Apocalyptic in Comic Books and Graphic Novels (Sheffield Phoenix Press Ltd, 2012). 7 Similar questions about the role of metaphor and Revelation’s visionary nature are asked by Eva Maria Räpple, The Metaphor of the City in the Apocalypse of John (New York: Peter Lang, 2004). 8 Page duBois, Out of Athens: The New Ancient Greeks (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2010), 152.

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John, who presents himself as both author and narrator of this text, coaxes his audience to look or envision with him as he lifts the veil covering the realms of heaven and of earth, an impulse many visual artists have embraced.9 Yet John does not stop with the title; he saturates Revelation’s opening statement with visual language: An apocalypse of Jesus Christ which God gave to him to show to his servants the things that must happen soon [which] he signified and sent through his angel to his servant John, who testified [to] the word of God and the witness of Jesus Christ [and] to all the things he saw. (Rev 1:1-2)10

Such vision-laden language in the text’s opening verses primes the audience to think of the narrative as something to see and points to the importance of attending to the visual for understanding Revelation’s interpretations. While the noun apokalypsis (a0poka/luyij) became an important term within early Christian literature, it is not as widely used outside of early Christian or Christian influenced discourses.11 The related verb apokalypto (a)pokalu/ ptw), which refers to the act of uncovering something, is more common. For example, in Jewish Antiquities Josephus, who is roughly contemporaneous with John, uses a form of the verb to describe the act of uncovering the Torah. This reference occurs when Josephus narrates a tradition about the translation of the Septuagint. Seventy Jewish elders are sent to King Ptolemy of Egypt for whom they will translate the Jewish Law into Greek. The elders reveal the Torah for Ptolemy to see, by uncovering (a)pokalu/ptw) the sheets upon which it is written. Ptolemy wonders (qauma/zw) at the sheets, an act that signifies the sheets’ importance and greatness.12 In this instance, the act of “apocalypse,” revealing what had been hidden, causes awe and wonder within the viewer. Likewise, by introducing his work as an apocalypse, John prepares his audience for not only “seeing” what has been hidden, but he prompts them 9 The specific identity of John has been debated for many centuries, although modern scholars generally assume that the author is neither the author of the Fourth Gospel nor an apostle of Jesus, given the text’s assumed late date. More importantly, the author of Revelation, who calls himself John, does not necessarily assume the audience’s familiarity with the Gospel nor does he claim an association with the earthly Jesus. For our purposes, therefore, we simply assume the author is a preacher and teacher working in the second half of the first century in Asia Minor. For a full discussion of Revelation’s authorship see David E. Aune, Revelation (Dallas: Word, 1998), xlvii–lvi. 10 All translations from the Greek New Testament are my own using Barbara Aland, Kurt Aland, and Johannes Karavidopoulos, eds, Nestle-Aland Novum Testamentum Graece, 27th revised (Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, 2006). 11 Christopher C. Rowland, “The Book of Revelation,” in The New Interpreter’s Bible (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1998), 518. 12 Josephus, Jewish Antiquities, trans. Louis H. Feldman, Loeb Classical Library (Harvard University Press, 1996), bk. 12.90. In the Jewish War, Josephus also uses a)pokalu/ptw to describe uncovering hidden weapons. See Josephus, The Jewish War, trans. Henry St. John Thackeray, Loeb Classical Library (Harvard University Press, 1997), bk. 5.350.

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to anticipate the revelation of something worthy of wonder. In particular, John suggests that this is an unveiling of Jesus Christ, who almost immediately appears in a glorified form before him (1:12-20).13 As the first verse of Revelation implies, Christ is both object of the unveiling and the one who ostensibly unveils, as he is the one who is intended to show (dei=cai) it and who signifies it (e0sh/manen).14 The verb “signify,” which is related to the noun shmei=on or “sign” in English, can connote verbal communication and a number of modern translations render the verb in a somewhat general way, as “he made it known” (NIV, RSV, NRSV). While the translation “he signified it” may ring awkward in the modern ear, the phrase highlights the visual nature the verb and of the text. Along these lines, Gregory K. Beale argues that this verb should be understood as part Revelation’s “pictorial” nature, comparing Revelation to the Book of Daniel, an important antecedent. In the second chapter of the earlier text, Daniel explains that King Nebuchadnezzar’s dreams are an act of God’s revelation or unveiling (a0pakalu/ptwn) in which God’s will is signified (shmeio/w) to the Babylonian King.15 God makes known the divine will through images. Similarly, Beale argues, John’s use of “signify” implies that God communicates through visual signs. Whether or not John draws upon Daniel here the visual language in these two verses points to the importance of the visual for this text as a whole. As Christopher A. Frilingos observes, “the book of Revelation privileges sight.”16 Despite the privileging of sight, the boundary between vision and audition is blurred throughout Revelation and auditions often lead to instances of seeing (e.g. 4:1; 5:5-6, 6:1-2, 5, 7; 7:4, 9; 9:1, 21:9-10) or serve to explain what is seen (e.g. 12:10-12, 14:1-2).17 In terms of the latter, the risen Christ is described as the one who shows or signifies the unveiling and yet, when he appears, John first hears his voice. Still, pointing to the importance of vision in Revelation, when John hears the voice of the risen Christ, “he turns to see” the one speaking (1:12). In Revelation, hearing leads to seeing. Similarly, when an angel announces in the throne room that the Lion of Judah will open the 13 Beale notes that it is unclear whether the phrase a)poka/luyij i)hsou= xristou= should be read as an objective or subjective genitive. He suggests that the immediate context favors reading this as a subjective genitive, meaning that Jesus is the source of the revelation and not the content of the revelation itself. He argues this partly because of the chain of revelation set up in verses 1-2. However, that this chain of revelation is articulated immediately after the phrase a)poka/luyiv i)hsou= xristou= could be read as a clarification of the fact that the text’s revelation is both about Jesus Christ (implied in an objective genitive reading) and something given by Jesus. Gregory K. Beale, The Book of Revelation: A Commentary on the Greek Text (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1999), 183. 14 Aune points out, the subject of e0sh/manen is ambiguous and could be either Christ or God. Aune, Revelation, 6. 15 Beale, The Book of Revelation: A Commentary on the Greek Text, 50–51. 16 Christopher A. Frilingos, Spectacles of Empire: Monsters, Martyrs, and the Book of Revelation (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2004), 39. 17 The text also includes occasions in which seeing leads to hearing (e.g. 7:9ff; 8:13; 10:1ff).

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sealed scroll, John then sees the slaughtered Lamb (5:5-6). This progression, from audition to vision, undergirds the entire text, which was intended to be read aloud to an audience (Rev 1:3).18 Just as John hears and then sees, so the audience hears the text and is prompted to envision it. Building upon the oral/aural nature of the text, certain phrases, when read aloud, seemingly “reach out” and invite the audience to view John’s narrative. The most obvious way that Revelation accomplishes this is through the repeated use of imperatives that call the audience to “Look!” (i)dou/). The first of these grammatical imperatives occur at the beginning of John’s otherworldly visionary experience: After these things I saw, and Look!, a door had been opened in heaven and the first voice that I heard was speaking like a trumpet to me, saying “Come up here and I will show you the things that must happen after these things.” Suddenly, I was in the spirit, and Look!, a throne was standing in heaven… (4:1-2)

These imperatives, which are scattered throughout the text (4:1-2; 6:2, 5, 8; 7:9; 14:1, 14; 19:11), seem awkward to some translators of Revelation, who subsequently downplay the imperative in English versions. The New Revised Standard Version, for example, translates the verses, “After this I looked, and there in heaven a door stood open…at once I was in the spirit, and there in heaven stood a throne…”19 However, smoothing out the redundancy of John’s Greek fails to capture the rhetorical effect of John’s imperatives. These calls or commands to “Look!” effectively prompt the audience to see what John has been allowed to see. The audience is commanded to imagine visually what John describes. Revelation’s use of the imperative should remind us that this narrative is written for an audience and for a rhetorical purpose. This text, like other rhetorical constructions, is written to persuade an audience to do, think or act in a particular way, which is the classical definition of rhetoric.20 To be clear, Revelation neither presents itself as a formal piece of oratory nor fits easily within the conventions of classical rhetoric. Yet, as a literate, first-century inhabitant of the Roman Empire it is unlikely that John could have avoided the traditions and techniques associated with the orators of the day, even though he adopts a strict counter-cultural posture. Public meeting places, such as the forums where political, economic, and social transactions occurred, would have echoed with the words of those trained in the art of rhetoric. Whether 18 David Barr, “Blessed Are Those Who Hear: John’s Apocalypse as Present Experience,” in Biblical and Humane: A Festschrift for John Priest, ed. Linda Bennett Elder, et al. (Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1996), 100–101. 19 The NIV presents a similar translation, while the KJV and the NASB maintain the imperative sense of i)dou/ by translating it as “behold!” 20 Aristotle, On Rhetoric: A Theory of Civic Discourse, trans. George Alexander Kennedy (New York: Oxford University Press, 1991), 1.2.1.

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John intentionally uses elements of classical rhetoric or not, as scholars such as Greg Carey and David A. de Silva observe, attention to how Revelation employs rhetorical tools sheds light on how the text engages its audience.21 In particular, John’s use of vision language corresponds to the ancient rhetorical technique of ekphrasis, as it is known in Greek, or demonstratio, as it is called in Latin. Simply put, ekphrasis22 is the art of using language to make something visible before the eyes of an audience.23 According to the ancient rhetorician Quintilian, an author or orator may signal that he or she is employing this technique through verbal signals that prompt seeing, such as “Imagine that you see,”24 just as John commands his audience to “Look!” Quintilian notes, however, that it was the old orators who employed this method and he implies that it is better to not prompt an audience in such an explicit way. The use of detailed description is an even more important part of ekphrasis for Quintilian. Describing the technique, Quintilian quotes a scene from Cicero in which he describes the aftermath of a banquet: “‘The floor was foul with wine-smears, covered with wreathes, half-withered and littered with fishbones.’ What more would any man have seen who had actually entered the room?”25 Detail makes the thing described appear more real and allows the audience to imagine the object or scene vividly. Through the use of descriptive language, Quintilian suggests that an author or orator, such as Cicero, can replicate a visual scene and even make one’s speech more appealing to the eye, than to the ear. It is almost better to hear what is being described and visualize it in one’s mind, than to actually see it. From this perspective, John’s visual prompts would be useless if they were not accompanied by vivid descriptions of falling stars, strange beasts, and the like. These details work together to set a scene before the “eyes” of an audience. The aim of this vivid description, moreover, is to persuade. Through the use of ekphrasis a speaker or an author prompts an audience to envision a scenario in order to convince an audience to accept his view of a situation, an incident, or a reality. In some sense, Revelation’s very introduction signals that the text as a whole serves as an extended ekphrasis or demonstratio. By beginning the text with 21 For discussions of Revelation using rhetorical criticism, see Carey, Elusive Apocalypse: Reading Authority in the Revelation to John; de Silva, Seeing Things John’s Way: The Rhetoric of the Book of Revelation. See also the collection of essays in Bloomquist and Carey, Vision and Persuasion: Rhetorical Dimensions of Apocalyptic Discourse. 22 In this section I will use the term ekphrasis, even when referencing Latin authors, since this is the term most commonly used in modern discussions of the technique. 23 Frilingos, Spectacles of Empire: Monsters, Martyrs, and the Book of Revelation, 46–50. E.g. [Cicero], Rhetorica Ad Herennium, trans. Harry Caplan, Loeb Classical Library (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1999), 4.55. 24 Quintilian, The Institutio Oratoria of Quintilian, trans. Harold Edgeworth Butler, Loeb Classical Library (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1998), 9.2.40. 25 As quoted by Bernhard F. Scholz, “Ekphrasis and Enargeia in Qunintilian’s Institutionis Oratoriae Libri XII,” in Rhetoric Movet: Studies in Historical and Modern Rhetoric in Honor of Heinrich F. Plett (Leiden: Brill, 1999), 11. See also, Quintilian, The Institutio Oratoria of Quintilian, 8.3.66.

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language that alludes to the visual, John encourages his audience to see along with him. It is as though he starts the narrative by saying, “Imagine that you see,” to quote Quintilian. This points to the fact that while we will be speaking of Revelation’s visual nature throughout this book, Revelation is not an image but a text. The Apocalypse is a text that is read and heard and which is made visual in the minds of those who read and hear. Revelation’s introductory verses, in which the visual nature of the text is asserted, includes the claim that John testified to all he saw that he saw (ei0=den). In this is revealed the text’s foundational assumption – that John sees and experiences the things he narrates. This visionary framework is made explicit throughout the text, beginning with John’s explanation that while he “was in the spirit on the Lord’s day” he heard a voice like a trumpet, followed by a vision of the risen Christ (1:10ff): when John is taken into the heavenly throne room so that the speaker behind the trumpet-like voice (presumably God or Christ) can “show you the things that must happen” (4:1), when he witnesses great signs (shmei=on) in heaven (12:1, 3; 15:1), when an angel informs John that “I will show you the judgment of the great whore” (17:1-3), and when another (or perhaps the same) angel tells John to join him so that he can “show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb” (20:9). Moreover, as John narrates his visions he continually and even repetitively refers to his act of seeing: “And I saw” (kai\ ei)_don). Carey points out that John uses the “I saw” 47 times, while “I heard” appears 27 times.26 Combined with the commands to “Look!” these multiple and sometimes redundant references to John’s act of seeing prompt the audience to envision the narrative.

Revelation as Visionary Narrative Although it is not the earliest example of this type of visionary literature, John’s Apocalypse lends its name to a literary genre known as “apocalypse,” as well as to a type of literature and worldview described as “apocalyptic.” Since many texts include elements associated with the genre “apocalypse,” scholars often speak of an “apocalyptic imagination,” a way of thinking about the world that produces the writings described as apocalypses or apocalyptic.27 Emerging from a number of different historical contexts, including Jewish, Persian, and Hellenistic traditions, 28 the literary productions of the apocalyptic imagination generally dwell on themes such as the unfolding and organization of history (including the end of history), cosmic events and upheavals, and a coming judgment in which the unrighteous are punished and the righteous

26 Greg Carey, “The Apocalypse and Its Ambiguous Ethos,” in Studies in the Book of Revelation, ed. Steve Moyise (Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 2001), 174. 27 Stephen L. Cook, The Apocalyptic Literature (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 2003), 22. 28 John J. Collins, The Apocalyptic Imagination: An Introduction to Jewish Apocalyptic Literature (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1998), 29–37.

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are rewarded.29 Given the focus upon judgment and reward, some scholars interpret this imaginative framework as a response to crisis or oppression, even though social scientific study of apocalyptic groups challenges this view.30 It is better to suggest that the apocalyptic imagination is adopted by groups that interpret their situation as one of crisis, whether actual or not, that can only be rectified through divine intervention and judgment.31 More specifically, literary apocalypses, appearing as early as the early second or late third centuries BCE, share a number of generic features: Most notably apocalypses have “a narrative framework, in which a revelation is mediated by an otherworldly being to a human recipient…”32 In contrast to texts with apocalyptic elements, in an apocalypse the narrative as a whole is shaped by the revelatory experience or experiences it recounts. The revelation or set of revelations within an apocalypse typically occurs as a vision or an otherworldly journey, although some apocalypses incorporate both visions and journeys.33 For example, in the earliest known example of an apocalypse, the Book of the Watchers, Enoch has his eyes opened by the Divine (a vision) and is taken on an otherworldly journey to the foundations of the earth and other mythic locations (1 Enoch 18). Like Enoch, John claims both to have an ecstatic visionary and auditory experience (1:10) and to be taken into heaven on an otherworldly journey (4:1). These two aspects of apocalyptic, the vision and the otherworldly journey, afford apocalypses an immense amount of authority. By placing the seer in a privileged position in which he is able to know what God knows, the apocalyptic narrative shows and thereby teaches its audience how things “really are” and encourages this audience to live and act in relation to this reality. The framework of the vision or the journey facilitates this, as the trusted seer or protagonist receives an opportunity to see and experience something most people are unable to experience, such as the future or heaven. Claudia Rattazzi Papka notes that the revelatory function of an apocalypse is somewhat oxymoronic, as it “claims to reveal that which only God can know…”34 29 These themes are outlined by many authors, including D. S. Russell, “Apocalyptic Literature,” in The Oxford Companion to the Bible (New York: Oxford University Press, 1993), 34–6. 30 For an example of the approach to apocalyptic as a literature of crisis, see Paul D. Hanson, “Apocalypses and Apocalypticism,” in Anchor Bible Dictionary, vol.1, ed. David Noel Freedman (New York: Doubleday, 1992), 279–82. 31 One of the first biblical scholars to argue that apocalyptic literature and views should be interpreted as a result of perceived crisis, rather than actual crisis, was Adela Yarbro Collins, Crisis and Catharsis: The Power of the Apocalypse (Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1984). 32 As quoted in Collins, The Apocalyptic Imagination: An Introduction to Jewish Apocalyptic Literature, 5. The definition of what constitutes an apocalypse is not without debate. See David Barr, ““Beyond Genre: The Expectations of Apocalypse,” in The Reality of Apocalypse: Rhetoric and Politics in the Book of Revelation, ed. David Barr (Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 2006). 33 Since most formal apocalypses are pseudonymous, being attributed to important historical figures, this is often counted as one of the generic traits of apocalypses. Revelation, however, is the most notable exception to this, so pseudonymity has little or no bearing on this discussion. 34 Claudia Rattazzi Papka, “The Limits of Apocalypse: Eschatology, Epistemology, and Textuality in the Commedia and Piers Plowman,” in Last Things: Death and the Apocalypse in

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Given the visionary or otherworldly nature of apocalypses or apocalyptic narratives, their narrators often employ sensory language to recount their experiences. They describe the things they see, hear, and even taste. To some extent all literary narratives provide their audiences an opportunity to experience and imagine new worlds and different ways of being in the world.35 Apocalyptic literature makes these new worlds even more tangible through the use of sensory language. Through sense references, apocalypses heighten an audience’s experience of these hypothetical realities. The use of vision language in particular makes apocalyptic literature a powerful method of persuasion. As David L. Barr explains, “By showing how events in this world correspond to realities in the other world, an apocalypse establishes the validity of certain ideas or practices.”36 Most apocalypses do not simply inform an audience about particular theological or political or social realities, they visually create these realities through vivid descriptions and images. By allowing the audience to envision another reality, to imagine and experience another time or place, an apocalypse has the power to transform the audience’s understanding of itself and its world. Thus, Edith M. Humphrey points out that visionary texts, such as apocalypses, allow the audience to see the vision, “by proxy.”37 The audience sees through the seer’s eyes. This seeing is prompted in the title and first verses of the Apocalypse, facilitated by the oral presentation of the text, and reinforced throughout the narrative with commands to “Look!” In light of this, we should not be surprised by the fact that so many have found the text visually inspiring.

John as Visionary John’s use of prompts to encourage the audience to see along with him belies the narrative’s underlying assumption that it is an account of John’s ecstatic experience. John grounds his narrative within the context of his ecstatic experience early, explaining, I, John, your brother and comrade in the persecution and kingdom and patience in Jesus, was on the island called Patmos, on account of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus. I was in the spirit on the Lord’s day and I heard behind me a great voice, like a trumpet. (1:9-10)

the Middle Ages, ed. Caroline Walker Bynum and Paul Freedman (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2000), 232–56, esp. 232. 35 Paul Ricoeur, “Metaphor and the Main Problem of Hermeneutics,” in A Ricoeur Reader: Reflection and Imagination, ed. Mario J. Valdés (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2000), 303–19. 36 My emphasis, Barr, “Beyond Genre: The Expectations of Apocalypse,” 85. 37 Edith M. Humphrey, And I Turned to See the Voice: The Rhetoric of Vision in the New Testament (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2007), 22.

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John then describes a lengthy auditory and visionary experience, reasserting the authenticity of his visionary and auditory experience at the closing of the narrative (22:8). For some, this repetition raises the question of whether the narrative grows out of John’s actual ecstatic experience. In response to those who approach apocalyptic texts primarily as literary constructions, de Silva bluntly asks it, “Did John really see things?”38 As the oldest apocalyptic texts are placed into the mouths of more ancient and even antediluvian characters, the question of whether these texts recount actual visionary experiences is often treated as moot.39 Yet, even in writings that could ostensibly describe ecstatic visionary experience scholars observe the efforts of a self-conscious author who shapes ancient mythic themes and scriptural traditions toward a particular rhetorical end. This critical understanding of apocalyptic texts as literary constructions began to dominate scholarship in the late 19th and early 20th centuries with the work of scholars such as Hermann Gunkel and Wilhelm Bousset and continues to hold sway in academic discussions of the text.40 In this vein, Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza describes John as “taking traditional symbols and mythological images out of their original contexts… placing them like mosaic stones into the new literary composition of his symbolic narrative movement.”41 For Schüssler Fiorenza and many others, John functions primarily as a literary craftsman, rather than an ecstatic prophet. Reflecting upon Ezekiel’s vision of the divine, Katheryn Pfisterer Darr asks whether modern readers have become immune to accounts of visionary experience: Perhaps moderns have outgrown their capacity to be awestruck – perhaps they are bemused, not bedazzled, by Ezekiel’s vision and his stunned response to it. Who believes in visions anyway? Do we simply dismiss Ezekiel’s claim to have witnessed the glory of God as the self-deluding rantings of one whose psychological state must, under his traumatic circumstances, be considered suspect?42

Speaking of John’s Apocalypse, de Silva pushes the question of why scholars dismiss claims to visionary experience even further, by asking whether it is related to the “antisupernaturalistic prejudices of the worldview pervasive in European and Eurocentric societies in general, and in academia in particular.”43 38 de Silva, Seeing Things John’s Way: The Rhetoric of the Book of Revelation, 121. 39 For an exception see, Michael E. Stone, “A Reconsideration of Apocalyptic Visions,” The Harvard Theological Review 96, no. 2 (2003): 167–80. 40 Collins, The Apocalyptic Imagination: An Introduction to Jewish Apocalyptic Literature, 18–19. 41 Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza, Revelation: Vision of a Just World (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1991), 31. 42 Katheryn Pfisterer Darr, “The Book of Ezekiel,” in The New Interpreter’s Bible, vol. VI (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 2001), 1131. 43 de Silva, Seeing Things John’s Way: The Rhetoric of the Book of Revelation, 123. One of the few recent articles that addresses the experience of John in terms of ecstatic experience is Paulo Augusto de Souza Nogueira, “Celestial Worship and Ecstatic-Visionary Experience,” Journal for the Study of the New Testament 25, no.2 (2002): 165–84.

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In other words, could the academic reluctance to accept the claims of visionary experience be the result of Western bias? While answering the questions of Pfisterer Darr and de Silva remains outside of the purview of this project, these questions call scholars to explore what it means to take seriously John’s claims to having a visionary experience (1:10) and being taken into heaven on an otherworldly journey while in the spirit (4:1-2). What does it mean, especially in the ancient world, that John presents his apocalyptic narrative as an actual otherworldly journey or visionary experience? John’s visionary experience and otherworldly journey are described with the Greek phrase e0geno/mhn e0n pneu/mati (1:10; 4:2), which is often translated as “I was in the spirit” in English translations (e.g. NRSV, KJV, NIV, NASB). In fact, many translations, along with some commentators, capitalize “Spirit,” implying that John is in the Spirit of God. Read in a context in which it is believed that the Holy Spirit is present in worship settings or when someone prays, as is the case in many modern Protestant traditions, this translation might be understood as referring to a general moment of worship. Thus, in one popular Lutheran commentary, Louis A. Brighton observes, “It was during a moment of worship and mediation ‘in the Spirit’ (1:10) on the Lord’s day that John heard a loud, trumpet-like voice commissioning him to write…”44 This reading is somewhat misleading. As David E. Aune points out, Revelation does occasionally use the phrase to\ pneu=ma, “the Spirit,” in a way that suggests the Spirit of God; however, since John chooses not to include the article in these instances (1:10; 4:2), adding it is problematic.45 Rather, Aune argues that John describes being in a prophetic or visionary trance. While Aune chooses to translate the phrase as “I fell into a prophetic trance,” the rendering “I was in a spirit” also seems appropriate. However, it remains unclear whether John means to describe a state of waking visions (e.g. trance, hallucinations) or a dream state. This ambiguity reflects an ancient tendency to treat waking visions and visions that occur within dreams with little distinction.46 Both could reveal future or even divine knowledge. In the first-century Greek and Roman worlds there was widespread practice and acceptance of the magical arts, including divination, augury, and dream interpretation.47 Interest in magic and divination cut across class 44 Louis A. Brighton, Revelation, Concordia Popular Commentary (St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 2009), 33. 45 Aune, Revelation, 83. 46 For instance, Guy Stroumsa points out that in the account of Perpetua’s martyrdom, she describes a vision after which she describes waking up from the vision or dream. Guy G. Stroumsa, “Dreams and Visions in Early Christian Discourse,” in Dream Cultures: Explorations in the Comparative History of Dreaming (New York: Oxford University Press, 1999), 189. See also John S. Hanson, “Dreams and Visions in the Graeco-Roman World and Early Christianity,” in Aufstieg Und Niedergang Der Römischen Welt, vol.11.23.2 (Berlin: Walter De Gruyter, 1980), 1395–427. 47 For a discussion of the various forms of divination in the Greco-Roman world, see David E. Aune, Prophecy in Early Christianity and the Ancient Mediterranean World (Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans, 1991). See also Stroumsa, “Dreams and Visions in Early Christian Discourse,” 193.

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boundaries, providing fodder for philosophical texts by authors such as Cicero and Iamblichus offering everyday people tools for finding love, luck, and healing. 48 Reflecting this fascination in divination, a number of the Greek papyri found in the waste piles of the Egyptian desert include instructions for inducing oracular experiences, including visions. Aune notes, for example, that one text instructs the reader to fill a bronze bowl with water in order to see the specific god being invoked.49 Within the Greek and Roman worlds the belief that the divine might communicate with individuals, professionals or lay-people, through dreams and visions was valid and widespread. This suggests that John’s claim to have experienced a vision would not necessarily been dismissed out of hand, as is the tendency today. In spite of the ancient belief that dreams and visions could offer special revelations, not all visionary experiences were believed to be authentic nor were the interpretations of these experiences always reliable. A dreamer or visionary might be misled by a demon or mischievous spirit. Iamblichus, for example, explains that while angels offer beautiful and calm visions, demons offer visions that are full of tumult and disorder.50 (One might wonder how Iamblichus would have assessed John’s vision!) The early Christian apologist Tertullian explained that sorcerers could invoke evil spirits to put dreams into the minds of individuals and thereby lead them astray.51 Dreams in the ancient world often required interpretation and sometimes diviners were unreliable or unscrupulous, offering incorrect or entirely fraudulent interpretations. Moreover, in the Roman world there was the recognition that dreams and visions could communicate in a variety of ways, including through allegorical and indirect means.52 Dreams and visions, even legitimate ones, were typically ambiguous and in need of interpretation. In light of this, Patricia Cox Miller reports that, even though thinkers during this time were comfortable with the imagistic and symbolic nature of dreams, there was concern over “how to tap that imagistic resource, how to ‘decode’ its enigmas for the purpose of finding meaning and order in everyday life.”53 Cox Miller draws upon a Rabbinic 48 Cicero is often characterized as presenting a skeptical view of methods of divination, based upon his De Divinatione. Mary Beard, however, has argued that his views in this work must be balanced with his other writings in which he appears more open to different forms of divination. She explains that these different perspectives relate to Cicero’s negotiation of Hellenistic philosophical thinking and Roman tradition and practice. See Mary Beard, “Cicero and Divination: The Formation of a Latin Discourse,” The Journal of Roman Studies 76 (1986): 33–46. For a discussion of Iamblichus, see Polymnia Athanassiadi, “Dreams, Theurgy and Freelance Divination: The Testimony of Iamblichus,” The Journal of Roman Studies 83 (1993): 115–30. 49 Aune, Prophecy in Early Christianity and the Ancient Mediterranean World, 47. 50 Iamblichus, On the Mysteries, trans. Emma C. Clarke, John M. Dillon, and Jackson P. Hershbell (Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 2003), 11.3. 51 Tertullian, Apology, ed. Alexander Roberts and James Donaldson, trans. S. Thelwall, vol.3, Ante-Nicene Fathers (New York: C. Scribners and Sons, 1925), 23. 52 W. V. Harris, “Roman Opinions About the Truthfulness of Dreams,” The Journal of Roman Studies 93 (2003): 193. 53 Patricia Cox Miller, Dreams in Late Antiquity: Studies in the Imagination of a Culture (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1994), 76.

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tradition as illustrative of the complexity of dream interpretation in the GrecoRoman world. In this story, an individual tells his dream to twenty-four dream interpreters only to be given twenty-four different interpretations of the same dream, implying that the meaning of a dream or vision was shaped by the interpreter.54 That John may have experienced an actual vision or series of visions that formed the basis of his narrative is within the realm of possibility in the ancient world; however, that does not automatically make his visionary account reliable or easy to interpret. Neither does the acceptance of John’s vision or dream mean that ancient audiences would have understood it as having a singular meaning. John’s visionary experience, furthermore, would not necessarily mean that the narrative of his vision did not include intentional crafting in relation to existing sources available to him. As Michael Stone observes in reference to ancient Jewish apocalypses, since the seer recounts things heretofore unseen he would necessarily use what he knows, including antecedent prophetic and visionary traditions, in order to communicate what he has experienced.55 In other words, the presence of literary borrowings and allusions within an apocalypse is not sufficient evidence to discount an actual religious experience behind the text. However, just as it was in the ancient world, an author’s assertion of a religious experience does not mean that the experience is necessarily authentic or straightforward. Whether or not the apocalyptic or visionary author experienced an ecstatic event, the narratives that recount such events belie an interpretive mind that constructs the visionary account to particular rhetorical ends. Thus, these texts, like later visionary texts (including those we will be engaging in subsequent chapters) should be considered in relation to their literary and rhetorical ends. More important is the fact that John’s claim to have had a visionary experience, an experience whose origins are beyond his control, imbues Revelation with a sense of authority. Carey notes, “Apocalyptic discourse implies the highest conceivable mode of privilege for a mortal narrator: John has visited the heavenly realms and heard divine voices.”56 The mere fact that this narrative recounts John’s visionary experience suggests that it is not of his making. Combined with the assertion that this is an Apocalypse given by God (Rev 1:1), the visionary aspect of John’s narrative implies that this is a narrative to be taken seriously and heeded. John makes this explicit when he announces that “blessed is the one who reads aloud and those who hear the words of prophecy and the ones who keep what is written in it” (1:3; cf. 22:9) and when he warns that additions and emendations will result in plagues visited upon the editor (22:18-19). In claiming visionary authority, John presents himself as speaking on behalf of the Divine. As suggested in the narrative’s opening, this unveiling is from God and Christ and not John. One can imagine that this claim might make a significant impact on certain hearers 54 Ibid., 74. 55 Stone, “A Reconsideration of Apocalyptic Visions,” 179–80. 56 Carey, “The Apocalypse and Its Ambiguous Ethos,” 173.

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and readers throughout history. When John commands his audience to view with him, readers who accept John’s claim to authority might comply and, therefore, inhabit John’s experience along with him, seeing the throne room, viewing the plagues, and witnessing the coming of the Lord of Lords. In other words, John’s claim to visionary experience lends his narrative an authority that might further prompt his audience to envision along with the narrative. Whether or not one finds John’s claim to a visionary experience persuasive, the claim underscores that John is convinced of the power of the visual. Introducing this narrative as a visual event – an unveiling, employing the tools of ekphrasis, commanding his audience to “Look!,” describing what he has been “shown,” and casting the narrative as a divine visionary experience are ways of forcing an audience who is hearing the narrative to rely upon their sense of sight to experience the text. This assumes that if the audience sees what John sees, they will surely know what he knows and believe as he believes.

Metaphor and Revelation Since John purports to offer a divine perspective on reality, he uses what is known to describe what is ostensibly unknown or known only from a “God’s eye-view.” The language of the every-day provides John with a vocabulary for the other-worldly. At times, this makes the Greek text sound awkward, as it is saturated with the language of simile and metaphor. At the sounding of the fifth trumpet, we gain a sense of Revelation’s overlapping metaphor when John describes the beasts that emerge from the Abyss with layers of simile: And the likeness of the locusts (ta_ o9moiw/mata tw=n a0kri/dwn) were like horses (o3moia i3ppoiv) prepared for war…and they had hair like (w9j) the hair of women and their teeth were like (w9j) those of a lion and they had breastplates like (w9j) breastplates of iron… (9:7)57

John employs the adjective o3moiov, translated as “like,” over twenty times, and the comparative “w9j,” which is translated as “like” or “as,” over fifty times. The eyes of the risen Christ are like a flame of fire (1:14), a voice is like a trumpet (4:1), the moon becomes like blood (6:12), horse-like creatures have heads like lions, an angel has feet like pillars of fire (10:1), and a heavenly city is like a bride (21:2). Again, these comparisons allude to the narrative’s assumption that John offers a perspective on things not typically viewed or experienced. John must draw upon things that the audience has seen or knows about, things such as locusts and horses, in order to conjure in their minds things that they have not experienced, such as beasts from the Abyss. 57 For a discussion of the use of “likeness” in this verse see Beale, The Book of Revelation: A Commentary on the Greek Text, 499.

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Just as John uses simile throughout the narrative, he also uses metaphorical language and imagery. In the most general sense, metaphor involves depicting or equating one thing as another thing, such as “A is B.” This type of straightforward metaphorical expression occurs occasionally in Revelation. For example, after seeing the risen Christ standing among seven golden lampstands, John is told, “the seven lampstands are the seven churches” (1:20). Even though churches are not literally lampstands or vice versa, these different objects are equated through the grammar of the sentence. Similarly, the two witnesses or prophets that appear in Jerusalem are olive trees and lamp stands (11:4) and the many waters upon which the great Whore sits are peoples, multitudes, nations, and languages (17:15). In a slightly more complex metaphorical statement, Revelation equates Satan with a great red dragon and the ancient serpent (presumably the serpent of Genesis 3): “the great dragon, the ancient serpent, the one who is called Devil and Satan” (12:9). Even though the text does not use the “A is B” formula, the statement creates a metaphorical chain: a dragon is a serpent that is the Devil and Satan. Metaphorical language is frequently expressed in forms more complex than “A is B” and John’s narrative is full of metaphors implied through textual context. As the philosopher Paul Ricoeur famously argued, metaphor should be understood as phenomenon of discourse and not simply a category of word usage.58 For instance, the text announces the appearance of a messianic figure that the audience would presumably identify with the risen Christ, only for John to describe seeing a slaughtered Lamb (4:5-6). Even though John does not use the formula “Christ is a Lamb,” the equation is assumed. In Chapter 3, we will explore a number of these sorts of metaphorical constructions in relation to the text’s Bride and Whore imagery. Revelation’s use of simile and metaphorical language reveals the inherently metaphorical nature of the text.59 While we explain this in more detail below suffice it to say that the narrative as a whole draws upon a series of overlapping conceptual metaphors reflected in the text’s similes and metaphorical expressions, for metaphorical language and imagery reflect metaphorical thinking and conceptualizing. Put in other words, metaphorical expressions in the language of the narrative point to equations that John makes, consciously or unconsciously, between conceptual domains, such as the concept of heaven and the concept of a space that can be entered through a door and the concept of political dominion and the concept of divine power. Through these conceptual equations and metaphors John encourages his audience to see its world in a different way. There are numerous conceptual metaphors that undergird the text of Revelation that have yet to be explored and analyzed, although we will focus only upon the way John and some of his interpreters employ the metaphorical equations that draw on domains referring to women and cities. 58 Paul Ricoeur, The Rule of Metaphor: Multidisciplinary Studies of the Creation of Meaning in Language (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1977), 13–16. 59 Simile is a form of metaphor, for the act of comparing implies some type of equation. Aristotle, for instance, did not distinguish between metaphor and simile. See Aristotle, On Rhetoric, 3.4.1.

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First discussed by classical rhetoricians, metaphor began to receive a great deal of attention from literary critics and philosophers during the second half of the 20th century. Sallie McFague commented in Metaphorical Theology in 1982, “It is as if, after centuries of dormancy, the world has finally woken up to the significance of Aristotle’s adage that the greatest thing by far is to be a master of metaphor.”60 This attention reflected a shift from understanding metaphor as a literary trope, as an intentional misuse of a word for effect, toward approaching metaphor as reflective of the abundance of meaning in language and as an important component of human thought.61 Following the exploration of biblical and religious metaphor by theorists such as Paul Ricoeur and Northrop Frye,62 theologians and biblical scholars found in metaphor theory a useful set of tools for interpreting and engaging sacred texts. McFague’s Metaphorical Theology, as well as Janet Martin Soskice’s 1987 work Metaphor and Religious Language, pushed biblical scholars to take seriously the ways in which metaphor functions within religious discourse, including biblical texts.63 Interpreting metaphor for McFague and Soskice is not simply about identifying what a particular metaphor or image means, rather it involves exploring how metaphor creates and sometimes limits meaning. Arguing that much of human thought depends upon the equation of unlike things, McFague in particular highlights the incomplete and perspectival nature of metaphor. For instance, while the metaphorical equation of God and the idea of a human father is embedded in Christian sacred texts, which has secured its place in the tradition’s imaginary, it cannot and should not be understood in terms of literal language since God is not literally a human father. As a metaphor the equation communicates certain things about the relationship between the divine and humanity. However, because humans tend to see the similarities in things that are not the same, because we tend to think metaphorically, it is easy for us literalize metaphors and models, especially those in sacred texts. McFague describes the tendency among religious interpreters to insist on the literal meaning of metaphors as idolatry and as an inability to appreciate that “truth” is more than positivistic statements.64 The truth of a metaphor resides not in its ability to be proven true, but in its ability to resonate with human thinking and to create relationships between disparate things and concepts. In 60 Sallie McFague, Metaphorical Theology: Models of God in Religious Language (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1982), 32. 61 Max Black is typically credited with bringing the topic of metaphor back into philosophical and theoretical conversations. See ibid. Similarly, scholars often note Paul Ricoeur as having prompted others to think of metaphor beyond the level of the word. See, for example, Paul Ricoeur, “Word, Polysemy, Metaphor: Creativity in Language,” in A Ricoeur Reader: Reflection and Imagination, ed. Mario J. Valdés (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1991). 62 Northrop Frye and Alvin A. Lee, The Great Code: The Bible And Literature (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2006); Paul Ricoeur, Essays on Biblical Interpretation (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1980). 63 McFague, Metaphorical Theology; Janet Martin Soskice, Metaphor and Religious Language (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1985). 64 McFague, Metaphorical Theology, 4–5.

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this way, McFague began to touch on the conceptual or cognitive nature of metaphorical language, a move subsequent biblical scholars have embraced.65 It is this approach to metaphorical language and imagery that we will discuss in a moment. In the wake of McFague, many feminist biblical scholars have found metaphor a helpful category for exploring biblical imagery, especially gendered imagery, and for challenging the ways in which these texts have been appropriated. The importance of metaphor for feminist biblical criticism is made clear in a 1993 Semeia volume, Women, War, and Metaphor: Language and Society in the Study of the Hebrew Bible, edited by Claudia V. Camp and Carole R. Fontaine.66 Although the volume reflects a diversity of approaches and insights, Camp ends her introductory essay with a sentiment that reverberates throughout the volume and throughout much of the feminist analysis of biblical metaphor. She observes, “metaphors create us and not the other way around.”67 Since metaphor defines and describes ideas, objects, and realities, it has the power to shape the ways in which individuals, communities, and societies think. Especially when embedded in texts that are deemed authoritative, metaphorical language and imagery potentially impact not only the text’s imagined audience, but subsequent readers and interpreters as well. This insight has been key in feminist interpretations of the prophetic depictions of Jerusalem as God’s unfaithful wife, a metaphorical tradition upon which Revelation’s author draws. The metaphorical imagery in Ezekiel 16 and 23 in particular has been explored by scholars who note its misogynistic and violent nature, for Ezekiel ultimately describes the feminized Jerusalem’s punishment in terms of stripping, stoning, and dismemberment (16:39-40). Given the graphic nature of the imagery, Christl M. Mair notes that interpreters need, “to reckon both with its historical meaning and with its implications for contemporary readers.”68 For Maier, as with others, this reckoning involves looking at the function of the metaphor within the text’s rhetorical context, while acknowledging the imagery’s problematic nature and inadequacy for modern appropriation. Renita Weems comments, for instance, “Metaphors, therefore, are not timelessly applicable to every context nor timelessly relevant to every generation; the values, assumptions, and worldview inherent in a metaphor can

65 For example, Bonnie Howe, Because You Bear This Name: Conceptual Metaphor and the Moral Meaning of 1 Peter (Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 2005); Robert H. von Thaden, Sex, Christ, and Embodied Cognition: Paul’s Wisdom for Corinth (Blandford Forum: Deo, 2011). 66 Claudia V. Camp and Carole R. Fontaine, eds, Women, War, and Metaphor: Language and Society in the Study of the Hebrew Bible, Semeia 61 (Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 1993). 67 Claudia V. Camp, “Metaphor in Feminist Biblical Interpretation: Theoretical Perspectives,” Semeia 61 (1993): 34. 68 Christl M. Maier, Daughter Zion, Mother Zion: Gender, Space and the Sacred in Ancient Israel (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2008), 136.

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differ according to context.”69 By highlighting the inapplicability of certain metaphors for contemporary audiences, feminist interpreters underscore the importance of examining the function of metaphorical language and imagery within a given narrative’s literary and rhetorical context. Attention to how metaphorical imagery “fits” a particular rhetorical context has been an important interpretive strategy for reading Revelation as well. Most notably, Schüssler Fiorenza suggests that taking seriously Revelation as a rhetorical construction means attempting to understand how the text’s “symbolic-poetic images make ‘sense’ within its overall context and … has ‘meaning’ and the power of ‘persuasion in its particular historical-social situation.”70 While Revelation’s metaphorical imagery is full of meaning potential, it should not be understood as meaning anything and everything. Even though the metaphorical imagery of the Apocalypse evokes ranges of possible meanings, this range is limited by the way the text fits, responds to, and prompts a response toward a particular rhetorical situation. Yet, this does not mean “decoding” and “distilling” the text’s complex imagery into singular referents. Metaphorical language is inherently open and ambiguous; thus, the task of the interpreter is to explore how the text uses metaphor and imagery to create a “symbolic universe” in which the audience is asked to participate. Although we might not be able to account for the various ways that interpreters engage Revelation’s metaphors, as Susan E. Hylen underscores in an essay on the ethical implications of interpreting Revelation’s metaphors,71 the text’s rhetorical context helps the interpreter make sense of the way that the abundant meanings conveyed work to move an audience from point A to point B, toward a particular rhetorical goal or set of rhetorical goals. As Schüssler Fiorenza observes, Revelation’s ability to persuade its audience resides in the ability to capture the audience’s imagination and to thereby elicit specific emotions, convictions, identifications, and reactions.72 The understanding of Revelation’s metaphorical imagery articulated by Schüssler Fiorenza, including her emphasis on the imagery’s ability to trigger the audience’s imagination and participation in the text’s symbolic universe, parallels the observations of those who assert the conceptual or cognitive nature of metaphor.73 It is this approach to metaphor that I introduce in “Like a Bride 69 Renita J. Weems, Battered Love: Marriage, Sex, and Violence in the Hebrew Prophets (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1995), 25. See also Gerlinde Baumann, Love and Violence: Marriage As Metaphor for the Relationship Between Yhwh and Israel in the Prophetic Books (Collegeville: Liturgical Press, 2003). 70 Schüssler Fiorenza, “Visionary Rhetoric and Social Political Situation,” 183. 71 Susan E. Hylen, “Metaphor Matters: Violence and Ethics in Revelation,” Catholic Biblical Quarterly 73, no. 4 (2001): 777–96. 72 Schüssler Fiorenza, “Visionary Rhetoric and Social Political Situation,” 187. 73 Conceptual metaphor theory is part of the broader field of cognitive linguistics, a field that is becoming popular for understanding biblical texts, including Revelation. For instance, Stephen Pattemore employs a related approach, called “relevance theory.” See Stephen Pattemore, The People of God in the Apocalypse: Discourse, Structure, and Exegesis (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003). Although not strictly employing conceptual metaphor theory,

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Adorned:” Reading Metaphor in John’s Apocalypse. Drawing upon the work of Gerard Steen, a scholar of language use and cognition, I outlined a method for identifying metaphorical expressions and the conceptual mappings upon which they draw.74 This was a specific method for identifying metaphorical expressions in Revelation’s narrative, along with describing the conceptual metaphors or metaphorical mappings reflected in these expressions. Here, I offer a more general discussion of conceptual metaphor theory, although I extend the scope of “Like a Bride Adorned” by exploring, in Chapters 4 and 5, how interpreters navigate Revelation’s conceptual metaphors. In so doing, the aim of this project is two-fold, to see how the conceptual structures that under-gird Revelation’s metaphorical imagery and language fit within the text’s rhetorical aims and to examine how these structures are redeployed in later contexts for different rhetorical aims.

“Seeing” Things Differently Aristotle’s definition of metaphor in Poetics offers a helpful starting place for discussions of metaphor: “A metaphor is the application of a word that belongs to another thing.”75 In this oft-quoted definition, the ancient author depicts metaphor using the Greek verb e0pifora/, translated here as application, to describe a metaphor as the act of “carrying” over a word to another thing. Elsewhere in Poetics he explains that metaphor involves seeing similarities between two different things and then applying the name of one thing (a source) to the other, different thing (a target).76 In so doing, one is able to highlight the salient characteristics of the target. For Aristotle metaphor is distinct from ornamental language or words that are simply present for stylistic purposes; because metaphor uses comparison to emphasize efficiently a particular aspect of a particular thing. Metaphor can be a helpful mode of communication. In On Rhetoric, a treatise discussing the art of persuasion, Aristotle highlights Ian Paul offers a helpful introduction to metaphor in relation to the Book of Revelation, “The Book of Revelation: Image, Symbol and Metaphor,” in Studies in the Book of Revelation, ed. Steve Moyise (Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 2001), 131–47. 74 See Chapter 2 in Lynn R. Huber, Like a Bride Adorned: Reading Metaphor in John’s Apocalypse (New York: T&T Clark International, 2007). See also Susan E. Hylen, “The Power and Problem of Revelation 18: The Rhetorical Function of Gender,” in Pregnant Passion: Gender, Sex, and Violence in the Bible, ed. Cheryl A. Kirk-Duggan (Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 2003), 205–19. For an introduction to the insights of Steen, see Gerard Steen, “From a Linguistic to Conceptual Metaphor in Five Steps,” in Metaphor in Cognitive Linguistics: Selected Papers from the Fifth International Cognitive Linguistics Conference, ed. Raymond Gibbs and Gerard Steen (Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 1999), 57–77. 75 Aristotle, Longinus, and Demetrius, Aristotle: Poetics; Longinus: On the Sublime; Demetrius: On Style, ed. Donald A. Russell, trans. Stephen Halliwell et al., Revised (Loeb Classical Library, 1995), 21.7. For a discussion of Aristotle’s understanding of metaphor, see Edward Slingerland, What Science Offers the Humanities: Integrating Body and Culture (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008), 170. 76 Aristotle, Poetics, 23.5.

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the effectiveness of metaphorical expressions that “bring something before the eyes” (pro\o0mma/twn poiei=n).77 As modern literary theorist Mark Turner suggests, Aristotle understands metaphorical language functions as a tool with which one is able to “move [an] audience from one locus of thought to another…”78 Through metaphor an audience can be prompted to see things in a particular way, from the perspective of the author or orator. While the language of bringing something before the eyes is, interestingly, metaphorical, the connection between metaphor and the visual is something emphasized by Latin rhetoricians as well. Like his Greek predecessor, Cicero maintained that metaphorical language possesses the capability of making an idea clear to one’s audience, for metaphor has “a direct appeal to the senses, especially the sense of sight…” 79 In particular, he commended the use of metaphor that brings the abstract into the audience’s “mental vision.”80 Likewise, the anonymous author of Rhetoric ad Herennium suggests that metaphor creates a “vivid mental picture” for the audience and Quintilian notes that metaphorical language, including metaphors and similes, contributes to the effectiveness of a speech by bringing something before the “eyes” of the audience.81 For each of these rhetoricians, making an idea “visible” to one’s audience through metaphorical language can be an effective tool in persuasion. The ancient assertion that metaphor involves “seeing,” including both the speaker’s ability to see connections between dissimilar terms and ideas and the way metaphor prompts an audience to see a speaker’s point, resonates with the contemporary perspectives on metaphor that highlight metaphor’s conceptual nature. In the 1980 book Metaphors We Live By, George Lakoff and Mark Johnson echo Aristotle’s description of metaphor as “carrying over,” although they argue that metaphor involves carrying over concepts rather than words.82 Metaphor entails employing one concept to understand or imagine another, different concept. Metaphor is a phenomenon of thought, not grammar, reflecting the fact that, according to Lakoff and Johnson, “human thought processes are largely metaphorical.”83 Since these authors offered their groundbreaking observations, scholars in the field of cognitive linguistics have become even more convinced of the depth of image-based perception and visual cognition

77 Aristotle, On Rhetoric, 3.10.6, 3.11.1–2. 78 Mark Turner, Death Is the Mother of Beauty: Mind, Metaphor, Criticism (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1987), 3. 79 Cicero, Cicero: On the Orator, trans. H. Rackham, Loeb Classical Library (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1942), 3.40.160–161. 80 Ibid., 3.40.161. 81 [Cicero], Rhetorica Ad Herennium, 4.34; Quintilian, The Institutio Oratoria of Quintilian, 8.3.81–82. 82 George Lakoff and Mark Johnson, Metaphors We Live By (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1980). See also George Lakoff and Mark Turner, More Than Cool Reason: A Field Guide to Poetic Metaphor (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1989). 83 Lakoff and Johnson, Metaphors We Live By, 6.

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in humans.84 As Edward Slingerland explains, image-based perception, including “seeing” concepts metaphorically, is fundamental to how humans categorize things and experiences, employ language, reason, and imagine the abstract, including the divine.85 Specifically, humans “see” the abstract by drawing upon conceptual images that emerge from embodied experiences and the experiences shared in cultures. For both ancient rhetoricians and modern conceptual metaphor theorists, metaphor is understood as a visual phenomenon, even though it does not necessarily involve literal seeing.86 The idea that metaphor involves “seeing” reflects the fact that conceptual metaphor theorists locate the power of metaphor within the realm of the mind, suggesting that metaphor involves equating or comparing concepts or conceptual domains rather than words.87 Conceptual domains or conceptual spaces are networks of related ideas and patterns of relations that emerge out of repeated human experience and are communicated through cultural discourses.88 These domains range from simple image schemata with little content, such as the concepts EXTERNAL or INTERNAL, to more complex constructions, including those we will examine in the following chapters, such as WOMAN, WEDDING, and PROSTITUTION.89 In the most basic sense metaphor describes when humans use one conceptual domain (source domain) to imagine or understand another domain (target domain). Thus, in cognitive linguistics, metaphor can also be called “cross-domain mappings.” One of the most obvious examples of a conceptual metaphor is LIFE IS A PATH. In this mapping, which Lakoff and Johnson famously explored, elements associated with the domain PATH, including twists and turns, a beginning and an end, possible dead-ends and defined boundaries, are applied to the abstract concept LIFE. Mapping these elements onto the abstract concept prompts an individual to imagine LIFE in very particular ways and in ways that are not necessarily inherent to the concept of LIFE itself. In this way the mapping potentially generates new ways of thinking about LIFE. This conceptual mapping, furthermore, can appear in a variety of linguistic expressions that may or may not follow the grammatical form of a metaphor (A IS B). For instance, one might say, “Life has been a bit bumpy lately,” mapping the surface of a path on to the events of one’s life. Or, if an individual 84 Edward Slingerland, What Science Offers the Humanities: Integrating Body and Culture (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008), 170. 85 Slingerland, What Science Offers the Humanities: Integrating Body and Culture, 56. 86 See Turner, Death Is the Mother of Beauty: Mind, Metaphor, Criticism, 10–21. 87 Conceptual metaphor theory is an expanding field. One of the more recent expansions is conceptual blending theory. While I will be drawing upon observations from conceptual blending theory, I will do so primarily from the framework of metaphor theory. For an introduction into conceptual blending theory, see Seana Coulson and Todd Oakley, “Blending Basics,” Cognitive Linguistics 11, no.3/4 (2000): 175–96. 88 For a discussion of conceptual spaces or domains, see ibid. 89 It is the convention of conceptual metaphor and blending theories to identify conceptual domains and metaphorical mappings through the use of upper-case letters. I will be using this convention throughout.

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were to proclaim, “I’m at a crossroads,” those around him would be prompted by the term “crossroads” and the notion of the individual being at this “location” to access the conceptual mapping LIFE IS A PATH. The conceptual mapping encourages a reader or audience to think about what happens at a crossroads. For example, one has to make a decision about direction. Applied to life, this suggests that the speaker must make a significant life decision. Life is not a path, but humans draw upon their experience of paths to describe the experience of living. Additionally, the metaphorical mapping can be conjured visually, through representations of an individual at a fork in a road or, perhaps, a couple walking down a street. Moreover, Lakoff observes that individuals only transfer what is relevant from the conceptual domain PATH to conceive of and characterize the conceptual domain LIFE: “Metaphorical mappings preserve the cognitive topology (that is, the image schema structure) of the source domain, in a way consistent with the inherent structure of the target domain.”90 This is described as the “invariance principle.” In other words, the target domain, in this case LIFE, plays a role in shaping the how the metaphorical mapping is enacted. While conceptual metaphor theory tends to describe metaphors in terms of a source domain shaping or structuring a target domain (A IS B), metaphors are often multi-layered and the domains they involve interact in a variety of ways.91 In response to this, the related field of conceptual blending theory offers a more complex sense of how cross-domain mappings occur. Conceptual blending theory maintains that any number of domains (sources and targets) can be brought together to create a new conceptual space altogether.92 In other words, an author, speaker, or artist may blend together relevant aspects of both domains forming a completely new idea, which is called a conceptual space (A IS B=C). Such is often the case with Revelation’s Whore and Bride imagery and its subsequent interpretations. In these images, John draws so thoroughly on the domains CITY and WOMAN that the two sometimes become interchangeable and almost impossible to untangle. Especially in a text like Revelation, which relies so completely on metaphorical imagery and thinking, conceptual metaphors and metaphorical language reflect layers of overlapping conceptual domains. When an author, speaker, or artist draws upon a conceptual metaphor in a particular expression, she almost necessarily is selective in how the mapping is expressed. As the invariance principle suggests, when mapping one domain on another, individuals select aspects of the source domain that are relevant to the target domain. This selectivity is furthered as the individual expressing 90 George Lakoff, “The Contemporary Theory of Metaphor,” in Metaphor and Thought, ed. Andrew Ortony (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993), 214. 91 For a discussion of the complexity of conceptual metaphor in terms of rhetorical purpose, see Philip Eubanks, “The Story of Conceptual Metaphor: What Motivates Metaphoric Mappings?” Poetics Today 20, no.3 (1999): 419–42. 92 Eubanks, “Globalization, “Corporate Rule,” And Blended Worlds: A ConceptualRhetorical Analysis of Metaphor, Metonymy, and Conceptual Blending,” 189.

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a particular mapping shapes the metaphorical expression in relation to her rhetorical aims. Philip Eubanks explains that, “conceptual metaphors are necessarily enmeshed in rhetorical give and take if only because, once recruited, they can only be expressed in words, which are always set in a historically specific time and place…”93 Eubanks continues by suggesting that metaphors or, to be clear, metaphorical expressions can be understood in terms of Mikhail Bakhtin’s notion of the utterance: Metaphorical expressions, like all utterances, occur within a chain of conversation or discourse, responding to and reflecting past utterances and anticipating responses.94 When an interpreter examines a particular metaphorical expression she can see that mappings are used strategically, that certain parts of the mapping are highlighted to communicate a particular point or idea. Recent scholarship on conceptual metaphor emphasizes the complex ways that conceptual mappings and blends are enmeshed within culture.95 They reflect their cultural locations, as well as contributing to the discourses that continue to shape the cultural contexts from which they emerge. I would extend this to include any conceptual blending or metaphor, whether they are embedded in written, visual, and/or embodied discourses, that necessarily communicate cultural and ideological commitments and assumptions.96 One of the tasks of the interpreter, therefore, is to examine the relationship between conceptual mappings and their historical contexts, including the ways that they affirm, challenge and/ or complicate existing power structures. This is especially important when looking at how individuals and communities in different historical locations and social settings employ seemingly similar metaphorical mappings and metaphorical expressions. The selectivity inherent in conceptual mappings or metaphors means that there remain elements of the conceptual mapping, potential connections, that are not employed in a particular expression. However, since the metaphorical expression draws upon a conceptual mapping that evokes at least two different conceptual domains rich in meaning potential, it is possible for an interpreter to draw additional features or elements into the mapping. That is, an author or speaker may highlight particular features or relations associated with a domain in a particular metaphorical expression; however, the interpreter’s imagination is not necessarily constrained by what the author or speaker intends. In fact, the conceptual domain may prompt the interpreter to extend a metaphor in a direction not anticipated by the original author. Consequently, while metaphor 93 Eubanks, “Globalization, “Corporate Rule,” And Blended Worlds: A ConceptualRhetorical Analysis of Metaphor, Metonymy, and Conceptual Blending,” 174. 94 Ibid.: 189. 95 Howe, Because You Bear This Name: Conceptual Metaphor and the Moral Meaning of 1 Peter, 93, Slingerland, What Science Offers the Humanities: Integrating Body and Culture, 211. 96 For a discussion of embodied metaphors, see Alan Cienki, “Metaphoric Gestures and Some of Their Relations to Verbal Metaphoric Expressions,” in Discourse and Cognition: Bridging the Gap (Stanford: CLSI, 1998), 189–204.

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can be an effective form of communication, it potentially invites interpreters to find meanings not controlled by the author. While conceptual metaphor and blending theories reflect some of the most current thinking about the relation between metaphor and thought, these theories seemingly capture the ancient notion that metaphor’s rhetorical power resides in its ability to make things visible to the “mind’s eye.” This emphasis on the visual assumes, in fact, a very common conceptual mapping, KNOWING IS SEEING. In both ancient views and conceptual metaphor theory, the idea of vision, including notions about imagery, helps explain how humans communicate and think. This commends these theories for examining Revelation, as this connection between knowing and seeing resonates with Revelation’s call to envision along with John.

Chapter 2 Seeing Revelation in Context The symbolic universe and world vision in Rev…is a “fitting response” to its sociopolitical “rhetorical situation.” It seeks to alienate the audience from the symbolic persuasion of the imperial cult, to help them overcome their fear so that they not only can decide for the worship and power of God and against that of the emperor but also to stake their lives on this decision. Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza, The Book of Revelation: Justice and Judgment1

Currently housed in a modernist building along the Tiber River in Rome, the Ara Pacis Augustae, the Altar of Augustan Peace, provides a prime example of how the visual, including female imagery, was used to communicate and persuade in the ancient world. Dedicated in 9 BCE and built to commemorate Augustus’ triumphs in Spain and Gaul, the monumental altar was located in the Campus Martius along the Via Flaminia, one of ancient Rome’s most important roadways. The site of biannual sacrifices, the monument is wrapped in friezes, including life-sized depictions of the imperial family and dignitaries in sacred procession. An elaborate floral motif adorns the lower half of the altar. The entrance side includes scenes depicting Rome’s mythic past – Romulus and Remus and Aeneas sacrificing and on the exit side of the altar, the side visible from the Via Flaminia, are pendant friezes of two female figures. On the right side, the female figure, typically identified as Roma, sits upon a pile of armor, suggesting the military successes of Augustus and the Empire.2 On the left frieze a female figure holds two infants and sits surrounded by animals, grain, and aurae (nymphs). She evokes a variety of deities, Pax, Ceres, and Venus, although the frieze is commonly called the “Tellus Relief” because of its traditional association with the earth goddess.3 Together, these 1 Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza, The Book of Revelation: Justice and Judgment (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1998), 6. 2 Peter J. Holliday, “Time, History, and Ritual on the Ara Pacis Augustae,” The Art Bulletin 72, no.4 (1990): 551. 3 The identity of this woman has been much debated. For a discussion of this representation as Ceres, see Barbette Stanley Spaeth, “The Goddess Ceres in the Ara Pacis Augustae and the Carthage Relief,” American Journal of Archaeology 98, no.1 (1994): 65–100. For a discussion of this representation as Venus, see Karl Galinsky, “Venus, Polysemy, and the Ara Pacis Augustae,” American Journal of Archaeology 96, no.3 (July 1, 1992): 457–75. For a reading that resists specific identifications, see Kathleen Lamp, “The Ara Pacis Augustae: Visual Rhetoric

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images represent Rome and the promise of peace through power, the promise of the Pax Romana, according to imperial mythology. Through the images adorning the grand altar, especially its images of “women,” a viewer sees and experiences the mythology of Rome, including the hope for a renewed age – the saeculum Augustum or “age of Augustus.” 4 In this chapter, we position Revelation’s use of metaphorical imagery, especially its gendered imagery, in relation to the dominant discourses in which it is embedded. It is common to think of the writings of the New Testament as having “background” cultures, particularly Greco-Roman and Jewish backgrounds. This heuristic may be helpful as scholars discuss these hybrid writings in relation to their literary and historical antecedents; however, the idea of backgrounds belies the fact that texts like Revelation are part of living conversations that continue even as the early Christian tradition emerges and takes shape. In fact, Revelation, like other New Testament texts, presents itself as part of the tapestry of first-century Jewish culture and thought. As we discuss below, Revelation situates itself as part of the Jewish prophetic and visionary traditions, drawing upon the imagery and language of these antecedents. Like these traditions, which are characterized by social and political critique, Revelation’s primary sources of opposition are the discourses of the dominant culture, which in this case are the discourses on the Roman Empire in Asia Minor. In light of this, this chapter introduces some foundational claims of Roman imperial mythology – the system of stories and discourses used to legitimate Roman rule. This mythology saturates the world of Revelation and shapes John’s vision. This chapter attends particularly to the visual nature of Roman mythology and to its use of female imagery to “think with.”5 In addition, we will introduce the tradition of thinking with women in the context of the Hebrew Bible prophetic traditions, a tradition that John evokes as part of his response to the dominant discourses of the Roman Empire. Knowledge of this tradition, which shapes Revelation’s depiction of the Great Whore and the Lamb’s Bride, allows us to see how John recycles traditional imagery, just as later visionary interpreters, discussed in Chapters 4 and 5, recycle Revelation’s metaphorical images. Finally, throughout this chapter we will identify conceptual metaphors or mappings present in Roman discourse and Jewish prophetic traditions that John employs as part of Revelation’s Whore and Bride imagery.

in Augustus’ Principate,” Rhetoric Society Quarterly 39, no.1 (2009): 1–24. 4 E.g. Ovid, Fasti, trans. James George Frazer, Second, revised ed., 2 vols., Loeb Classical Library (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1989), 2.129ff. 5 For a discussion of the Roman Empire in terms of myth, see Steven J. Friesen, “Myth and Symbolic Resistance in Revelation 13,” Journal of Biblical Literature 123, no.2 (2004): 281– 313.

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Revelation in Context Written in the second half of the first century CE (and often dated to the reign of Domitian) to communities within the Roman province of Asia Minor (1:1),6 scholars have long read Revelation’s hostility toward Rome as a response to state-sponsored persecution of Christians. This assumption is fueled both by John’s sense of crisis, that something will happen soon (e.g. 1:3), and his extrapolation from one named murder victim, Antipas, to innumerable souls that are slaughtered because of their testimony (2:13; 6:911). This understanding of Revelation’s rhetorical context, as one marked by systematic persecution, has been challenged over the past three decades based on evidence that suggests the persecution of Christ followers by Rome began at a later date. Correspondence between Pliny, a provincial governor, and the Emperor Trajan, from c.112 CE, over the proper procedure for dealing with those accused of worshipping Christ reveals, for example, that an organized persecution did not emerge in the first century CE.7 Still, John clearly wants his audience to understand itself in a state of crisis. The sense of crisis stems from what John perceives as pressure on multiple fronts, including differences of opinion within the communities of the faithful (e.g. 2:6, 14-15, 20),8 disagreements with other communities, including local Jewish communities (e.g. 2:9; 3:9),9 and an overarching pressure for those faithful to Christ to conform to a dominant culture that John sees as blasphemous. It is this last issue, John’s sense of conflict with the dominant culture and the ubiquity of Roman imperial mythologies, which serves as our focal point. 6 For a thoughtful approach on dating Revelation, see Steven J. Friesen, Imperial Cults and the Apocalypse of John: Reading Revelation in the Ruins (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001), 136–51. Instead of tying the text to the reign of a particular Emperor, Nero or Domitian, Friesen offers a range of time (70 CE–early second century) in which it is likely that Revelation was written. This approach recognizes that attempts at identifying rulers supposedly referenced in John’s imagery are ultimately problematic and that the narrative serves as a critique of the imperial practices that occurred over the reigns of a number of emperors. 7 The issue of whether Revelation should be read in relation to the persecution of Christians has been debated for a long time. One of the first scholars to challenge the dominant perspective was Collins, Crisis and Catharsis: The Power of the Apocalypse. For a discussion of the question of persecution in relation to dating Revelation, see Beale, The Book of Revelation: A Commentary on the Greek Text, 4–16. 8 Duff, Who Rides the Beast? Prophetic Rivalry and the Rhetoric of Crisis in the Churches of the Apocalypse; Royalty, The Streets of Heaven: The Ideology of Wealth in the Apocalypse of John. 9 The vitriolic language used by John in describing “Synagogues of Satan” has been read in a variety of ways. It has been understood both as a reference to local Jewish communities in conflict with the congregations that Revelation addresses and as a reference to sects within these communities. The precise referents of these epitaphs remain unclear; however, it is clear that this name-calling functions as part of John’s attempt to characterize his audiences as part of a new Israel. For a discussion of this imagery, see Paul Duff, “‘The Synagogue of Satan’: Crisis Mongering and the Apocalypse of John,” in The Reality of Apocalypse: Rhetoric and Politics in the Book of Revelation, ed. David Barr (Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 2006), 147–68.

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While we will focus upon the use of female imagery in Roman mythology later in this chapter, it is important to first offer a brief discussion of some of the foundational claims of Roman imperial mythology. One of main assertions of the mythology undergirding Roman imperial power in the first century was that Octavian, as Augustus was known before adopting the honorific title, brought peace to the Roman world, the Pax Romana.10 Augustus restored the failing Republic, threatened by civil war, and, consequently, bettered the world as a whole. Augustus’ greatness stemmed not only from military success and strength, but also from his commitment to Roman values – virtue, justice, mercy, piety and the like. As Karl Galinsky explains, Augustus claimed and embraced an auctoritas, a power and influence that crossed political, social, and religious boundaries.11 Reflecting this, Augustus was lauded with titles such as “savior,” “pater patriae” (father of the fatherland), and even “pater orbis” (father of the world). Even though Augustus played a central role in the imperial mythologies of the Roman Empire, these discourses were more than the man himself, even persisting after his death. Kristina Milnor explains, “In many ways, in fact, the reification of Augustus and Augustanism as symbols took on greater urgency after they were no longer (strictly speaking) living entities.”12 The Flavian Emperors in particular, including Vespasian, Titus, and Domitian, had something to gain by associating themselves with Augustus, since their line marked the end of the Julio-Claudian age. Therefore, even in the last decades of the first century, allusions to Augustus were made in order to establish authority and secure, albeit not always successfully, the favor of the people.13 The power of Augustan and later imperial mythologies stems in part from the imperial embrace of the imagistic and the visual. “Auctoritas was not to be hidden from sight,” Galinsky observes, and the reign of Augustus initiated an unprecedented use of visual imagery and signifiers, including clothing and inscriptions, to assert imperial power and values alongside of oral modes of communication.14 One of the most ubiquitous modes of communicating the Augustan mythology was coinage. Roman coins bore witness to the power of Augustus and other imperial figures, including wives, by depicting them in the guise of conquering heroes, pious devotees, and even deities. These imprints of 10 E.g. Horace, Odes and Epodes, trans. Niall Rudd (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2004), IV.15. The military victories of Augustus are mentioned throughout his self-authored eulogy as well. See Augustus, P. A. Brunt, and J. M. Moore, Res Gestae Divi Augusti: The Achievements of the Divine Augustus (New York: Oxford University Press, 1969). For a discussion of “mythology” in relation to Revelation and the ancient Mediterranean world, see Friesen, “Myth and Symbolic Resistance in Revelation 13.” 11 Karl Galinksy, Augustan Culture (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1998). 12 Kristina Milnor, Gender, Domesticity, and the Age of Augustus: Inventing Private Life (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005), 4. 13 A. J. Boyle, “Introduction: Reading Flavian Rome,” in Flavian Rome: Culture, Image, Text, ed. A. J. Boyle and W. J. Dominik (Leiden: Brill, 2003), 1–67. 14 Galinksy, Augustan Culture, 378. The importance of the visual for the reign of Augustus is an idea most commonly associated with Paul Zanker, The Power of Images in the Age of Augustus (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1988).

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imperial mythology were visible not only in Rome, but throughout the Empire, including in the provinces of Asia Minor and Judea. The geographic spread of imperial imagery was fostered, furthermore, by Augustus’ unprecedented efforts in building throughout the Empire, as well as through local adoption of imperial style.15 By appropriating and emulating the image program of imperial powers, those in the most far-flung provincial city could visually signal their allegiances and associations with those in power. Thus the imagery supporting the mythology of Augustus and the Empire served both as a prevailing backdrop and as an imagistic resource for other first-century discourses, even those outside of Rome and Italy. Cities throughout the Roman province of Asia Minor, the cities inhabited by John’s audiences, were among those who embraced the claims communicated through the linguistic and visual imagery of the saeculum Augustum. Thus, an inscription from the koinon of Asia, the council that represented the cities of the province, proclaimed Providence’s graciousness in producing Augustus, who was “filled with virtue for mankind’s benefit” and “a savior who brought war to an end and set all things in order.”16 The acceptance of imperial mythology in Asia Minor was part of a larger system of discourse and practice that scholars characterize as the “imperial cults.”17 The cults offered those in the provinces opportunities to demonstrate, through ritual action and financial support (signaled through inscription), fidelity to the Empire and the Emperor. Provincial temples dedicated to Augustus, the successors of Augustus (e.g. Tiberius and Domitian), and the imperial family (Sebastoi) occupied prime locations within the major cities of Asia Minor, making imperial figures recognizable even if they never set foot on provincial soil. These regional temples, some of which were located in the cities of Revelation, stood side by side with city-sponsored cults, which often honored imperial family members along with gods such as Zeus and Aphrodite.18 Like monumental spaces in Rome, the temples and monuments associated with the proliferating cults served as a canvas for portraying the mythological claims of the Empire.19 Even those who might not frequent the forums of the Asian cities could see the significance of the Emperor and the imperial cults through coins that bore images of the temples and the imperials they honored.20 15 Galinksy, Augustan Culture, 379. 16 As quoted by Susan Fischler, “Imperial Cult: Engendering the Cosmos,” in When Men Were Men: Masculinity, Power and Identity in Classical Antiquity, ed. Lin Foxhill and John Salmon (London: Routledge, 1998), 169. 17 Stephen D. Moore, Empire and Apocalypse: Postcolonialism and the New Testament (Sheffield: Sheffield Phoenix Press, 2006), 101–105. For detailed descriptions of the imperial cults in Asia Minor, see Steven J. Friesen, Twice Neokoros: Ephesus, Asia, and the Cult of the Flavian Imperial Family (Leiden: Brill, 1993); Friesen, Imperial Cults and the Apocalypse of John: Reading Revelation in the Ruins. 18 Friesen, Imperial Cults and the Apocalypse of John: Reading Revelation in the Ruins, 75–6. 19 Frilingos, Spectacles of Empire: Monsters, Martyrs, and the Book of Revelation, 26. 20 Coins, for example, depicted the Temple to Rome and Augustus in Pergamum, one of the seven cities of Revelation. Images of the coins, including translation, can be found in Friesen, Imperial Cults and the Apocalypse of John: Reading Revelation in the Ruins, 29–31.

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In addition to visually signaling the province and cities’ devotion to the Emperor, the imperial cults provided individuals and families avenues for gaining social respect and status within the urban centers of Asia Minor.21 Steven J. Friesen explains that cities such as Ephesus would assert a communal identity as the caretaker (neokoros) of a city deity or of the imperial cult. While this was a role sometimes ascribed to individuals in cultic settings, the city of Ephesus identified itself in coinage as the neokoros of both the goddess Artemis and the Sebastoi, an identification also made in Acts 19:35.22 Through these identifications, the city of Ephesus and namely those with power and influence in Ephesus could establish the city’s identity in relation to the pantheon of Greco-Roman deities and in relation to the Empire. Similarly, individuals, families, and smaller groups of people could gain status and construct their social identities by filling roles within the imperial cults, participating in the rites of the cults and even through donating offerings to the cults or to other gods on behalf of the emperors.23 Besides the imperial cults, there would have been numerous official and unofficial channels through which imperial culture would have traveled to the provinces and, subsequently, to Revelation’s audience. As we turn our attention to Revelation it is important to remember that just as there would have been multiple avenues for experiencing the imperial mythology, so there would have been a variety of ways of responding to the claims of imperial culture. There was even variety in the responses within the emerging Christian culture, as Revelation’s rhetoric implies that John does not necessarily see eye to eye with some of the other groups and teachers (e.g. the Nicolaitans and “Jezebel”) in the region. In light of this, John works to sway his audience away from any approval or acceptance of imperial mythologies – mythologies that he characterizes as blasphemous and evil. As we will see, John accomplishes this through a rhetoric of opposition that involves the use of female images metaphorically to signal different options for communal identity.

Revelation’s Rhetoric While many in Asia Minor welcomed the benefaction of the Empire and embraced the various discourses that supported imperial power, including visual discourses, Revelation depicts these as a direct challenge to the power and authority of God. John does this through a series of visions that alternate between imaging imperial powers in negative terms and asserting the power and justice of God and the Risen Christ. As a visionary text, Revelation offers an 21 Ibid., 57–59. 22 Friesen, Twice Neokoros: Ephesus, Asia and the Cult of the Flavian Imperial Family, 55–7. 23 Friesen, Imperial Cults and the Apocalypse of John: Reading Revelation in the Ruins, 95–6.

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image program that counters the images of Roman power that provincials saw at every turn. Through these metaphorical images, John encourages an attitude of enmity toward imperial powers as he presents the divine realm as worthy of adulation and emulation. In so doing John attempts to dismantle the possibility that the individuals, groups, and communities he addresses might form social alliances in relation to imperial institutions and practices. Instead, using metaphorical thinking, John creates an alternative vision of community identity. This is an alternative to the identity expectations associated with acceptance of Roman mythological claims, a way of being that John characterizes as a Great Whore. As we will see, this alternative identity, marked by faithfulness to God and the Risen Christ, is represented in the culminating image of John’s vision – the image of the New Jerusalem as a Bride. One of the ways that John attempts to reach his rhetorical goals is by creating a sense of enmity toward the dominant powers of his day.24 This rhetorical tactic includes the use of metaphorical imagery. In particular John engenders a negative response to those powers that challenge divine power by metaphorically depicting them as beasts that bear blasphemous names, perform wonders, and demand worship (Rev 13). In the language of conceptual metaphor theory, as introduced in Chapter 1, John employs the metaphorical mapping EARTHLY POWERS ARE BEASTS. This is a traditional metaphorical equation found, for instance, in the Book of Daniel in which imperial powers, such as the Babylonians and the Assyrians, are depicted as beasts (Daniel 7:1-8).25 These allusions would conjure negative associations for those familiar with the early apocalyptic text, as Daniel depicts as violent, terrifying, and arrogant rulers qua beasts. The negative associations are underscored when the two beasts are authorized by the Great Red Dragon, who is described as Satan and the Devil and as “the accuser” of those who are faithful to God (12:9-10). Apart from allusions to Daniel and Satan, the beast imagery conjures a number of negative associations. J. M. C. Toynbee explains that in the Roman world beasts were understood as things to be feared and conquered, which is related to their use in the bloody games popular throughout the Mediterranean world at the time. Wild and exotic beasts also conjured notions of excess, as Roman Emperors were known for amassing, displaying, and often slaughtering large quantities of animals on special occasions.26 Evoking these associations, Revelation prompts its audience to imagine strange beasts, as a way of encouraging the audience to 24 David de Silva includes Revelation’s appeals to enmity within his discussion of the many ways the text appeals to the audience’s pathos, de Silva, Seeing Things John’s Way: The Rhetoric of the Book of Revelation, 195–228. See also the helpful discussion of John’s portrayal of his opposition in Greg Carey, Elusive Apocalypse: Reading Authority in the Revelation to John (Macon: Mercer University Press, 1999), 135–64. 25 For a discussion of the use of Daniel in Revelation 13, see Beale, The Book of Revelation: A Commentary on the Greek Text, 728–30. 26 J. M. C. Toynbee, Animals in Roman Life and Art (Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996), 17–20.

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understand reigning earthly powers as fearsome and threatening. The explicit appeal to enmity that appears in this beast imagery will be triggered later in Revelation with John’s metaphorical depiction of Rome as a Great Whore, an image that we will discuss in the next chapter. Throughout the narrative of the Apocalypse, Roman power is revealed to be in opposition to the divine, which is metaphorically imagined in terms of a human or earthly kingdom (GOD IS A KING/CAESAR and HEAVEN IS A THRONE ROOM).27 John’s visionary journey commences in and continually returns to the heavenly throne room, where the worship of God and the Lamb is unending. This depiction of heavenly worship echoes the imagery and language of the Roman imperial cults and of imperial discourses. God, rather than Caesar, is proclaimed as Savior, Lord God, and Pantokrator or “Almighty.”28 By directing adulation toward God, John signals to his audience that the one (or “ones,” since the Lamb is sometimes indistinguishable from God on the throne) who sits upon the heavenly throne should be their object of worship and not the Emperor or Rome (e.g. 5:6; 7:10, 17).29 Here the concept of THRONE is a metonym for POWER and the scenes of heavenly worship dispose the audience toward God and the Lamb, who occupy the throne, simultaneously implying that Rome and its rulers are the undue recipients of praise and honor. John indicates that the faithful, those who have “conquered the beast,” should offer their allegiance solely to God, as he shows them proclaiming, “Lord God, the Pantokrator…for you alone are holy; for all the nations will come and worship before you” (15:3-4). In this way, John’s narrative works to distance the audience from the dominant discourses that honor Rome and engender allegiance to God. As Eugene Boring observes, Revelation answers the question, “Who, if anyone, rules in this world?” with a two-part answer – God and not Rome.30 Besides rousing feelings of enmity toward Roman power and nurturing positive feelings toward God and Christ, Revelation appeals to the audience’s self-perception regarding its relations with institutions implicated in the dominant culture.31 In a series of oracles pronounced by the Risen Christ, some within John’s audience, comprised of the seven churches in Asia Minor, 27 Vernon K. Robbins maintains that the conceptual equation between the divine and imperial realms is a cultural frame, a conceptual convention, in early Christian apocalyptic rhetoric. See Vernon K. Robbins, “Conceptual Blending and Early Christian Imagination,” in Explaining Christian Origins and Early Judaism: Contributions from Cognitive and Social Science, ed. Petri Luomanen, Ilkka Pyysiäinen, and Risto Uro (Leiden: Brill, 2007), 161–95. 28 David E. Aune, “The Influence of Roman Imperial Court Ceremonial on the Apocalypse of John,” Biblical Research 28 (1983). 29 de Silva, Seeing Things John’s Way: The Rhetoric of the Book of Revelation, 194ff. 30 Eugene Boring, “The Theology of Revelation: The Lord Our God the Almighty Reigns’,” Interpretation 40 (1986): 258. 31 de Silva, Seeing Things John’s Way: The Rhetoric of the Book of Revelation, 175. See also David A. de Silva, “The Strategic Arousal of Emotions in the Apocalypse of John: A Rhetorical-Critical Investigation of the Oracles to the Seven Churches,” New Testament Studies 54 (2008): 90–144.

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are commended for an ability to endure, for success in “holding fast” to Christ’s name, and for the refusal to tolerate evildoers.32 In addition to praising or honoring those within the seven churches who conquer, which Revelation associates with resisting evil even to the point of death (e.g. 15:2), the oracles shame some within the audience for inappropriate associations. For example, even though participating in dinners and civic festivals where food had been dedicated to a pagan deity would have been a way of maintaining social status in the first century, the communities of Pergamum and Thyatira are reprimanded for eating things sacrificed to idols (ei0dwlo/quta).33 Revelation’s audiences are also shamed for not having their works found perfect and for being “lukewarm.” This sense of shame is heightened by the fact that these oracles are spoken by the Risen Christ, an authority figure and the ultimate conqueror within the narrative (e.g 3:21). Christ reminds the audience throughout the oracles that he “knows your works.” Revelation’s privileging of the visual, as described in the previous chapter, makes the assertion that Christ knows the successes and failures of the seven churches even more viable. Christ knows what occurs in the seven churches, since he sees the seven churches, for he stands in the midst of seven lampstands, which are the seven churches (1:13, 20). Here knowing is metaphorically equated with seeing (KNOWING IS SEEING). If Christ can see the churches, in the form of lampstands, he surely knows what they are up to. Further emphasizing the Risen Christ’s ability to see all that surrounds him, he is revealed to John as a Lamb with seven, all-seeing, eyes (5:6). As Harry O. Maier explains this “threat of being seen is a powerful means of assuring obedience and shaping adherence.”34 By placing Revelation’s audience in the role of being seen, John works to modify the community’s identity. Not only does Christ see and know the audience, John’s visionary report allows the audience to view itself from a quite different perspective – a heavenly perspective. This includes the Risen Christ’s description of what is occurring within the communities. Revelation’s negative depictions of communal behavior include images of humans worshipping demons and idols (10:20) and following the Beast (13:8).35 These negative portrayals of group behavior bring the positive views into relief and urge, or perhaps force, the audience toward the positive portrayals. In this way John seeks to create his 32 Although it is common to highlight the negative parts of these oracles, much of the language in Rev 2–3 is positive. See Steven J. Friesen, “Satan’s Throne, Imperial Cults and the Social Settings of Revelation,” Journal for the Study of the New Testament 27, no.3 (2005): 351– 73. 33 de Silva, Seeing Things John’s Way: The Rhetoric of the Book of Revelation, 60–61. 34 Harry O. Maier, Apocalypse Recalled: The Book of Revelation After Christendom (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2002). Maier notes that the idea of an all-seeing and all-knowing God is not unique to Revelation, as it is found in other apocalyptic and other early Christian literature, such as the apocalyptic Shepherd of Hermas. 35 For a survey of the different scholarly views on Revelation’s ecclesiological imagery, see Felise Tavo, “The Ecclesial Notions of the Apocalypse in Recent Studies,” Currents in Biblical Research 1, no. 1 (2002): 112–36.

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audience’s identity. Revelation’s dualistic view suggests that if a reader does not identify with the positive identities, he/she necessarily identifies with the negative. There are no other options in Revelation. This dualism can take a violent tone, as those who espouse positions different than John meet horrific fates. For example, possible rape and death await the prophetess “Jezebel” and her “children” (2:20-23).36 In other words, John attempts to force his vision on the audience. This is only heightened by the visionary privilege afforded to John in the text, a privilege in which his vision is equated with the divine perspective, as described in the previous chapter. Revelation similarly uses metaphorical imagery to create a positive communal identity. In a number of places within the narrative “the people of God…take center stage,” as Stephen Pattemore writes.37 Pattemore’s use of theatrical language points to the inherently visual and metaphorical nature of these images, which include images of souls under the altar of God (6:9-11),38 a redefined Israel (7:1-10), the woman clothed in the sun and her children (12:1-17),39 a multitude of virginal males (14:1-5),40 and an image of the community as the Bride of the Lamb – the New Jerusalem (19:6-8; 21:1ff.).41 In at least two instances John prompts the audience to envision these images along with him (7:9; 14:1). These images are metaphorical, depicting the faithful in ways that are not equivalent to communities within the literal world, the world in which the people of the cities of Asia Minor work and live; instead, these images allow the audience places in which to participate in the unfolding of the divine reality. One of the most prevalent metaphorical mappings used by John in his depictions of a positive communal identity is THE FAITHFUL ARE A NEW ISRAEL in which those who remain faithful to the word of God and the testimony of Jesus are characterized through images evoking the biblical concept of ISRAEL. This conceptual mapping appears through various metaphorical expressions. For instance, in his initial address to the seven 36 Tina Pippin, “‘And I Will Strike Her Children Dead’: Death and the Deconstruction of Social Location,” in Reading from This Place, vol.1, ed. Fernando Segovia and Mary Ann Tolbert (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1995), 195. 37 Pattemore, The People of God in the Apocalypse: Discourse, Structure, and Exegesis, 66. 38 Ibid., 68ff. 39 In a discussion of modern scholarly treatments of this imagery, Tavo notes that most scholars understand this imagery as communal. See Felise Tavo, Woman, Mother and Bride: An Exegetical Investigation in the “Ecclesial” Notions of the Apocalypse (Leuven: Peeters, 2007), 225–96. 40 For a discussion of this imagery in relation to Roman understandings of masculinity, see Lynn R. Huber, “Sexually Explicit? Re-reading Revelation’s 144,000 Virgins as a Response to Roman Discourses,” Journal of Men, Masculinities and Spirituality 2, no.1 (2008). 41 For a discussion of this image as a community image, see Lynn R. Huber, Like a Bride Adorned: Reading Metaphor in John’s Apocalypse (New York: T&T Clark International, 2007), 144–51. Tavo would also include the imagery of the two witnesses of Rev 11:1-13 in Revelation’s ecclesial imagery. See Tavo, Woman, Mother and Bride: An Exegetical Investigation in the “Ecclesial” Notions of the Apocalypse, 173–223.

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communities, John asserts that Christ “made us a kingdom, priests to his God and Father” (1:6), imagery evoked in the heavenly throne room as well (5:10).42 This imagery alludes to Exodus, when God tells Moses that the Israelites are to be a “priestly kingdom” (Ex 19:6). The identity imagined for Israel is the identity imagined for the faithful in John’s audience. However, John seemingly imagines his audience through the conceptual domain ISRAEL, which he envisions as a “new” Israel, and not necessarily in terms of actual, first-century Jewish communities. One of the most significant images in John’s depiction of the faithful as a new Israel occurs in chapter 7. After seeing four angels at the corners of the earth, John hears the sealing of 144,000, 12,000 from each of the twelve tribes of Israel. As David Aune notes, John hears a type of census list.43 Immediately after hearing this census, John sees “a great multitude that no one is able to count from every nation and tribe and people and tongue, standing before the throne and before the Lamb” (7:9). Following the pattern in 5:5-6, when John hears that he will see the Lion of Judah and then turns to see the slaughtered Lamb, here the image of a complete and full Israel (12 x 12,000 evoking wholeness) is imagined visually as an innumerable group of the faithful, who are not limited in terms of origin.44 Therefore, John applies the conceptual domain ISRAEL to those he believes to be faithful to God and the Lamb. In this way, he offers a redefinition of what it means to be Israel that is based upon faithfulness to Christ and not traditional markers of Jewish identity. This does not exclude Jewish members in the idea of Israel, but it suggests that being part of a New Israel is not equivalent to being Jewish.

Thinking with Women in the Roman World As mentioned at the beginning of this chapter, the elaborately decorated Ara Pacis demonstrates how imperial rhetoric visually communicated the beliefs and hopes of the Roman imperial mythology, especially the hope for a golden age.45 One of the striking aspects of this monument is its use of female and family imagery. In addition to the corresponding Roma and Tellus reliefs, the southern frieze depicts a religious procession that includes Augustus’ wife

42 There are differences of opinion on how to translate the phrase basilei/an i(erei[v, whether it should be “a kingdom, priests…” or a “a kingdom of priests.” As Aune notes, this is complicated by the fact that in 5:10 John clearly refers to saints being made “a kingdom and priests” (basilei/an kai\ i9erei=v). For a discussion of this verse, see Aune, Revelation, 47–9. 43 The meaning of the image of the 144,000 has been much debated by scholars. Among the questions related to this text are the identity of the sealed, what is the significance in the tribes’ order, and what is the relationship between the 144,000 and the great multitude that John sees after hearing the sealing of the 144,000. For a thorough discussion of the ways these questions have been answered, see ibid., 439–47. 44 Ibid. 45 For a discussion of the Ara Pacis as visual rhetoric, see Lamp, “The Ara Pacis Augustae.”

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Livia, along with other imperial women and children.46 Livia’s inclusion on the frieze, which was dedicated on her birthday, points to her symbolic role as materfamilias of the imperial family and, therefore, of the Empire. 47 The presence of other women and children builds upon these themes, highlighting the importance of marrying and bearing children, especially within the upper classes.48 The altar’s image program, which may have inspired copies for display in the provinces,49 points to the importance of women – mythic, generic, and actual – for thinking about communal identity in the Roman context. (In fact, as we will see in later chapters, this use of female imagery is not limited to the ancient world.) The conceptual domain of WOMAN, which includes a culturally determined understanding of the female body, especially marked by a womb in the ancient imagination, and characteristics culturally associated with women (stereotyped or idealized), is used to organize how one imagines or thinks about things other than literal women, including cities, countries, and people groups. Even though the images of women on the Ara Pacis tell of Roman abundance and peace, images of women in Roman texts just as frequently communicate stories of domination and defeat. The personification of a people group’s fate in female form appeared throughout the Empire in depictions of defeated people groups or nations (e00/qnov) as women. Such was the case at the Sebasteion, a temple dedicated to the imperial family, at Aphrodisias in Asia Minor. Among the numerous reliefs at this temple complex were representations of fifty nations depicted as life-sized women (although only a fraction are extant).50 The women depicted are not specific individuals, rather they are generic female bodies surrounded by markers of ethnicity, including hairstyle and dress, and standing upon bases identifying each as a particular nation (A NATION IS A WOMAN). Unlike the depiction of Roma on the Ara Pacis, which highlights the city-woman’s victory by showing her atop a pile of armor, a number of the images of the Sebasteion are characterized by gendered symbols of defeat, such as bared breasts and unkempt hair, and all “now show deference to Roman rule,” according to Davina C. Lopez.51 At times the images of defeat have sexual connotations. The Emperor Claudius, for example, holds Britannia by her hair and stands behind her, as though he might penetrate her from behind. This imagery draws upon the Roman construction of gender in relation to sexual penetration, in which the feminine 46 For a discussion of some of the difficulties with identifying the figures in the Ara Pacis procession, see Inez Scott Ryberg, “The Procession of the Ara Pacis,” Memoirs of the American Academy in Rome 19 (1949): 77–101. 47 Susan E. Wood, Imperial Women: A Study in Public Images, 40 B.C.-A.D. 68 (Leiden: Brill, 2000), 101–104. 48 Lamp, “The Ara Pacis Augustae,” 17. 49 Spaeth, “The Goddess Ceres in the Ara Pacis Augustae and the Carthage Relief,” 95. 50 Davina C. Lopez, Apostle to the Conquered: Reimagining Paul’s Mission (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2008), 42–5; R. R. R. Smith, “Simulacra Gentium: The Ethne from the Sebasteion at Aphrodisias,” The Journal of Roman Studies 78 (1988): 50–77. 51 Lopez, Apostle to the Conquered: Reimagining Paul’s Mission, 42–5.

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gender is associated with being penetrated (passive) and the masculine gender is associated with the act of penetration (active).52 This view of gender, which builds upon the metaphorical equation between women’s bodies and containers that can be entered and penetrated (A WOMAN IS A CONTAINER) provides a foundation for the metaphorical equation of sex with conquest and domination (CONQUEST IS SEXUAL PENETRATION/RAPE).53 Specifically, within the images of the Sebasteion, the metaphorical mapping A NATION IS A WOMAN is blended with the metaphorical equation of war and sexual conquest. In these representations, the female form and the sexualized female represents weakness and violability. The female body, as understood in Roman gender hierarchy, is necessarily marked by these characteristics making it a logical choice for representing Rome’s subjects.54 The gender assumptions and hierarchy of the Roman world make the conceptual domain WOMAN a particularly effective metaphorical tool for depicting the fate of those nations and peoples that have been conquered and dominated, since the feminine gender and female bodies were understood as being designed for penetration and domination. The female bodies of the Sebasteion are carved in stone and visually signify the metaphorical blend A DEFEATED NATION IS A PENETRATED WOMAN, an image that stands in stark contrast to the powerful Roma on the Ara Pacis. Rhetorically, we can imagine these images arousing a sense of pride and honor in an audience that identifies with or that desires to identify with Roman power and a sense of shame and fear in the audience that would see itself potentially as “an other” vis-à-vis Rome. In the province of Asia Minor, where the Sebasteion is located, it is possible that a variety of responses were present, as the elite sought to secure Roman patronage and prestige. What matters for our purposes is that the use of female imagery to imagine communities can be used for various purposes to inspire pride, represent conquest, offer hope, etc. These metaphorical mappings also draw upon cultural perceptions about women (the cultural domain WOMAN), which relate to expectations regarding actual women. In addition to the use of the generic female body to represent A NATION, in the Roman context, actual women were used as metonymic representations of communities, people groups, and cities: Specific women were used to represent the entirety of their communities. The most significant example of this within the Roman context was the Vestal Virgins, priestesses in the public cult of Vesta active during Republican and Imperial Rome. The Vestals were six young women taken in childhood to live in the Roman Forum as priestesses to tend the sacred flame of Vesta and to pray for the people of Rome. Removed from her family and kept from marriage until her thirty-year 52 Holt N. Parker, “The Teratogenic Grid,” in Roman Sexualities, ed. Judith P. Hallett and Marilyn B. Skinner (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1997), 47–65. 53 Craig A. Williams, Roman Homosexuality: Ideologies of Masculinity in Classical Antiquity (New York: Oxford University Press, 1999), 104–107, 35–7. 54 Lopez, Apostle to the Conquered: Reimagining Paul’s Mission, 28.

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term expired, a Vestal represented the city of Rome as a whole. “In a ritual sense the Vestals were Rome,” Adriane Staples explains.55 The Vestal was believed to have a particular attunement to the physical city even being able to detect a runaway slaves within the boundaries of the city, as though the Vestal herself was being tread upon.56 Further, the safety of the city, especially imagined as the inviolability of the city walls, was linked to the virginity of the Vestals. This is a metaphorical move based upon an equation between women, cities, and containers. Women’s bodies are imagined as containers (A WOMAN IS A CONTAINER), which can protect what they contain, such as a fetus, or which can be penetrated through intercourse or violated through rape. Cities, similarly, are imagined as containers, as their city walls protect, but are violable (A CITY IS A CONTAINER). Thus, when the Vestal’s body is metaphorically mapped on to the city of Rome, the maintenance of the Vestal’s virginity becomes necessary for Rome’s well-being. According to this logic, as Staples explains, the punishment of a supposedly wayward Vestal provided a mechanism for staving off a threat to the city.57 The Vestals, an elite group of women or girls in the Roman world, were not the only women who could be read as metonymic indicators of the city or Empire’s well-being. Almost any woman, especially if she was a citizen or noblewoman, could serve as a representation of the people in general, especially when it came to the community’s social or moral health. Imperial discourse included nostalgia for an idealized past, the “good old days,” and the hope for a renewed golden age,58 and Roman matrons in particular were used to characterize the present, which was ostensibly in need of reform. Past mothers and wives were lauded for their faithfulness and chastity, while contemporary women were characterized in terms of frivolity, promiscuity, and degeneracy.59 The legendary wife of one of the founders of the Roman Republic, Lucretia, served as the example of the ideal matron. Both Livy and Ovid describe how she was proven chaste when her husband’s colleagues try to catch her being unfaithful. Instead, they find her working with wool, an activity that serves as a metaphorical representation of chastity and ideal domesticity (MARITAL PIETY IS WOOL WORKING).60 For both Ovid and Livy, there is a sense that the honor of past women such as Lucretia had 55 Ariadne Staples, From Good Goddess to Vestal Virgins: Sex and Category in Roman Religion (London: Routledge, 2002), 130. See also Holt N. Parker, “Why Were the Vestals Virgins? Or the Chastity of Women and the Safety of the Roman State,” The American Journal of Philology 125, no.4 (2004): 563–601. 56 Staples, From Good Goddess to Vestal Virgins: Sex and Category in Roman Religion, 147–8. 57 Ibid., 135. 58 Galinksy, Augustan Culture, 105. 59 Suzanne Dixon, Reading Roman Women: Sources, Genres and Real Life (London: Duckworth, 2001). 60 Livy, History of Rome, trans. B. O. Foster, Loeb Classical Library (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1919), 1.58.7–8; Ovid, Fasti, ed. G. P. Goold, trans. James G. Frazer, 2nd ed., (Loeb Classical Library (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1989), 2.685–853.

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faltered in recent days. In this vein, the satirist Juvenal lamented that while in past women “gave suck to lusty babes,” modern women were, from his perspective, metaphorically urinating upon the altar of Chastity.61 For Juvenal, as with other authors, the Roman matron serves as a sign of the Empire’s overall moral condition, imagined negatively or positively. Again, this is a variation on the A CITY IS A WOMAN mapping in which a woman or group of women’s morality metaphorically represents the morality of the city or community (A CITY’S MORAL CONDITION IS A WOMAN’S MORAL CONDITION). Given the tendency to use women as an indicator of a community’s moral standing it is not surprising that there is concern in the Roman world for regulating women’s behavior as part of the domus, the home. The metaphorical connection between cities or nations and women was taken in a literal direction, as imperial powers and patrons championed a vision of the domus that understood reproduction and fulfillment of idealized gender roles as part of supporting the Empire. Framed as returning to the traditions of the past, Augustus instituted legislation designed to encourage marriage and childbirth and to discourage divorce and adultery – the Lex Julia de maritandis ordinibus (18 BCE), lex Julia de adulteriis (18 BCE) and the Lex Papia Poppaea (9 CE).62 Milnor explains, The first emperor is famous for having continuously and deliberately focused public attention on what might be called traditional roman domestic values: the sanctity of marriage, the joy of child-rearing, the importance of women’s household tasks. This may be seen not just in his programme of social legislation, which sought to preserve the aristocratic household by means of inducements for those who conformed and punishments for those who did not, but in more personal statements as well.63

These personal statements included a speech supposedly given by Augustus to Senators, reported by Dio Cassius, in which he equates being a true Roman man with being married and describes the ideal mate or wife as being “chaste, domestic, a good housekeeper, a rearer of children.”64 Whether imperial attempts at shaping thought and action were successful, of course, is another question. However, even after Augustus’ death, his social program was espoused as an ideal. Therefore, in spite of traditions that portrayed him as morally inept, Domitian reportedly revived the Augustan marriage laws in the second half 61 Juvenal, Juvenal and Persius, 6.305–27. Not all had such drastic perspectives on the issue. For a discussion of a more nuanced reaction to this social change, see the discussion of Livy in Milnor, Gender, Domesticity, and the Age of Augustus: Inventing Private Life, 140–85. 62 Augustus, Brunt, and Moore, Res Gestae Divi Augusti, 8.5. See also Dio Cassius, Roman History, trans. Herbert B. Foster, Loeb Classical Library (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1924), 56.1–10. For a discussion of Roman marriage laws, see Eva Cantarella, Pandora’s Daughters: The Role and Status of Women in Greek and Roman Antiquity, trans. Maureen B. Fant (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1987), 135–70. 63 Milnor, Gender, Domesticity, and the Age of Augustus: Inventing Private Life, 11. 64 Cassius, Roman History, 56.3.3. See also, Huber, Like a Bride Adorned: Reading Metaphor in John’s Apocalypse: 120–27.

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of the first century CE and explicitly promoted the ideal domus embraced by his predecessor.65 Again, female imagery played an important role in these discourses lauding the domus. Eve d’Ambra, for instance, explains how the image program on the frieze in the Forum Transitorium in Rome, sponsored by Domitian, honored ideal womanhood by depicting proper Roman matrons spinning and weaving, activities metaphorically associated with chastity and being a “good wife” (MARITAL PIETY IS WOOL WORKING).66 While actual women surely related in different ways to the ideal, the discourses of the Empire that have survived seem remarkably consistent in valuing chastity, domesticity, and bearing children as markers of the ideal woman or wife.67 Additionally, even though imperial legislation was focused primarily upon the actions of citizens, the gender ideals undergirding the legislation were communicated to inhabitants throughout the Empire regardless of class through imagery, discourse, and social pressure.68 Thus, the funerary inscriptions honoring female citizens and freed-women throughout the Empire shared a concern for highlighting the honoree’s fidelity and domestic abilities.69 These dedications were not only about the individual women being honored; rather, they were also statements about the Empire’s well-being and moral health. Within the discourses of the Roman Empire, the metaphorical relationship between women and people groups, cities, countries, etc. is complex and works in various directions. Not only are the characteristics associated with women and female bodies used to conceptually organize how a community or society is imagined (A NATION IS A WOMAN, A CITY IS A WOMAN, A WOMAN IS A CONTAINER, A CITY IS A CONTAINER), actual women are used as metaphorical indicators of a community’s well being (A WOMAN IS A CITY, A CITY’S MORAL CONDITION IS A WOMAN’S MORAL CONDITION). Although the personification of cities and nations may not be about actual women per se, the personifications are entwined with cultural 65 E.g. Martial, Epigrams, trans. Walter C. A. Kerr, revised, Loeb Classical Library (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1978), 6.2; Cassius, Roman History, 67.2; Suetonius, Lives of the Caesars, trans. J. C. Rolfe, vol.1, Loeb Classical Library (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1914), “Domitian” 1, 8. See also Brian Jones, The Emperor Domitian (London: Routledge, 1992), 72. 66 Eve D’Ambra, Private Lives, Imperial Virtues: The Frieze of the Forum Transitorium in Rome (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1993). See also Huber, Like a Bride Adorned: Reading Metaphor in John’s Apocalypse, 123–24; Miriam Peskowitz, Spinning Fantasies: Rabbis, Gender and History (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1997), 71. 67 Although both men and women worked with textiles in the context of Roman Judea, Miriam B. Peskowitz observes, that the metaphorical connection between spinning and weaving and marital piety and domesticity permeated Jewish discourses as well. In many ways, the firstcentury Jewish discourses on gender resonated with the dominant Roman culture, pointing to the popularity of the motif, Peskowitz, Spinning Fantasies: Rabbis, Gender and History, 97. 68 Beryl Rawson, “From ‘Daily Life’ to ‘Demography’,” in Women in Antiquity: New Assessments, ed. Richard Hawley and Barbara Levick (London: Routledge, 1995), 16. 69 Elaine Fantham and et. al., Women in the Classical World (New York: Oxford University Press, 1994), 369–70.

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assumptions about women, including assumptions about ideal behavior. The personifications and metaphorical associations draw upon and reinforce cultural assumptions about women.

Thinking with Women in Jewish Prophetic Traditions Scholars often note the importance of the Hebrew Bible prophets for understanding Revelation’s rhetoric, since prophetic language and imagery provide much of the source material for this visionary narrative.70 This dependence on prophetic traditions reflects John’s understanding of the Apocalypse as a prophetic text. Even though he does not adopt the title “prophet” for himself, John characterizes the Apocalypse in terms of prophecy at the opening and the closing of his narrative: “Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of the prophecy” (1:3) and “Blessed is the one who keeps the words of prophecy of this book” (22:7; cf. 22:10, 18, 19). John clearly wants his audience to think of this narrative as being prophetic. Among other things, this means that like his prophetic predecessors John responds to his social and historical context using images and metaphors to help his audience understand and interpret that context. Thus, while John appropriates traditional prophetic metaphors and mappings, such as the metaphorical equation of cities and women, he does so in ways that engage realities pertinent to the congregations in first-century Asia Minor.71 As such, John’s use of prophetic traditions should be understood as part of his creating a counter-mythology to the mythology of the Empire. John employs the metaphors of the prophetic texts as part of his “symbolic resistance.”72 Among the prophetic metaphors that John recasts in his apocalyptic vision is the depiction of a city or community as a woman. The personification of cities and people groups as women appears throughout the Hebrew Bible, but it is employed frequently to characterize Jerusalem, Zion, or Israel as God’s wife (JERUSALEM IS A WIFE and GOD IS A HUSBAND). J. Andrew Dearman notes, “Jerusalem is the most frequently referred to female ‘character’ in the Hebrew Bible.”73 Even though it is used in distinct literary contexts, such as 70 For a detailed discussion of the variety of ways John employed the texts of the Hebrew Bible, especially prophetic and visionary texts, in Revelation and the history of how these allusions have been understood, see Beale, The Book of Revelation: A Commentary on the Greek Text, 76–98. For a discussion on the way in which John presents himself vis-à-vis the prophets, see David E. Aune, “The Social Matrix of the Apocalypse of John,” Biblical Research 26 (1981): 16–32. 71 For a discussion of prophetic literature as responsive to political context, see David L. Petersen, The Prophetic Literature: An Introduction (Louisville: Westminter John Knox, 2002), 31. 72 Although Friesen does not specifically address Revelation’s use of prophetic texts in this essay, he characterizes the text overall in terms of a symbolic resistance against the mythology of the Roman Empire, Friesen, “Myth and Symbolic Resistance in Revelation 13.” 73 J. Andrew Dearman, “Daughter Zion and Her Place in God’s Household,” Horizons in Biblical Theology 31(2009): 144. For a discussion of the different places in which this imagery

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Ezekiel, Jeremiah, and Hosea, the “marital metaphor,” the conceptual mapping THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN A COMMUNITY AND A DEITY IS A MARRIAGE, shares a set of family resemblances. So Athalya Brenner writes, In this metaphor…YHWH is always the faithful, loving husband; the people, Judah/ Israel or Jerusalem/Samaria, are always an adulterous, wayward wife. The marriage contract, broken unilaterally by the metaphorical wife, signifies the alleged unilateral breaking of the covenant with YHWH by the metaphorized people. The metaphor constitutes an act of religious propaganda anchored in preconceptions of gender relations and the nature of female sexuality which reinforces a vision of negative female sexuality as against positive or neutral male sexuality…74

As Brenner observes, the marital metaphor is typically used in negative contexts and, as a result, the conceptual mapping JERUSALEM IS A WIFE draws upon some of the most negative cultural stereotypes about women and the feminine gender. Among the associations that are often highlighted in these metaphorical mappings is the image of the woman or wife’s body. The prophets are able to construct an image of woman through references to women’s body parts, including breasts (e.g. Hos 2:2), and allusions to women’s bodily functions, including menstruation (Ezk 16:6). These references make the imagery vivid, setting the image of a woman before the eyes of the audience, which is an effective use of metaphor according to Aristotle (see Chapter 1). That many of the body parts stereotypically associated with women in the ancient world are connected to sexuality directs the audience’s attention to another aspect of the concept WOMAN employed in these prophetic traditions, namely the stereotype that women have a propensity for promiscuity. In particular, the metaphorical depiction of Jerusalem as God’s wife often revolves around God’s wife as unfaithful or “whoring.”75 Mary E. Shields, discussing Ezekiel 16, notes that this focus upon the body, especially the woman’s genitalia, also raises the idea of shame.76 Thus, by visualizing Jerusalem as a woman and detailing her body parts, the prophets communicate the shamefulness of the city. By evoking the image of the woman’s body, furthermore, the prophets are similarly afforded a site for depicting Jerusalem’s punishment. This is most vivid in Ezekiel 16 where Jerusalem’s punishment involves being stripped and cut into pieces (Ezk 16:39-40; cf. Hos 2:10).77

occurs in the Hebrew Bible and for the ways feminist scholars have interpreted this imagery, see Baumann, Love and Violence. 74 Athalya Brenner, “Introduction,” in A Feminist Companion to the Latter Prophets, ed. Athalya Brenner (Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1995), 26. 75 Ibid., 43–6. 76 Mary E. Shields, “Multiple Exposures : Body Rhetoric and Gender Characterization in Ezekiel 16,” Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion 14, no.1 (Spr 1998): 9–10. 77 Peggy L. Day, “The Bitch Had It Coming to Her: Rhetoric and Interpretation in Ezekiel 16,” Biblical Interpretation 8, no. 3 (2000): 231–54; Shields, “Multiple Exposures.”

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While much attention has been given to the use of female imagery in these prophetic metaphors, Christl M. Maier explains that the metaphorical depictions of Jerusalem prompt audiences to think in terms of a space and communities as well.78 Jerusalem as a city is often a metonym for the people of Israel as a group. In this way, the Hebrew Bible personification of Jerusalem as a Woman is also the personification of the texts’ presumed audience. As a tool for thinking about the city and particularly the city as a people group, the image of Jerusalem as God’s “whoring” wife is traditionally understood as a reference to the people’s idolatry or apostasy (APOSTASY IS ADULTERY). Even though God is a faithful husband to Jerusalem, the metaphor implies that Jerusalem engages in sexual relationships with other gods or with nations associated with other gods. Ezekiel, who offers one of the most fully developed uses of the marital metaphor, depicts the feminized Jerusalem as abandoning her “husband” for foreign nations and religions practices: But you trusted in your beauty, and played the whore because of your fame, and you played the whore with the Egyptians, your lustful neighbors, multiplying your whoring, to provoke me to anger. Therefore I stretched out my hand against you, reduced your rations, and gave you up to the will of your enemies, the daughters of the Philistines, who were ashamed of your lewd behavior. You played the whore with the Assyrians, because you were insatiable; you played the whore with them, and still you were not satisfied. You multiplied your whoring with Chaldea, the land of merchants; and even with this you were not satisfied. (Ezk 16:26-29; NRSV)

In this passage, as in others, the sense is that Jerusalem is motivated to pursue these adulterous relationships not out of love, but out of desire for power and perhaps wealth. Ezekiel, however, underscores the depth of Jerusalem’s infidelity by describing “her” as paying her lovers rather than the other way around (Ezk 16:31-33).79 Unlike the depiction of the defeated nations at Aphrodisias, the prophetic marital metaphor serves not as a description of the “other,” but as a description of the prophet’s audience. The metaphorical images of Jerusalem or Zion as a woman are a vehicle for shaping a community’s identity and selfunderstanding. However, the author of Ezekiel forces the text’s audience to sympathize with the cuckolded deity-husband, by telling the story from his perspective. The audience witnesses as God finds an orphan, cleans her, clothes her, and eventually marries her. Ezekiel describes the deity clothing the young Jerusalem “with embroidered cloth and with sandals of fine leather” (16:10). She is bound in fine linen and adorned with bracelets, ornaments, and earrings. 78 Maier, Daughter Zion, Mother Zion: Gender, Space and the Sacred in Ancient Israel, 2. For a discussion of the metaphorical use of female imagery to characterize Jerusalem, see also Julie Galambush, Jerusalem in the Book of Ezekiel: The City as Yahweh’s Wife, Society of Biblical Literature Dissertation Series (Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1992). 79 Baumann, Love and Violence, 150.

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Only after this elaborate depiction of God’s attentiveness toward Jerusalem does the prophet describe the city’s “whorings.” This rhetorical move forces the audience to see itself benefitting from the goodness of the divine and then pushes it to accept the blame for its own fate – the overtaking of Jerusalem and the destruction of the Temple by Babylon.80 Through the use of the metaphor JERUSALEM IS A WIFE, Ezekiel creates a rhetorical distance between the audience and JERUSALEM. By allowing the audience to “see” its behavior, Ezekiel hopes to persuade them to accept his assessment of their situation, which exonerates the Divine.81 Furthermore, while the text’s description of Jerusalem’s punishment is horrific, the personified city is stripped naked and dismembered, the story does imagine that the city-woman will eventually remember and be ashamed of her past ways. In other words, the text of Ezekiel prompts the audience to change its ways, to repair its relationship with the Divine (16:60-63).82 In some sense, Ezekiel does not interpret the destruction of the Temple and Jerusalem as the end of the story; rather, there is a need for the audience, the people of Jerusalem, to rethink their relationship to the Divine. Thus, the image of a woman provides a tool for the audience to reimagine its identity as a community and its relationship to God. Although Ezekiel 16 provides just one example of how the A CITY IS A WOMAN mapping appears in the Hebrew Bible prophetic tradition, it is an important example for understanding Revelation’s female imagery. Many interpreters of Revelation’s imagery, especially the image of the Great Whore, point to John’s appropriation of the prophetic tradition of using adultery or prostitution imagery as a metaphor for idolatry and for foreign relations (APOSTASY IS ADULTERY). The metaphorical precedent of the prophetic texts is important for thinking about the image of the Bride as well. By evoking the APOSTASY IS ADULTERY metaphor, John potentially prompts his audience to think about the metaphorical depiction of God as a faithful husband and as the community as a wife. These metaphorical connections raise certain expectations about the importance of community faithfulness and fidelity in John’s audience and they begin to signal that John sees his audience as inhabiting the role of the Bride.

Woman as Metaphor In a 1988 essay entitled “Woman as Metaphor,” philosopher Eva Feder Kittay observes, “Women’s activities and women’s relations to man persistently

80 Day, “The Bitch Had It Coming to Her: Rhetoric and Interpretation in Ezekiel 16,” 234. 81 Maier, Daughter Zion, Mother Zion: Gender, Space and the Sacred in Ancient Israel, 133. 82 Katheryn Pfisterer Darr, “Ezekiel’s Justifications of God: Teaching Troubling Texts,” Journal for the Study of the Old Testament, no.55 (S 1992): 106.

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are used as metaphors for man’s activities and projects.”83 Put into the terms of conceptual metaphor theory, the conceptual domain WOMAN, which includes cultural beliefs about what constitutes the female body and women’s experience, is often used for imagining things and concepts other than women. WOMAN, in particular, is often used for thinking about activities culturally associated with men. Plato, for example, uses procreation as metaphor for intellectual activity.84 While this use of WOMAN as a tool for thinking finds its way into modern context, being applied to things as varied as nations and cars, it is a tradition that had considerable valance in the discourses of the ancient worlds in which Revelation is situated. As we have begun to see, in ancient Roman and Jewish discourses, WOMAN appears metaphorically in conjunction with lands, nations, cities, and people groups. This metaphorical impulse yielded a variety of related conceptual mappings, such as A SPACE IS A WOMAN, A LAND IS A WOMAN, A NATION IS A WOMAN. Discussing the importance of these traditions in classical Greece, Page duBois comments, “This metaphor, associating the woman’s body and the earth…expresses a relationship that is not merely stereotypical but is so deeply felt by the culture that it appears everywhere: in literary texts, ritual practices, monuments, and in mythological narratives.”85 So prevalent is the metaphorical blending of the concept WOMAN with land, nations, cities, earth, and the like, that the target domain WOMAN is sometimes imagined through the conceptual domain LAND: A WOMAN IS A LAND, rather than A LAND IS A WOMAN. For instance, procreation is described as “plowing” and a woman is envisioned as either a fertile or unfertile field.86 In addition to being understood metaphorically in terms of EARTH and LAND, women and spaces are often imagined metaphorically as containers (A WOMAN IS A CONTAINER, A SPACE IS A CONTAINER). The metaphorical connection between women and containers appears in the material remains of the ancient world, where vases were sometimes adorned with female faces and even nipples suggestive of women’s breasts. This metaphorical equation highlights the association between women and wombs or uteruses. The womb was seen as a defining feature of WOMAN. As such, procreation could be imagined as putting bread in ovens or putting a seed in a hole: In either case, WOMAN was imagined as a passive receptacle for

83 Eva Feder Kittay, “Woman as Metaphor,” Hypatia 3, no.2 (1988): 63. While I use the language of conceptual domains in reference to Kittay’s work, as well as using the convention of all upper-case letters when referring to these domains, this is not something employed by Kittay. 84 I am not, strictly speaking, talking about biological sex with “Man” and “Woman,” but am referencing the social constructions or concepts that are traditionally and culturally aligned with particular markers of biological sex. However, Kittay does draw upon object-relations theory, as articulated by feminist psychologist Nancy Chodorow, to describe why biological women do not see Woman as Other. Kittay, “Woman as Metaphor.” 85 Page duBois, Sowing the Body: Psychoanalysis and Ancient Representations of Women (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1991), 39. 86 Ibid., 39–43.

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MAN’S activity and products.87 Spaces, especially cities, likewise, have historically been imagined through the CONTAINER domain, reflecting the fact that ancient cities traditionally were walled or bounded in some way (A CITY IS A CONTAINER). As a result, there is a long tradition of blending the concept WOMAN with that of CITY, since both are conceptually imagined as CONTAINERS. Again, this is not a tradition left to the ancients, but a metaphorical phenomenon that continues to be meaningful. So why is the metaphorical blending of WOMAN, CITY, and CONTAINER so persistent? Sue Best offers a glimpse into what is expressed through these metaphorical equations, writing, This feminizing of spaces seems to suggest, on the one hand, the production of a safe, familiar, clearly defined entity, which, because it is female, should be appropriately docile or able to be dominated. But, on the other hand, this very same production also underscores an anxiety about this ‘entity’ and the precariousness of its boundedness.88

Understood in terms of the CONTAINER domain, as a bounded entity, we will see that the image of the city or woman as safe “container” can be turned upon its head to create the image of an un-safe space, a space that can be violated and a space that must be escaped. We will see that an author can be creative with these metaphorical equations, pushing the boundaries (pun intended) of the A CITY IS A WOMAN mapping. In the next chapter we will examine how John metaphorically blends the concepts WOMAN and CITY as he constructs images of the Whore and Bride to prompt his audience to think about its communal identity. We will identify the conceptual domains (networks of related ideas and patterns of relations) and metaphorical mappings that Revelation employs in conjunction with the text’s depiction of cities as women, a depiction built upon the conceptual mapping A CITY IS A WOMAN. We will address how the corresponding and opposing images of the Great Whore and the Bride of the Lamb, both of which draw upon shared conceptual domains and conceptual mappings, are used by John to create a communal identity. Revelation crafts this identity in opposition to the claims of Roman power even while this imagery mimics how Roman discourses think with women. These images exhibit some of the variety and complexity inherent in the Roman imagery, while sharing a concern for the community’s identity in relationship to the Divine, which is akin to the imagery of the Hebrew Bible.

87 Ibid., 47–9, 110–29. 88 Sue Best, “Sexualizing Space,” in Sexy Bodies: The Strange Carnalities of Feminism (London: Routledge, 1995), 183.

Chapter 3 Thinking with Women in Revelation: Babylon and New Jerusalem The Book of Revelation expresses what is real and what is good from the point of view of believer in the God of Israel and the God of Christ. It thus provides a story in and through which the people of God discover who they are and what they are to do. Adela Yabro Collins, “Reading the Book of Revelation in the Twentieth Century”1

Revelation is strikingly male-dominated until mid-way through the narrative when a series of “prominent women” appear in the text – the Woman Clothed in the Sun, the Bride of the Lamb, and the Great Whore.2 By describing these female characters as prominent, I mean to highlight that they are structurally prominent in John’s narrative, standing out as important textual turning points and rhetorical figures.3 John draws attention to these metaphorical women by setting them apart from the text’s overt sequencing or numbering of events. One of the most obvious sequences in the text entails three series of seven: the seven seals, the seven trumpets and the seven bowls of plague. The Woman Clothed in the Sun appears after the seventh trumpet, but is not part of the next sequence of seven.4 The Great 1 Adela Yarbro Collins, “Reading the Book of Revelation in the 20th Century,” Interpretation 40, no.3 (1986): 242. 2 Throughout this project I use the language of “female” and “feminine.” I primarily use “female” in reference to bodies and images of bodies that are sexed as female and “feminine” in reference to the sets of expectations that are culturally assigned to female bodies. However, these categories often overlap. 3 The brief description of Ge (gh=), a divine personification of the earth in 12:16, is one female image that receives little attention in the text and, therefore, is rarely mentioned in discussions of Revelation’s female imagery. Translators and commentators, instead, identify gh= almost entirely with the earth, even though in the first-century Ge was a well known deity. See Friesen, Imperial Cults and the Apocalypse of John: Reading Revelation in the Ruins, 186. 4 Some commentators mark the woman in 12:1 as the beginning of a series of unmarked “seven signs” ending in 15:4. While there may be seven events that function as signs in this unit of text, John does not make an obvious effort at delineating these as he does with the other series of seven. Thus, it seems prudent not to treat the Woman Clothed in the Sun or the following events as part of an explicit sequencing. For a discussion of the possible structuring of 12:1-15:4 around a series of seven, see Beale, The Book of Revelation: A Commentary on the Greek Text, 109, 621. For a reading of these chapters as a mythological “flashback,” see Brian K. Blount, Revelation: A Commentary (Louisville: Westminster/ John Knox, 2009), 20.

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Whore is introduced to John by one of the angels associated with the seven bowls of plagues (17:1), as is the Bride, and yet her appearance is not necessarily part of the sequencing. The fact that the discussion of the Great Whore takes place over two chapters sets it apart from the seven plagues that appear before it, which are recounted briefly in comparison. The description of the Whore leads directly into an announcement about the Bride of the Lamb in chapter 19. Again, this female image stands outside of John’s sequencing. The importance of this final female image is highlighted by her appearance in two corresponding visions later in the text (21:1-8, 9-14). These women are rhetorically prominent, standing out in the narrative flow, even though these women are “fantasized, criticized, protected and rescued, demonized and destroyed and perfected” to use the language of Pamela Thimmes.5 Interpreters of Revelation, especially feminist interpreters, note that these characters, including Jezebel in the letter to Thyatira (2:18-29), reflect and perpetuate some of the most persistent stereotypes about women and feminine gender. These women are defined primarily in relation to men and when they seek (although as characters in the text they are ultimately passive) to resist male control, as is the case with Jezebel and the Great Whore, they are punished horribly. Thimmes suggests that it is, ironically, on account of these cases of textual abuse that women and feminist interpreters (these groups are not identical) are drawn to Revelation.6 Although male characters participate in the text’s gender imaginary as much as female characters, our attention continues to be drawn to those who are marked as “other.” In fact, John explicitly notes the gender of these characters in the text, specifically identifying them as women (gunh)), something he does not do as frequently with presumably male characters.7 However, these “women” function primarily as metaphors and signs rather than any attempt on John’s behalf at depicting real women. John notes this explicitly in Revelation 12 when he writes, “And a great sign (shmei=on) appeared in heaven, a woman clothed in the sun, the moon below her feet and upon her head, a crown of twelve stars. And being pregnant, she cried out with birth pangs and with the agony of giving birth” (Rev 12:1-2). By characterizing the Woman Clothed in the Sun in Revelation 12 as a “sign” (shmei=on), John signals to his audience that female images can and do point to things and ideas beyond themselves.8 As

5 Pamela Thimmes, “Women Reading Women in the Apocalypse: Reading Scenario 1, The Letter to Thyatira (Rev. 2.18-29),” Currents in Biblical Research 2, no. 1 (2003): 129. 6 Ibid. 7 The exceptions being the 144,000 male virgins (14:4), which might otherwise be mistaken for females on account of his use of the term parqe/noi, and the male child borne by the Woman Clothed in the Sun (12:5). 8 Unfortunately, given the scope of this project it is not possible to offer a full discussion of the Woman Clothed in the Sun. For a discussion of this imagery in relation to the Bride, see Tavo, Woman, Mother and Bride: An Exegetical Investigation in the “Ecclesial” Notions of the Apocalypse.

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this description of the Woman Clothed in the Sun underscores, for John the concept WOMAN is a tool for “thinking with.”9 Although we run the risk of being manipulated by John’s rhetorical strategies by focusing our attention upon the female images, in the following we will explore how Bride and Whore function as rhetorical counterparts, something Barbara Rossing observes in The Choice between Two Cities: Whore, Bride, and Empire in the Apocalypse.10 The connections between the Whore and Bride are striking given their narrative proximity, both images overlapping in 19:1-8, and their structural similarity. Both metaphorical images are built around the conceptual equation of cities with women (A CITY IS A WOMAN), although John tailors each image to fit his rhetorical aims by highlighting specific characteristics associated with each “woman.” The following analysis of these related images contributes to the ongoing conversation, especially the feminist conversation, about Revelation’s female images, by addressing the conceptual aspect of John’s imagery, particularly the use of conceptual domains and metaphor to shape the audience’s self-perception.

Babylon the Great Whore Babylon the “great city” is mentioned first in Revelation 16, when God remembers the city through his wrath (16:19), signaling to the audience that this is an image toward which one should feel enmity. This negative assessment is confirmed when John is taken to see the destruction from a vantage point that allows him to see the true nature of Babylon – the city is a “Great Whore” (17:1). This metaphorical depiction of the city and its destruction is narrated in chapters 17 and 18, extending into the opening strains of a heavenly hymn in chapter 19. Each of these chapters incorporates the WOMAN, PROSTITUTE, and CITY conceptual domains and the A CITY IS A WOMAN mapping, although each chapter retains a distinct feel. Revelation’s depiction of the Whore vacillates between WOMAN and CITY, chapter 17 initially evoking the WOMAN domain and chapter 18 favoring the CITY concept. This movement from WOMAN to CITY in which the conceptual domains advance, abate, and overlap is reflected in much of the scholarly work on the Whore imagery. Feminist biblical scholars, in particular, reveal the text’s metaphorical ambivalence. Susan Hylen explains, “The 9 Some scholars note that the image of the Woman Clothed in the Sun seems to be a corollary to the Bride of the Lamb, since both are arrayed in shining attire and both are understood positively within the context of the text. Gordon Campbell, moreover, argues for an even more complex relationship between the text’s female images, noting the antithetical relationship between the Woman Clothed in the Sun and the Great Whore, as well as the more commonly discussed relationship between the Whore and Bride. Gordon Campbell, “Antithetical Feminineurban Imagery and a Tale of Two Women-cities in the Book of Revelation,” Tyndale Bulletin 55, no.1 (January 1, 2004): 81–108. 10 Barbara R. Rossing, The Choice between Two Cities: Whore, Bride, and Empire in the Apocalypse (Harrisburg: Trinity Press International, 1999).

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tendency of recent scholarship is to read the text as either all about gender or not about gender at all, leading the interpreter to see it as entirely oppressive or liberating.”11 Hylen examines the work of Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza and Tina Pippin as two feminist scholars whose readings of Revelation provide the poles on the feminist interpretive continuum. Their work is representative of the pull between interpretations reflected in other feminist interpretations of this text. On the one end of the spectrum, Schüssler Fiorenza, aligning her reading with the socio-political critique of liberation theology, highlights the image of Babylon as a critique of oppressive and violent cities, institutions, and entities. She bases this reading, in part, upon John’s appropriation of prophetic traditions in which adultery and prostitution metaphorically describe idolatry (see Chapter 2).12 For Schüssler Fiorenza, emphasizing the gendered aspect of Babylon as Whore runs the risk of depoliticizing the image, whose imaginary destruction offers a measure of hope to the oppressed. Consequently she emphasizes that gendered language and imagery, including the image of the Whore, are often not about gender.13 In contrast, Pippin reads the text of Revelation for its gender codes, exploring the ways the text’s gendered images are constructed to attract and repel the text’s audience, imagined primarily in masculine terms. She maintains, for example, that through the image of the Whore’s rape and dismemberment, the audience participates in a misogynist fantasy, disguised as the downfall of an oppressor.14 This is designed to align the audience with God, who is the one ultimately behind the Whore’s destruction, but it does so by reveling in the idea and image of violence against women. By raising gender to the surface, Pippin reveals that while the images of “coming out” of the Whore and the destruction of Babylon may be liberating visions for some readers, they are stark reminders of how actual women are marginalized, disempowered, and brutalized every day. Given the blurry boundary between women as metaphorical markers and actual women in the ancient world, Pippin’s concerns are not easily dismissed, even if the imagery is not in the end about gender or women.

11 Hylen, “The Power and Problem of Revelation 18,” 205. For a discussion of feminist interpretations of Revelation, see Alison Jack, “Out of the Wilderness: Feminist Perspectives on the Book of Revelation,” in Studies in the Book of Revelation, ed. Steve Moyise (Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 2001), 149–62. 12 Schüssler Fiorenza, The Book of Revelation – Justice and Judgment, 222–3. For another discussion of the prophetic traditions, which tries also to account for the gendered imagery of the text, see Caroline Vander Stichele, “Re-membering the Whore: The Fate of Babylon According to Revelation 17.16,” in Feminist Companion to the Apocalypse of John, ed. Amy-Jill Levine and Maria Mayo Robbins (New York: T&T Clark, 2009), 109–14. 13 Schüssler Fiorenza, Revelation: Vision of a Just World, 14. 14 Tina Pippin, “The Heroine and the Whore: Fantasy and the Female in the Apocalypse of John,” Semeia 60 (1992): 75. Pippin’s reading of Revelation’s gender codes is more fully developed in Death and Desire: The Rhetoric of Gender in the Apocalypse of John (Louisville: Westminster/John Knox Press, 1992).

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In light of these two, often oppositional, perspectives,15 Hylen suggests a middle way. Drawing upon the insights of conceptual metaphor theory, she argues that the image of the Great Whore functions as a “blended metaphor” that “uses information and logic from more than one source.”16 Similarly, Caroline Vander Stichele writes, “It is therefore important to consider Babylon as Great City and Great Whore, as dominant colonial power and prostitute.”17 As a metaphorical blend, which we will describe below, the image of Babylon as Whore cannot be reduced to either domain CITY or WHORE. Even though the image is clearly not of a literal woman, just as the image of the Lamb’s Bride does not refer to a literal woman, the gendered aspect of the image cannot be diminished. John employs the concept WOMAN precisely because of the gender assumptions inherent in the domain. And yet, as a metaphor, the image of Babylon as Whore is not intended to communicate anything about women per se. While John’s disregard of actual women, apart from the woman he metaphorically describes as Jezebel, is another story, the images of Babylon and of the New Jerusalem are not whore and bride. This is the tension inherent in metaphor, that different things are equated precisely because they are not the same.

Revelation 17 Revelation 17 begins by prompting the audience to envision what John is about to describe. Just as John is told that he will be shown the Great Whore, so the audience is shown her as well: And one of the seven angels with the seven vials came and spoke with me, saying, “Come. I will show (dei/cw) you the judgment of the Great Whore (th=v po/rnhv th=v mega/lhv), the one who is seated on many waters; with her the kings of the earth have committed fornication and the inhabitants of the earth have become drunk from the wine of her fornication.” And he carried me into the desert, in the spirit. And I saw (ei}don) a woman sitting upon a scarlet beast, full of blasphemous names, having seven heads and ten horns. And the woman was clothed in purple and scarlet and covered in gold, precious stones, and pearls. She had a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and the unclean things of her fornications. And upon her forehead a name had been written, a mystery, “Babylon the Great, the Mother of Prostitutes and of the Earth’s Abominations.” 18 And I saw (ei}don) that the woman was drunk 15 Schüssler Fiorenza offers an extended critique of Pippin’s reading of Revelation in Sharing Her Word: Feminist Biblical Interpretation in Context (Continuum International Publishing Group, 1998), 93–4, 99–101. 16 Hylen, “The Power and Problem of Revelation 18,” 210. 17 Vander Stichele, “Re-membering the Whore,” 116. 18 The Greek here is ambiguous and “mystery” can be read as the Whore’s name or as a reference to her name being a mystery. “And upon her forehead a name had been written, a mystery (or, Mystery), Babylon…” “Mystery” is also used in 17:7 in reference to the Whore and her relationship to the beast that she rides which has seven heads and ten horns. Since this

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on the blood of the saints and on the blood of the witnesses of Jesus. And seeing her (i0dw\n), I wondered (e0qau/masa) with great wonder (qau=ma). And the angel said to me, “Why were you wondering (e0qau/masav)?” (Rev 17:1-7a)

The language of showing (dei/cw), followed by a description of what is seen (ei}don, i0dw\n), suggests the rhetorical trope of ekphrasis, which uses visual language to a describe a thing, person, artwork, etc., as we discussed in Chapter 1.19 The multiple references to wondering in verse 7 piques interest in the Whore and underscores that the Whore is something that the audience should envision. Before moving on, it is important to comment upon translating the noun po/rnh. Even though po/rnh can be translated literally as “prostitute,” the English term “Whore” better captures what John conveys in this text. As we will see, these chapters highlight some of the most negative characteristics within the Roman understanding of conceptual domain PROSTITUTE, including shamelessness, excessiveness, and filth.20 As Jennifer A. Glancy and Stephen D. Moore argue, the sizeable client list attributed to the Whore, who is available to the “kings of the earth” (17:2; 18:3, 9), paints an image of the brothel prostitute or street walker, rather than a high-priced courtesan, who would have had selective and relatively stable relationships with men.21 Consequently, the name across her forehead evokes the tattooed slave of the Roman sex trade, as many ancient prostitutes would have likely been slaves.22 John, in other words, prompts the audience to envision a woman at the lowest end of the social hierarchy, even though, ironically, he will dress her in imperial garb, signaling that she serves as an indictment against Rome and Roman power.

second use is not a reference to the Whore’s name, I opt to read the first use of mystery as a characterization of the woman’s name, it is mysterious or thought provoking, and not as her name itself. 19 For discussions of Revelation 17 as ekphrasis, see Aune, Revelation, 919–28; Frilingos, Spectacles of Empire: Monsters, Martyrs, and the Book of Revelation, 58–60; Barbara R. Rossing, The Choice Between Two Cities: Whore, Bride, and Empire in the Apocalypse, 21–5. 20 Catherine Edwards, “Unspeakable Professions: Public Performance and Prostitution in Ancient Rome,” in Roman Sexualities (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1997), 82–3; Thomas A. McGinn, The Economy of Prostitution in the Roman World: A Study of Social History and the Brothel (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2004), 83. 21 Jennifer A. Glancy and Stephen D. Moore, “How Typical a Roman Prostitute Is Revelation’s ‘Great Whore’?,” Journal of Biblical Literature 130, no.3 (2011): 555. Their perspective is in contrast to that of Hanna Roose, “The Fall of the ‘Great Harlot’ and the Fate of the Aging Prostitute: An Iconographic Approach to Revelation 18,” in Picturing the New Testament: Studies in Ancient Visual Images (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2005), 228–52. 22 Glancy and Moore, “How Typical a Roman Prostitute Is Revelation’s ‘Great Whore’?,” 559.

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Rome is Babylon Central to the imagery of Revelation 17 is the conceptual mapping A CITY IS A WOMAN, which evokes the long tradition of imagining cities as women. Like the depiction of the nations on the Sebastion at Aphrodisias, this “woman” is associated with a particular place, as the text narrows the CITY domain to refer to Babylon. As most interpreters note, “Babylon” signifies the quintessential evil city or empire in the Hebrew prophetic tradition, a tradition that John conjures throughout the narrative.23 As a result, we can think of BABYLON as a conceptual domain that contributes to the shape of the metaphorical mapping. Specifically, BABYLON connotes a city that brings violence against Zion or Jerusalem, the city or people of God (e.g. Jer 51:34). When addressing an audience that identifies itself with Jerusalem or Israel, a connection John makes throughout Revelation, the concept of BABYLON suggests a sense of “otherness.”24 Even though John names this city “Babylon,” BABYLON is not the metaphor’s target domain. Rather, the text itself and its historical context suggest BABYLON metaphorically represents Rome (ROME IS BABYLON). The metaphorical connection between Babylon and Rome is solidified when John portrays the Whore as sitting on “many waters” suggesting Rome’s international influence (v.1) and sitting on seven mountains or hills, a traditional descriptor for Rome (v.9). Likewise, “the great city that rules over the kings of the earth” (v.18) would evoke Rome within the first-century context of Revelation. The metaphorical mapping ROME IS BABYLON appears elsewhere in firstcentury Jewish writings (e.g. 4 Ezra, 2 Baruch), for just as Babylon destroyed and looted the first Jerusalem Temple in the sixth century BCE, so Roman forces destroyed the Herodian Temple in the siege of Jerusalem in 70 CE. While ROME IS BABYLON is a traditional metaphorical mapping, we might describe John’s depiction of Rome as Babylon as creating a third conceptual space (BABYLON-ROME) in which shared aspects of both BABYLON and ROME are merged. John thereby creates an image that describes any city, past, present, or future, which “fits” the depiction of Babylon in these chapters, a powerful city, allied with multiple kings and nations and in violent opposition to the Divine. Interpreters throughout history, therefore, have employed the conceptual image of BABYLON-ROME to imagine other cities, including Pretoria and Washington D.C.25

23 Beale, The Book of Revelation: A Commentary on the Greek Text, 847ff; Blount, Revelation: A Commentary, 309–12. 24 For a discussion of Rev 17 that considers the social role of prostitution in the ancient world and the “otherness” of the Great Whore, see Jean K. Kim, “‘Uncovering Her Wickedness’: An Inter(con)textual Reading of Revelation 17 from a Postcolonial Feminist Perspective,” Journal for the Study of the New Testament 73 (1999): 61–81. 25 Allan Aubrey Boesak, Comfort and Protest (Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1987); Wes Howard-Brook and Anthony Gwyther, Unveiling Empire: Reading Revelation Then and Now (Maryknoll: Orbis Books, 1999).

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It is this CITY conceptually understood as BABYLON-ROME that John characterizes through the domain PROSTITUTE. While privileging the memory of Babylon, John’s depiction of the Great Whore evokes other prophetic traditions in which cities are imagined as prostitutes. Nineveh, for instance, is depicted as a whore by Nahum because of its use of violence for financial gain (Nah 3:4) and the sea-faring city of Tyre is characterized as a prostitute on account of its economic exploitation of others (Ezk 23:1318).26 Even though the Great Whore may be described as “the mother of prostitutes” (17: 6), this city-woman comes from a long line of cities that go to extreme lengths to seek wealth and power. Moreover, as ROME is a city with which many in Asia Minor choose to identify, as explained earlier, the merging of BABYLON and ROME into a single concept pushes the audience to re-evaluate the greatness of Rome and its relation to Roman imperial mythologies. The Great Whore The conceptual domain PROSTITUTE, which John uses in his portrait of BABYLON-ROME, is rich with meaning potential in the first-century world of Revelation. This was a world where prostitution was not only legal, it was woven into the social fabric of the Roman world, providing free males, in particular, an opportunity for pleasure without the threat of producing heirs or impinging upon another’s property.27 Albeit acceptable for men to visit a prostitute, the practice of selling one’s body was understood, according to historian Catherine Edwards, as an act of giving up one’s honor and a practice akin to slavery. (In fact, many prostitutes were slaves.) This is likely the reason that prostitution, along with being an actor or gladiator, resulted in the label infamis or lacking in public honor.28 From the Roman perspective, the prostitute exchanges his/her honor for monetary gain, reflecting that HONOR could be metaphorically imagined as a PRODUCT to be sold and eventually used up. Martial, for example, captures this exchange in a description of an aging prostitute named Galla. Over time Galla must lower her prices as her desirability fades. Martial connects this to her slowly losing any honor that she may have had, writing, “Could she not go down somewhat lower? She did. Galla offers it free of charge. Of her own accord she offers it to me. I say no.”29 The prostitute’s shame here is that even 26 See Vander Stichele, “Re-membering the Whore,” 109–14. 27 McGinn, in fact, argues against the notion that Roman cities were zoned to “hide” brothels, “Zoning Shame in the Roman City,” in Prostitutes and Courtesans in the Ancient World, ed. Christopher A. Faraone and Laura K. McClure (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 2006), 161–76. See also McGinn, The Economy of Prostitution in the Roman World: A Study of Social History and the Brothel; Prostitution, Sexuality, and the Law in Ancient Rome (New York: Oxford University Press, 1998). 28 Edwards, “Unspeakable Professions: Public Performance and Prostitution in Ancient Rome,” 69–76. 29 As quoted in Marguerite Johnson and Terry Ryan, Sexuality in Greek and Roman Society and Literature: A Sourcebook (New York: Routledge, 2005), 98–9.

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though she will “lower herself” for free the customer is no longer interested. The Whore of Revelation, unlike this aging prostitute, seems to have plenty of customers that are willing to purchase her honor, at least for a short time. Reflecting the metaphorical nature of this imagery, the Whore’s “clientele” are described specifically as “the kings of the earth” (17:2; 18:3). While one might think that this clientele would bring honor to Babylon, the opposite seems true; for the kings eventually lose interest in the Whore and strip her of any honor that she may have possessed (17:16). Her body being visible to the public gaze, even if it is not her choice, heightens the Whore’s lack of honor and underscores her as a shameful figure (HONOR IS CLOTHING and SHAME IS NAKEDNESS). By forcing his audience to see BABYLON-ROME naked and violated, which relies upon the conceptual mapping A CITY IS A WOMAN, John seeks not only to shame Rome, but any who might identify or sympathize with Rome, thereby driving a wedge between the audience and the dominant culture. In addition to this metaphorical shaming of Rome, John draws upon traditional elements within the conceptual domain PROSTITUTE to cultivate a sense of enmity toward the great city. The description of the Whore’s clients as “kings of the earth,” which is a potentially large list of suitors, implies her insatiability. The concept PROSTITUTE implies unchecked sexual appetite and greed, even though this most likely misrepresents the experience of actual prostitutes in the ancient world. In this vein, the Greek author Athenaeus quotes a fourth-century play describing the prostitute Lais as being “rendered wild and willful by coins of gold.”30 In Revelation, the Whore’s lack of restraint is evidenced through her overindulgent costume. She wears not only purple, but purple and scarlet. She wears not only gold, but gold, precious stones, and pearls (17:4). As Robert Royalty suggests, “The association of the harlot of Babylon and wealth implies that her gold, precious jewels, and pearls were payment from the kings of the earth for her sexual favors.”31 Referring to Rome, the conceptual domain PROSTITUTE suggests the city’s unquenchable desire for more wealth and more power and a willingness to lose all honor in pursuit of these things. Even though the Whore’s dress suggests a love of luxury and wealth, in the Roman cultural context the concept PROSTITUTE connotes dirt and, metaphorically, impurity. Amy Richlin explains that Romans typically thought of genitalia in relation dirt. By extension, since the prostitute’s profession involves frequent contact with genitalia, the prostitute is likewise associated with dirt, filth, and stench.32 Juvenal, for example, draws upon this common association by describing a brothel as “reeking of ancient blankets.”33 The association between prostitutes and uncleanliness was so powerful that 30 As quoted in ibid., 10. 31 Royalty, The Streets of Heaven: The Ideology of Wealth in the Apocalypse of John, 192. 32 Amy Richlin, The Garden of Priapus: Sexuality and Aggression in Roman Humor, Revised (New York: Oxford University Press, 1992), 26–7. 33 Juvenal, Juvenal and Persius, 6.121.

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there was a Roman prohibition against priestesses coming into contact with prostitutes,34 reflecting a conceptual equation between ritual impurity and dirt (IMPURITY IS DIRT). John draws upon this common association between prostitution, dirt, and impurity in his description of the Whore’s cup as full of abominations (bdelugma/twn) and unclean things (a)ka/qrta) (v. 4). As de Silva says of the Whore, “Even though in some ways a compelling and enticing figure…John wraps the portrait sufficiently to turn any stirrings of attraction quickly to revulsion.”35 Furthermore, the metaphorical equation IMPURITY IS DIRT suggests that she is somehow impure or defiled, highlighting her distance from the Divine. John’s attempt at repulsing his audience continues as he prompts them to imagine the Whore as excessively violent, characterizing her as “drunk from the blood of the saints and from the blood of the witnesses of Jesus” (v.6). While being violent was not necessarily a common part of the conceptual domain PROSTITUTION, it is evoked through the metaphor’s target domain, BABYLON-ROME.36 This aspect of the target domain is then imaged in a manner consistent with an idea of excessiveness typically associated with PROSTITUTION – drunkenness. Here, being drunk serves as a metonym for lack of control (LACK OF CONTROL IS DRUNKENNESS) and the “wine” that intoxicates the Whore is violence, represented as blood (VIOLENCE IS WINE). Just as a taste of wine leads to a desire for more wine and eventually to an inability to think clearly, so, the metaphor implies, a taste of blood/violence leads to a desire for more violence and an inability to practice moderation, mercy, or justice, important virtues in the Roman world.37 Furthermore, through this imagery, Rome is identified as a clear threat to and enemy of the faithful, for “she” has already consumed the blood of their brothers and sisters and her drunkenness suggests that she will come looking for more. A similar use of the metaphorical mapping LACK OF CONTROL IS DRUNKENESS is employed elsewhere in relation to the Whore, when John learns that the inhabitants of earth are drunk upon the wine of her fornication (v.2; 18:3). It is as if DRUNKENESS is metaphorically understood as a CONTAGION that infects those who encounter the Whore, although this time the “wine” is not related to violence but to her “fornication” or “prostitution” (pornei/a). Kathy Gaca explains that in the Septuagint and early Christian traditions pornei/a refers generally to sexual contact that is deemed forbidden, 34 Thomas A. J. McGinn, Prostitution, Sexuality, and the Law in Ancient Rome (Oxford University Press, 1998), 26. 35 de Silva, Seeing Things John’s Way: The Rhetoric of the Book of Revelation, 293–4. 36 McGinn notes that brothels were associated with violence in the Roman world, although it was not necessarily the prostitute who was understood in terms of violence. Rather, the traditional theme of “forced entry” into a brothel, a metaphor for rape or potential rape, highlighted the customers’ penchant for violence. McGinn, The Economy of Prostitution in the Roman World, 88–90. 37 As Karl Galinsky explains, within Augustan Rome there was an attempt at holding prosperity and abundance, the results of expansion and characteristics of a Golden Age, in creative tension with Roman virtues. See Galinksy, Augustan Culture, 97–100.

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including prostitution, adultery, or other forms of sex deemed inappropriate by the community using the term. This lexical imprecision is similar to the multiple connotations within the Hebrew znh, which is translated in terms related to pornei/a in the Septuagint.38 As we saw in the last chapter, APOSTASY IS ADULTERY appears in the prophetic traditions and is often used to characterize Jerusalem as the unfaithful wife of God. Jerusalem’s unfaithfulness stems from “her” willingness to adopt other religious practices and to make political alliances with other nations, presumably aligned with other deities, for economic gain (GOD IS A HUSBAND, PAGAN GODS/ FOREIGN NATIONS ARE LOVERS). These conventional mappings play such an important role in the Jewish prophetic tradition, a tradition with which John identifies, that it likely is part of the meaning evoked in Revelation’s use of fornication language and imagery. For audience members familiar with these traditions, the imagery would be recognizable. Additionally, the theme of directing worship to its proper object, God, is a dominant theme throughout the text of Revelation. Thus, the description of an entity not worshipping God in terms of prostitution is not surprising. However, it is hard to imagine that John sees Rome, imagined as BABYLON-ROME, as having some relationship to the Divine that would make “her” potentially unfaithful. In other words, while APOSTASY IS ADULTERY is likely evoked in this imagery because of literary allusions, it does seem to be the only metaphor at work in the text. Although Babylon is not assumed to be a metaphorical wife of God in Revelation 17-18, John still metaphorically imagines political alliances with Babylon in terms of fornication (A POLITICAL ALLIANCE IS SEX). In so doing, John, as Caroline Vander Stichele observes, draws upon the common double standard in which females who sell sex are labeled “whore,” while the men who purchase sex bear no equivalent appellation.39 Despite this, John still indicts the “kings of the earth” for their association with the Whore. Arguably, it is not the political alliances of the kings that displease John, but the partner they select – BABYLON-ROME, for later in the text they will be portrayed positively as part of the New Jerusalem (22:24). Remembering that this imagery is one of Revelation’s tools for thinking about how the audience should relate to Rome and Roman power within the context of Asia Minor, we can imagine that the image of the Great Whore’s customers as kings conjures up the ways in which the provincial cities and rulers seemingly buy what Rome is selling, power and influence. For example, as Friesen notes, many provincial elites financially supported the dissemination of imperial mythologies in the cities of Asia Minor, receiving civic and religious roles, including archon and strategos, in exchange.40 In light of this, John makes a conceptual equation between political alliances and sex (A POLITICAL 38 See Kathy L. Gaca, The Making of Fornication: Eros, Ethics, and Political Reform in Greek Philosophy and Early Christianity (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2003), 120. 39 Vander Stichele, “Re-membering the Whore,” 115. 40 Steven J. Friesen, “Myth and Symbolic Resistance in Revelation 13,” Journal of Biblical Literature 123, no.2 (2004): 299–303.

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ALLIANCE IS SEX), specifying that political alliances with Rome are like “fornication” with a Great Whore. The issue at play in this imagery, therefore, is not entirely Babylon’s unfaithfulness to God, for God is not imagined as her “husband;” rather, the issue at hand is that the “kings of the earth,” especially the “would-be” kings of Asia Minor, are associating with a shameful partner. Furthermore, even though purchasing sex was an acceptable practice to many living in the ancient Roman context (Martial even recommending a visit to the brothel for an inexperienced groom),41 procured sex was potentially dangerous for the purchaser. The prostitute’s client ran the risk of succumbing to excessive behavior, which might lead one to push the boundaries of social responsibility. For instance, too many visits to prostitutes might lead to improper sexual relationships with married women or citizen boys, according to Dio Chrysostom.42 In Revelation, the result of this dangerous sex is that the Whore controls the kings. She literally rules over them (v.18), suggesting POLITICAL POWER IS SEXUAL DOMINANCE. The kings become feminized, as they are controlled by the one over whom they should exercise control. Moreover, they, along with the inhabitants of the earth, run the risk of forgetting who is ultimately in control – the one who sits upon the throne. Rome as a “Whore-Empress” In Revelation “you are what you wear” and a significant part of John’s description of the Whore focuses upon her attire, reflecting a traditional metaphorical connection between identity and appearance (IDENTITY IS APPEARANCE), which can be understood as a more specific iteration of the mapping THE INTERNAL IS THE EXTERNAL. John employs these related mappings particularly when elaborating upon the WOMAN domain. In his descriptions of the Whore, the Woman Clothed in the Sun of Revelation 12, and the Bride of the Lamb in Revelation 19 and 21 garments signal identity and character.43 In light of the metaphorical connection between appearance and identity, the reference to Babylon’s purple garments is striking, as it was a color reserved for those at the top of the Roman social hierarchy and particularly for those associated with

41 Martial, Epigrams, 11.78. 42 Dio Chrysostom, Dio Chrysostom: Discourses 1-11, trans. J. W. Cohoon (Loeb Classical Library, 1932), bk. 7.133–139. J. Samuel Houser, “Eros and Aphrodisia in the Worms of Dio Chrysostom,” in The Sleep of Reason: Erotic Experience and Sexual Ethics in Ancient Greece and Rome, ed. Martha Craven Nussbaum and Juha Sihvola (University of Chicago Press, 2002), 327–53. Houser addresses Dio Chrysostom’s claim that visiting brothels leads to excessive behavior in a larger conversation about the author’s understanding of male-male sex. Still his observation is pertinent here. For a similar idea, see Edwards, “Unspeakable Professions: Public Performance and Prostitution in Ancient Rome,” 83–5. 43 For a discussion of the importance of dress for signaling identity in the Roman world, see Kelly Olson, “Matrona and Whore: Clothing and Definition in Roman Antiquity,” in Prostitutes and Courtesans in the Ancient World, ed. Christopher A. Faraone and Laura K. McClure (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 2006), 186–204.

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imperial powers.44 Combined with the description of Babylon ruling (17:18), the multiple allusions to the Whore being “enthroned” (17:1, 3, 9, 15), and her later self-description as “queen” or “empress” (basi/lissa) (18:7), the purple clothing suggests that this Great Whore not only dons imperial garb, she is an imperial woman.45 In other words, ROME IS AN IMPERIAL WOMAN and, more specifically, ROME IS A WHORE-EMPRESS. John’s image of Rome as WHORE-EMPRESS bears a striking resemblance to Juvenal’s description of Messalina, wife of Emperor Claudius, in his Sixth Satire, as Jennifer Glancy and Stephen D. Moore note in their essay “How Typical a Roman Prostitute Is Revelation’s ‘Great Whore’?” Sneaking away from imperial palaces at night, Messalina takes her place in a reeking brothel where she stands with “gilded nipples” offering herself to customers. She loathes returning home in the morning, according to the satirist, because her sexual appetite is not satisfied.46 The themes of trading away one’s honor, excessive behavior, and dirt are found here, just as they are evoked in John’s use of the PROSTITUTE domain. The depiction of Messalina as a meretrix augusta or a “whore-empress”47 functions as part of Juvenal’s representation of Rome’s excess.48 As discussed in the previous chapter, imperial women played an important role in Roman social propaganda and women in general were used as metaphorical indicators of the Empire’s moral health (A CITY’S MORAL CONDITION IS A WOMAN’S MORAL CONDITION). Both Juvenal and John deploy this conventional metaphorical mapping to communicate and critique Roman morality, specifically casting the mapping in terms of the concept WHORE EMPRESS. Suffice to say that these two authors employ this metaphorical mapping and these conceptual domains (WHORE-EMPRESS and PROSTITUTE) for different reasons. Situated within the tradition of Roman satire, a tradition that critiques the Empire from within, Juvenal’s depiction of Messalina is ultimately invested in the success of the Empire. In contrast, John employs the Roman practice of using imperial women as metaphorical sources for describing Rome’s moral condition in opposition to the Empire. Ultimately, John imagines the failure of the Empire and Rome, personified as woman, and so he wants his audience to construct an identity apart from the Whore and her excess.

44 Jonathan Edmondson, “Public Dress and Social Control in Late Republican and Early Imperial Rome,” in Roman Dress and the Fabrics of Culture, ed. Jonathan Edmondson and Alison Keith (Toronto: University of Toronto, 2008). 45 For a discussion of “sitting” as a reference to ruling, see Beale, The Book of Revelation: A Commentary on the Greek Text, 848. 46 Juvenal, Juvenal and Persius, 6.125–130. 47 The language of “whore-empress” is from Glancy and Moore, “How Typical a Roman Prostitute Is Revelation’s ‘Great Whore’?,” 562. 48 For a discussion of Juvenal’s Sixth Satire, see Diana M. Swancutt, “Still Before Sexuality: ‘Greek’ Androgyny, the Roman Imperial Politics of Masculinity and the Roman Invention of the Tribas,” in Mapping Gender in Ancient Religious Discourses, ed. Todd Penner and Caroline Vander Stichele (Boston: Brill, 2007), 53–4.

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A Woman is a Land Revelation’s depiction of the City as a Whore in chapter 17 ends with images of death and destruction, which hinge upon the physicality associated with the WOMAN domain: “And the ten horns that you saw and the Beast, these ones will hate the Whore and they will make her desolate and naked, and they will devour her flesh and they will burn her in fire” (v.16). The claim that the kings strip the Whore conjures for the audience the image of woman’s body, evoking the states of undress associated with PROSTITUTION, as the body is put on display to attract customers.49 Although not of her doing, here the Whore’s body is put on display, making the Whore’s shame visible to John’s audience, just as we saw in Ezekiel 16.50 The sexual associations within the domain PROSTITUTION give the impression that these acts of stripping and making desolate are tinged with sexual aggression. In light of this and given the traditional conceptual equation between WOMAN and LAND, the image of making the Whore desolate, literally making her into a desert (h0rhmwme/ nh poih/sousin), should be understood as metaphorical rape. As discussed in the last chapter and as implied on the Sebasteion at Aphrodisias in the Roman context conquering a land or nation is often envisioned in terms of sexual penetration (CONQUEST IS RAPE). Through this imagery, John prompts his audience to imagine and witness the public dishonoring and humiliation of Rome. As Pippin observes, this is one place where it becomes impossible to ignore the fact that John employs the imagery of the female body, even if the imagery is ultimately about a city.51

Revelation 18 The vision of Rome as the Great Whore, which builds upon the conceptual mapping A CITY IS WOMAN, extends into chapter 18. This chapter encompasses a number of related literary units: A combined vision and audition report (vv.1-3), an audition report that consists of a series of mock laments by those groups harmed on account of Babylon’s destruction (vv.420), and a narrative describing an angel’s symbolic action (vv.21-24).52 The first and second sections will be the primary focus of the following discussion, as these sections employ the conceptual domains of CITY and WOMAN most explicitly. After these things I saw another angel with great authority descend from heaven and the earth was illuminated from his glory. And he cried out in a strong voice, saying, “Fallen, fallen is Babylon the Great! It/she has become a dwelling place of 49 Kelly Olson, “Matrona and Whore: Clothing and Definition in Roman Antiquity,” 195. 50 Vander Stichele, “Re-membering the Whore,” 110. 51 Tina Pippin, Apocalyptic Bodies: The Biblical End of the World in Text and Image (London: Routledge, 1999), 94. 52 Collins, Crisis and Catharsis: The Power of the Apocalypse, 116.

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demons,53 and a prison for every unclean spirit, and a prison for every unclean bird, and a prison for every unclean and hateful beast! For from the wine of the wrath of her fornication all the nations have drunk and the kings of the earth committed fornication with her and the merchants of the earth have become wealthy from the power of her luxury.” And I heard another voice from heaven saying, “Come out of it/her my people, in order that you might not share in her sins and in order that you might not share in her plagues! For her sins are heaped high as heaven and God has remembered her unrighteous deeds. Render to her as she herself has rendered, and repay her double for her deeds; mix a double draught for her in the cup she mixed. As she glorified herself and lived luxuriously, so give to her torment and grief. Since in her heart she says, ‘I sit as a queen and I am not a widow and I will never see grief’…” (Rev 18:1-7)

Throughout this passage and the whole of Revelation 18, the CITY and WOMAN domains are so intertwined that it is difficult to pinpoint when one concept dominates. This blending of conceptual domains makes it difficult to translate into English the feminine pronoun used throughout the chapter, which could be referring specifically to a city or prostitute, both of which are grammatically feminine nouns. Should the pronouns in the passage above be “it” or “she/her”? In English, the translation brings one domain to the forefront over the other, while in the Greek the grammatical ambiguity places the domains on equal footing. Much of chapter 18 expands upon the image of BABYLON-ROME’S destruction, a theme introduced at the beginning of chapter 17 when John is told he will be shown the judgment of the Great Whore (17:1), and made explicit in the sexual violence that ends the chapter (17:16). As Beale suggests, chapter 18 offers an “enlarged picture of the results of that judgment.”54 By offering this closer look the chapter highlights the reasons behind this judgment, reiterating rationales introduced earlier. These rationales draw upon associations within the conceptual domain WOMAN, as they include contributing to the delinquency or drunkenness of “the nations” and fornicating with the kings of the earth, as well as having such a strong penchant for luxury that the earth’s merchants become rich (18:13). John elaborates upon the theme of the Whore’s luxurious living throughout the chapter, depicting a personified Babylon who “glorified herself and lived luxuriously” (v.7) and describing the kings of the earth living in luxury with her (v.9). The theme of luxury continues to be emphasized in the mock laments of 18:9-20 in which the absence of Roman imports (gold, silver, jewels, pearls, fine linen, purple, silk, etc.) is mourned. The metaphorical mapping A CITY IS A WOMAN is brought to the surface of the text as the merchants lament 53 It is important to note that that this stanza does not include a pronoun other than the one assumed in the verb e0ge/neto. Thus, the translation “it” or “she” for the pronoun is at the discretion of the translator and reflects how one understands the metaphor within the text. 54 Beale, The Book of Revelation: A Commentary on the Greek Text, 891.

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the destruction of “the great city who was clothed (h( peribeblhme/nh) in fine linen, purple, scarlet and adorned in gold, precious stones, and pearls” (18:16). In the Roman world, a desire for luxury is a negative characteristic especially associated with women and the feminine gender. The elegiac poet Propertius, for example, bemoaned the fact that the mistress who scorned him could “be bought” with luxury goods imported from abroad.55 In this way, John highlights a negative association within the conceptual domain WOMAN to indict Rome for its love of the finer things. This was a tension felt among Romans as well, for while there was an impulse toward enjoying the spoils of expansion and power, there was a valorization of the simpler times of a past golden age.56 Furthermore, as Diana M. Swancutt notes, some Roman moralists were concerned that luxury led to the masculinization of women and feminization of men, throwing the Roman gender hierarchy in disorder.57 Thus, Revelation’s image of the Whore as one whose love of luxury makes merchants rich suggests that Rome participates in the gender inversion that the many in the Empire, John included, find threatening. A final reason for the Whore’s destruction is her hubris. Again, the WOMAN domain emerges to the surface of the text as John depicts the Great Whore’s inner monologue: “Since in her heart she says, ‘I sit as a queen/empress and I will not be a widow and I will never see grief’” (18:7). In this verse John attempts to portray how BABYLON-ROME sees “herself,” which is in the role of queen and of a married (not widowed) woman. In her heart, she clearly does not see herself in the role of prostitute or whore. In light of John’s detailed portrayal of Babylon as the Great Whore in chapter 17, a vision that reflects the divine perspective, the audience is meant to see this as a false sense of self. In other words, this is a classic example of irony. BABYLON-ROME sees “herself” as Great Queen, when she truly is “Great Whore.” The City-Woman is a Container Even though the rationales for Babylon’s destruction build upon the WOMAN and PROSTITUTE domains, the angel’s announcement of Babylon’s destruction foregrounds the CITY aspect of the A CITY IS A WOMAN metaphor: “Fallen, fallen is Babylon the Great! It/she has become a dwelling place of demons, and a prison for every unclean spirit, and a prison for every unclean bird, and a prison for every unclean and hateful beast!” John highlights that Babylon is a place by echoing Isaiah’s vision of the destruction of the great city, which similarly includes the pronouncement, “Fallen, fallen is Babylon” (Isa 21:9). In addition, the text underscores the “placeness” of Babylon by describing the city as a “dwelling place” and through three references to the city as a “prison” 55 Lowell Bowditch, “Propertius and the Gendered Rhetoric of Luxury and Empire: A Reading of 2.16,” Comparative Literature Studies 43, no. 3 (2006): 306–25. 56 Galinksy, Augustan Culture, 98–100. 57 Swancutt, “Still Before Sexuality: ‘Greek’ Androgyny, the Roman Imperial Politics of Masculinity and the Roman Invention of the Tribas,” 53.

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(fulakh/). The description of a fallen Babylon occupied by birds and beasts is another reference to Isaiah in which the desolate nature of city is characterized in terms of wild animals occupying the city once populated by humans (Isa 34:11-15). The city has become forsaken. Although sometimes translated as “haunt” or “lair,”58 the language of prison connotes boundaries and reflects the conventional image of the city as a container (A CITY IS A CONTAINER), as described earlier. After the declaration of Babylon’s fall, a voice, presumably of divine origin, commands John’s audience: “Come out of it/her (au)th=j), my people” (18:4).59 Evoking the CONTAINER domain, the voice prompts the audience to think of Babylon as something from which it can and should withdraw. Given the over-lapping WOMAN and CITY domains, it remains unclear as to whether John evokes one or the other or both. Read as a reference to the conceptual domain WOMAN, this verse is John’s call for his audience, imagined in masculine terms, to resist the “erotic power of the Whore,” as Tina Pippin writes.60 Read as a reference to the CITY domain, Revelation’s audience is told to remove themselves, at least metaphorically, from BABYLON-ROME. Understood through the concept CITY, this is a call to disassociate with the Empire, although John does not elaborate upon the logistics of disconnecting from the Roman Empire! Whether understood primarily in terms of the domain WOMAN or CITY or both, the command to exit or withdraw from Babylon is, as Barbara Rossing observes, the “rhetorical key to the entire Babylon vision.”61 This imperative is followed by two specific reasons for “coming out of” the Whore: “so that you do not take part in its/her sins, and so that you do not share in its/her plagues” (18:4). This reasoning draws upon some overlapping conventional mappings VICE IS A CONTAGION, SIMILARITY IS PROXIMITY, and DIFFERENCE IS DISTANCE. First, as the language of “plague” implies, vice is imagined as a disease, as something that can be contracted from another. Coming out of the Whore ensures that the audience does not contract her “disease” (e.g. her excessive violence and love of luxury). The suggestion that coming our of the Whore will preclude the audience from taking part in the Whore’s sins prompts the audience to think about proximity, being in or near the Whore, as a marker of similarity. Therefore, distancing oneself from the Whore indicates difference and, in this case, the audience’s virtue. Further, as a way of figuratively “distancing” itself from the Whore and her sinful behaviors, the audience is called to participate in the Whore’s

58 For a discussion of how to translate fulakh/, see Beale, The Book of Revelation: A Commentary on the Greek Text, 894–5. 59 For an argument on why “my people” should be read as the people of God, see Susan M. Elliott, “Who Is Addressed in Revelation 18:6-7,” Biblical Research 40 (1995): 98–113. 60 Pippin, Death and Desire: The Rhetoric of Gender in the Apocalypse of John, 82. 61 Rossing, The Choice Between Two Cities: Whore, Bride, and Empire in the Apocalypse, 119.

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judgment, by rendering double to her what she has rendered (v.6).62 The use of the A CITY-WOMAN IS A CONTAINER mapping makes this message is clear: The city may continue to be a dwelling place for foul things, but for those who are faithful to God it is not a safe place, given the fear of contagion and the city’s impending destruction. In this way, the image of the Great Whore, Babylon, serves as part of John’s attempt at shaping the identity of his audience. By casting the destruction of Babylon as God’s will, John effectively communicates to those who might want to associate with Rome that they should be fearful, lest they also be destroyed, and to those who have experienced the harsh side of Roman peace that they should be confident in the city’s eventual demise. As de Silva explains, the emotions of fear and confidence are among those the ancient rhetoricians used to prompt an audience toward action.63 The depiction of the Whore strikes fear in the hearts of those who might be enticed by the city’s power and luxury. Moreover, the imagery pushes the audience away from possibly associating with Rome and toward another female image – the Bride. As suggested above, Revelation uses the image of the WOMAN to think with and through. In particular, these images prompt John’s audience to think about its identity as a community. Even while the image of the Great Whore might seem to function primarily as an indictment of Rome, including its power and its desire for luxury, this image is also about shaping the identity and actions of the Christian communities that John addresses. Revelation’s characterization of Rome as Whore builds antipathy toward Rome and challenges actual Roman imperial moral authority when it comes to sexual/familial norms.64 As described above, Roman imperial discourse promoted a vision of the ideal domus, characterized by a feminine chastity and a commitment to child-rearing. This vision was communicated, in part, through the depiction of the imperial family as model and through the symbolic importance of the Vestal Virgins. Rome, as symbolized in a metaphorical equation with the Vestals, was virginal. By characterizing Rome as a Whore, John completely inverts the imperial image of Rome and challenges the Roman valorization of female chastity and domesticity. Through the sexually charged image of the Great Whore, therefore, he points to the hypocrisy of Roman moral discourse and legislation.

62 The question of whether or not Revelation’s audience is called to participate in punishment of the Great Whore is provocative. See Elliott, “Who Is Addressed in Revelation 18.” 63 de Silva, Seeing Things John’s Way: The Rhetoric of the Book of Revelation, 180–85, 220–21. 64 For a full description of how the ideology of wealth shapes Revelation’s depiction of Babylon, see Royalty, The Streets of Heaven: The Ideology of Wealth in the Apocalypse of John, 177–210.

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The Lamb’s Bride65 Immediately following the laments over the fallen Babylon in chapter 18, a hymn in heaven celebrates the Whore’s destruction along with the arrival of the Lamb’ wedding. The presence of the Great Whore and the Lamb’s Bride, whose identity is implied here, in a single hymn points to the rhetorical connection between the two images.66 Only after he has removed the possibility that the audience might identify with the Whore, his metaphorical depiction of Rome, does John offer an alternative. The linkage within the hymn prompts the audience to imagine possible connections and see clear distinctions between the Great Whore and the one that will “marry” the Lamb. Eventually, in chapter 21, John blends this image of the Bride with the metaphorical mapping A CITY IS A WOMAN, characterizing the Bride as a New Jerusalem. It is possible that John’s audience anticipates this identification, given the earlier depiction of Babylon through the domain WOMAN. Furthermore, as a metaphorical representation of a New Jerusalem, this imagery allows the audience to think about and envision its identity. Earlier in the narrative the audience is prompted to see itself as a renewed Israel, through the image of the 144,000 (7:1-8), and now it is encouraged to see itself as the capital city and symbolic heart of Israel – Jerusalem. As one of the final images of communal identity in the narrative, the image of the Bride has special rhetorical significance; it is an image that the audience should “take away.” Despite its importance to the narrative, John’s depiction of the Bride appears fragmented when looking at the text of Revelation as a whole. The first reference to this female imagery in the hymn quoted below is textually separated from the visions of the Bride as a New Jerusalem by no fewer than six distinct scenes.67 In these scenes, Christ defeats the powers of evil and ushers in a thousand-year period of the saints ruling over the earth. In light of this, scholars working primarily with the written text of Revelation often separate 19:1-10 from 21:1-14 when outlining the narrative’s structure, describing 19:1-10 as a conclusion to Revelation’s depiction of the Great Whore, which begins in 17:1.68 Since the hymn anticipates the bridal scenes in chapter 21, Jean-Pierre Ruiz probably characterizes the material best when he notes that 19:1-10 is both a recapitulation of previous material and an anticipation of 65 For a more detailed analysis of the conceptual metaphors undergirding Revelation’s bridal imagery, see the fifth chapter of Huber, Like a Bride Adorned: Reading Metaphor in John’s Apocalypse. Parts of this section reflect ideas articulated in this earlier work. 66 Rueben Zimmermann argues that Whore-Bride dichotomy structures Revelation. I find this suggestion provocative, although I am not fully convinced of his suggestion that the letters of chapters 2–3 explicitly evoke the marriage imagery of the latter chapters. See Reuben Zimmermann, Geschlechtermetaphorik Und Gottesverhältnis: Traditionsgeschichte Und Theologie Eines Bildfelds in Urchristentum Und Antiker Umwelt (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2001). 67 There are six distinct scenes between 19:11 and 20:15 if the reader divides the text when John begins, “And I saw” (kai\ ei}don). A seventh unit can be adduced if one reads 20:7-10, the description of the Satan’s final judgment, as a separate unit. 68 For a brief discussion of the way this passage is typically divided, see Huber, Like a Bride Adorned: Reading Metaphor in John’s Apocalypse, 138 n.15.

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what is to come.69 If a reader imagines this text in terms of oral performance, it is easy to see how 19:1-10 both alludes to the previous images and readies the audience for the visions of chapter 21.

Revelation 19 Throughout Revelation’s narrative, scenes of heavenly worship punctuate visions of earthly destruction and heavenly battles. These scenes affirm that John’s audience, as participants in worship of God and the Lamb, are in line with the “cosmic majority,”70 even though “all the inhabitants of the earth” appear to be worshipping the beasts (13:8). Returning to the heavenly throne room serves as part of John’s attempt at creating a faithful community identity, as the hymns instruct John’s audience on how to understand God (i.e. God is worthy, powerful, eternal) and how to understand God’s relation to the faithful (i.e. God avenges on their behalf). Such is the case in the hymn of Revelation 19 in which a great multitude in heaven celebrates God’s vengeance over the Whore and the wedding of the Lamb: After these things I heard, like a great voice, multitudes in heaven saying, “Alleluia! Salvation and glory and power to our God! For true and just are his judgments, since he has judged the Great Whore who corrupted the earth with her prostitution; And he has avenged the blood of his servants from her hand… And the smoke from her goes up forever and ever! Alleluia! For the Lord, our God the Almighty, reigns! 71 Let us rejoice and exult and give him the glory, For the wedding of the Lamb has come and his wife has prepared herself. And it has been give to her that she be clothed in fine linen, shining and clean. For the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints. (Rev 19:1-3, 6b-8) 69 Jean-Pierre Ruiz, Ezekiel in the Apocalypse: the Transformation of Prophetic Language in Revelation 16,17–19,10 (Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang, 1989), 482. See also Jan Fekkes, “‘His Bride Has Prepared Herself’: Revelation 19–21 and Isaian Nuptial Imagery,” Journal of Biblical Literature 109 (1990): 269–87. 70 de Silva, Seeing Things John’s Way: The Rhetoric of the Book of Revelation, 115. For a clear discussion of the hymns in Revelation, focusing particularly on Revelation 4–5, see Gottfried Schimanowski, “‘Connecting Heaven and Earth’: The Function of the Hymns in Revelation 4–5,” in Heavenly Realms and Earthly Realities in Late Antique Religions, ed. Ra’anan S. Boustan and Annette Yoshiko Reed (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004), 67–84. 71 One of the difficulties with translating this passage is the aorist verb e)basi/leusen, literally “he reigned.” Since it is unlikely that John is describing God’s reign as a past event at this point, commentators suggest that this is either an ingressive aorist, signaling that the beginning of an event has happened in the past and continues on (i.e. “has begun to reign”), or that it represents a timeless event (i.e. “reigns.”). I have chosen to translate the verb in a timeless sense, as it reflects Revelation’s continual affirmation that God’s reign is eternal, even when it appears that others are in control (contra Aune, Revelation, 1016.) For a discussion of the grammatical issues involved, see Beale, The Book of Revelation: A Commentary on the Greek Text, 932.

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The announcement of this event in the final stanza introduces the conceptual domain WEDDING, which colors how the entire stanza is read. Although the Bride is not “seen” until later in the narrative, appearing in consecutive visions (21:1-8 and 21:9-14), John’s use of the concept WEDDING, which would include participants related to the concept, evokes the conceptual domain BRIDE. In addition, John highlights culturally important aspects of the concept BRIDE, including preparation and adornment. Still, it is not until after the smoke from the Great Whore dissipates that John and his audience experience the anakalypsis – the unveiling of the Bride’s identity as New Jerusalem, again evoking the conceptual metaphor A CITY IS A WOMAN. The Wedding and the Woman In the first-century Roman context, the wedding is primarily about the bride’s identity. And, despite the characterization of this wedding as “the Lamb’s,” the bridegroom’s female counterpart provides the focus of the hymn’s closing stanza. This counterpart is not yet characterized specifically as a “bride;” rather, here she is called h( gunh/ au)tou=, “his woman” or “his wife.” While the conceptual domain WEDDING suggests the presence of a bride, the use of “woman/wife” reflects the ancient assumption that all women were eventually and ideally brides and wives (the Vestal Virgins being a notable exception).72 Still, read through the WEDDING domain the reference to “his woman” should be understood as evoking the concept BRIDE. This concept describes an important social role in the life of an ancient female, referring to the transitional moment when a female moves from the category of virgin to that of woman or wife.73 This transition is represented by the central wedding event, the bride’s procession from her family home to that of the groom. The wedding procession reflects a metaphorical equation between the movement from one place to another, a change in location, and a change in state or identity (A CHANGE IN IDENTITY IS A CHANGE IN LOCATION). So important is this event for constructing the female’s identity and not the male’s that at least one Roman jurist suggested that the bridegroom need not be physically present for the wedding to be legitimate.74 The wedding and procession is about the bride’s becoming a wife and becoming, at least symbolically, part

72 The Greek word for bride, nu/mfh, is a textual variant, suggesting that at least one scribe thought the text should either conform to the roles more closely associated with the concept WEDDING or that it should conform to the bridal scenes in 21, where nu/mfh is used. 73 In her analysis of the Roman wedding, Hersch cautions on putting too much emphasis on the wedding day’s significance vis-à-vis feminine gender roles, suggesting that while it was a very important day in a girl’s becoming a woman, the birth of a child was also an important part of this transition. She notes that some families buried their married daughters will dolls, suggesting that these daughters were still understood as girls. Karen K. Hersch, The Roman Wedding: Ritual and Meaning in Antiquity (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010), 68. 74 Ibid., 140–44; Susan Treggiari, Roman Marriage: Iusti Coniuges from the Time of Cicero to the Time of Ulpian (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1991), 167.

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of her husband’s household.75 The concept BRIDE, therefore, implies an inherently transitional identity, as it is an identity that takes place between the social roles of virgin and wife and between the location of the woman’s family home and her husband’s home. The Bridal Attire In The Roman Wedding: Ritual and Meaning in Roman Antiquity, Karen K. Hersch notes that descriptions of weddings from the ancient Greek and Roman world often focus upon the bride’s attire.76 This points to the bridal attire’s significance as a tool for conveying meaning, as well as suggesting the bridal costume’s importance within the conceptual domain BRIDE. The attention given to the bridal attire revolves around a metaphorical connection between IDENTITY and APPEARANCE, as the shift in the bride’s identity at the wedding is signaled through her dress. For the wedding the bride adopts the attire of a married woman, and no longer dons the clothing of a child.77 While a Roman boy adopts the toga virilis or the “toga of manhood” upon “coming of age,” a girl adopts her “coming of age” costume at her wedding, “which symbolized her initiation into womanhood and her new status as wife,” as Laetitia La Follette notes.78 As a sign of her entry into this new social identity, the bride puts on the tunica recta, a garment ideally woven by the bride herself, along with a bridal veil (flammeum), hairnet, and other possible adornments. Given the importance of weaving and spinning as an indicator of idealized and feminine identity and marital piety in the Roman world (MARITAL PIETY IS WOOL WORKING), the idea that the bride may weave her tunica recta suggests that the bridal attire represents her readiness to take on the role of wife.79 Similarly, wedding attendants carry tools associated with spinning and weaving during the wedding procession, again pointing to the bride’s ability to produce cloth and, therefore, her potential for being an ideal wife.80 75 This is complicated by the fact that not all women in the Roman world came under the authority of their husbands, as some remained under the authority of their fathers. For a discussion of manus (marital subordination) in the Roman legal context, see Judith Evans Grubbs, Women and the Law in the Roman Empire: A Sourcebook on Marriage, Divorce, and Widowhood (London: Routledge, 2002), 21–3. 76 Hersch, The Roman Wedding: Ritual and Meaning in Antiquity, 69. 77 Judith Lynn Sebesta, “Symbolism in the Costume of the Roman Woman,” in The World of Roman Costume, ed. Judith Lynn Sebasta and Larissa Bonfante (Madison: University of Winsconsin, 1994), 46–53; Laetitia La Follette, “The Costume of the Roman Bride,” in The World of Roman Costume (Madison: University of Winsconsin Press, 1994), 54–64. 78 La Follette, “The Costume of the Roman Bride,” 54. For a discussion of the toga virilis, see J. Albert Harrill, “Coming of Age and Putting on Christ: The Toga Virilis Ceremony, Its Paraenesis, and Paul’s Interpretation of Baptism in Galatians,” Novum Testamentum 44, no.3 (July 1, 2002): 252–77. 79 Sebesta, “Symbolism in the Costume of the Roman Woman,” 48. 80 Hersch, The Roman Wedding: Ritual and Meaning in Antiquity, 107. See also Dixon, Reading Roman Women: Sources, Genres and Real Life, 117–25.

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Blending the metaphorical mapping IDENTITY IS APPEARANCE with the concept BRIDE, Revelation’s hymnic celebration of the Lamb’s wedding reveals the character of the Bride through her clothing, even though she has not been formally introduced to the audience. The Bride’s garment, and subsequently the Bride herself, is shining (lampro/v) and clean (kaqaro/v). The reference to cleanliness can be understood as a reference to the Bride’s purity given the conventional metaphorical equation MORAL PURITY IS CLEANLINESS and, in the case of the Great Whore, MORAL IMPURITY IS DIRT. The Bride’s garment symbolizes the young woman’s moral purity or chastity, an important characteristic for the Roman wife. Not only are these characteristics signaled in the garment’s weaving, as suggested above, they are communicated through other parts of the bridal costume as well, such as pure wool fillets or headbands. Even though these adornments are not reserved only for brides, they are worn in the hair on a bride’s wedding day, visually representing her chastity.81 The purity of this adornment signals, metaphorically, the wearer’s sexual purity (MORAL PURITY IS CLEANLINESS). In this way, Revelation’s imagery resonates with the Roman context. In addition, the description of the Bride’s garment as shining connects the Bride’s character to the Divine (DIVINITY IS LIGHT), since God and the Lamb are depicted in terms of light and brightness throughout the text (e.g. 1:16, 4:5, 21:23).82 This Bride “reflects” the nature of her bridegroom, the Lamb, drawing upon the mapping SIMILARITY IS PROXIMITY. The Bride is “like” God and the Lamb, because she is “near” God and the Lamb as signaled by her shining garments. This connection reflects one of the ideals of marriage in Roman discourse, as the married couple was expected to possess certain concordia or agreement. The Roman moralist Plutarch, for example, describes the ideal wife as being like a mirror that reflects the life and character of the husband (A WIFE IS MIRROR).83 Interestingly, one of the most common items associated with feminine gender in the ancient world, often thought to be an indicator of feminine vanity, is the mirror. Representations of mirrors appear on women’s funerary monuments, along with images of wool-working, suggesting perhaps that the mirror also indicates the woman’s reflection of her husband.84

81 For a detailed discussion of the evidence for the wearing of vittae and/ or infulae, see Hersch, The Roman Wedding: Ritual and Meaning in Antiquity: 84–9. 82 The imagery of light is one thing, besides gender, that connects the images of the Woman Clothed in the Sun and the Bride. See Edith McEwan Humphrey, The Ladies and the Cities: Transformation and Apocalyptic Identity in Joseph and Aseneth, 4 Ezra, the Apocalypse and the Shepherd of Hermas (Sheffield, England: Sheffield Academic Press, 1995), 106; Ruben Zimmermann, “Nuptial Imagery in the Revelation of John,” Biblica 84, no.2 (2003): 168. 83 Plutarch, “Advice to the Bride and Groom,” in Plutarch’s Advice to the Bride and Groom and A Consolation to His Wife, ed. Sarah B. Pomeroy and Donald Russell (New York: Oxford University Press, 1999), 7, paragraph 14. 84 For a discussion of the significance of mirrors in the Roman world, see Shadi Bartsch, The Mirror of the Self: Sexuality, Self-Knowledge, and the Gaze in the Early Roman Empire (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2006).

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Described as shining and clean, the Bride’s fine linen bridal garment (to\ bu/ssinon) metaphorically indicates her virtue and her association with God. Ironically, the fine linen associated with the bridal garment is one of the goods associated with the Whore’s international trade, along with scarlet and purple (18:12). This reveals the different valences a single object or reference can have in different metaphorical constructions. John’s description of the Bride’s garment, even in its economy of words, signals a complete otherness from the Great Whore, whose attire is characterized by excess. In some sense, the lengthy description of the Whore formally indicates her excess, while the brevity of John’s description of the Lamb’s Bride suggests her simplicity. Thus, the reference to the purity of her garments suggests the Bride’s chastity and indicates her future faithfulness to the Lamb. This characterization is in stark contrast to the Great Whore, who is characterized in terms of promiscuity, excessiveness, and impurity. The Woman as a Communal Identity The hymn closes with a final comment on the Bride’s attire, proclaiming, “the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints” (v.8). John’s Greek here is grammatically awkward, as he connects the singular noun to\ bu/ssinon (fine linen) with the plural participle ta\ dikaiw/mata (the righteous deeds). This seemingly clumsy phrase encourages the audience to imagine a set of actions comprising a single garment (DEEDS ARE A GARMENT). As noted earlier, the Roman bride, ideally, wove her bridal garment as part of taking on her new identity. This was part of her preparation. Similarly, the description of fine linen of the Bride’s garment as metaphorically comprised of the saints’ deeds suggests that the saints construct their garment. In other words, they are preparing themselves, for the Bride “has prepared herself,” by constructing a garment that will reflect their identity (IDENTITY IS APPEARANCE and IDENTITY IS A GARMENT). Presumably, since righteous actions construct a fine garment, unrighteous actions would result in something shoddy or of poor quality. Those that have been called out of the Great Whore are now dressing and becoming the Lamb’s Bride, suggesting the metaphorical mapping THE FAITHFUL COMMUNITY IS A BRIDE. This builds upon the traditional prophetic mapping THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN A COMMUNITY AND A DEITY IS A MARRIAGE and provides a communal identity John’s audience is expected to embrace.85 Among the conceptual mappings at work in this imagery is the equation between a number of individuals within a community and a single identity (A COMMUNITY IS AN INDIVIDUAL). Those that make up the seven churches, who are identified as saints, are conceptualized as one: A community of 85 Among those who read this as communal image are Robert H. Gundry, “The New Jerusalem: People as Place, Not Place for People,” Novum Testamentum 29 (1987): 254–64; Kevin E. Miller, “The Nuptial Eschatology of Revelation 19–22,” Catholic Biblical Quarterly 60 (1998): 301–19.

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individuals is an individual. Even though the image of the Bride has traditionally been read as a collective image, some commentators push against such a claim based primarily on Rev 19:9, a verse that comes immediately after the hymn: “And he [the angel] said to me, ‘Write! Blessed are the ones who have been invited to the wedding banquet of the Lamb.’” The macarism is read so implying that the audience makes up the guests of the wedding and not the Bride.86 The text of Revelation, however, moves deftly from image to image, describing the ideal community as 144,000 from the twelve tribes of Israel in one moment and then as a multi-ethnic multitude in the next moment. A shift from the metaphorical mapping THE FAITHFUL COMMUNITY IS A BRIDE in one verse to immediately inviting community members to the wedding banquet (THE FAITHFUL ARE WEDDING GUESTS) does not seem problematic in the world of Revelation’s imagistic narrative. Through this imagery John, moreover, causes his presumably maleidentified audience to see itself through a conceptual lens that is female. This is not to say that Revelation’s audience was entirely male; rather, John, as other authors of his day, assumes masculine gender as the norm. John reveals this assumption when he describes the faithful as144,000 virgins who have not “defiled themselves with women” (14:4).87 Still the concept WOMAN is employed here as a tool for thinking about the community as whole, highlighting the uniqueness of this identity for John’s audience. With the image of the “Lamb’s woman” in this hymn, John encourages his audience to see itself and to shape its identity in relation to another male subject, namely the Lamb (THE LAMB IS A HUSBAND) and to adopt for itself the role of ideal wife (THE FAITHFUL COMMUNITY IS A BRIDE/WIFE).88 The Bride acts only in relation to the Lamb, as it is for him that she adorns herself. While not a positive role model for contemporary women, this image of a passive female, defined entirely in relation to her husband, embodies an ideal Roman wife. This is expressed in Dio Cassius’ Roman History, in which he reports Augustus as proclaiming, “For is there anything better than a wife who is chaste, domestic, a good house-keeper, a rearer of children; one to gladden you in health, to tend to you sickness; to be your partner in good fortune, to console you in misfortune, to restrain the mad passion of youth and to temper the unreasonable harshness of old age?”89 This is the ideal wife of the Roman Empire and this is the ideal community identity that John wants his audience to adopt in relationship to God and the Lamb. 86 Rossing, The Choice Between Two Cities: Whore, Bride, and Empire in the Apocalypse, 140–41. 87 Huber, “Sexually Explicit? Re-reading Revelation’s 144,000 Virgins as a Response to Roman Discourses,” 5. 88 The Lamb can be understood in more feminine terms, as the description of him being “slaughtered” connotes penetration. For a discussion of the feminine aspects of the Lamb, see Christopher A. Frilingos, “Sexing the Lamb,” in New Testament Masculinities, ed. Stephen D. Moore and Janice Capel Anderson (Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 2003), 297–317. 89 Dio Cassius, Roman History, 56.3.3.

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Revelation 21 In Revelation 21 John offers his audience two visions of the New Jerusalem as a Bride.90 As suggested in the last chapter, this is one of the final images of communal identity with which John’s audience is prompted to identify. It is the anakalypsis of the faithful community: And I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away and the sea was no longer. And I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride who had been adorned for her husband. And I heard a great voice from the throne saying, “See, the dwelling of God with humankind! And he will dwell with them and they will be his peoples. And God himself will be with them, and he will wipe every tear from their eyes, and death will be no more; mourning and crying will be no longer, since the first things have passed away.” (Rev 21:1-3) And one of the seven angels who had the seven vials full of the seven last plagues came and spoke with me, saying, “Come! I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb.” And he carried me in the spirit to a great and high mountain and showed me the holy city, Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God. It has the glory of God. Its radiance is like a precious stone, like a stone of jasper, like crystal. It has a great and high wall, having twelve gates and at the gates twelve angels and the names of the twelve tribes of the sons of Israel have been inscribed… (Rev 21:9-12)

As John witnesses the appearance of a new heaven and earth, the target for Relation’s bridal metaphor shifts from THE FAITHFUL COMMUNITY to THE NEW JERSUALEM. Along with the emergence of these new realms, the faithful community, imagined as BRIDE, is re-imagined as CITY and specifically as NEW JERSUALEM. The New Jerusalem, as Robert Gundry suggests, is “people as place.”91 In some sense, THE FAITHFUL COMMUNITY will be THE NEW JERUSALEM, and for John both can be understood through the conceptual domain BRIDE. The New Jerusalem is a Bride Adorned As with the depiction of the Whore as Babylon, John narrows the A CITY IS A WOMAN mapping by specifying a particular city – the holy city, the New Jerusalem. Emphasizing newness, John makes clear that this CITY is not the “old” Jerusalem, the Jerusalem of historical reality that at the time was occupied by the Romans. This is not to say that there is no connection between the New Jerusalem and past understandings of the city; rather, John 90 Andreas Hoeck, The Descent of the New Jerusalem: A Discourse Analysis of Rev 21:1-22:5 (Bern: Peter Lang, 2003), 322–3. For a discussion of how this duplication has been interpreted, see Huber, Like a Bride Adorned: Reading Metaphor in John’s Apocalypse, 164 n.89. 91 This idea is expressed in the title of his article, Gundry, “The New Jerusalem: People as Place, Not Place for People.”

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draws upon the idealized concept JERUSALEM as the identity for the Bride. The description of this city coming “from God,” a claim introduced in 3:12 and reiterated in both accounts of the New Jerusalem, points to the perfect or ideal character of this city. John is not the only post-70 CE author to evoke the image of a New Jerusalem. The destruction of the Temple by the Romans and the eventual destruction of the city leads a number of Jewish authors to imagine scenarios in which Jerusalem’s inviolability is restored or retained through divine intervention.92 The author of 4 Ezra, for instance, draws upon the metaphorical mapping A CITY IS A WOMAN when he describes Zion as a mother and as a mourning woman, who eventually appears as a glorious city: While I was talking to her, her face suddenly began to shine exceedingly; her countenance flashed like lightning, so that I was too frightened to approach her, and my heart was terrified…When I looked up, the woman was no longer visible to me, but a city was being built, and a place of huge foundations showed itself. (2 Esdras 10:25-27; NRSV)93

The language of “being built,” which is repeated later in the text (10:44), suggests that the city is being built of divine initiative to be revealed at the time of the messianic kingdom.94 The “huge foundations” suggest that this new Jerusalem is a city that cannot be breached. The author of 2 Baruch imagines a slightly different scenario, suggesting that the perfect city of Zion is not the Jerusalem destroyed and defiled; rather, God protects the city’s integrity by taking it into Paradise, presumably to be revealed at some point in the future (2 Baruch 4:1-7).95 In each of these traditions, as in Revelation, the holy city is ultimately restored or preserved in tact. In both texts, JERUSALEM, the idealized city, is inviolable and indicative of God’s reign.96 The image of a restored Jerusalem has an even longer history, stretching back to the prophetic texts that described the restoration of Jerusalem in the sixth century BCE.97 Even though these same texts imagined JERUSALEM as the UNFAITHFUL WIFE, as discussed earlier, some also employ bridal imagery in describing a renewed relationship between God and the city. In Isaiah 61, for example, the personified Jerusalem proclaims, 92 Celia Deutsch, “Transformation of Symbols: The New Jerusalem in Rv 21.1-22.5,” Zeitschrift Für Die Neutestamentliche Wissenschaft 78 (1987): 112–13. 93 The first-century text of 4 Ezra is incorporated into the text of 2 Esdras, a later Christian construction. 94 Ryan S. Schellenberg, “Seeing the World Whole: Intertextuality and the New Jerusalem (Revelation 21–22),” Perspectives in Religious Studies 33, no.4 (Wint 2006): 470. 95 James H. Charlesworth, ed., “2 Baruch,” The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha (New York: Doubleday, 1983). 96 Schellenberg, “Seeing the World Whole,” 468. 97 Deutsch, “Transformation of Symbols: The New Jerusalem in Rv 21.1-22.5,” 112. For a discussion of other prophetic traditions upon which John draws, see Zimmermann, “Nuptial Imagery in the Revelation of John,” 170–73.

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I will greatly rejoice in the LORD, my whole being shall exult in my God; for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation, he has covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decks himself with a garland, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels. (Isa 61:10; NRSV)

Isaiah uses garments to signify identity (IDENTITY IS APPEARANCE), namely an identity marked by righteousness, and employs the concept ADORNMENT, to which we will return below. Isaiah’s imagery communicates the joy that is part of the concept WEDDING. Later in Isaiah, the prophet, on behalf of God, says to Jerusalem, You shall no more be termed Forsaken, and your land shall no more be termed Desolate; but you shall be called My Delight Is in Her, and your land Married; for the LORD delights in you and your land shall be married. For as a young man marries a young woman, so shall your builder marry you, and as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so shall your God rejoice over you. (Isa 62:4-5; NRSV)

Here the concepts of WEDDING and BRIDE are paired with an image of transition from one identity to another identity, metaphorically depicted as a change in name (AN IDENTITY IS A NAME). The object of transition, moreover, is revealed as a CITY, metaphorically imagined as a BRIDE, through the reference to “your builder.” The city that was abandoned by God has become a city in which God delights, just as a bride, ideally, becomes the delight of her new husband. By alluding to this imagery in a text that continually refers back to the prophetic traditions, John reinforces his audience’s identity as a renewed Israel or New Jerusalem. For John, the promises the prophets offer Israel, that Jerusalem will become a renewed Bride of God, are now offered to the faithful communities of Asia Minor (THE FAITHFUL COMMUNITY IS A NEW JERUSALEM). In Isaiah, the prophet refers to the presence of the Bridegroom, alongside of the Bride, suggesting the metaphorical mapping GOD IS A BRIDEGROOM. Here, both the Bridegroom and the Bride are adorned in anticipation of their wedding. While John characterizes the wedding taking place as that of the Lamb in Revelation 19, it is not until chapter 21 that he employs language referring to the Bride’s husband or, more specifically, her man: “And I saw the holy city…prepared as a bride who had been adorned for her husband (a0nh/r) (v.2). Like the prophetic text, Revelation presents the Lamb and/or God (the two sometimes share the same space in Revelation) as a BRIDEGROOM. Unlike Isaiah, Revelation does not depict the Bridegroom being adorned, highlighting that this is an activity associated with the Bride alone. The adornment, moreover, is clearly intended “for her husband.” Therefore, since attire metaphorically indicates identity in Revelation (IDENTITY IS A GARMENT), the text implies that the identity of the Bride is crafted primarily in relation to God and the Lamb. This clearly accords with the Roman ideal,

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noted above, of concordia between marriage partners with the female conforming to her male partner. A Transition (in)to God’s Dwelling Place A striking aspect of the New Jerusalem imagery in these corresponding scenes is the description of the city actively descending. In both 21:2 and 21:10, the text uses a present participle (katabai/nousan) to convey a sense of movement. Read through the lens of the conceptual domain WEDDING, the imagery of the Bride’s movement from place to place suggests the bridal procession. The fact that this Bride’s movement precedes a statement about God’s dwelling place, presumably the dwelling place of the Lamb, suggests a movement toward the home of the bridegroom. As described above, the Roman bride’s procession to the bridegroom’s home was a key component of the wedding ceremony and signaled her transition from one identity to another (A CHANGE IN IDENTITY IS A CHANGE IN LOCATION). By “freezing” the descent of the Bride, as the city never completely descends in the narrative,98 John suggests the city has a transitional identity, the city is perpetually the Lamb’s Bride. In light of the appearance of a new heaven and earth, perhaps this ever-descending Jerusalem is in a perpetual state of newness. This is an identity that cannot grow old, as it remains in the process of entering this new identity. In addition, by describing the New Jerusalem as a perpetual Bride, not as a wife, John sidesteps particular aspects of the conceptual domains WEDDING and MARRIAGE, including the wedding’s consummation and the possibility of procreation, both important ideas in the Roman world.99 For some interpreters of Revelation, including the medieval visionaries of the next chapter, these ideas are implied in the imagery. Among the aspects of the domain JERUSALEM that John emphasizes in 21:1-3 is the role of city as God’s dwelling place. Immediately after John describes seeing the descent of the New Jerusalem, a voice from the throne, presumably God’s voice, commands, “See, the dwelling of God with humankind! And he will dwell with them and they will be his people. And God will be with them, as their God” (v.3). Here the divine instructs John and John’s audience on how to interpret this vision, this sign. This city is the site of God’s preference, as Psalm 132 depicts: “For the Lord has chosen Zion; he has desired it for his habitation: ‘This is my resting place forever; here I will reside, for I have desired it…’” (132:13-14; NRSV). The faithful community, imagined as a City and as the Bride, will be the site of God’s dwelling. Gundry explains, “The New Jerusalem is a dwelling place for sure; but it is God’s dwelling place in the saints rather than their dwelling place 98 G. B. Caird, A Commentary on the Revelation of St. John the Divine (London: Black, 1984), 117. 99 Hersch, The Roman Wedding: Ritual and Meaning in Antiquity, 220–21. Hersch notes that the consummation of the wedding is not part of the wedding proper; however, there was the assumption that the purpose of marriage was to bear legitimate children, suggesting the importance of sex within the Roman concepts of weddings and marriage.

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on earth.”100 That the community is now the place where God resides is foreshadowed in Christ’s letter to the congregation at Philadelphia, when he promises that those who conquer will be made pillars in God’s Temple and will have the name of the New Jerusalem inscribed upon them (A NAME IS AN IDENTITY). Imagined as the Bride, Jerusalem is simultaneously in the process of transitioning to her new dwelling and being the dwelling of God (THE FAITHFUL COMMUNITY IS GOD’S DWELLING PLACE). The divine voice’s description of this dwelling conjures a sense of closeness between the Divine and the community. The use of the terms skhnh/ and skhne/w, which I have translated in terms of dwelling, actually conjures the image of God’s tent or tabernacle from when the Israelites were in the wilderness (cf. Rev 7:15).101 As the place of God’s “tenting” with his people, the New Jerusalem stands in continuity with the Israel of the Hebrew Bible. This is not an image of rejection, but of renewal and return. In addition, the description of God wiping away the tears of his people and being with them suggests a sense of love between God as HUSBAND and New Jerusalem as BRIDE. As in Isaiah, in which Jerusalem will become “My Delight Is in Her,” there is a sense of God’s love for and compassion toward the faithful community that is a bridal city. The City is a Container, Adorned In the second description of the New Jerusalem as Bride (21:9-12), John concludes with a description of the Bride as a foursquare, gem-encrusted city. John brings the conceptual domain CITY into the foreground, as he echoes Ezekiel’s vision of a restored Temple (Ezk 40-48). In so doing, the visionary emphasizes the city’s thick and high walls (21:12, 16).102 The city’s walls and its description as foursquare explicitly evoke the concept of a CONTAINER. The description of the city’s gates, of which there are twelve, similarly highlights that the city is container-like. It is something that can be entered and exited, opened and closed. However, unlike earthly cities, the New Jerusalem’s gates are always open, for there is no night in the city (v.25). This image conveys openness and continual access, a positive association with the A CITY IS A CONTAINER metaphor. Brian K. Blount observes, this can be understood as an image of “radical openness.”103 However, openness can have negative connotations with the A CITY IS A CONTAINER mapping, as it implies the risk of violability. Although angels monitor these city gates, this might be read as a suggestion that the city can be entered and over-taken. However, Revelation’s narrative assures John and the audience that this city will not be violated, as “nothing unclean will enter it” (v.27). Likewise, in an earlier verse, God offers a list of those who will not enter the city, including murderers, fornicators, liars, 100 Gundry, “The New Jerusalem: People as Place, Not Place for People,” 256. 101 Schüssler Fiorenza, The Book of Revelation--justice and Judgment, 68. 102 Gundry, “The New Jerusalem: People as Place, Not Place for People,” 260. See also Fekkes, “His Bride Has Prepared Herself’: Revelation 19–21 and Isaian Nuptial Imagery,” 275. 103 Blount, Revelation: A Commentary, 394.

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etc. (21:8). Thus, the safety and control implied through the CONTAINER domain is underscored. From a modern perspective we might hope that the New Jerusalem is an accepting and inclusive vision, rather than a vision of a city that is off limits to those who are categorized as sinners or irredeemable, especially since some of these categories have been used to justify oppression.104 For John, however, the image of the New Jerusalem is about containing and comforting those who he understands as faithful and setting limits, for a CONTAINER has limits, between them and the unfaithful or impure. The New Jerusalem’s boundary, its thick wall, is one thing that distinguishes it from Babylon, a city that is not described in Revelation as walled. On account of the conceptual domain PROSTITUTION, one might imagine that one of the ways that the New Jerusalem as Bride differs from Babylon as Whore is because of a failure to discriminate among those to whom one is “open” and a willingness to be “open” for money. In other words, given the conceptual connection between WOMAN, CITY, and CONTAINER domains, the walled nature of the New Jerusalem might be read as an indication of the bridal city’s chastity or marital faithfulness. Ironically, however, the kings of the earth, those who figuratively “entered” the Whore, will “enter” the New Jerusalem. John specifies that they bring glory into this new city and not shame (v.24). Perhaps in John’s understanding, the BRIDE domain is no longer operative in 21:24; however, once a conceptual domain is evoked, it does not necessarily disappear from the audience’s mind. However, for John it appears that part of the issue is that the kings of the earth were engaging in a relationship with the “wrong” woman; rather, their attention should have been focused upon the Lamb’s Bride. The king of the earth are not the only ones bringing light into the New Jerusalem, for the city has the glory of God (21:9). Alluding to the vision of the New Jerusalem in Isaiah, where God is described as providing the city with everlasting light (Isa 60:20), John later suggests that God’s glory is the city’s light and that the Lamb is its lamp (21:23). The CITY as CONTAINER is seemingly illumined by the presence of God and the Lamb within it. This imagery of illumination emphasizes the connection between the city and the Divine, highlighting the notion of the glory or light within the city. Furthermore, this vision of the New Jerusalem draws upon the passivity inherent in the conceptual mappings A CITY/WOMAN IS A CONTAINER. At this point, the New Jerusalem is something like a receptacle for God’s light and there is very little activity ascribed to the city or those who might be imagined as its inhabitants. In addition, the description of the New Jerusalem’s adornments, here characterized as precious stones, highlights the presence of God and the Lamb within city. Most scholars note that these jewels, twelve in total, evoke the precious stones on the high priest’s breastplate, even though the list is not 104 For a discussion of some of the oppressive aspects of Revelation’s New Jerusalem imagery, see Tina Pippin and J. Michael Clark, “Revelation/ Apocalypse,” in The Queer Bible Commentary, ed. Deryn Guest, et al. (London: SCM Press, 2006), 753–68.

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exactly the same as those listed in earlier traditions (e.g. Ex 28:15-21).105 By identifying the New Jerusalem with the Temple’s high priest, John indicates that those who comprise the New Jerusalem are “qualified to be in God’s glorious presence” according to Beale.106 Drawing upon the metaphorical mapping IDENTITY IS APPEARANCE, the New Jerusalem’s adornments signal that this city serves as “a kingdom, priests serving his God and Father” (Rev 1:6; cf. Ex 19:6).

The Bride’s Invitation The closing chapter of Revelation resembles a patchwork quilt consisting of imperatives, promises, and proclamations. Among these is the command, uttered by the Bride and the Spirit, “Come!” (22:17). This imperative, to which the audience is called to respond with “Come!,” is the only utterance from the Bride in Revelation. Just as a divine voice commands the audience to remove itself from Babylon, “Come out of her my people!,” now a voice aligned with God commands the audience to come to the New Jerusalem. In the call and response, therefore, we see John’s audience invited to enter into the city that is the Bride; however, the audience is also invited or commanded to become the city that is a Bride (THE FAITHFUL COMMUNITY IS A BRIDE and THE NEW JERUSALEM IS A BRIDE). As mentioned before, the Roman wedding involved the bride taking on a new identity. Here the Bride herself invites the audience to adopt this identity and to don the bridal garment. This, in fact, is the anakalypsis – the revelation that it is the audience who wears the veil. For some modern interpreters this unveiling of the community’s identity is unsatisfactory, since the image calls the community to embrace a role built upon the assumption of feminine passivity and marital piety (i.e. virginity and household productiveness), values that have historically been used to reinforce gender hierarchies. Even though John seemingly imagines this occurring in a gender-bending way, as the community imagined in male terms becomes the female Bride of the Lamb, the connection between femininity and passivity ultimately remains unchallenged. And yet, one can look at the image of 144,000 virginal males who become the Bride of the Lamb as an image that subverts traditional notions of masculinity.107 Still, that the Bride emerges after the especially violent destruction of the Whore only makes matters worse. The image of female self-determination is destroyed to make way for an image of a Bride that reflects the character and countenance of her husband. 105 See, for instance, William W. Reader, “The Twelve Jewels of Revelation 21:19-20 : Tradition History and Modern Interpretations,” Journal of Biblical Literature 100, no. 3 (S 1981): 433–57; Fekkes, “His Bride Has Prepared Herself’: Revelation 19–21 and Isaian Nuptial Imagery,” 277; Beale, The Book of Revelation: A Commentary on the Greek Text, 1085–88. 106 Beale, The Book of Revelation: A Commentary on the Greek Text, 1084. 107 I argue this more fully in Huber, “Sexually Explicit? Re-reading Revelation’s 144,000 Virgins as a Response to Roman Discourses.”

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And, yet, these images are not of women, but instances in which WOMAN is used to imagine cities and communities. Within the patriarchal context of the Roman Empire, the metaphorical depiction of a city as a woman “fits” John’s rhetorical aims, because it highlights the potential violability of the city/community. Like women, the metaphorical mapping suggests, cities are inherently penetrable and capable of being dominated through penetration. As Sue Best notes in relation to modern cities the feminization of the city reveals a desire for a space to be docile, encircling and safe.108 The city as woman might be specified to depict the city in the female role as mother. However, the thing that makes the city as woman safe, the ability to contain, is also what makes the city as woman precarious. By depicting Rome as a woman, specifically as a Whore, in terms of violation and destruction, John takes what some may have found comforting (i.e. Roman peace and power) and tries to unsettle his audience – the city as Whore is not a safe place. While we cannot divest the Apocalypse of its patriarchal paradigms, we can work to understand how the author employs them and how they shape the imaginations of Revelation’s interpreters.

108 Best, “Sexualizing Space,” 183.

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Chapter 4 “With a Womb Pierced like a Net”: Reading Revelation’s City-Women with Two Medieval Visionaries1 Read the Apocalypse of John and you will find the adornment of the heavenly Jerusalem described in various ways by means of gold and silver, by means of pearls or other kinds of precious gems. In fact we know that none of these things exists there, where nevertheless nothing can be missing altogether. For indeed, no such thing exists there through appearance, where nevertheless everything exists through similitude…For we are able to imagine these things immediately whenever we wish. Imagination is never able to be more faithful to the reason than when it is devoted to it in such service. Richard of St. Victor, The Twelve Patriarchs2

In an early chapter of the novel The Name of the Rose, Umberto Eco captures the visual power of Revelation during the Middle Ages. A young Benedictine novice named Adso, who serves as the story’s narrator, is swept into the apocalyptic visions carved in a chapel’s portal. Echoing John himself, Adso explains, “I saw a throne set in the sky and a figure seated on the throne. The face of the Seated One was stern and impassive, the eyes wide and glaring over a terrestrial humankind that had reached the end of its story…” He continues, describing the heavenly “monsters” that surround the throne. His eyes eventually move to the chapel’s arches where he witnesses those frightening characters who populate the Last Judgment, including a dead miser that is prey to a “cohort of demons,” a voluptuous woman gnawed on by toads, and the rest of the damned. Terrified by the images of violence around him, the young man trembles as if he “were drenched by the icy winter rain.”3

1 Portions of this chapter have been presented in different conference settings, including a panel titled “Medieval Interpretations of the Book of Revelation in Text and Image,” at the International Medieval Congress, Leeds, July 2009, the Patristic, Medieval, and Renaissance Studies Conference, Villanova University, Villanova, Oct. 2008, and in the Program Unit on the Bible and its Influence: History and Impact, at the Society of Biblical Literature International Meeting, Auckland, New Zealand, July 2008. 2 Richard of St. Victor, “The Twelve Patriarchs” (Paulist Press, 1979), xv. 3 Umberto Eco, The Name of the Rose (New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1983), 45.

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Albeit the product of Eco’s imagination, the depiction of Adso’s visceral response to Revelation’s imagery demonstrates how John’s Apocalypse did capture the imaginations of many living within the medieval world, including poets, priests, artists, and kings. In this chapter we will examine selections from the writings of Hildegard of Bingen, the famous Benedictine Abbess of the twelfth century, and Hadewijch, a Flemish Beguine who lived during the mid-thirteenth century. In their visionary writings, Scivias and Visions respectively, Hildegard and Hadewijch align themselves with John, understood as a model of virginal and visionary devotion to Christ. Both, like their visionary model, think with women, appropriating and redeploying Revelation’s CITY-WOMAN imagery in their writings. By attending to the ways in which their writings parallel and engage this imagery we gain a sense of how two “real readers” were caught up, like Eco’s depiction of Adso, in Revelation’s visionary and visual narrative. While hopefully this brings to light aspects of these two very different visionary accounts, the primary aim of this presentation is to better understand the contours of Revelation’s CITY-WOMAN imagery and how the conceptual domains and metaphorical mappings at play in these images invite the creation of new meanings. Even though these two visionaries are separated by at least a century, it is possible to offer some general observations about the significance of Revelation in the Middle Ages, as a way of situating their unique readings. Following the lead of Chapter 1, our attention will be on the intersection of Revelation with the visual and visionary culture of the time, rather than on the commentary tradition surrounding the text, which was sizable. This is not to imply that Hildegard and Hadewijch were unfamiliar with the numerous Apocalypse commentaries in circulation during the time, as both authors exhibit familiarity with important, although different, contemporary literary traditions. In fact, some of the commentary that Hildegard offers upon her visions resembles the tradition of monastic exegesis on the Apocalypse.4 However, Hildegard and Hadewijch present their narratives as visionary accounts and our focus will be upon the way they appear to “envision” along with John. Thus, in order to better understand these two very different visionary accounts, we begin by situating both authors within the context of “seeing” Revelation in the Middle Ages.

Seeing Revelation in the Middle Ages Even though certain ancient interpreters had misgivings about the revelatory nature of John’s Apocalypse, as it seemed to confuse more than clarify, the text and its vivid images captured the imaginations of many, especially theologians and monastics, who lived in the Middle Ages.5 Reflecting its 4 Richard K. Emmerson, “The Representation of Antichrist in Hildegard of Bingen’s Scivias: Image, Word, Commentary, and Visionary Experience,” Gesta 41, no.2 (2002): 95–110. 5 While Revelation was clearly accepted in the Western tradition, appearing in the list of canonical books outlined by the Council of Carthage (397), it was not as widely accepted in the East.

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popularity and possibly its need for interpretation, E. Ann Matter notes that Revelation was one of the first “biblical texts to be systematically explicated in Latin.”6 This commentary tradition spread throughout Europe and North Africa and persisted throughout the Middle Ages, as commentators drew upon and amended the perspectives of earlier interpreters. Medieval fascination with Revelation was not limited to the exegetical tradition, as the images from John’s narrative found their way into sermons, commentaries, and devotional books.7 The hymns of Revelation shaped the liturgies that rang out in worship spaces designed to evoke the New Jerusalem and the walls of monasteries and cathedrals were covered with frescoes, mosaics, and reliefs depicting scenes of Revelation’s throne room and the Last Judgment.8 Overall, the medieval world was one in which many interpreters heeded John’s call to hear and especially to see what had been revealed to him. Even though the text found its way into various formats, many medieval encounters with Revelation’s imagery were visual. Single images from the text, such as the Alpha and Omega, the Lamb, and even the New Jerusalem, were incorporated into church art,9 although Revelation was also illustrated as a narrative, especially in manuscripts. Among the various types of manuscripts including images from Revelation were illustrated Bibles, commentaries on Revelation, such as the Beatus commentary, and “Apocalypse cycles.” Apocalypse cycles, as modern scholars call them, are illustrated versions of Revelation’s narrative that typically stand alone from other canonical writings, “an honor shared only by the four gospels and the Psalms” according to Judith L. Kovacs and Christopher Rowland.10 Cycles, ranging from fifty to eighty images, were geographically and temporally widespread. There were, as with early New Testament manuscripts, specific “families” of cycles, reflecting a tradition of copying them for dissemination.11 The audiences for these For instance, the Syriac Peshitta lacks the Apocalypse. For a discussion of Revelation’s canonical status, see William C. Weinrich, Revelation, vol.12 (Downers Grove: Intervarsity Press, 2005), xix–xx. 6 E. Ann Matter, “The Apocalypse in Early Medieval Exegesis,” in The Apocalypse in the Middle Ages, ed. Richard K. Emmerson and Bernard McGinn (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1992), 38. 7 Richard K. Emmerson, “Introduction: The Apocalypse in Medieval Culture,” in The Apocalypse in the Middle Ages (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1992), 294. 8 Ann Raftery Meyer, Medieval Allegory and the Building of the New Jerusalem (DS Brewer, 2003). The tradition of aligning the physical building of the church with the heavenly Jerusalem is seen quite early in Church history. In fact, the allegorical connection is made in a panygeric to a church in Tyre, Eusebius, The Church History of Eusebius (Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 1890), 10.4. 9 See Peter K. Klein, “Introduction: The Apocalypse in Medieval Art,” in The Apocalypse in the Middle Ages, ed. Richard K. Emmerson and Bernard McGinn (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1992), 162–7. 10 Judith L. Kovacs, Christopher Rowland, and Rebekah Callow, Revelation: The Apocalypse of Jesus Christ (Malden: Blackwell, 2004), 33. 11 Klein, “Introduction: The Apocalypse in Medieval Art,” 175–99. See also Henry MayrHarting, “Apocalyptic Book Illustration in the Early Middle Ages,” in Apocalyptic in History and Tradition, ed. Christopher Rowland and John Barton, Journal for the Study of the Pseudepigrapha Supplement Series (Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 2002), 172–211.

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apocalyptic “picture books,” furthermore, were diverse, including religious communities, churches, and monastic libraries, as well as aristocratic men and women who could afford their own illustrated Apocalypse cycles for private devotion.12 This visual tradition around the Apocalypse reflects that many in the Middle Ages understood that the text, which was understood as having multiple meanings and truths, was best understood visually. This visual encounter could occur either through physical images or through the power of visual imagination. Medieval art historian Suzanne Lewis recounts Rupert of Deutz’s understanding, writing, As he read the apocalyptic account of the war in heaven in Rev. 12, the twelfth-century commentator Rupert of Deutz realized the power of imagination to transform words into “an amazing spectacle of images [that] appeared before the gaze of John’s soul.” Reading the words of the Apocalypse, he continued, we can recover the summit of John’s awe mixed with horror only by dreaming or by imagining drawn from inward meditation.13

Just as Eco describes Adso’s visualization of Revelation’s images, prompted by the physical images on the chapel walls, so Rupert experienced John’s narrative visually as well, although prompted primarily through the text itself. Others in the medieval world agreed with Rupert about Revelation’s ability to harness the power of a reader’s imagination. As we see in this chapter’s epigraph, Richard of St. Victor, a well-regarded twelfth-century author on the contemplative and visionary experience, described how the imagery of the Apocalypse, including the details associated with the New Jerusalem’s adornment, prompt imagination. He explains that Revelation’s imagery prompts its audience to draw upon the memory’s impressions of visible things.14 Revelation’s imagery works through both memory and metaphor, using the traces of past visual experiences to communicate ideas and concepts that are beyond human experience. In the high Middle Ages, the popularity of Revelation paralleled a growing interest among scholars and theologians, such as Dun Scotus and Roger Bacon, in the processes associated with sight and seeing.15 Long privileged among the 12 Suzanne Lewis, “The Apocalypse of Isabella of France: Paris, Bibl. Nat. MS Fr. 13096,” The Art Bulletin 72, no.2 (June 1, 1990): 224–60. See also Lewis, Reading Images: Narrative Discourse and Reception in the Thirteenth-Century Illuminated Apocalypse. 13 Lewis, Reading Images: Narrative Discourse and Reception in the Thirteenth-Century Illuminated Apocalypse, 6. 14 Victor, “The Twelve Patriarchs,” chap. xv. 15 Among the issues that fascinated late medieval thinkers, including Henry of Ghent, Dun Scotus, and Roger Bacon, was the reliability of sight. See Dallas G. Denery, Seeing and Being Seen in the Later Medieval World: Optics, Theology and Religious Life (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005), 3. For a discussion of medieval conceptions of sight and understandings of the visual, see Suzanne Conklin Akbari, Seeing Through the Veil: Optical Theory and Medieval Allegory (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2004); Cynthia Hahn, “Visio Dei: Changes

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bodily senses, it was believed vision provided a means for the soul to connect with the world. 16 This meant that discussions of vision existed within the purview of theological discourse; for the soul was that part of the individual that many in the medieval world understood as needing to be reconciled or united to God.17 For some theologians vision was potentially dangerous, since through sight, motivated by desire, a soul could seek out things that were not in its best interest; the so-called “lust of the eyes.”18 Bernard of Clairvaux warned, for instance, of relying too heavily upon physical sight for spiritual contemplation and not cultivating an inner vision.19 However, as Suzannah Biernoff observes, in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries there was an increasing conviction in the redemptive possibilities of sight, a belief that grew along with a growing use of images for devotional purposes.20 Thus, while some people describe the medieval world as the “dark ages,” this was a time period marked by an interest in the potential of sight and a saturation of images. Europe during this time period experienced what art historian Michael Camille describes as an “image explosion,”21 making it a welcome climate for visionary engagement with Revelation. One aspect of this image explosion was a growing number of visionary accounts and literary expressions of oracular experiences. Kathryn L. Lynch notes that, “over 225 visions were written from the sixth century through the fifteenth…The concentration is even higher for the years after 1100, when about 70 percent of all visions and 90 percent of the literary ones were probably composed.”22 Similarly, Bernard McGinn describes a “flood of visionary narratives, especially by and about women, that begin to appear shortly after in Medieval Visuality,” in Visuality Before and After the Renaissance, ed. Robert S. Nelson (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000), 169–96. 16 This was the result, at least in part, of Platonism’s influence upon ancient and medieval Christian thought. See Janet Soskice, “Sight and Vision in Medieval Christian Thought,” in Vision in Context: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives on Sight, ed. Teresa Brennan and Martin Jay (New York: Routledge, 1996), 31–3. 17 Meyer, Medieval Allegory and the Building of the New Jerusalem, 53–4. 18 Augustine, “Confessions,” ed. Henry Chadwick (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1991), 10.34.54. The “eye of the flesh” is discussed in detail in Suzannah Bierfnoff, Sight and Embodiment in the Middle Ages (New York: Palgrave MacMillian, 2002), 41–59. 19 Mary Carruthers, The Craft of Thought: Meditation, Rhetoric, and the Making of Images, 400–1200 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998), 84–7. 20 Biernoff, Sight and Embodiment in the Middle Ages, 133ff; Jeffrey F. Hamburger, “The Visual and the Visionary: The Image in Late Medieval Monastic Devotions,” in The Visual and the Visionary: Art and Female Spirituality in Late Medieval Germany, ed. Jeffrey F. Hamburger (New York: Zone Books, 1998). 21 Michael Camille, “Visionary Perception and Images of the Apocalypse in the Later Middle Ages,” in The Apocalypse in the Middle Ages (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1992), 281. 22 Kathryn L. Lynch, The High Medieval Dream Vision: Poetry, Philosophy, and Literary Form (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1998), 1. See also Barbara Newman, “The Visionary Texts and Visual Worlds of Religious Women,” in Crown and Veil: Female Monasticism from the Fifth to the Fifteenth Centuries, ed. Jeffrey F. Hamburger and Susan Marti (New York: Columbia University Press, 2008), 151–71.

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1200.”23 This flood led one medieval author to comment in 1158, “In these days God made manifest His power through the frail sex, in these handmaidens whom He filled with the prophetic spirit.”24 Whether or not there was an actual increase in oracular or visionary experiences around the turn of the thirteenth century remains a mystery of history; however, the increasing number of written accounts suggests a growing interest in the visionary experience. Although the reasons for the flood of visionary narratives likely include a variety of economic, political, and social factors,25 at least one reason for the growing number of accounts, especially accounts associated with women, was the dramatic increase in the number of women entering religious movements, including lay religious organizations during the high middle ages. Caroline Walker Bynum notes that as new monastic orders and religious communities grew alongside of the traditional Benedictine monasteries, the numbers of women entering the religious life began to swell. This reflects the growing rate of female literacy and a corresponding dissatisfaction with traditional female social roles. 26 While Hildegard and her visionary writings emerge prior to this growth, perhaps prefiguring the outpouring of the prophetic spirit upon women, Hadewijch appears in the midst of this visionary avalanche. It may be impossible to draw a clear connection between the growing popularity of visionary narratives and the importance of Revelation within the visual culture of the Middle Ages, yet the parallel remains striking. This is especially true, since John the Seer served as a devotional model for many visionaries.27 Believed to be both the “Beloved Disciple” described in the Gospel of John and the author of Revelation, John’s visionary experiences were linked to the belief, perpetuated in books such as The Golden Legend (c.1275), that he remained a virgin throughout his life and that he shared an especially close bond with Christ. 28 Some medieval authors implied that the wedding at Cana, described at the beginning of the Gospel of John, was John’s wedding, an event he cut short to follow Jesus.29 In light of these traditions, 23 Bernard McGinn, The Flowering of Mysticism: Men and Women in the New Mysticism – 1200–1350 (New York: Crossroad, 1998), 25. 24 As quoted by Emilie Zum Brunn and Georgette Epiney-Burgard, Women Mystics in Medieval Europe (New York: Paragon House, 1989), xiiv. 25 For a discussion of some of the social and historical factors at play at the beginning of the thirteenth century in Europe, see McGinn, The Flowering of Mysticism: Men and Women in the New Mysticism – 1200–1350, 2–4. 26 See also obid., 154–5. See also ibid., 154–5. 27 Victoria Cirlot, “Hildegard Von Bingen y Juan De Patmos: La Experiencia Visionaria En El Siglo XII,” Revista Chilena De Literatura no.63 (November 1, 2003): 111–15. 28 Jacobus de Voragine, “The Golden Legend or Lives of the Saints” (Temple Classics, 1900), vol.2, “St. John the Evangelist.” The association between John and the “beloved disciple” mentioned in the Fourth Gospel is questioned by contemporary biblical scholars, although the traditional connection dates back to Irenaeus, see Against Heresies (Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 1867), 3.11.2. 29 Cirlot, “Hildegard Von Bingen y Juan De Patmos,” 112. See also Dyan Elliott, Spiritual Marriage: Sexual Abstinence in Medieval Wedlock (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1993), 143, 72.

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John served as a devotional model for those religious women and men who preserved their virginity as a means of following Christ.30 In addition, the close connection between John and Jesus was understood as the source of John’s visionary experiences. Richard K. Emmerson translates a 15th-century hymn lyric that communicates just such an idea: “Saint John, who was a noble martyr/On Christ’s lap asleep lay he/He saw the privacy of heaven/He is called to the banquet.”31 Evoking the image of the Beloved Disciple reclining on the breast of Jesus in John 13:23, the lyric associates the images of Revelation, including heaven and the heavenly banquet, with this physical, emotional, and spiritual connection between John and Jesus. Emmerson suggests that this connection between John the Beloved and John the Seer suggested to “later visionaries that faithful devotion to the Lamb and attention to the Apocalypse will be rewarded with visionary gifts.”32 A full examination of Revelation’s influence on medieval visionaries would prove a difficult task, for many of these visionaries weave Revelation’s imagery together with other traditional images and texts as they construct their narratives. It is as if seeing and narrating visions like John requires communicating these visions in a manner similar to John, whose narrative is often described as a pastiche of allusions. According to Amy Hollywood, while contemporary perspectives on mysticism tend to “view images and concepts (whether visual or verbal) as secondary to experience,” for the medieval visionaries textual images mediate between the indescribable world and experience of the divine and the human.33 The writings and ruminations of other authors serve as tools through which their own experiences are communicated. Thus, Revelation’s images, including conceptual domains and mappings, are combined with those drawn from other parts of Scripture, especially the Song of Songs, to communicate the visionaries’ perspectives of and experience with the divine.34 Song of Songs was another immensely popular text in the Middle Ages, since it was understood, like Revelation, as inviting multiple interpretations beyond

30 Jeffrey F. Hamburger, St. John the Divine: The Deified Evangelist in Medieval Theology (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2002), 66–7. 31 Emmerson, “Introduction: The Apocalypse in Medieval Culture,” 329, n.116. Hildegard similarly links John’s chastity to his entry in the heavenly city. See the “Repsonsory for Saint John the Evangelist” in Hildegard and Barbara Newman, Symphonia: A Critical Edition of the Symphonia Armonie Celestium Revelationum (Symphony of the Harmony of Celestial Revelations) (Cornell University Press, 1998), 169. 32 Ibid., 329. See also Hamburger, St. John the Divine: The Deified Evangelist in Medieval Theology, 74–5. 33 Amy Hollywood, The Soul as Virgin Wife: Mechthild of Magdeburg, Marguerite Porete, and Meister Eckhart (Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 1995), 20. See also Bernard McGinn, “Visions and Visualizations in the Here and Hereafter,” The Harvard Theological Review 98, no.3 (July 1, 2005): 227–46. 34 As E. Ann Matter notes, there are over one hundred extant commentaries on the Song dating to the Middle Ages, The Voice of My Beloved: The Song of Songs in Western Medieval Christianity (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1990). See also Denys Turner, Eros and Allegory: Medieval Exegesis of the Song of Songs (Kalamazoo: Cistercian Publications, 1995).

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the surface meaning of the text.35 While Scriptural images predominate in the visionary narratives of the Christian Middle Ages, these authors are not bound by the canon of Scripture, drawing upon other religious and even secular texts. Hildegard, for example, seems to have been familiar with the imagery of the Shepherd of Hermas, an early second-century apocalyptic text, while Hadewijch echoes the conventions of courtly love lyric.36 The recycling and recontextualizing of traditional imagery and language in medieval visionary accounts relates to the medieval understanding of the visionary experience as an experience in which the known mediates the unknown. Building upon the writings of Augustine, medieval scholars traditionally distinguished between three or four different types of seeing of which the visionary experience is one type.37 Richard of St. Victor explained that there is a “physical sight which contains no hidden significance; a mode of sight such as when Moses beheld the burning bush; seeing through visible things to the invisible; and, finally, contemplation of the celestial without the mediation of any visible figures.”38 Although some medieval visionaries described experiences of total contemplation apart from images (the fourth type of seeing), visions were typically understood as the third type of seeing. Like dreams, in visions the seer or visionary’s recollections or experiences of visible things and realities, including the images of scripture, were believed to give shape to realities beyond human vision, such as heavenly worlds and spiritual beings.39 Whether caused by physical illness, spirits, or the hand of God, visions drew upon the individual soul’s storehouse of images, primarily drawn from the physical act of seeing things, to understand the un-seeable or the conceptual.40 In some sense, the medieval understanding of the visionary

35 Matter, The Voice of My Beloved: The Song of Songs in Western Medieval Christianity, 49–85. For a discussion of how Song of Songs and Revelation are related in medieval exegesis, see Matter, “The Apocalypse in Early Medieval Exegesis,” 46–7. 36 Julia Dietrich, “The Visionary Rhetoric of Hildegard of Bingen,” in Listening to Their Voices: The Rhetorical Activities of Historical Women (Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 1997), 207; Barbara Newman, “La Mystique Courtoise: Thirteenth-Century Beguines and the Art of Love,” in From Virile Woman to WomanChrist: Studies in Medieval Religion and Literature (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1995), 145–8. 37 Augustine outlines three types of vision, corporeal, spiritual, and intellectual. Richard of St. Victor divides the first type of vision, corporeal, into two categories, including the seeing of actual things and seeing things such as the burning bush. Otherwise his understanding reflects Augustine’s taxonomy. See Frank Tobin, “Medieval Thought on Visions and Its Resonance in Mechthild Von Magdeburg’s Flowing Light of the Godhead,” in Vox Mystica: Essays on Medieval Mysticism, ed. Valerie M. Lagorio and Anne C. Bartlett (Rochester: DS Brewer, 1995), 41–53. 38 Kovacs, Rowland, and Callow, Revelation: The Apocalypse of Jesus Christ, 9, n.3. 39 Tobin, “Medieval Thought on Visions and Its Resonance in Mechthild Von Magdeburg’s Flowing Light of the Godhead,” 52–3. 40 Tobin notes that Augustine’s view of the soul’s role in the visionary experience allows for the possibility that spirits, good or evil, might contribute to the images that occur in a vision. Ibid., 44.

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experience parallels the description of metaphor articulated in the first chapter. Visions and metaphor, in the most basic sense, employ images of concrete things to envision and understand more complex and often abstract realities.41 In addition to shaping the visionary impulses of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, John’s Apocalypse contributed to the ways in which many living in the Middle Ages understood their place in time and history. Writing in the fifth century, Augustine eschewed readings of Revelation that attempted to make literal connections between the text and literal, historical realities. He was particularly disturbed by “chiliasts” who read Revelation’s description of Christ’s thousand-year reign literally.42 While his avoidance of literalism became a trend among orthodox commentaries, there still were many interpreters and authors who drew direct connections between Revelation’s images and past, present, and future events. The tradition of reading Revelation as a historical blueprint is frequently linked to the twelfth-century Italian abbot Joachim of Fiore, who employed Revelation’s imagery to understand the unfolding of history in stages (status) moving toward the end and who believed in the imminent advent of the Antichrist.43 While Joachim’s approach to Revelation was influential, apocalyptic expectation was widespread in the high Middle Ages and many, even some writing before Joachim, understood time as winding-down toward an end.44 This sense of living at or near of the end of time fueled, according to McGinn, an impulse toward reform among many theologians and ecclesiastical officials. For instance, the substantial reforms of Pope Gregory VII (1073–85) were couched in terms of combatting the coming Antichrist.45 Hildegard, likewise, issued a call to reform in apocalyptic terms, as she understood herself as living within the first of five final periods of time before the end.46

41 The description of symbol offered by Hugh of St. Victor’s parallels the understanding of vision and metaphor articulated here. Gerhart B. Ladner, “Medieval and Modern Understanding of Symbolism: A Comparison,” Speculum 54, no. 2 (April 1, 1979): 223–56. 42 Augustine, The City of God, trans. Marcus Dodd, vol. 2, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers 1 (Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 1886), 20.7. Paula Fredriksen, “Tyconius and Augstine on the Apocalypse,” in The Apocalypse in the Middle Ages, ed. Richard Kenneth Emmerson and Bernard McGinn (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1992), 20. 43 Bernard McGinn, Visions of the End: Apocalyptic Traditions in the Middle Ages (New York: Columbia University Press, 1998), 128. See also E. Randolph Daniel, “Exodus and Exile: Joachim of Fiore’s Apocalyptic Scenario,” in Last Things: Death and the Apocalypse in the Middle Ages, ed. Caroline Walker Bynum and Paul Freedman (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania, 2000), 124–39. 44 E.g. Rupert of Deutz, The Holy Trinity, prologue, as quoted in McGinn, Visions of the End: Apocalyptic Traditions in the Middle Ages, 110. 45 Bernard McGinn, “Apocalypticism and Church Reform: 1100–1500,” in The Continuum History of Apocalypticism (New York: Continuum, 2003), 275. 46 Ibid., 280.

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Viewing the Apocalypse with Hildegard of Bingen A Benedictine Abbess who was popularly called the “Sibyl of the Rhine” on account of her prophetic and visionary gifts, Hildegard of Bingen (1098–1179) has received more attention among modern interpreters than her historical counterparts.47 This is largely due to her exceptional life-story, which includes quarrels with and accolades from some of the most powerful figures of her day. A preacher, teacher, musician, and scholar, Hildegard’s literary output was sizeable and included three visionary texts, multiple hymns, letters, sermons, and scientific-medical works.48 Remembered for her independent spirit, evidenced by her moving her nuns from the male community to which they were attached to a new convent despite protestations from her superior, many twentieth-century feminists have embraced the nun as a “spiritual mother.”49 In the following we explore how the Abbess engages Revelation’s CITY-WOMAN imagery, focusing upon her first visionary writing, finished around 1151, Scito vias Domini (Know the Ways of the Lord) or Scivias. Many of Hildegard’s sermons, letters, and other writings employ imagery from Revelation, reflecting the importance of this text for her thinking. Our focus is upon Scivias, however, because it is her first visionary book, as well as being a text in which she both embraces John the Seer as a visionary model and evokes the narrative outline of the Apocalypse. Gifted with visions at an early age, it was not until after she became an Abbess in her forties that Hildegard received a command to write out her visions, an experience she recounts in the preface of Scivias: And behold! In the forty-third year of my earthly course, as I was gazing with great fear and trembling attention at a heavenly vision, I saw a great splendor in which resounded a voice from Heaven, saying to me, “O fragile human, ashes of ashes, and filth of filth! Say and write what you see and hear…”50

47 Barbara Newman, “‘Sibyl of the Rhine’: Hildegard’s Life and Times,” in Voice of the Living Light: Hildegard of Bingen and Her World (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1998), 1. 48 For a biography of Hildegard, see Sabina Flanagan, Hildegard of Bingen, 1098-1179: A Visionary Life (London: Routledge, 1998). 49 In this vein, Hildegard garnered a place at the table in Judy Chicago’s iconic installation artwork The Dinner Party (1974–9). Judy Chicago, The Dinner Party, ceramic, porcelain, textile, 1974, Brooklyn Museum, http://www.brooklynmuseum.org/exhibitions/dinner_party/. 50 This opening serves as a preface to the visions and stands apart from the book’s numbering. Hildegard, Scivias (New York: Paulist Press, 1990), 59. All quotations from Scivias are from the translation by Columba Hart and Jane Bishop and reference the text in parentheses. In discussing specific passages I occasionally reference the Latin text in Patrologia Latina. These references are included in footnotes. Hildegard, “Scivias,” in Patrologia Latina [electronic resource]: the full text database, ed. J. -P. Migne (Sl: Chadwyck-Healey, Inc, 1996).

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In response to this divine command, which echoes God’s command to John in the Apocalypse (Rev 1:11),51 Hildegard describes twenty-six separate visions. Scivias, which is divided into three books, offers detailed explanations and commentary for each vision. The commentary on the visions is often more extensive than the visions themselves, as Hildegard includes explanations from the Divine about the vision details, as well as making connections between the visions and different parts of Scripture. She completes this sizable tome with the assistance of her secretary, who was also perhaps her confessor, the monk Volmar.52 Presented in this literary form, Hildegard’s visions are particularly vivid, detailed, and full of meaning. Barbara Newman, who has written extensively about Hildegard, observes, In many so-called visionary writings from the Middle Ages, visual description plays only a minor role, while the bulk of the text is given over to conversations between the seer and a heavenly figure like Christ, Mary, or an angel. But Hildegard was a visionary in the strictest sense. Not in ecstasy or trance or dream but wide awake, she retained the full use of her senses and yet “saw things” in living color – mountains, cosmic eggs, spheres of shimmering light, colossal figures, towering walls and pillars – sometimes in static tableaux and sometimes in dynamic motion.53

The vivid nature of these visions was captured in one manuscript of Scivias, the now lost Rupertsberg Codex, through illustrations drawn either by Hildegard herself or by someone working from her instructions.54 Whether or not they come from her hand, the illustrations reveal that Scivias, like Revelation, was designed to prompt the audience to envision. In fact, the text’s preface opens with a command for the reader to “behold!” (ecce). As they prompt the audience to “see,” these visions have exhortative and didactic aims, calling the audience to reform, an important theme in the apocalyptic discourses of the high Middle Ages as noted above. In light of this, Constant J. Mews specifically suggests that the apocalyptic aims of Hildegard’s Scivias should be viewed as parallel to those of Revelation, which he understands as calling for the moral reform of John’s audiences.55 Hildegard’s visions also resemble John’s narrative given the abundant use of metaphor to describe the things that she sees. Peter Dronke explains that Hildegard’s use of imagery, which evokes the Old Testament prophets, can be understood as “Lehrvisionen” or “teaching 51 Constant J. Mews, “From Scivias to the Liber Divinorum Operum: Hildegard’s Apocalyptic Imagination and the Call to Reform,” The Journal of Religious History 24 (2000): 44–57. 52 Newman, “‘Sibyl of the Rhine’: Hildegard’s Life and Times,” 8; Flanagan, Hildegard of Bingen, 1098-1179: A Visionary Life, 6. 53 Newman, “‘Sibyl of the Rhine’: Hildegard’s Life and Times,” 9. See also Dietrich, “The Visionary Rhetoric of Hildegard of Bingen,” 203–204. 54 Newman, “The Visionary Texts and Visual Worlds of Religious Women,” 156. 55 Mews, “From Scivias to the Liber Divinorum Operum: Hildegard’s Apocalyptic Imagination and the Call to Reform,” 44–57.

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visions.”56 The visionary creates what Dronke describes as an “inextricable web of metaphor” in order to offer her audience members, primarily clerics and monastics, new perspectives on the realities that surround them.57 While the preface to Scivias includes self-deprecatory remarks typical of Hildegard’s writings, these protestations should be understood, somewhat ironically, as highlighting the text’s authority.58 By underscoring her unworthiness, the visionary highlights that the text is nothing less than a message from the Divine, along the lines of those messages expressed by the biblical prophets.59 And, in spite of her claim to be “simple in expounding,” Hildegard constructs this visionary text by adeptly drawing together references and images from across the Christian tradition (Preface). Still, like many medieval visionaries and monastics, John appears as Hildegard’s favored visionary model60 and, as Mews observes, the visions of Scivias parallel the unfolding of Revelation’s narrative.61 Scivias begins with a vision of one enthroned in glory (I.1) and concludes with visions of the end of time and of a new heaven and earth (III.12). Between these visions, Hildegard envisions the Son of Man (II.1, III.10), the two witnesses (III.11.10), “that ancient serpent” the Devil (e.g. III.11.26), and the Antichrist, whom she associates with Revelation’s Beasts (III.11.30-32). Furthermore, like John, Hildegard concludes her work with an admonishment against those who might conceal or abridge these words “written by the finger of God,” explaining that “the finger of God shall crush him” (III.13.16). These connections grant Hildegard visionary authority, as well as revealing that she works in and through the image-filled world of John’s Revelation. Following Revelation’s lead, moreover, Hildegard includes metaphorical images of women throughout her narrative, drawing upon and blending the conceptual domains WOMAN, CITY, BUIDLING, SYNAGOGUE, and CHURCH. This begins in Book I when Hildegard describes a woman who 56 Ibid. 57 Peter Dronke, “The Allegorical World-Picture of Hildegard of Bingen: Revaluations and New Problems,” in Hildegard of Bingen: The Context of Her Thought and Art, Warburg Institute Colloquia (London: Warburg Institute, 1998), 6. For Hildegard’s audience, see Barbara J. Newman, “Introduction,” in Hildegard of Bingen: Scivias (Mahwah: Paulist Press, 1990), 22. 58 Barbara Newman, “Hildegard of Bingen: Visions and Validation,” Church History 54, no.2 (1985): 163–75; Kathryn Kerby-Fulton, “Prophet and Reformer: ‘Smoke in the Vineyard’,” in Voice of the Living Light: Hildegard of Bingen and Her World, ed. Barbara Newman (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1998), 70–90. For a discussion of Hildegard’s use and interpretation of Scripture, see Bernard McGinn, “Hildegard of Bingen as Visionary and Exegete,” in Hildegard Von Bingen in Ihrem Historischen Umfeld, ed. Alfred Haverkamp and Alexander Reverchon (Mainz: Philipp von Zabern, 2000). 59 Barbara Newman, “Hildegard and Her Hagiographers: The Remaking of Female Sainthood,” in Gendered Voices: Medieval Saints and Their Interpreters, ed. Catherine M. Mooney (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1999), 24. 60 Ibid. Cirlot, “Hildegard Von Bingen y Juan De Patmos.” Newman discusses the pride of place given to John in Hildegard’s Symphonia, see Hildegard and Newman, Symphonia, 287. 61 Mews, “From Scivias to the Liber Divinorum Operum: Hildegard’s Apocalyptic Imagination and the Call to Reform,” 47.

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gives birth and then takes “wing” evoking the imagery of Revelation 12 (I.4).62 In Book I, there is also a vision of “the Synagogue,” depicted as a great woman who appears as a tower, reflecting a traditional medieval trope in which Synagoga and Ecclesia are depicted as women.63 In Book II there are four interlocking visions that draw upon these domains: In vision 3 Ecclesia, or the Church, is envisioned as a woman who appears as a great city, an image that continues into vision 4, where a tower appears behind the woman (II.4.4), and in the next vision, vision 5, the woman is described more fully. In Book II, vision 6, the imagery of the Church as a woman, specifically as the Bride, continues with a description of her being “dowered” to Christ through the sprinkling of his blood (II.6.1). Book III focuses on the image of a building, including virtues that are personified as women, and imagery that is suggestive of Revelation’s New Jerusalem. However, the most striking use of the WOMAN domain in Book III occurs in vision 11, when Hildegard envisions the Antichrist emerging out of the personified Church’s genitalia. These images, which draw upon one another and echo multiple traditions, construct a complex network of conceptual domains and metaphorical mappings. The connections between Hildegard’s visions and biblical traditions are neither direct nor pedantic. In light of this, we will highlight some of the most obvious ways that Hildegard’s images echo and deploy conceptual domains that John uses in his depictions of the Whore and Bride in order to better understand how the imagery of the ancient text invites new meanings.

Envisioning Ecclesia Book II of Scivias opens with a vision of blazing fire out of which a “serene man” appears, which the visionary identifies as an image of the Son of God (II.1.15). Even though this one has ascended into heaven, he has equipped the “Bride of the Lamb,” those who are faithful, “for the mighty struggle…against the crafty serpent” (II.1.17). Through this allusion to Revelation’s image of the Woman battling the Dragon in Revelation 12,64 Hildegard signals that the visions of Book II focus upon preparing the Church for the struggle against evil. Here we will focus on two visions from Book II that parallel Revelation’s imagery, the Church imaged as a city with a womb and the New Jerusalem as a mother. 62 Mews notes the similarity between this imagery and Revelation 12. See Constant J. Mews, “Religious Thinker: ‘A Frail Human Being’ on Fiery Life,” in Voice of the Living Light: Hildegard of Bingen in Her World, ed. Barbara Newman (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1998), 59. 63 For a recent discussion of this tradition see Nina Rowe, The Jew, the Cathedral and the Medieval City: Synagoga and Ecclesia in the Thirteenth Century (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011). 64 Mews, “From Scivias to the Liber Divinorum Operum: Hildegard’s Apocalyptic Imagination and the Call to Reform,” 48.

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One of Hildegard’s most famous visions offers a creative expansion of Revelation’s female imagery. The abbess writes, After this I saw the image of a woman as large as a great city, with a wonderful crown on her head and arms from which a splendor hung like sleeves, shining from Heaven to earth. Her womb was pierced like a net with many openings, with a huge multitude of people running in and out. She had no legs or feet, but stood balanced on her womb in front of the altar that stands before the eyes of God, embracing it with her outstretched hands and gazing sharply with her eyes throughout all of Heaven. I could not make out her attire, expect that she was arrayed in great splendor (multo splendore) and gleamed with lucid serenity… And that image spreads out its splendor like a garment, saying, “I must conceive and give birth!” And at once, like lightning, there hasten to her a multitude of angels, making steps and seats within her for people, by whom the image was to be perfected. (II.3.vision)

The “image of a woman” reminds the reader of Revelation’s images of both the Woman Clothed in the Sun, through references to her shining appearance and the emphasis upon giving birth, and the Bride of the Lamb, through the use of city imagery. The blending of these two traditions from Revelation is not surprising, as both traditionally were interpreted as metaphorical images of the Church.65 The conceptual mappings from the latter image, the Bride as the New Jerusalem, dominate as Hildegard’s vision prompts the audience initially to envision a conceptual blend of CITY and WOMAN domains. Even though the personification of cities as women has a long history, as discussed in Chapter 2, Hildegard makes full use of elements from both conceptual domains to create a new “conceptual space.”66 Hildegard draws from the WOMAN domain the ideas that women have bodies that are clothed, hold fetuses or children, and give birth. Through the use of architectural imagery, steps, seats, and a bounded space in which these can be contained, Hildegard evokes the conceptual domain CITY. By drawing these two domains together to imagine the Church, Hildegard creates this conceptual space of the CITYWOMAN. Although this conceptual space draws upon ideas and relationships in both domains, neither domain is the imagery’s specific metaphorical target. The target, rather, is the concept CHURCH. Throughout Scivias and especially in Book II, Hildegard employs the metaphorical mapping THE CHURCH IS

65 Kovacs, Rowland, and Callow, Revelation: The Apocalypse of Jesus Christ, 136–7. Augustine Thompson notes that Hildegard interprets the image of the Woman Clothed in Sun as Eve, Mary, and the Church in The Book of Divine Works. See Augustine Thompson, “Hildegard of Bingen on Gender and the Priesthood,” Church History 63, no.3 (1994): 356; Hildegard, Hildegard of Bingen’s Book of Divine Works: With Letters and Songs, ed. Matthew Fox (Bear & Company, 1987), 2.5.16. 66 For an introduction to conceptual blending, see Coulson and Oakley, “Blending Basics.”

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A CITY-WOMAN, which she describes as the Bride of Christ or Bride of the Lamb (e.g. II.1.17; II.3.1,4; II.4.1; II.6.1). Hildegard’s use of bridal language to describe the CITY-WOMAN, including using the title “Lamb’s Bride,” an idea that comes from Rev 19:7, belies her emphasis in this vision on the social role of mother. The WOMAN domain includes a number of social roles that are related to one another temporally, along the lifeline culturally imagined for an actual woman. While these roles might have appeared in different orders in the lives of actual women, in the ancient and medieval imagination these social roles progress as virgin, bride, wife, mother, widow.67 Here, however, Hildegard evokes the concept MOTHER, even though it is traditionally associated with women after the wedding. As we will see, Hildegard draws upon a number of these social roles in her description of the Church, although she eschews the traditional temporal relationship between these roles. The Church, she will suggest, is simultaneously virgin, bride, and mother. Before drawing upon the concept MOTHER in this vision, Hildegard engages the ideas of adornment, being adorned, and appearance, which Revelation specifically associates with the domain BRIDE. At the beginning of the vision, Hildegard references the woman’s wonderful crown and the splendor of her sleeves, returning to the garment and attire imagery in the later parts of the vision. The multiple references to splendor in reference to the Woman’s attire echo the Vulgate’s description of the Bride’s garments in Rev 19:8 as splendens.68 In Revelation, the Bride’s shining garment is associated with fine linen comprised of the saint’s righteous deeds (DEEDS ARE A GARMENT). As discussed in the last chapter, this imagery encourages Revelation’s audience to construct a positive communal identity, as John uses the concept APPEARANCE as a source domain for IDENTITY (IDENTITY IS APPEARANCE). Hildegard’s metaphorical logic works similarly, as she equates DEEDS with the concept GARMENT in the vision’s explanation. Specifically, Hildegard explains that the splendor of the Woman’s garment is the works of priests, who offer the sacraments and who “show mercy…and [who distribute] alms to the poor with a gentle heart…” (II.3.3). The actions of the priests, their good works, produce the positive qualities that adorn the Church. This is part of Hildegard’s call for clerical reform, as clerics, who are part of Hildegard’s audience, are held responsible for the Church’s appearance.69 67 For a discussion of these social roles within the context of medieval Europe, see Sandy Bardsley, Women’s Roles in the Middle Ages (Westport: Greenwood Publishing Group, 2007). 68 The splendor of the Bride’s garment is its defining quality, as she employs the term four times within the vision’s text. See Hildegard, “Scivias,” 1996, Col.0453B–0455B. 69 In addition Hildegard equates ADORNMENTS with PEOPLE, when she describes the Woman being adorned with the apostles and martyrs (II.3.2). Again, these are not “any” people: Those people who are worthy of emulation are those who adorn the Church, for as “adornments” they are things that catch attention: PEOPLE WORTHY OF EMULATION ARE ADORNMENTS. Both these metaphorical mappings, DEEDS ARE A GARMENT and PEOPLE WORTHY OF EMULATION ARE ADORNMENTS build upon the conceptual domain WOMAN, by highlighting the idea of a woman’s appearance and clothing.

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In this vision, Hildegard moves quickly from the appearance of the WOMAN to the appearance of the CITY, as she hears a voice that describes the CITYWOMAN as “The great edifice of living souls, which is constructed in Heaven from living stones” (II.3.vision). Drawing upon imagery from 1 Peter 2:5, Shepherd of Hermas, and Revelation, Hildegard’s vision metaphorically imagines the Church as a Bride adorned with the deeds of the priests and as a city or building constructed out of the faithful (THE CHURCH IS A CITY CONSTRUCTED WITH PEOPLE). Barbara Newman notes that Hildegard often employed this imagery, signing letters, “may you become a living stone in the celestial Jerusalem.”70 The faithful are metaphorically the building materials that construct the CITY-WOMAN, suggesting THE FAITHFUL ARE LIVING STONES. This imagery conjures the description of the Bride as the New Jerusalem in Revelation, as the city’s foundations bear the name of the apostles and the faithful will be made pillars in the city (3:12). In addition to constructing the Heavenly City, the faithful also adorn the city with their virtues, which the visionary characterizes as immensely beautiful (II.3.vision). This is a CITY-WOMAN that “wears” the virtues and deeds of those who are part of its construction, suggesting that the appearance of the CITY-WOMAN certainly reflects its identity (IDENTITY IS APPEARANCE). One of the things that traditionally connects the conceptual domain CITY with WOMAN is the concept CONTAINER. When prompting her audience to imagine angels making steps and seats within the CITY-WOMAN, Hildegard reveals that she conceives of the CITY-WOMAN through this related concept. The Church is an entity that contains and accommodates those who are within it. Again, the CITY and WOMAN domains are both fully present in this visual depiction, as the image of constructing architectural features (CITY) follows immediately after the CITY-WOMAN’S announcement that she must “conceive and give birth” (WOMAN) (II.3.vision). This allusion to the Church’s role as mother (THE CHURCH IS A MOTHER) seemingly works to evoke ideas and feelings of safety and comfort. Those who are within the CITY-WOMAN are within a MOTHER. This protective idea is highlighted again at the end of the vision, when Hildegard employs CONTAINER imagery to describe the CITY comprised of stones encircling the faithful “as a great city encircles its immense throngs of people” (II.3.vision). By creating an image of the Church as protective container in two different ways, as WOMAN/ MOTHER and as CITY, Hildegard underscores for her audience the benefit of being and remaining within the Church, especially as they come in contact with those “who try to destroy them, whether it be a human throng or a devilish army.”71 70 Barbara Newman, Sister of Wisdom: St. Hildegard’s Theology of the Feminine (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1987), 201. Among those who note a connection between Scivias and Shepherd of Hermas is Mews, “From Scivias to the Liber Divinorum Operum: Hildegard’s Apocalyptic Imagination and the Call to Reform,” 48. 71 Hildegard’s writings do appear during the time of the Crusades and she shared with Bernard of Clarivaux, who famously defended the Second Crusade, the belief that participation in

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The concept of the CITY-WOMAN as a CONTAINER appears again when the visionary draws upon the WOMAN domain by highlighting the concept of a woman’s body, noting her head, arms, womb, and lack of legs or feet. The most striking aspect of this imagery is the Woman’s womb (venter),72 understood conceptually as CONTAINER, a concept that becomes her defining feature. The legless CITY-WOMAN balances before God’s altar on her enormous womb, suggesting THE CHURCH IS A WOMB. While John highlights the association between the conceptual domain WOMAN and giving birth in the description of the Woman Clothed in the Sun in Revelation 12 being with child and giving birth, Hildegard expands upon this imagery. Using somewhat different language than the Latin translation of the Apocalypse (i.e. venter rather than uterus), she draws upon the idea in Rev 12:17 that the Woman has multiple children, an idea to which John does not specifically return, and merges this with Revelation’s image of the Lamb’s Bride. As she explains in this part of the vision, the Church is “always pregnant and procreating” (II.3.6), evoking the conceptual mapping THE CHURCH IS A MOTHER. Even though Hildegard emphasizes the procreative aspect of the concept MOTHER in this vision, she references other activities and ideas associated with the concept in her explanation of this vision, including nursing (II.3.25), loving, and lamenting over those “children” who chose error over goodness (II.3.15). The references Hildegard makes to the CITY-WOMAN having a womb, conceiving, and giving birth are unsurprising, since in the ancient and medieval contexts the concept WOMAN traditionally included the ideas of giving birth and being a mother.73 However, in including this imagery, Hildegard highlights an aspect of the conceptual domain WOMAN unused by John. In John’s context the role BRIDE implied the possibility of procreation, the aim of marriage according to ancient discourses, and a woman’s fertility was something highlighted within the context of the wedding.74 Given these ancient assumptions and Hildegard’s harnessing of the concept’s potential, the imagery’s absence in Revelation prompts us to ask why John did not take the imagery in this direction. (In fact, this might be a justification for reading the Woman Clothed in the Sun as part of Revelation’s bridal imagery, as it might be his evocation of the possibility of procreation.) Perhaps, John does not explore Crusades could lead to the remission of sins. Thus, the language of “human throng or a devilish army” could have concrete manifestations for Hildegard. See Miriam Rita Tessera, “Philip Count of Flanders and Hildegard of Bingen: Crusading Against Saracens of Crusading Against Deadly Sin?,” in Gendering the Crusades, ed. Susan Edgington and Sarah Lambert (New York: Columbia University Press, 2001), 77–93. 72 Hildegard, “Scivias,” 1996, Col.0453B. 73 Philip Lyndon Reynolds, Marriage in the Western Church: The Christianization of Marriage During the Patristic and Early Medieval Periods (Leiden: Brill, 1994), 15–17; Georges Duby, Love and Marriage in the Middle Ages (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996), 10; Hersch, The Roman Wedding: Ritual and Meaning in Antiquity, 113, 179–80. 74 For a discussion of the floral crown, see Hersch, The Roman Wedding: Ritual and Meaning in Antiquity, 90–91.

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the possibility of procreation in the image of the Bride because he advances a singular image of community. In Revelation, the faithful community as a whole is a Bride and the idea of procreation might, as in Hildegard’s case, allow for the idea of children and multiple entities in relationship to the Bride. Or, perhaps, John wants his community to understand itself as perpetually Bride, perpetually in a state of transition toward a heavenly consummation.75 Furthermore, in the description of the Church in Scivias II.3 Hildegard blends the concept WOMB, a domain related to WOMAN, with the concept NET, describing the Church as giving birth through a “womb pierced like a net” (THE CHURCH-WOMB IS A NET). By evoking the concept NET, Hildegard implies that the Church is A CONTAINER, albeit porous and permeable. It “catches” people who are compared metaphorically to fish. As Newman notes in her introduction to Scivias, the imagery suggests the traditional association between the Church and Peter’s fishing nets, which were miraculously filled after instruction from Jesus (Luke 5:1-11).76 The imagery suggests the possibility of many people entering into Church, while WOMB implies carrying only one or two. The net imagery also entertains the possibility that some souls might leave (II.3.15) and, more importantly, allows Hildegard to include Christ in the act of procreation while not compromising his virginity. Christ, depicted as the Bridegroom, uses the net to catch sinful people and to bring them into the womb of “His beloved Church” (II.3.4).77 Moreover, Hildegard’s description of the CITY-WOMAN’s process of “conceiving and giving birth” through this net, rather than conceiving through procreative sex, allows Hildegard to image the Church as VIRGIN, as well as BRIDE and MOTHER. Just as Mary is the virginal mother of Christ, so the Church is the “virginal mother of all Christians” (II.3.9, 12). In some sense, this highlights the activity of Christ and the passivity of the CONTAINERlike Church as a receptacle for Christ’s “catch.” Effectively, Hildegard desexualizes a potentially sexual image. Just as the visionary preserves Christ’s virginity by drawing upon the concept NET, she preserves the physical integrity of the Church’s virginity by describing the process of “birthing” the faithful as her breathing them out through her mouth. The CONTAINER domain plays a key role in the imagery, as the various openings of the CONTAINER are somehow interchangeable and the CITY-WOMAN is envisioned as a single container, rather than as an entity with different containing compartments. The imagery of the CITY-WOMAN breathing out these souls, moreover, is metaphorically linked to baptism and the removal of sin. As souls move through this CONTAINER they go from black 75 For a discussion on the importance of consummation in ancient and medieval traditions, see Reynolds, Marriage in the Western Church, 328–61. 76 Newman, “Introduction,” 31. 77 Thompson notes that Hildegard stresses the need for both males and females in procreation, which serves as part of her justification for the exclusively male priesthood. Male priests, in some sense, are counterparts to the female Church. See Thompson, “Hildegard of Bingen on Gender and the Priesthood.”

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to white, suggesting cleansing: IMPURITY IS DIRT/BLACK and PURITY IS CLEANLINESS/WHITE. The washing that happens within and through the CITY-WOMAN is explicitly linked to baptism in the explanation of this vision, suggesting the metaphorical mappings BAPTISM IS WASHING and BAPTISM IS BEING BORN, since it is through the act of being breathed out of the CHURCH-WOMB that the individual soul is made pure (II.3.12, 14). Hildegard emphasizes aspects of both CITY and WOMAN conceptual domains in this vision of the Church, the Son’s Bride, as a way of calling her audience to conform their actions to the Church’s identity and purpose. Like John, she equates IDENTITY and APPEARANCE, describing the priests’ deeds as garments (DEEDS ARE GARMENTS), which bring splendor to the Church. This imagery is similar to Revelation’s depiction of the bridal garment as comprised of the saints’ deeds. Given Hildegard’s sense that the Church is in need of reform, especially clerical reform, this image communicates the importance of proper behavior among clerics. The implication of the imagery is that clerics who do not perform deeds as they should potentially lessen the splendor of the Church. While Hildegard’s use of APPEARANCE imagery echoes Revelation’s depiction of the Bride, her emphasis on the CONTAINER aspect of the CITY-WOMAN in this vision extends Revelation’s imagery considerably. John emphasizes the container aspect of the bridal New Jerusalem as CITY, avoiding the CONTAINER aspect of the WOMAN or BRIDE conceptual domains. Hildegard, however, builds upon this implied idea and images the Church as a container through which the faithful are born and the sinful are purified. By highlighting the Church’s womb Hildegard depicts the CITY-WOMAN as mother and yet the image of the womb as a net (THE CHURCH-WOMB IS A NET) allows her to maintain the Church’s virginity and to downplay any possible sexual connotation.

Introducing the Brides of Zion

In the fifth vision of Book II, Hildegard envisions the image of the Woman from her earlier vision: After this I saw that a splendor white as snow and translucent as crystal had shone around the image of that woman from the top of her head to her throat. And from her throat to her navel another splendor, red in color, had encircled her, glowing like the dawn from her throat to her breasts…And where it glowed like the dawn, its brightness shone forth as high as the secret places of Heaven; and in this brightness appeared a most beautiful image of a maiden, with bare head and black hair, wearing a red tunic, which flowed down about her feet.

The Woman, who metaphorically represents the Church, is not alone; rather, a girl or virgin (puella) appears in her midst. Hildegard is informed by a voice from heaven that this girl is “the celestial Zion,” suggesting the basic conceptual mapping THE HEAVENLY JERUSALEM IS A VIRGIN. While

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this makes a distinction between the conceptual domain CHURCH and the concept NEW JERSUALEM, as we will see, in her discussion of this vision these female images overlap. The girl dressed in red is not the only figure that appears here in conjunction with the Church, as Hildegard notes: And around that maiden (puella) I saw standing a great crowd of people, brighter than the sun, all wonderfully adorned with gold and gems. Some of these had their heads veiled in white, adorned with a gold circlet…and on their foreheads the Lamb of God, and on their necks a human figure, and on the right ear cherubim, and on the left ear the other kinds of angels…And among these people there were some who had miters on their heads and pallia of the episcopal office around their shoulders. (II.5.vision)

Immediately after this vision, the people who surround the girl are described as the “daughters of Zion,” suggesting THE HEAVENLY JERUSALEM IS A MOTHER. As in the vision discussed above, Hildegard’s allusions to Revelation’s metaphorical imagery are suggestive and not literalistic. The primary evocation of the ancient text in the recounting of this vision is in the description of those who, veiled in white, are marked with “the Lamb of God.” This alludes to John’s description of 144,000 who are marked on the forehead with the name of the Lamb and the Father (Rev 14:1). In Revelation, the 144,000 are described as “virgins,” albeit male virgins, who follow the Lamb wherever he goes (14:4).78 In her explanation of the vision, Hildegard affirms the chastity of those veiled in white, suggesting that they “imitate the mildness of the Son of God” (II.5.7). She also underscores the purity of those wearing episcopal garb, who she identifies as “ancient fathers” who do not lose their virginity or who remain chaste, 79 suggesting that they too “in the celestial habitations” should be called “daughters of Zion” (II.5.7). In this way, even the ancient Church fathers are included in the conceptual mapping FAITHFUL VIRGINS ARE DAUGHTERS OF ZION. Affirming that this imagery draws upon Revelation, Hildegard quotes Rev 14:3 as she describes these daughters singing a new song before the throne (II.5.8).80

78 Huber, “Sexually Explicit? Re-reading Revelation’s 144,000 Virgins as a Response to Roman Discourses.” 79 McInerney notes that Hildegard seemingly resists using the language of “virginity” for men, preferring the language of “chastity.” She suggests that this is because virginity implies a social role unique to women in Hildegard’s understanding, along with sexual purity. This distinction is not consistent, as McInerney notes, for in the vision under consideration Hildegard does describe John as virgin (II.5.7). See Maud Burnett McInerney, “Like a Virgin: The Problem of Male Virginity in the Symphonia,” in Hildegard of Bingen: A Book of Essays, ed. Maud Burnett McInerney (Taylor & Francis, 1998), 133–54. 80 Hildegard is not the first interpreter to read Revelation’s virgins in feminine terms. See, for instance, the fourth-century work by Methodius (of Olympus), The Symposium: A Treatise on Chastity (Mahwah: Paulist Press, 1958).

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The depiction of the “daughters of Zion” wearing veils and circlets suggests bridal garments and the medieval practice of female religious, in particular, “marrying” Christ in their monastic vows. Even more specifically, the imagery, including the imprint of the Lamb upon the forehead, reflects the habit worn by the nuns under Hildegard’s supervision, as a somewhat critical letter from another Abbess reveals: Indeed, another thing concerning your habits has reached us; it seems that your virgins on feast days wear as ornaments some kind of white veils, and even elegantly twisted crowns placed on their heads, bearing the images of angels on either side and in the back; and in the front they have the figure of the Lamb elegantly attached… You are encouraging them to do all these things for love of their holy Bridegroom, I suppose…81

The imagery of the Lamb’s Bride from Revelation, along with the image of the 144,000 virgins, serves as a metaphorical source indicating the commitment made by faithful individuals to Christ, suggesting A FAITHFUL INDIVIDUAL IS A BRIDE OF CHRIST. Hildegard’s nuns embody this metaphorical mapping as a way of visually signaling their role and identity (IDENTITY IS APPEARANCE).82 Hildegard is not the first to make this shift, applying the biblical image of the Bride of Christ to individuals rather than the community. In The Bride of Christ Goes to Hell: Metaphor and Embodiment in the Lives of Pious Women, 200–1500, Dyan Elliott notes that it is relatively early in the Christian tradition that the bridal metaphor, an image drawn mainly from Revelation and Song of Songs, serves as an identity applied to virginal women who dedicate themselves to the Divine, rather than marrying. She attributes this initial conceptual shift to Tertullian from Carthage (c.160–220), whom she characterizes as the “father of the bride.”83 Subsequently, as Elliott chronicles, female religious begin “wedding” Christ in their vows, even donning wedding rings to signal their commitment. Eventually the bridal imagery becomes a role adopted by male religious, as well as women who were married before adopting the religious life (i.e. non-virgins). However, this valorization of the individual as the Bride of the Lamb does not preclude the possibility that the bridal imagery has communal valences: “For once the consecrated virgin assumed the persona of Christ’s sponsa, she simultaneously became the ultimate type for the church as virgin bride…” according to Elliott.84 Such is the case in Scivias, for not only are the daughters of Zion depicted using the conceptual domain BRIDE, described by the visionary as being “betrothed in holiness” to the Son (II.5.10), the image of the Woman as Church and the 81 A letter from the Abbess Tengswich to Hildegard, as quoted in McInerney, “Like a Virgin: The Problem of Male Virginity in the Symphonia,” 133–4. 82 Ibid., 150. 83 Dyan Elliott, The Bride of Christ Goes to Hell: Metaphor and Embodiment in the Lives of Pious Women, 200–1500 (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2012), 14. 84 Ibid., 57.

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celestial Zion are described as Bride and Betrothed (II.5.vision, 1, 6). Thus, for Hildegard, the conceptual domain BRIDE serves as a way of imagining CHURCH, HEAVENLY CITY, and FAITHFUL VIRGINS. This multiplicity of targets makes sense, as Hildegard understands that the individual identities of the faithful comprise the identity of the Church and the Church as it will become the Celestial Zion or New Jerusalem. This movement toward applying Revelation’s bridal imagery to actual women is something that we will see in the interpretation of Hadewijch, as well as in the interpretation of modern visionary Gertrude Morgan, who we encounter in the next chapter. As with the third vision, the imagery in this vision serves as a call to reform. Throughout the explanation Hildegard discusses the importance of clerics and female religious maintaining their vows of virginity and chastity (II.5.9, 10). She understands these vows as both becoming the companion of or partner of the Son and as a way of imitating the Son, who was virginal (II.5.3, 6, 9, 13). To vow a life of chastity and to not fulfill this vow is to lie and to become a slave to sin, according to Hildegard (11.5.9). To break this vow, moreover, means to lose the glory that one would bring into the Church, thereby diminishing its splendor.

Birthing the Antichrist In one of the first visions of Scivias Book III, Hildegard evokes Revelation’s image of the New Jerusalem, as the visionary describes a four-walled city atop a mountain (III.2.vision). Most of the visions that follow pick up and elaborate upon the concept CITY, which Hildegard metaphorically associates with the Church, understood as the Bride of the Lamb (III.9.9). In these visions Hildegard describes the CITY’S architectural characteristics and their metaphorical significances. As these visions unfold, however, Hildegard’s attention turns to the periods of time leading to the Last Days, which she describes in terms of a series of beasts. Reminiscent of beasts used in Daniel and Revelation (Hildegard even includes a pale horse [cf. Rev 6:8]), these harbingers of the end come from the North, a traditional location for hell and evil in the symbolic geography of the Middle Ages.85 It is in this context, in vision 11, that the visionary returns to the conceptual domain WOMAN as a metaphorical source for the concept CHURCH. Although Hildegard emphasizes that this Woman is the same as the Woman dressed in splendor, described above, in her description of this Woman Hildegard draws upon Revelation’s Beast imagery and the conceptual domain PROSTITUTION (III.11.31-32), taking this imagery in a somewhat sinister direction. …And I saw again the figure of a woman whom I had previously seen in front of the altar that stands before the eyes of God; she stood in the same place, but now I saw her from the waist down. And from her waist to the place that denotes the female, she 85 Emmerson, “The Representation of Antichrist in Hildegard of Bingen’s Scivias: Image, Word, Commentary, and Visionary Experience,” 97.

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had various scaly blemishes; and in that latter place was a black and monstrous head. It had fiery eyes, and ears like an ass’, and nostrils and mouth like a lion’s; it opened wide its jowls and terribly clashed its horrible iron-colored teeth. And from this head down to her knees, the figure was white and red, as if bruised by many beatings; and from her knees to her tendons where they joined her heels, which appeared white, she was covered with blood. And behold! That monstrous head moved from its place with such a great shock that the figure of the woman was shaken through all her limbs… (III.11.vision)86

After the monstrous head leaves the Woman, a large mound of excrement adheres to it as it tries to ascend to heaven, an action that reveals that the head represents the Antichrist (THE ANTICHRIST IS A MONSTER). While Revelation never mentions the Antichrist, a figure whose character is most fully developed in 2 Thessalonians, medieval interpreters often aligned this character with Revelation’s Beast imagery. Thus, Hildegard asserts that this epitome of end-time evil emerges from the loins of the one who is described as “the Bride of the Son of God” and the Church (III.11.13).87 Drawing upon the conceptual domain WOMAN to metaphorically describe CHURCH, Hildegard prompts her audience to imagine a woman’s body and specifically a woman’s genitalia, which she euphemistically describes as “the place that denotes the female.” However, instead of the genitalia, there appears a monstrous head, an image that medievalist and art historian Richard K. Emmerson describes as “startling and daring.”88 Even though he is speaking primarily about the miniature accompanying the vision in the Rupertsberg manuscript, Emmerson’s observation applies to Hildegard’s textual imagery as well. Given Hildegard’s focus upon the bridal city, the Church and Celestial City of Zion in the previous visions, one wonders if the audience of Scivias would have expected this particular vision. The audience might anticipate the Woman as Church as the Woman Clothed in the Sun, in opposition to the Beast, or a Woman in contrast to the Church, specifically a Whore, atop the Beast. Both images were commonplaces in the visual tradition of Apocalypse cycles, unlike Hildegard’s startling imagery. In fact, depictions of Revelation’s Whore riding the seven-headed beast generally did not depict the Beast between the legs of the Whore; rather, as in the Bamberg Apocalypse (early eleventh century), the Whore generally rides the Beast sidesaddle.89 The image 86 For a discussion of Antichrist traditions in medieval exegesis, including some attention to the way Revelation’s Beasts are incorporated into this tradition, see Kevin L. Hughes, Constructing Antichrist: Paul, Biblical Commentary, and the Development of Doctrine in the Early Middle Ages (Washington, DC: Catholic University of America Press, 2005). 87 Emmerson notes that, since the language of “Antichrist” is not used in this vision, it might not have been initially obvious to Hildegard’s interpreters that the image represents this character. See Emmerson, “The Representation of Antichrist in Hildegard of Bingen’s Scivias: Image, Word, Commentary, and Visionary Experience,” 100. 88 Ibid., 95. 89 “Bamberger Apokalypse” (Reichenau, 1010), 43r, Msc.Bibl.140, Staatsbibliothek Bamberg, http://www.staatsbibliothek-bamberg.de/. See also Rosemary Muir Wright, “The Great

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of the Whore, moreover, served as a traditional counterpart to both the Woman Clothed in the Sun of Revelation and Ecclesia or the personified Church and New Jerusalem in these visual contexts. In light of these precedents, we can imagine that Hildegard’s audience might be surprised to see the Church with a monstrous head in “that latter place.” The hybrid nature of the monstrous head, which combines parts from different beasts, parallels traditions in Daniel and Revelation, where evil powers and institutions are metaphorically represented as beasts. According to Bettina Bildhauer and Robert Mills in The Monstrous Middle Ages, this type of hybridity, typical of medieval monster imagery, communicates divergence from the divine order. This idea conforms to the metaphorical use of the BEAST or MONSTER domain to represent EVIL or DEVIANCE (AN EVIL ENTITY IS A BEAST).90 That the monstrous head is within or part of the Woman’s body suggests that this deviance is part of the Church. As Emmerson underscores, this is an unusual perspective on the Antichrist: It must be stressed…that Hildegard clearly sees evil coming from within the Church. This is not an attack from without, whether led by the traditional Antichrist born of the Jews or an Antichrist supported by Islamic military power, as others feared. By representing evil as internal to Ecclesia, Hildegard conveys her vivid sense that the Church has grown corrupt…Whatever its immediate source, the originality of Hildegard’s insight that Antichrist emerges from within the Church, should not be underestimated.91

This image of evil as part of or coming from the Woman’s body, moreover, draws upon the conceptual mapping A WOMAN IS A CONTAINER, as the head begins as a part of the Woman and then leaves her, with a “great mass of excrement” adhered to it (III.11.vision). As a CONTAINER, this WOMAN can hold things both positive (fetuses) and negative (monsters and feces) and it remains up to those who comprise the container as to what it or she shall contain. Throughout her explanation of this vision, Hildegard indicates that the Antichrist misleads those within the Church, drawing them into error and causing them to persecute the Church (III.11.13, 14, 15). In some sense, the Antichrist is both created by the Church and defiles the Church. The complex relationship between the Antichrist and the Church is evoked through Hildegard’s use of the WOMAN domain, through imagery that suggests both giving birth and being raped. The positioning of the Antichrist’s head and the movement of the head away from Woman, along with the Whore in the Illustrated Apocalypse Cycles,” Journal of Medieval History 23, no. 3 (1997): 191– 210. 90 Bettina Bildhauer and Robert Mills, “Introduction: Conceptualizing the Monstrous,” in The Monstrous Middle Ages, ed. Bildhauer, Bettina and Mills, Robert (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2003), 14. 91 Emmerson, “The Representation of Antichrist in Hildegard of Bingen’s Scivias: Image, Word, Commentary, and Visionary Experience,” 101.

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description of blood on the legs of the Church, suggest that she gives birth to this corruption. It is from within that the Church is corrupted (III.11.13, 14).92 However, Hildegard also makes various references to the sexual corruption and seduction of the virgin Ecclesia (e.g. III.11.13, 14). The imagery of blood, as Barbara Newman notes, can also suggest sexual violence.93 Read in this way, the connotation is that the Antichrist is the one who violates or rapes the feminized Church (THE ANTICHRIST IS A RAPIST and CONQUEST IS RAPE). Whether through emerging through the Woman’s vagina or through sexual violence, the beastly figure violently takes one of the Bride’s essential qualities – the virginal state that she keeps for her Bridegroom. In this way, this monstrous head threatens the very identity of the Bride. Again, it is those who are within the Church, those who should protect and love the Church, whom Hildegard identifies with the Antichrist. The Abbess specifically pinpoints clerics who engage in simony, profiting from the sacraments and buying clerical offices, as deceiving and corrupting the Church (III.9.20). Although Revelation’s Bride seems relatively protected from violence and injury, in contrast to the Great Whore, Hildegard’s imagery highlights the violability of the CHURCH, a common idea when the concepts WOMAN and CONTAINER are blended metaphorically. Newman alludes to this, writing that “Ecclesia’s femininity…makes her not only virginal and fertile but also highly vulnerable to corruption…the joyful mother can become a sorrowful mother in history, and the virgin bride can be ravished.”94 This vulnerability, the potential that CITY-WOMAN might be violated, plays an important role in Hildegard’s call for reform, since, according to Newman, it is through clerical misdeeds that Bride is ravished. In this image of the Church, Hildegard blurs the boundary between good and evil, positive and negative, an unusual move for the visionary according to Emmerson.95 Within this imagery, moreover, Hildegard draws upon traditions that emerge out of both Revelation’s Bride and Whore imagery.96 As she explicates the vision, she describes the origin of a character who appears to be a historical Antichrist or “son of perdition,” distinct from the Beast emerging from the Church, specifically drawing upon Revelation’s Whore and Beast imagery. Drawing upon Revelation’s depiction of the Whore Babylon in terms of the mapping IMPURITY IS DIRT, Hildegard depicts the Antichrist’s mother as a prostitute who lives in “the vilest of waste places” (III.11.25). Like the Great Whore, the Antichrist’s mother is depicted as having “habitual fornications,” making her unaware of her child’s paternity (III.11.26). It is 92 Barbara Newman, Voice of the Living Light: Hildegard of Bingen and Her World (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1998), 83. 93 Ibid. See also Bernard McGinn, Antichrist: Two Thousand Years of the Human Fascination With Evil (New York: Columbia University Press, 2000), 131. 94 Newman, Sister of Wisdom: St. Hildegard’s Theology of the Feminine, 238. 95 Emmerson, “Introduction: The Apocalypse in Medieval Culture,” 298. 96 Emmerson notes the influence of Revelation, including the image of the Whore, in Hildegard’s vision. See ibid.

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the Antichrist’s mother who teaches her spawn the magical arts with which he will deceive the followers of Christ. Among his tricks will be making a corpse speak, in a way similar to Revelation’s second Beast who enlivens an image of the first Beast. While Hildegard depicts this historical Antichrist and his mother as though they are individuals who will challenge the faithful, she does see their manifestation as something that occurs on a more symbolic level as well, as the Antichrist who emerges through the actions of clerics and religious who are motivated by greed, lust, and other earthly desires. In other words, not only does Hildegard blur the boundary between good and evil, she blurs the boundary between individual and corporate evil. It seems, that for the visionary, the Antichrist is an individual and the Antichrist is the corporate entity that emerges within the Church.97 Throughout Scivias, Hildegard draws upon and evokes Revelation’s imagery, especially the text’s female imagery. Revelation’s image of the Bride in which the community is envisioned as a female counterpart to the Risen Christ provides Hildegard, like many other medieval interpreters, a rich metaphor for describing the Church. However, her redeployment of this imagery is far from a literalistic interpretation or even a simple repetition of the ancient text’s conceptual metaphors. Instead, Hildegard, who aligns herself with John the Seer, offers her audience a number of visions in which she builds upon the conceptual domains employed by John, particularly CITY and WOMAN, taking them in directions that are unexplored and perhaps unanticipated by John. While Hildegard, for instance, follows John’s lead in describing the shining attire of the Bride, comparing this attire to deeds, she moves the image of the Bride in a direction that John seemingly eschews, highlighting the procreative and maternal aspects of the Bride by imagining her as a womb (THE CHURCH IS A WOMB) and as a mother (THE CHURCH IS A MOTHER). This imagery draws upon the conceptual equation between WOMEN and CITIES as CONTAINERS, a notion at work in Revelation, and yet offers a completely different vision, reflecting the way conceptual mappings inspire new meaning. The image of the WOMAN as CONTAINER also plays a role in Hildegard’s image of the Antichrist who emerges from the Church’s womb. This imagery is a creative and, perhaps, startling reworking of Revelation’s Bride and Whore imagery. Furthermore, by drawing upon both Bride and Whore in the same image, Hildegard implies that the audience can either fulfill their role as Bride or contribute to the abuse of the Church as spawn of the Whore.

97 Andrew Gow notes that the belief upon the birth of a historical Antichrist from two humans, an idea affirmed by Hildegard in her depiction of the Antichrist’s origins, emerged out of the influential letter on the Antichrist by the tenth-century Cluniac Adso of Montier-en-Der. See Andrew Gow, “(En)Gendering Evil: Sinful Conceptions of the Antichrist in the Middle Ages and the Reformation,” Journal of Millennial Studies 2, no.1 (Summer 1999): 4.

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Being the Bride in the City, Hadewijch of Brabant Living in the mid-thirteenth century, Hadewijch of Brabant was a poet, mystic, and visionary, who envisioned the soul’s relation to God through the images and terms culled from courtly love lyric and scripture, especially the Book of Revelation.98 Although there exists no medieval account of her life, Hadewijch’s writings, which include letters, poems, and visions, reveal she lived as a Beguine. The Beguines were a loosely organized movement of pious women that emerged during the thirteenth century mainly in the region of the Rhine and in the Low Countries.99 While the precise origins of the movement remain unknown, the lives of the Beguines resembled those of monastic women, as many forsook marriage, lived communally, and dedicated their lives to caring for the poor and sick.100 Unlike nuns, however, the Beguines did not take monastic vows and were not necessarily governed by male clergy. Paul Mommaers writes that, “In place of more formal structures, the Beguines held on to the vita apostolica, the way of living of the first apostles and Christians…”101 In addition to the life of service and communal concern, many who joined these pious lay-women were committed to lives of spiritual contemplation and devotion, themes central to the writings of Hadewijch. In her Visioenenboek (Book of Visions), a fourteen-chapter work written in Middle Dutch, Hadewijch recounts a number of her visionary and mystical experiences, which took place over an extended period of time. Each vision, which includes auditions and other bodily experiences, is connected to times on the liturgical calendar, such as the day of the Assumption or the feast day of St. John the Evangelist, lending them an air of authenticity. While the visions appear as discrete experiences, as a whole they reflect on the questions, “What is Love? And who is Love?” (Vision 2). As such, the Book of Visions provides Hadewijch’s readers a guide to the contemplative experience and union with the Divine. Likewise, throughout her letters the visionary presents herself as a sort of contemplative mother among the Beguines, inviting others to “Learn to contemplate what God is” (Letter 1.25). The Book of Visions ebbs and flows as 98 Hadewijch is sometimes associated with Antwerp rather than Brabant, even though it is not certain that she ever lived in Antwerp. The association with the region Brabant is based upon her use of the Middle Dutch dialect. See Mary Lou Shea, Medieval Women on Sin and Salvation: Hadewijch of Antwerp, Beatrice of Nazareth, Margaret Ebner, and Julian of Norwich (Peter Lang, 2010), 77. 99 For an introduction to the Beguines and their somewhat elusive origins, see Carol Neel, “The Origins of the Beguines,” Signs 14, no.2 (1989): 321–41; Joanna E. Ziegler, “Reality as Imitation: The Role of Religious Imagery Among the Beguines of the Low Countries,” in Maps of Flesh and Light: The Religious Experience of Medieval Women Mystics, ed. Ulrike Wiethaus (Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 1993), 112–26. 100 Elizabeth A. Petroff, “A New Feminine Spirituality: The Beguines and Their Writings in Medieval Europe,” in Body and Soul: Essays on Medieval Women and Mysticism, ed. Elizabeth A. Petroff (New York: Oxford University Press, 1994), 51–65. 101 Paul Mommaers and Elisabeth M. Dutton, Hadewijch: Writer, Beguine, Love Mystic (Leuven: Peeters, 2004), 19.

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the visionary describes her visions and experiences of mystical union, only to disconnect from the Divine with hope for the next encounter.102 Even though the Book of Visions might have been intended as a model of contemplation, Mommaers notes that not all with whom she lived and worked agreed with Hadewijch’s understanding of spiritual union. Much of her writing works to persuade the Beguine’s readers that spiritual contemplation and mystical union were not ends in themselves.103 After situating each vision temporally, Hadewijch vividly recounts the experience using the language and imagery of Scripture. The references to the biblical texts and traditions are so much a part of the visionary experience, creating the visual landscape that she navigates, that Veerle Fraeters describes her use of biblical imagery as a sort of “experiential scriptural exegesis.”104 Modeling the contemplative experience, the ordering of the visions in the Book of Visions reflects the influence of John’s Apocalypse.105 This points to, as explained above, the importance of John as devotional and visionary model within the medieval period. Just as John himself is a model, his visionary text similarly functions as a pattern to be emulated. The first vision sets the tone and opens with a description of Christ that echoes John’s vision of the Son of Man in the first chapter of Revelation: His appearance could not be described in any language. His head was grand and broad, with curly hair, white in color…I cannot bear witness to it in words, for the unspeakable great beauty and the sweetest sweetness of this lofty and marvelous Countenance rendered me unable to find any comparison for it or any metaphor. And my Beloved gave himself to me, both in spiritual understanding of himself and in feeling. But when I saw him, I fell at his feet… (1.246)106

102 For discussions of the format and feel of Hadewijch’s visions, see especially Mary A. Suydam, “The Touch of Satisfaction: Visions and the Religious Experience According to Hadewijch of Antwerp,” Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion 12, no.2 (October 1, 1996): 5–27; Veerle Fraeters, “Handing on Wisdom and Knowledge in Hadewijch of Brabant’s Book of Visions,” in Women and Experience in Later Medieval Writing: Reading the Book of Life, ed. Annake B. MulderBakker and Liz Herbert McAvoy (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009), 149–68. 103 Mommaers and Dutton, Hadewijch: Writer, Beguine, Love Mystic, 40–43. 104 Fraeters, “Handing on Wisdom and Knowledge in Hadewijch of Brabant’s Book of Visions,” 161. 105 The influence of John’s Apocalypse on Hadewijch’s Book of Visions is noted in Gerald Hofmann’s introduction to the critical edition of the text Hadewijch, Das Buch Der Visionen, ed. Gerald Hofmann (Stuttgart: Frommann-Holzboog, 1998), 32–4. 106 All quotations from Hadewijch’s writings are from the English translation by Columba Hart, published by Paulist Press. When quoting from the text, I reference the Hart text in parentheses. In my analysis of the visions, I consult the critical edition of the visions, edited by Hofmann, which includes the text in Middle Dutch and a translation into German, Hadewijch, Das Buch Der Visionen. That Hadewijch is echoing Revelation in this vision is further confirmed when Christ speaks to her, as he speaks to the seven churches in Rev 2: “But I have one thing against you…” (Vision 1.307). Cf. Rev. 2:4,14, 20.

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The text nears a conclusion with visions of the Abyss, which Hadewijch does not describe as the place of Satan’s binding but as a place of omnipotence, and even dual depictions of the heavenly Jerusalem, echoing Revelation 21.107 Following John’s visionary model, places and characters from Revelation, including the heavenly throne room, construct and populate the visionary world of Hadewijch becoming the things she sees, feels, hears, and tastes: An angel identifies Hadewijch with a pillar in the “church of the saints,” just as the faithful in Philadelphia are to become pillars in the temple of God (1.100; Rev 3:12); she hears voices that sound like thunder and trumpets (4.33); she sees the four living creatures that surround the throne and falls upon her face in response (5.1). The visionary relationship between John and Hadewijch, furthermore, is explicitly acknowledged, when “sweet Saint John” comes to the Beguine in a vision saying, “Come and behold the things I saw as man; all that I saw only in symbol, you have seen disclosed and entire; you have understood them, and you know what they are like” (5.1-12; cf. 14.133). Not only does Hadewijch experience visions in a way similar to John, she understands John’s own visions. Like Hildegard, Hadewijch as a visionary aligns herself with John and uses John’s imagery to envision new ideas. Hadewijch, however, lacks the eschatological expectation that marks the visions of her predecessor, instead focusing upon the individual soul’s experience of God.

Seeing the New Jerusalem on the Feast of Saint John As in Revelation, in Hadewijch’s Book of Visions the image of a New Jerusalem appears at the culmination of the text, in Visions 10 and 12. Hadewijch writes, I was taken up in the spirit on the feast of Saint John the Evangelist in the Christmas Octave. There I saw prepared a new city of the same name as Jerusalem and of the same appearance. [She]108 was being adorned with all sorts of new ornaments…that were unspeakably beautiful.109 They who served in the city were the most beautiful of heaven, and all belonged among those called Auriolas and Eunustus. And all who had been sanctified by Love, together with all the living, adorned it and evoked all the new wonders that give rise to new admiration. (10.1-12)

107 For a discussion of the complex understanding of heaven and hell in the work of Hadewijch, see Mary Suydam, “Hadewijch of Antwerp’s Dark Visions of Heaven,” in Imagining Heaven in the Middle Ages: A Book of Essays, ed. Jan S. Emerson and Hugh Feiss (New York: Taylor & Francis, 2000), 119–41. See also Amy Hollywood, “Sexual Desire, Divine Desire; Or, Queer the Beguines,” in Toward a Theology of Eros: Transfiguring Passion at the Limits of the Discipline, ed. Virginia Burrus and Catherine Keller (Bronx: Fordham University Press, 2006), 126. 108 The grammatical gender of the pronoun is feminine, as it refers to a city. Since the city will later be characterized as a woman/bride, it can be translated as “she.” 109 The ellipses here remove Hart’s parenthetical reference to Rev 21:2.

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In these opening lines, Hadewijch places herself in a role similar to John in Revelation 21, as he views the descent of the New Jerusalem. Like him, Hadewijch evokes the conceptual domain CITY, which she envisions as a CONTAINER, for heavenly creatures serve in the city. Initially, the focus of the vision is on the New Jerusalem’s exterior and its beauty. However, an eagle draws Hadewijch’s attention, along with the attention of her audience, to the New Jerusalem’s identity as Bride, proclaiming, “…and all you who are not too naked to attend our marriage, come to our abundance and contemplate the bride…” (10.18). In this way, Hadewijch’s audience is prompted to envision and to contemplate the metaphorical mapping THE NEW JERSUALEM IS A BRIDE. As the vision unfolds, the concept of BRIDE, which is revealed as a metaphor for the contemplative individual’s SOUL, merges with that of CITY in the visionary’s imagination. She writes, After this an Evangelist came and said: “You are here, and you shall be shown the glory of your exile. The city you here see adorned is your free conscience; and the lofty beauty that is here is your manifold virtues with full suffering; and the adornment is your fiery ardor, which remains dominant in you in spite of all disasters. Your unknown virtues with new assiduity are the manifold ornaments that adorn the city. Your blessed soul is the bride in the city. Here is that highest society which wholly lives in love (minnen) and in the spirit of the highest virtue.” (10.29)

Despite her use of city imagery, which suggests the possibility of community, here the language is directed to the individual: “You (singular) are here” (du best hier) and “Your (singular) blessed soul (dine ghebrukeleke ziele) is the bride in the city”.110 On one level this language refers to Hadewijch, although on another level, the language refers to the reader, one who approaches Book of Visions as a contemplative guidebook. Through the voice of the Evangelist, Hadewijch encourages her reader to envision her/himself through the metaphorical mapping A CONTEMPLATIVE SOUL IS A BRIDE. By emphasizing the individual Soul as Bride of Christ, Hadewijch’s vision of the New Jerusalem differs significantly from that of John, although his text inspires and shapes her visions. This does not mean that the imagery loses its metaphorical valence; rather, the imagery of the BRIDE continues to be a metaphorical source domain for Hadewijch, although the target shifts to the individual Soul. The domain BRIDE potentially offers a number of ideas through which one could envision the Soul; however, Hadewijch’s vision emphasizes a few parts of the domain, including the concepts of ADORNMENT, MARRIAGE, and LOVE. Given the visionary’s multiple allusions the Book of Revelation, her use of adornment imagery is not surprising. However, adornment and dress imagery appear throughout Hadewijch’s writings, even apart from her 110 Hadewijch, Das Buch Der Visionen, 112.

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appropriation of Revelation, reflecting the abundant meaning communicated through dress in the late medieval world.111 As we saw in the ancient context of Revelation, external appearances reveal one’s internal nature (INTERNAL IS EXTERNAL).112 Indicative of this, in some medieval European contexts legislation existed that outlined the different garments and accessories appropriate for the different social classes and groups,113 institutionalizing the metaphorical equation IDENTITY IS APPEARANCE. Alluding to these metaphorical assumptions, the Evangelist proclaims to Hadewijch, “and the lofty beauty that is here is your manifold virtues with full suffering…Your unknown virtues with new assiduity are the manifold ornaments that adorn the city” (10.29). The Soul’s beauty, its external appearance, is characterized in terms of virtues, internal characteristics. Similarly, returning to the image of the city, the city’s ornaments metaphorically represent virtues, suggesting VIRTUES ARE ADORNMENTS. In Revelation, the deeds of the saints comprise the bridal garment, the thing that metaphorically represents the Bride’s new identity. In some sense, the community as a whole participates in constructing this garment. The adornment imagery in Book of Visions functions somewhat differently, as this image is less about a community constructing a shared or singular identity and more about an individual cultivating particular virtues to adorn her soul. This conceptual equation between VIRTUES and ADORNMENTS provides the central theme in Hadewijch’s second vision of the bridal-city, Vision 12, as we discuss below. Throughout Vision 10, Hadewijch uses the conceptual domain MARRIAGE to describe the Soul in relation to God, suggesting that THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE CONTEMPLATIVE SOUL AND GOD IS A MARRIAGE. Hadewijch’s understanding of the MARRIAGE domain seemingly draws more on the traditions courtly love associated with medieval troubadours and an idealized image of marriage than on the actual experience of marriage in the medieval world, which was quite harsh.114 Georges Duby suggests, …nuptial agreements were nearly always finalized without the slightest consideration of the feelings of the two betrothed. On the wedding night a very young girl who 111 Suydam, “The Touch of Satisfaction,” 19–20. 112 For discussions of the significance of dress within Hadewijch’s late medieval context, see Laura Rinaldi Dufresne, “Christine De Pizan’s ‘Treasure of the City of Ladies’: A Study of Dress and Social Hierarchy,” Women’s Art Journal 16 (1995): 29–34; Dyan Elliott, “Dress as Mediator Between Inner and Outer Self: The Pious Matron of the High and Later Middle Ages,” Mediaeval Studies 53 (1995): 279–308; Clare Sponsler, “Narrating the Social Order: Medieval Clothing Laws,” Clio 21 (1992): 265–82. 113 Clare Sponsler, “Narrating the Social Order: Medieval Clothing Laws,” 266–7. 114 See Saskia M. Murk-Jansen, “The Use of Gender and Gender-Related Imagery in Hadewijch,” in Gender and Text in the Later Middle Ages, ed. Jane Chance (Gainesville: University of Florida Press, 1996), 54; Newman, “La Mystique Courtoise: Thirteenth-Century Beguines and the Art of Love,” 148; Ulrike Wiethaus, “Sexuality, Gender, and the Body in Late Medieval Women’s Spirituality: Cases from Germany and the Netherlands,” Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion 7 (1991): 42.

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had barely reached puberty was handed over to a rough boy whom she had never seen before…Everything therefore conspired to prevent there being a passionate relationship between the married couple comparable to what we regard as conjugal love; instead there was a cold relationship of inequality which consisted at best in condescending love on the part of the husband and at best timorous respect on the part of his wife.115

In contrast to the experience of most medieval brides, traditions of courtly love emphasized love as something that united “first and foremost two beings,” rather than being something intended to unite families or communities, as well as lauding the importance of conjugal love. For some authors during this time, Dyan Elliott offers, marriage was “ratified by sexual intercourse.”116 Even though many marriages in the late medieval world might have suggested otherwise from a modern perspective, the importance of romantic love and erotic encounter emerge as important ideas within the conceptual domain MARRIAGE.117 Reflecting these traditions, Hadewijch’s Bride “lives in love” (10.29) and has “passed through all your honors with perfect love, and whose love is strong that, through it, all attain perfect growth” (10.54). She also employs erotic imagery to describe the Soul as Bride in relation to God, highlighting the importance of the union between the two (A SPIRITUAL UNION IS A SEXUAL UNION).118 In particular, she uses the language of “fruition” (ghebruken), to describe a desire and experience so intense it almost leads to madness.119After a heavenly voice, that of the Bridegroom, commands her to “enjoy fruition of me” (10.54) Hadewijch experiences union in the embrace of the Divine: “The Voice embraced me with unheard-of wonder, and I swooned in it, and my spirit failed me to see or hear more. And I lay in this fruition half an hour…” (10.70). She describes this experience as being “possessed by love.” In addition to highlighting the importance of romance and sexual encounter, courtly love traditions depicted love in terms of desire, play, and even cruelty.120 Hadewijch takes these aspects of the domain LOVE to the extreme, as Karma Lochrie notes, describing the visionary as “queering” courtly love 115 Duby, Love and Marriage in the Middle Ages, 19. 116 Dyan Elliott, Spiritual Marriage: Sexual Abstinence in Medieval Wedlock (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1993), 142. Elliott notes that the emphasis upon consummation was also linked to theme of female adornment. See ibid., 152–3. 117 See Duby, Love and Marriage in the Middle Ages, 60. 118 Hart uses the word “fruition” to translate ghebrucken, which, according to Suydam, is best translated as “enjoyment” or “satisfaction.” See Suydam, “The Touch of Satisfaction,” 14. See also Newman, “La Mystique Courtoise: Thirteenth-Century Beguines and the Art of Love,” 145–8; Mommaers and Dutton, Hadewijch: Writer–Beguine–Love Mystic, 98–9. 119 Mommaers, Paul and Dutton, Elisabeth, Hadewijch: Writer–Beguine–Love Mystic, 98–9. 120 Wiethaus, “Sexuality, Gender, and the Body in Late Medieval Women’s Spirituality: Cases from Germany and the Netherlands,” 43; Karma Lochrie, “Mystical Acts, Queer Tendencies,” in Constructing Medieval Sexuality, ed. Karma Lochrie, Peggy McCracken, and James A. Schultz (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1997), 180–200.

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traditions by pushing the boundaries of love to the point that it becomes violence, torture, and horror.121 For Hadewijch LOVE IS SUFFERING. Mid-way through Vision 10 Hadewijch describes a Voice that cries out to the Bride, “…you like no other have superhumanly suffered much among men. You shall suffer everything to the end with what I am, and we shall remain one” (10.54). Here, being “one” with God, presumably a state of mystical and even erotic connection, involves suffering “everything.” Even though “everything” remains undefined here, Hadewijch articulates the completeness of this suffering in the following vision: …I have never experienced Love in any sort of way as repose; on the contrary, I found Love a heavy burden and disgrace. For I was a human creature, and Love is terrible and implacable, devouring and burning without regard for anything. The soul is contained in one little rivulet; her depth is quickly filled up; her dikes quickly burst. Thus with rapidity the Godhead has engulfed human nature wholly in itself. (11.121)

The metaphorical descriptions of love here are thick, as she describes being burdened, devoured, and burned by love (LOVE IS A BURDEN, LOVE IS AN ANIMAL, LOVE IS FIRE). The Soul, furthermore, is so filled with the love of God that she bursts, suggesting that THE SOUL IS A CONTAINER and THE LOVE OF GOD IS A FLUID. For Hadewijch, the Soul’s relationship to God is love, but a love in which the Soul risks being destroyed (UNION IS ANNIHILATION). And, yet, for the visionary the Soul emerges out of this state, albeit with a yearning to be engulfed again. Furthermore, while the Soul experiences moments of union with the Beloved (e.g. Vision 7.94), she always returns to a place of distinction and separation. She describes this state as being in an “alien land,” a place characterized by darkness and need (10.18). Evoking the Hebrew Bible prophetic traditions in which a personified Jerusalem is described as having been called “Forsaken” and “Desolate” (Is 62:4), Hadewijch describes this separation in terms of “exile” (10.70). This suggests the metaphorical mapping SEPARATION IS EXILE. However, separation from God might be understood as being human or being embodied (HUMANNESS IS EXILE or THE BODY IS EXILE).122 The Soul is tortured, therefore, by the loving relationship with the Divine, for it is annihilated through union and forsaken in times of separation.123 The imagery of the Bride’s union with God resonates to some extent with Revelation’s depiction of the Bridal New Jerusalem as the location of God’s being with humanity (21:1-3), although the ancient text’s conception of 121 Lochrie, “Mystical Acts, Queer Tendencies,” 186. 122 Wiethaus, “Sexuality, Gender, and the Body in Late Medieval Women’s Spirituality: Cases from Germany and the Netherlands,” 51. In this article by Wiethaus, we see that many of the themes evident in the writings of Hadewijch appear in the writings of other beguines as well. 123 For another reference to love in terms of being engulfed and being in exile, see Hadewijch’s Letter 6.361.

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DWELLING seemingly suggests consistency. For John, the New Jerusalem remains with the Divine and does not return to a place of exile. In contrast, for Hadewijch the relationship between the Soul and the Divine is characterized as oscillating moments of unity and separation. Amy Hollywood comments, “For Hadewijch, the constant ‘comings and goings of Love are a source of continual suffering, for the soul is caught between the ecstasy of the divine presence, Love’s unrelenting demands for fidelity, and the constant threat of God’s absence.”124 The metaphorical equation between love and suffering seems to go against the grain of John’s depiction of the New Jerusalem, where God wipes away the tears of his people. However, this belies the fact that those who populate and comprise the heavenly city in Revelation do so because they have been willing to “conquer” through suffering, just as the Lamb who was slaughtered (e.g. Rev 11:7).

Being the Bride and the Beloved In Vision 12, near the conclusion of Hadewijch’s Book of Visions, the author again evokes the New Jerusalem, blending this imagery with that of the throne room of Revelation: …I was taken up out of myself in the spirit; there I saw a city, large, and wide, and high, and adorned with perfections. And in the midst of it there sat Someone upon a round disk, which continually opened and closed itself again upon hidden mysteries. And he who sat there above the disk was sitting in constant stillness; but in the disk his Being circled about in unspeakable swiftness without stopping. And the abyss in which the disk ran as it circled about was of such unheard-of depth and so dark that no horror can be compared to it. And the disk, seen from above, was set with all kinds of precious stones and in the color of pure gold…And he who sat in this high place was clothed with a robe whiter than white on the breast of which was written: “The Most Loved of all beloveds” …That was his name. (12.1-29)

Beginning the vision with a reference to the concept CITY, Hadewijch moves quickly to the imagery of ADORNMENT. This reveals that the visionary sees this city as a WOMAN and again evokes the metaphorical mapping THE NEW JERUSALEM IS A BRIDE. The concept of ADORNMENT will play an important role in this vision, although at this point Hadewijch focuses her attention upon the one who sits in the midst of the city (A CITY IS A CONTAINER). As discussed in the last chapter, while in Revelation the wedding is described as “the wedding of the Lamb,” the text’s attention resides primarily with the Bride, reflecting the fact that in the ancient world weddings were moments in which feminine identity was shaped. Here, however, in the heavenly 124

Hollywood, “Sexual Desire, Divine Desire; Or, Queer the Beguines,” 127.

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city described by Hadewijch, the focus is upon the Divine as a Bridegroom (THE DIVINE IS A BRIDEGROOM).125 Just as a human’s clothing visually indicates the individual’s status and role, the Divine’s clothing visually indicates his status as “The Most Loved of all beloveds.” This designation offers an interesting contrast to Revelation, where Christ appears wearing the appellation “King of Kings and Lord of Lords” (19:16). Even though the Divine appears upon a throne-like disk, signaling kingship (THE DIVINE IS A KING), Hadewijch underscores the concept the BRIDEGROOM through the title.126 At first glance, the visionary falls down before the “terrifying being” and does not recognize her relationship to the Bridegroom. Three separate eagles announce that Hadewijch, as a contemplative soul, does not recognize herself as Bride: “The loved one does not yet know all she has become!” (12.35). Even though the pronouncements make clear the metaphorical equation, THE CONTEMPLATIVE SOUL IS A BRIDE, the visionary herself does not “see” (KNOWING IS SEEING) the metaphorical identity until the end of the vision. It is not until she is led to the seat of God and is “received in union by the One” that she recognizes herself as Bride (12.152). The “she” of the vision, becomes “I” at the moment of union with Divine.127 Hadewijch’s vision of the Bridegroom presents the character as a relatively passive figure, whose main action is to “receive” the Bride. Toward the end of the vision Hadewijch writes, “And in that very instant I saw myself received in union by the One who sat there in the abyss upon the circling disk, and there I became one with him” (12.152). Later she recounts, “In that abyss I saw myself swallowed up. Then I received the certainty of being received, in this form, in my Beloved, and my Beloved also in me” (12.172). This seems to be a reimagining of the traditional CONTAINER imagery in which WOMAN is conceptually linked to a CONTAINER that receives, envelops, takes in, etc. In this vision, both Bridegroom and Bride have CONTAINER qualities, mutually receiving one another. Here Hadewijch, as she will do elsewhere in her writings, dissolves and destabilizes the boundaries between masculine and feminine, male and female, as she imagines union between soul and God.128 Perhaps, Hadewijch’s understanding of the relationship between God and the 125 Hadewijch seeks unity with the Trinity and Christ serves as a guide into this unity, as one member of the Trinity. In light of this, I use the concept DIVINE here, rather than CHRIST. For a discussion of Hadewijch’s understanding of the Incarnation in relation to the Trinity, see Shea, Medieval Women on Sin and Salvation, 151–65. 126 The disk imagery is similar to the illustration of the divine throne room in the Bamberg Apocalypse, in which the throne appears as a multi-colored disk upon which the risen Christ sits, clothed in white and purple, “Bamberger Apokalypse,” f.10v. 127 Newman, “La Mystique Courtoise: Thirteenth-Century Beguines and the Art of Love,” 146. 128 Amy Hollywood, “Sexual Desire, Divine Desire; Or, Queer the Beguines,” 128; Suydam, “The Touch of Satisfaction,” 16–17; Ulrike Wiethaus, “Female Homoerotic Discourse and Religion in Medieval Germanic Culture,” in Gender and Difference in the Middle Ages, ed. Sharon Farmer and Carol Braun Paternack (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2003), 290–91, 301.

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Soul can be understood and imagined in terms of permeability. The boundary between the devine human is permeable. Even though this vision begins with the description of the place where the Bridegroom sits, the main focus of the vision turns to the Bride and her adornment: And she [the bride] was clad in a robe made of her undivided and perfect will, always devoid of sorrow, and prepared with all virtue, and fitted out with everything that pertains thereto. And that robe was adorned with all the virtues, and each virtue had its symbol on the robe and its written, that it might be known. (12.58)

Hadewijch continues by describing twelve virtues which adorn the Bride’s robe, including hope, fidelity, discernment, and charity (VIRTUES ARE ADORNMENTS). These ADORNMENTS are imagined as things that are adopted or put on to the Soul’s will, metaphorically depicted as a robe (THE WILL IS A GARMENT). As a text designed to lead one through the contemplative process, this imagery communicates to the audience the importance of “putting on” or cultivating particular virtues. In a way similar to Revelation, outward appearance of a thing is a metaphorical indicator of its inward essence or character (IDENTITY IS APPEARANCE). The metaphorical mappings at work in Hadewijch’s vision reflect a similar connection between the outward appearance and the inner state. In this case, the will constitutes a robe that is adorned with the will’s own virtues. In Vision 13, Hadewijch will envision a queen, Love, who is similarly adorned suggesting that the soul and Love are one in the same. The metaphorical mappings are piled on top of one another, as LOVE IS A QUEEN and THE CONTEMPLATIVE SOUL/BRIDE IS LOVE. Likewise, Love is described in terms similar to Revelation’s Son of Man: “From Love’s eyes proceeded swords full of fiery flames. From her mouth proceeded lightning and thunder” (13.82). Thus, THE DIVINE IS LOVE and THE CONTEMPLATIVE SOUL IS THE DIVINE. As Verrle Fraeters observes, in Vision 13 Hadewijch is allowed to “witness her own similitude to Love/Christ” as she grows into “a perfect deiform soul who knows, and is, Love.”129 Ultimately, in the moment of union between the Soul as Bride and the Divine, a moment that comes through the cultivation of virtues, all identities are One. Like the ancient Seer, Hadewijch actively watches and admires the New Jerusalem as Bride, noting the beauty of “her” adornments. In so doing, she adopts a traditionally masculine position and encourages her audience to appropriate this perspective as well. This is a reversal of John’s gender dynamics, which prompt an audience understood in masculine terms to envision itself through female imagery. This type of “queering” of gender expectations and roles appears throughout Hadewijch’s visions and poems, as 129 Fraeters, “Handing on Wisdom and Knowledge in Hadewijch of Brabant’s Book of Visions,” 151.

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in the writings of many of the Beguines. This queering, moreover, is indicative of Hadewijch’s inclination toward blurring boundaries in general and revealing the permeability of categories such as the Soul and the Divine. The irony here is that the visionary does this by using images that seem, at first glance, to be stable and focused upon establishing boundaries, specifically Revelation’s Bride and New Jerusalem imagery. Hildegard of Bingen and Hadewijch of Brabant are only two of the many visionary interpreters of the high to late Middle Ages, a time marked by interest in the Apocalypse and by an increasing number of accounts of visionary experience, to redeploy Revelation’s female imagery. Still, their interpretations reveal some of the variety inherent in medieval readings of Revelation, as their perspectives on the Bride imagery in particular reflects very different understandings. In this way they point to the expansive nature of metaphorical thinking and the power of seeing with the text. Specifically, it is often the conceptual metaphors and domains that are reworked in these interpretations and, while these conceptual mappings may be used by John to a very particular end – creating a communal identity among congregations in first-century Asia Minor – they actually become sources for new metaphorical thinking. Hildegard and Hadewijch, for instance, easily extend the CONTAINER imagery that Revelation uses in reference to the New Jerusalem to the image of the Bride as well, given the traditional association between WOMAN and CONTAINER, an association John deploys in his depiction of the Whore. As Hildegard sees with John, she characterizes the Bride as CONTAINER which, given the Bride’s status as wife, leads to ideas of childbirth and motherhood. Conversant with courtly love traditions that emphasize erotic union, Hadewijch takes the CONTAINER concept in a slightly different direction. Rather than imagining the Bride as a CONTAINER for children, she highlights the Bride or Soul as CONTAINER for the Divine. This has erotic connotations that the Beguine queers by imagining the Divine as a CONTAINER that receives as well as fills and by imagining the filling of Divine Love as something that ultimately destroys the boundary between the Soul and God. Ironically, while John uses WOMAN and CONTAINER imagery to construct boundaries, Hadewijch uses the same imagery to point to their permeability. One of the most noticeable moves made in these interpreters understanding of the Bride in particular is a shift toward employing the concept of BRIDE to understand the individual’s relationship to God. While Hildegard generally uses the BRIDE as communal image (THE CHURCH IS A BRIDE), she does apply the Bride imagery to her individual nuns, as evidenced in their costumes. In Hadewijch’s Book of Visions, the shift is more complete, as the visionary uses the domain entirely to describe the contemplative individual. We will see a similar movement toward reading Revelation’s bridal imagery through the lens of the individual in the next chapter in the artwork of Sister Gertrude Morgan and Myrtice West. Even though all of these interpreters maintain that there is still a communal implication in the bridal imagery, it is interesting that the singular image of a woman becomes associated with particular women.

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This interpretive trend points to one of the difficulties that feminist interpreters have with Revelation’s female images: It becomes difficult, if not impossible, for those who read along with Revelation’s text not to identify with these images which are shaped by ancient perspectives on gender and gendered relations. Interestingly, this conceptual shift in which the individual interpreter appropriates the image of the Bride for the self is not limited to femaleidentified readers. Especially in the late Middle Ages there was also a tradition among male readers, mostly mystics, of identifying with Revelation’s Bride. The sixteenth-century Spanish Carmelite John of the Cross, for example, famously characterizes the soul as a Bride longing for her Bridegroom Christ. This cross-gender identification with the Bride is unsurprising, in some sense, given the role of gender at work in Revelation’s narrative, which asks a maleidentified audience to see itself through the conceptual domain WOMAN. 130

130 One might argue that John of the Cross fulfills the call of John to be the Bride. An interesting future project might be to examine how male-identified readers engage this imagery. See John of the Cross, Spiritual Canticle And Poems, trans. R. H. J. Steuart, Reprint (London: Continuum International Publishing Group, 1978).

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Chapter 5 “Coming into Wedding”: Envisioning Revelation’s Women with Two Modern Visionaries John, he’s the one that’s showing you…what he’s seein’. That’s what Revelations is about – what he seen. What he’s seen is things that we touch and feel and are acquainted with, that’s what he seen. Howard Finster as told to Carol Crown, Wonders to Behold1 I got the new world in my view, On my journey I pursue. I said, I’m running, running for the city, I got the new world in my view. Traditional spiritual sung by Gertrude Morgan, Let’s Make a Record2

Singing was an important part of the worship that occurred in the Prayer Room of the Everlasting Gospel Mission, the ministry and home of Sister Gertrude Morgan, a New Orleans street-preacher, singer, artist, and “bride of Christ.” In the Prayer Room, painted bright white, worship occurred under the watchful gaze of a “great eye” – a painting of a large, bodiless eye done on notebook paper, inscribed with the command to “SiNG/All along the Road to the souls [sic] true aboad [sic] …”3 The command to sing paired with a reference to the “true aboad,” a likely allusion to the New Jerusalem, evokes the exhortative call of the hymn in Revelation 19: “Praise our God” and “Let us be

1 Howard Finster, “The Beast Out of the Sea,” in Wonders to Behold: The Visionary Art of Myrtice West, ed. Carol Crown (Memphis: Mustang Publishing, 1999), 90–96. 2 Gertrude Sister Morgan, Let’s Make a Record (Preservation Hall, 2004). 3 These words are taken from a traditional Gospel hymn and are transcribed in William A. Fagaly, Tools of Her Ministry: The Art of Sister Gertrude Morgan (New York: Rizzoli, 2004), 14–16. In his transcriptions of the text on Morgan’s artwork, Fagaly maintains her spelling and capitalization peculiarities. In this chapter, I follow Fagaly’s lead. Fagaly’s work on Morgan is the first full treatment of the artist, preacher, and singer. It includes the transcriptions from many of her paintings, which were covered in text, and draws upon correspondences and interviews. It is an invaluable resource for any investigation into Morgan.

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glad and rejoice” (Rev 19:5, 7; KJV).4 Morgan embraced these exhortations whole-heartedly, singing to passers-by through a rolled up paper megaphone in the French Quarter and eventually recording an album in the 1970s. On the aptly named, Let’s Make a Record, produced by art dealer and Morgan patron Larry Borenstein, Morgan sings traditional spirituals accompanied solely by her tambourine and the Spirit, which she conjures through chants of “Power. Power Lord! Power. Power Lord!”5 Her voice is described as “haunting” and “earthy,”6 even though her lyrics focus entirely upon heavenly goals. The traditional spirituals included on Morgan’s album reflect a preoccupation with John’s Apocalypse, including the image of the New Jerusalem. In the first song, titled “Let Us Make a Record,” Morgan invokes prophetic and sacred predecessors, including Isaiah, Ezekiel, and Peter as those who “made a record” for the Lord. Following their lead, Morgan calls her audience to join her in making “a record for my Lord.” Her repeated invitation to join her in making this record constitutes the bulk of the song, which ends with exclamations to “Praise Him!” In a manner similar to John, who she invokes in the second track of the album, Morgan invites her audience to participate in the experience of hearing and, perhaps, seeing her “narrative.” This narrative, like Revelation, culminates in both a vision of the heavenly city, in the track “New Jerusalem,” and with an affirmation about the certainty of God’s words, in the track “God’s Word Will Never Pass Away” (cf. Rev 21:5). Among the album’s fourteen tracks are four that stand out as explicit references to final book of the New Testament. In addition to “New Jerusalem,” Morgan sings about John’s revelatory experience in “Way in the Middle of the Air,” the city of the New Jerusalem in “I Got the New World in My View,” and about John’s penning of the Apocalypse in “He Wrote the Revelation.” Even some of the songs not explicitly drawn from Revelation evoke a sense of moving forward toward a heavenly goal and toward a place of hope, including “If You Live Like Jesus Told Me” and “Take My Hand Precious Lord.” In other words, the Book of Revelation dominates the album, shaping how one hears and interprets the whole and reflecting the way in which this ancient text constructed the world that Sister Morgan inhabited.

4 Since it is likely that both subjects of this chapter, Gertrude Morgan and Myrtice West, drew upon the King James Version, I will make reference to this version throughout this chapter. However, translations without a stated version are my own. 5 Fagaly, Tools of Her Ministry: The Art of Sister Gertrude Morgan, 24. The African American tradition of conjuring is articulated by Theophus H. Smith. Morgan conjures the Spirit or Power of God, making Power present to the audience/listener through her vocals. See the discussions of “God-conjuring” and “Spirituals” in Theophus H. Smith, Conjuring Culture: Biblical Formations of Black America, Facsimile (Oxford University Press, USA, 1995), 57–62, 115–39. 6 This is according to King Britt, a DJ and producer who later remixed Morgan’s music into a dance album. He is interviewed about Morgan on Paul Falzone, Sister Gertrude (Philadelphia: MBN Studios, 2006), http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T4BlMlzyCHU&feature =youtube_gdata_player.

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The privileging of Revelation’s imagery in her track selection reflects the importance of this text for Morgan, although this focus is not unique to her. Southern artists, especially those artists often described as “outsider” or “folk” artists, who are primarily self-taught, often employ the images of this visionary text.7 Historian Charles Reagan Wilson observes, “No theme of selftaught art revealed more about southern religious culture than millennialism, with its fearsome image of the Apocalypse featured in literature, music, and art. Indeed, artists’ uses of the apocalyptic theme show more than any other theme the connections between the Bible and the spirit working to promote creativity among southern self-taught artists.” 8 Artists such as Howard Finister, arguably the most famous southern self-taught artist, Reverend McKendree Robbins Long, William Thomas Thompson, James Hampton, and Annie Lucas, all draw upon Revelation’s vivid images in their artistic visions.9 In addition, many of the artists attribute their own visual creations to visionary or revelatory experiences.10 This is the case with Sister Gertrude Morgan, as well as Myrtice West, both of whom serve as the primary conversation partners of this chapter. These artists have a visionary and visual connection to the text of Revelation, as they, like John, attribute their creative impulse to a divinely initiated lifting of the veil and share their experiences in a way that creates an opportunity for the audience to envision along with them. Although a number of self-taught visionary artists depict the New Jerusalem, in the following we explore the works of Morgan (1900–1980) and West (1923–2010) since, like Hildegard and Hadewijch, both of these artists experienced visions shaping their interpretations of Revelation and attributed their creative output to divine intention. Similarly, both Revelation’s gendered and city images play significant roles in their interpretation of the text. In the following, we will “read” works from Morgan and West, exploring the ways in which they appropriate and refashion the conceptual metaphors employed in Revelation’s CITY-WOMAN images. This is not, we should say, an attempt at offering an art historical analysis of these works; rather, we will engage the artworks of Morgan and West as texts that interpret and expand upon the meanings of Revelation, much like the writings of Hildegard and Hadewijch. 7 For a discussion of the term “outsider art” especially in reference to apocalyptic artists, see Daniel Wojcik, “Outsider Art, Vernacular Traditions, Trauma, and Creativity,” Western Folklore 67, no. 2/3 (2008): 179–98. 8 Charles Reagan Wilson, Flashes of a Southern Spirit: Meanings of the Spirit in the U.S. South (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 2011), 157. 9 Carol Crown, “The Bible, Evangelical Christianity and Southern Self-Taught Artists,” in Coming Home! Self-Taught Artists, the Bible and the American South, ed. Carol Crown (Memphis: Art Museum of the University of Memphis, 2004), 15–34. While trained as a medieval art historian, Carol Crown has become one of the foremost experts on the appropriation of the Bible and religious themes in southern self-taught art. See also Carol Crown, “More Than Meets the Eye: Visions of the Sacred in Southern Self-Taught Art,” in Sacred and Profane: Voice and Vision in Southern Self-Taught Art, ed. Carol Crown and Charles Russell (Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2007), 40–65. 10 Wojcik, “Outsider Art, Vernacular Traditions, Trauma, and Creativity.”

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Envisioning the Apocalypse in the Southern United States The final book of the Christian canon has been extremely influential in the work of artists who, like Gertrude Morgan and Myrtice West, are often described as “outsider” artists. The designation, however, belies the reality that these artists and their artworks are situated within a particular stream of cultural discourse. In the case of Morgan and West, as with many of their peers, they reflect and participate in the evangelical Christian discourses that permeate the Southern United States.11 While evangelical Christians are found throughout the U.S. and around the world, the prominence of the evangelical Protestant traditions in the Southern U.S. has created a distinctive regional culture, resulting in the popular characterization of the South as the “Bible Belt.” Introduced to the North American continent by British evangelists, such as Jonathan Edwards and John Wesely, in the mid-18th century, by the early 19th century evangelical Christianity came to be the dominant Christian tradition in the South.12 This dominance has not waned, even though the South has become home to a diverse number of Christian denominations and religious traditions.13 This is not to suggest that southern evangelicalism is monolithic or fixed; rather, it is marked by a variety of denominations and movements that over the past century southern religion have responded and adapted to a variety of social factors shaping southern realities. During the 20th century, the South saw increased urbanization, growing secularization, shifting relations between racial and ethnic groups, and changing gender expectations, all of which contributed to a shifting cultural and religious landscape.14 Still, even as other religious traditions spread throughout the South, evangelical Christianity contributed to the mood and belief system through which many southerners envisioned

11 Given the limits of this project, it is possible to offer only an overview of southern evangelical traditions. Readers are encouraged to consult one of sources cited below for more detailed discussions. 12 For a discussion of the spread of evangelical Christianity that focuses particularly on the demographics of Virginia, see Charles Frederick Irons, The Origins of Proslavery Christianity: White and Black Evangelicals in Colonial and Antebellum Virginia (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2008). 13 Wilson, Flashes of a Southern Spirit, 131. For a discussion of how evangelicalism emerged within the Southern U.S. and how it was viewed in the South prior to its acceptance, see Christine Leigh Heyrman, Southern Cross: The Beginnings of the Bible Belt (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1998). 14 For an overview of many of the social and political factors shaping twentieth-century southern religion, see James T. Baker, “Recent South,” in Encyclopedia Of Religion In The South, ed. Samuel S. Hill, Charles H. Lippy, and Charles Regan Wilson (Macon: Mercer University Press, 2005), 29–37. For a discussion of how these factors related to a particular southern “outsider” artist, see William D. Moore and Walter H. Conser Jr., “Contextualizing the Apocalyptic Visions of McKendree Robbins Long,” in Southern Crossroads: Perspectives on Religion and Culture, ed. Walter H. Conser and Rodger Milton Payne (Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 2008), 89–132.

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and experienced the world. Thus, historian Donald G. Mathews describes evangelicalism as “a major factor in defining the region’s uniqueness.” 15 Among the characteristics associated with evangelical belief, the emphasis upon the sinfulness of humanity and the subsequent need for redemption dominates. In her novel Wise Blood, Flannery O’Connor captured this in the image of a “fire and brimstone” preacher, who would drive into town “as if he were just in time to save them all from Hell,…shouting before he had the car door open.”16 While images such as these are often caricatures, the sure conviction that all people are in need of salvation from sin leads to the evangelical impulse toward proselytizing. Charles Reagan Wilson writes, “The central theme is the search for conversion, which can then lead to a transformed life. One must be born again, cleansed in the ‘precious blood of the lamb,’ as one gospel song puts it, ‘washed white as snow.’”17 Almost any setting offers an opportunity to share one’s own story of transformation or to witness for those operating within the evangelical belief system. While proselytizing is typically thought of in terms the oral performance of the preacher, for evangelicals, including those in the South, the visual has been employed as a tool for witnessing as well – yard art, murals, church art, painted vehicles, and grottoes employed in service to the Lord.18 The importance placed upon sin and salvation in evangelical and, therefore, southern Christianity reflects an emphasis on the personal experience with God.19 Broadly speaking, evangelicalism eschews hierarchies that are perceived as mitigating access to God in favor of fostering the individual’s relationship to God, often described as a “personal relationship” with God or Jesus.20 In some traditions under the umbrella of evangelical Christianity this personal relationship takes the form of the indwelling of the Spirit of God in the individual. Holiness and Pentecostal traditions, related movements that emerged around the turn of the 20th century, put forth the possibility of a “second blessing” or a “baptism by the Spirit.” This is the belief that even after the experience of salvation a believer might experience continued personal

15 Donald G. Mathews, “Evangelicalism,” in Encyclopedia Of Religion In The South, ed. Samuel S. Hill, Charles H. Lippy, and Charles Regan Wilson (Macon: Mercer University Press, 2005), 306. For a discussion on the problems associated with using “evangelical” as term to describe southern religion, see Donald G. Mathews et al., “Forum: Southern Religion,” Religion and American Culture: A Journal of Interpretation 8, no. 2 (July 1, 1998): 150–51. 16 Flannery O’Connor, Wise Blood: A Novel (Macmillan, 1949), 15. 17 Wilson, Flashes of a Southern Spirit, 131. 18 See Charles Reagan Wilson, “Self-Taught Art, the Bible, and Southern Creativity,” in Sacred and Profane: Voice and Vision in Southern Self-Taught Art, ed. Carol Crown and Charles Russell (Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2007), 3–20. 19 Thomas W. Mann, “Bible, Interpretation Of,” in Encyclopedia Of Religion In The South, ed. Samuel S. Hill, Charles H. Lippy, and Charles Regan Wilson (Macon: Mercer University Press, 2005), 120–24. 20 Irons, The Origins of Proslavery Christianity, 3; Wilson, “Self-Taught Art, the Bible, and Southern Creativity,” 7.

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encounters with God’s Spirit.21 In Pentecostal settings, these experiences with the Spirit are evidenced through speaking in tongues, although a personal encounter with the Spirit may also result in a physical sensation such as leaving the body, a visionary experience, or some other manifestation. Even though these experiences are personal, meaning that they are moments of encounter between an individual and God, they are not private.22 The experiences often have a communal function, such as an evangelistic aim. Moreover, evangelical Christian traditions entertain the possibility that one’s personal relationship with God or Jesus might include God speaking to and through the individual. Both Morgan and West, for instance, attest to having these types of experiences. Morgan described hearing the voice of God and being directed by God as she began to draw the image of the New Jerusalem, while West experienced seeing the Book of Revelation in “flashes,” visions that she eventually captured in her paintings. Even though evangelical belief embraces the possibility of direct interaction with God, this in no way diminishes the importance of the biblical text. Quite the opposite is true, for the Bible is understood as a point of connection between God and the individual. Speaking of the early Pentecostal movement, Grant Wacker writes, “Saints vested ultimate authority in the Bible because they knew exactly how the Bible came into existence. In brief, great men of old heard God’s words and wrote them down. Scripture thus embodied God’s thoughts, pure and simple.”23 Even though modern critical perspectives on the Bible were brought before the public eye, as in the Scopes “monkey trial,” in the 20th century, many southern evangelicals rejected these perspectives. The repudiation of critical interpretive methods was part of a more broadly construed rejection of modernity among many southern evangelicals, especially those who identified as fundamentalists.24 Rather than embrace methods of biblical criticism outlined in seminaries and universities, which sought to locate the meaning of the text in the past, southern evangelicals typically approach the Bible as an authoritative “guide to faith and personal behavior.”25 Hal Fulmer suggests, 21 For a discussion of the emergence of the Pentecostal movement out of evangelical Christian traditions during the late 19th century and into the early 20th century, see Grant Wacker, Heaven Below: Early Pentecostals and American Culture (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2001); Randall J. Stephens, The Fire Spreads: Holiness and Pentecostalism in the American South (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2010). For a corresponding discussion on the emergence of Pentecostalism specifically in the context of African American religion, see Estrelda Y. Alexander, Black Fire: One Hundred Years of African American Pentecostalism (Downers Grove: InterVaristy Press, 2011). 22 Wacker, Heaven Below, 38–40. 23 Ibid., 72–3. 24 William D. Moore and Walter H. Conser Jr., “Contextualizing the Apocalyptic Visions of McKendree Robbins Long,” 105. 25 Wilson, “Self-Taught Art, the Bible, and Southern Creativity,” 7. See also, Hal Fulmer, “The Word and the World: Evangelical Christianity, the Bible, and the Secular South,” in Coming Home! Self-Taught Artists, the Bible and the American South, ed. Carol Crown (Memphis: Art Museum of the University of Memphis, 2004), 55. For a more academic Pentecostal perspective on Scripture, see Clark H Pinnock, “The

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In the South, first and foremost, there is the Word. There are other books and other authors, to be sure, but only one text is empowered with a capital letter, and it is the Bible, divinely inspired, inerrant, and literal. For the religious Southerner, the events of a daily world emanated from, filter through, or stand opposed to what folks called Scripture.26

Within the context of evangelicalism, the Bible is a book open to the believer to read, interpret, and apply. In particular, for many white evangelicals, especially those in rural and lower-class settings, the Bible is a text that could and should be understood in a literal manner.27 As God’s Word, the Bible is accessible to all and not to be restricted to those with specialized education or credentials. Consequently, even though in the 20th century the South experienced relatively low literacy rates for the U.S., the images, stories, and characters of the Bible made their way off the page and into the region’s cultural discourses.28 While white evangelicals in the South generally emphasize the importance of interpreting the Bible literally, African Americans, first converted to evangelical Christianity while still in slavery, arguably developed a more complex or fraught relationship to the biblical texts. The complexity of this relationship stems from a number of factors, including the fact that slaves in the South were forbidden to learn to read, contributing to an emphasis upon oral and aural experiences of the scriptures that encouraged recontextualizing biblical stories, characters, and images.29 In her examination of African American women writers’ biblical interpretation, Katherine Clay Bassard describes this as “sampling” scripture.30 Further, reading and hearing the Bible through the experience of slavery and its effects, African Americans have held in tension the Bible as “good book” and as “poison book,” according to Allen Dwight Callahan. That is, as a text that has simultaneously upheld a sense of individual worth regardless of race and been used to justify oppression based on race, the Bible instilled among African Americans “a critical sensibility, a

Work of the Spirit in the Interpretation of Holy Scripture from the Perspective of a Charismatic Biblical Theologian,” Journal of Pentecostal Theology 18, no. 2 (2009): 157–71. 26 Hal Fulmer, “The Word and the World: Evangelical Christianity, the Bible, and the Secular South,” 55. 27 Thomas W. Mann, “Bible, Interpretation Of,” 123; Charles Reagan Wilson, “Folk Religion,” in Encyclopedia Of Religion In The South, ed. Samuel S. Hill, Charles H. Lippy, and Charles Reagan Wilson (Macon: Mercer University Press, 2005), 322–3. That the biblical literalism of southern evangelicalism is related to reading the Bible as a warrant for slavery is argued in Donald G. Mathews, Religion in the Old South, ed. Martin E. Marty (Chicago: University Of Chicago Press, 1979), 175–7. 28 Wilson, “Self-Taught Art, the Bible, and Southern Creativity,” 4. 29 Renita J. Weems, “Reading Her Way Through the Struggle: African American Women and the Bible,” in Stony the Road We Trod: African American Biblical Interpretation (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1991), 57–77. 30 Katherine Clay Bassard, Transforming Scriptures: African American Women Writers and the Bible (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 2010), 51.

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penchant for interrogating themselves and others.”31 Consequently, African American interpreters frequently recontextualize biblical images, narratives, and language, re-deploying these in songs, story, and art. These redeployed images, such as images of exile and exodus, possess a certain power that allows the interpreter to understand and manage his/her world.32 Thus, within the Black Church context the images of the biblical text are employed as tools for thinking, questioning, and imagining various realities.33 This type of interpretation resembles what Kovacs and Rowland describe as actualizing interpretation, even though they address interpretations of Revelation specifically. As explained in the introduction, this type of interpretation “means reading…in relation to new circumstances, seeking to convey the spirit of the text rather than being preoccupied with the plethora of detail”.34 For many evangelicals, black and white, the commitment to the divine inspiration of the Bible requires reading Revelation as a description of coming events, for the opening verse proclaims, “The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto him, to shew unto his servants things which much shortly come to pass” (Rev 1:1; KJV). Taking this seriously, many evangelicals, especially white evangelicals, have embraced a form of prophecy belief called “premillennialism.” Among other things, premillennial belief is marked by the anticipation of an imminent second coming of Christ who will return to reign over earth for a millennium, as briefly described in Revelation 20:46. As Daniel Wójcik explains, premillennialist belief tends to be fatalistic, imagining that world will grow increasingly evil as time progresses and that the world “can be redeemed only through catastrophe and supernatural intervention.”35 Evangelist and evangelical Christian forbear Dwight L. Moody maintained, “I don’t find any place where God says the world is to grow better and better…I find that the earth is to grow worse and worse.”36 From this perspective, the only hope for the world is the rapture and then the return of Christ to reign over a millennial (thousand year) kingdom. As a result many premillenialist evangelicals have emphasized the importance of evangelizing the world, rather than calling for social or political solutions to world problems.37 Toward the end of the 20th century, however, premillennial 31 Allen Dwight Callahan, The Talking Book: African Americans and the Bible (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2006), 242. 32 Yvonne P. Chireau, “Conjuring Scriptures and Engendering Healing Traditions,” in Theorizing Scriptures: New Critical Orientations to a Cultural Phenomenon, ed. Vincent L. Wimbush (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 2008), 119–27. 33 For a discussion of what is meant by “Black Church,” see Brian K. Blount, Can I Get a Witness?: Reading Revelation Through African American Culture (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2005), 42–5. 34 Judith L. Kovacs, Christopher Rowland, and Rebekah Callow, Revelation: The Apocalypse of Jesus Christ (Malden: Blackwell, 2004), 8. 35 Daniel Wójcik, The End of the World As We Know It: Faith, Fatalism, and Apocalypse in America (New York: New York University Press, 1999), 35. 36 As quoted in Paul S. Boyer, When Time Shall Be No More: Prophecy Belief in Modern American Culture (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1992), 94. 37 Ibid., 95; Wójcik, The End of the World As We Know It, 35–6.

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evangelicals have taken an increasing interest in the political and social realm, according to Revelation scholar Barbara R. Rossing, in part because of the hope at hastening the imminent Rapture.38 Premillennialist prophecy belief, as part of evangelical Christianity, has been an influential perspective in the southern U.S. Around the turn of the century, as the Holiness traditions emerged within Southern evangelical contexts, Randall H. Stephens notes that there was a “nearly unanimous conversion” to premillennialism, especially among white congregations and adherents.39 At the turn of the century, many premillennialists embraced a perspective called “dispensationalism.” This theory of biblical prophecy was articulated by Englishman John Nelson Darby and popularized in the U.S. by Cyrus I. Scofield, a Tennessean who fought for the Confederacy in the Civil War, through the immensely successful Scofield Reference Bible (1909).40 Simply speaking, dispensationalism maintains that history is divided into epochs or dispensations, each of which was marked by a specific means of salvation. For Darby and Scofield, the current age was a time between epochs, a “parenthesis” in which humanity waited for the next epoch inaugurated by the rapture of Christians from earth. These events would trigger a period of tribulation, including the reign of the Anti-Christ, followed by the millennial reign of Christ and the last judgment.41 Weaving the dispensationalist timeline into the notes and headings of the King James Version of the Bible, Scofield made it difficult for readers to distinguish between the biblical text and these premillennialist teachings.42 Even though people continue to debate the details and the dates, the belief that the Rapture and Millennium is going to happen in the foreseeable future is part and parcel of Scripture for many evangelicals in the 20th century.43 In spite of the prevalence of premillennial prophecy belief among evangelicals, not all read Revelation and its prophetic siblings in the same ways as dispensationalists. As noted above within African American biblical interpretation, which is in itself a diverse interpretive tradition,44 there is an impulse toward recontextualizing biblical images in new contexts that seems more adaptive than the “decoding” of the biblical text in dispensationalist 38 Rossing, The Rapture Exposed: the Message of Hope in the Book of Revelation, 42–6. 39 Stephens explains that the Holiness tradition’s emergence at the turn of the century out of more mainline denominations, such as the Methodist Church, was fraught with conflict. This sense of conflict fostered, at least in part, the acceptance of premillennial beliefs. See Stephens, The Fire Spreads, 138. For a discussion of the different emphases on premillennialism among black and white congregations, see ibid., 164. 40 Boyer, When Time Shall Be No More, 97. 41 Ibid., 88. 42 William H. Shepherd, “Revelation and the Hermeneutics of Dispensationalism,” Anglican Theological Review 71, no.3 (Sum 1989): 285–6. See also Rossing, The Rapture Exposed: the Message of Hope in the Book of Revelation, 23. 43 Boyer, When Time Shall Be No More, 99. 44 For example, see the various approaches to biblical texts explored in Bassard, Transforming Scriptures.

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interpretation. In addition, as Brian K. Blount suggests in Can I Get a Witness? Reading Revelation through African American Culture, an enduring theme in Black Church theology has been a “drive toward the uplift and thus liberation of its people.”45 In terms of millennialism, the impulses of uplift and liberation, which are impulses toward bettering the world and the lives of individuals and communities, generally resist premillennialist fatalism. These impulses often are incorporated into “postmillennial” hopes, which work to create the millennial kingdom on earth before the second coming. Read in this way, some African American interpreters have found in Revelation an impetus for social change. However, Blount also notes that the impetus toward liberation in the Black Church is sometimes mitigated by a “hermeneutic of sacrifice,” that imagines suffering as “redemptive” and that sees salvation in terms of God’s intervention.46 This view inspires one to look for a heavenly reward or future, brought about by God. As the strain of one spiritual offers, “King Jesus sittin’ in the kingdom, Lord,/Oh, how I long to go there too; The angels singin’ all round the throne,/Oh, how I long to go…I hope that trump will blow me home,/Oh, how I long to go.”47 Even though evangelical Christianity plays an important role in the culture of the Southern U.S., the diversity within southern evangelicalism should not be ignored. The variety of belief within this context is exemplified in the lives and work of Morgan and West. Raised Baptist, Morgan later worked with two other women associated with the “Sanctified Church,”48 a loose affiliation of African American churches within the Holiness and Pentecostal traditions. Cheryl Townsend Gilkes notes that the Sanctified movement, which eschews traditional Euro American hierarchies, has been a place of women’s leadership and authority.49 This coincides with the experience of Morgan, who eventually began her own ministry, “The Everlasting Gospel Mission,” in a house in the Lower Ninth Ward of New Orleans that was demolished after Hurricane Katrina in 2005.50 Like Morgan, West, who lived most of her life in rural Alabama, was affiliated with the Baptist Church early in her life, being baptized at the age of fourteen. However, her family sometimes attended a local Methodist Church and West described herself as a religious “crossbreed.”51 In a letter

42.

45 Blount, Can I Get a Witness?: Reading Revelation Through African American Culture,

46 Ibid., 73. 47 As quoted in Callahan, The Talking Book: African Americans and the Bible, 196. 48 Carol Crown, “Morgan, Sister Gertrude,” in Encyclopedia Of Religion In The South, ed. Samuel S. Hill, Charles H. Lippy, and Charles Reagan Wilson (Macon: Mercer University Press, 2005), 523–4; Fagaly, Tools of Her Ministry: The Art of Sister Gertrude Morgan, 7–9. 49 Cheryl Townsend Gilkes, If It Wasn’t for the Women: Black Women’s Experience and Womanist Culture in Church and Community (Maryknoll: Orbis Books, 2001), 44–6, 76–9. 50 Karen Gadbois, “Sister Gertrude Morgan,” Squandered Heritage, November 3, 2008, http://www.squanderedheritage.com/2008/11/03/sister-gertrude-morgan/. 51 West uses this description for herself in a letter published in “A Letter from Myrtice West,” in Wonders to Behold: The Visionary Art of Myrtice West, ed. Carol Crown (Memphis: Mustang Publishing, 1999), 11–13.

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sent to her friend and patron Rollin Riggs, West observed, “But the word of God is not denominational,”52 reflecting the fact that the evangelical Christian impulse was understood to exist beyond denominational differences in the South.

Heeding God’s Call, Sister Gertrude Morgan In Tools of Her Ministry: The Art of Sister Gertrude Morgan, William A. Fagaly offers the first attempt at a detailed account of the life and work of Gertrude Morgan, drawing mainly from Morgan’s recollections, autobiographical inscriptions covering her artworks, and letters written by Morgan.53 Still, the details of Morgan’s life, which began in Alabama in 1900 and ended in Louisiana in 1980, are difficult to pin down, given occasional inconsistencies in her accounts. One thing that remains clear in Morgan’s story, which is steeped in biblical vernacular and imagery, is her conviction that she is called by God to be the Lamb’s Wife, an identity she describes in many ways (e.g. Lamb’s Bride, Bride of Jesus, Bride of Christ). On account of this selfidentification, the focus of Morgan’s life and artwork draws heavily upon the images that come at the conclusion of Revelation, especially the related images of the Bride and of the New Jerusalem. While she does illustrate other biblical themes and other parts of the text of Revelation, including occasional depictions of the Great Whore, illustrations of Morgan as Bride of the Lamb and of the Heavenly City dominate her work.54 A recipient of numerous revelations, Morgan understood her life in biblical terms. She was one set aside by God for a divine purpose. Evoking the symbolism of the number seven, a number that shapes Revelation’s narrative, suggesting wholeness and creation, Morgan explained in a letter to art historian Regina Perry that she was “the seventh child Born on the seventh day of the week Saturday night Pay night on the seventh day of April.”55 Her birth suggested that God intended good things for Morgan, although it was not 52 Ibid., 11. 53 Fagaly, Tools of Her Ministry: The Art of Sister Gertrude Morgan. One of the first scholars to engage Morgan’s work was art historian Regina Perry, who had an ongoing friendship with the artist. See Regina A. Perry, “Contemporary African American Folk Art: An Overview,” The International Review of African American Art 11, no.1 (1993): 4–29; Regina A. Perry, Free Within Ourselves: African-American Artists in the Collection of the National Museum of American Art (National Museum of American Art, Smithsonian Institution in association with Pomegranate Artbooks, San Francisco, 1992), 140–45. For a discussion of the periodization of Morgan’s artworks, which were mostly undated, see Helen M. Shannon, “But Go Thou Thy Way: Sister Gertrude Morgan and the Visual in African American Culture,” in Sister Gertrude Morgan: The Tools of Her Ministry, ed. William Fagaly (Rizzoli, 2004), 85–93. 54 The prominence of themes from Revelation, especially the New Jerusalem, is noted by Crown, “More Than Meets the Eye: Visions of the Sacred in Southern Self-Taught Art,” 40. 55 As quoted in Fagaly, Tools of Her Ministry: The Art of Sister Gertrude Morgan, 4.

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until later in life that she experienced her calling by God. In December 1934, sitting in the kitchen of the Alabama home that she shared with her husband Will Morgan, Gertrude was told by God that she had been chosen for a special purpose. She records this on one her paintings: 1324 NO AVE COLUMBUS GA./sitting in my Kitchen one night I heard a great strong Voice/speak to me said I’ll make/thee as a signet for I/have chosen/thee I got this/calling/on the 30th/day of/Dec/in 19/34/I had to a/nsw-/ere/to my calling and one day give up and Pack up and go. Are you/a chosen vessel of God’s its wonderful to Be. God called me/a chosed me and turned me into the hands of his son and / JESUS said take up your cross and/follow me./SISTER/MORGA/N56

A few years later Morgan did “pack up and go,” when she received another command from God to “Go-o-o-o-o, Preacher, tell it to the World.”57 Leaving her home and her husband (who mysteriously drops out of her life story at this point) in 1938, Morgan eventually made her way to the city that she believed was “the headquarters of sin” – New Orleans.58 Here Morgan joined with two women from the Holiness and Sanctified church, Mother Margaret Parker and Sister Cora Williams, founding an orphanage and daycare on Flake Street. At the Flake Street orphanage and throughout the city of New Orleans the women shared the Gospel through music and teaching while dressed in a uniform of all black, a costume typical of women in the Holiness movement at the time.59 This costume is depicted in a number of Morgan’s self-portraits (e.g. Illustration 1). According to Fagaly, the orphanage closed in 1955 due to financial constraints60 and shortly thereafter Morgan parted ways with Mother Margaret and Sister Cora. Sometime between 1963 and 1965 Morgan started a new mission, which she dubbed the “Everlasting Gospel Mission,” in small white house in the Lower Ninth Ward.61 This house served as the headquarters of Morgan’s spiritual and artistic work for the remainder of her life.

56 As transcribed in ibid., 7, Cat. 2. 57 Morgan, as quoted in ibid., 7. 58 Jason Berry, “New Orleans in the Years of Sister Gertrude Morgan,” in Sister Gertrude Morgan: The Tools of Her Ministry, ed. William Fagaly (Rizzoli, 2004), 77. 59 Ibid., 79–80. For a discussion of the simple clothing worn by women in the Holiness and Sanctified church traditions, see Pamela E. Klassen, “The Robes of Womanhood: Dress and Authenticity Among African American Methodist Women in the Nineteenth Century,” Religion and American Culture: A Journal of Interpretation 14, no.1 (2004): 39–82. 60 These events are recorded differently by some. Kathy Kemp, for instance, attributes the closing of the orphanage to its destruction by Hurricane Betsy in 1965. See Kathy Kemp and Keith Boyer, Revelations: Alabama’s Visionary Folk Artists, 1st ed. (Crane Hill Publishers, 1994), 134. 61 According to Fagaly, Morgan left the location of the orphanage in 1957, but did not move into the home, owned by a widow named Jennie Johnson, of her Everlasting Gospel Ministry until 1963–5. Morgan seemed to have boarded with different families living in the Lower Ninth Ward of New Orleans. See Fagaly, Tools of Her Ministry: The Art of Sister Gertrude Morgan, 13.

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1. Sister Gertrude Morgan, Canty, ISA.54:5, REV.19. Drawing, mixed media. 4½ x 6½ in. (11.4 x 16.5 cm). n.d. Courtesy of the Collections of the Louisiana State Museum.

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Like many self-taught artists, Morgan employed a variety of media in her artwork, including some unconventional materials, such as cardboard pieces, used yard signs, notebook paper, Styrofoam meat trays, and toilet paper rolls.62 Morgan began producing works of art around 1956, but did not date her artworks. Still, art historians note that there are somewhat discernable trends and periods in her work.63 In her earliest works, for example, Morgan seems to have copied freehand from illustrations found in Bibles or other Christian literature available to her,64 while her later works include self-portraits and inscriptions which often fill the page. Her paintings of the New Jerusalem, which we will discuss below, appear in the middle of her artistic career and toward the end Morgan began to include even more text in her works. These later works include a number of “Revelation charters,” detailed pieces that quote and illustrate the Book of Revelation chapter by chapter.65 As we will see in the following discussion, Morgan emphasizes Revelation’s images of the Lamb’s Bride and the New Jerusalem, although she “untangles” the metaphorical blending of these images in her work. The Bride is not a metaphorical representation of the New Jerusalem per se in her artwork. Despite this, her images of the Bride and City have a shared purpose, as they are tools for witnessing to those around Morgan and for transforming her world, just as she is transformed.66

Embodying the Bride After the orphanage closed in 1957, Morgan experienced another revelation from God radically changing how she imagined herself and her relationship to God.67 In an auditory communication, God revealed to her that she, “little Gertrude Williams,” was set aside to be the Bride of Jesus Christ. She refers to this in the ball-point inscription on Canty, ISA. 54:5, REV. 19 (Illustration 1),68 writing, CANTY./ISA. 54/5/REV. 19:7/REV. 22:17/SiSTER GERTRUDE/MORGAN/I am/ very/happy/for who/I am/the Bride/of Jesus/Christ. I/cant hardly/Realize this/is me. /little/Gertrude Williams./Be Big dada turned me over to a earthly/man to live a/ 62 Perry, “Contemporary African American Folk Art: An Overview,” 19. 63 Fagaly, Tools of Her Ministry: The Art of Sister Gertrude Morgan, 31. 64 Helen M. Shannon, “But Go Thou Thy Way: Sister Gertrude Morgan and the Visual in African American Culture,” 87–9. 65 Fagaly, Tools of Her Ministry: The Art of Sister Gertrude Morgan, 51. 66 Kovacs, Rowland, and Callow, Revelation: The Apocalypse of Jesus Christ, 9. 67 Regina Perry, who maintained an ongoing correspondence with Morgan, dates this vision to 1956. However, since Morgan mentions the year 1957 in at least one of her artworks, I am using the later date here. See Perry, Free Within Ourselves, 141. 68 Sister Gertrude Morgan, Canty, ISA.54:5, REV.19, drawing, mixed media, n.d., 1981.106.007, Louisiana State Museum. Morgan’s works are not necessarily titled and are typically referenced by the inscriptions included on the works.

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married life and/then Preserved/me for him/self and Jesus Christ/I never did/meet so great/a friend to/love me as/those two great/men. they work/in the spirit But/they are Real O/that love they/uster have for me/Keeps my/heart thrilled69

Here the artist explicitly connects her calling to be the Bride of Jesus Christ to the imagery of the city as bride in Isaiah and Revelation. Explicitly referencing Isaiah 54:5, in which a personified Zion is told, “thy Maker is thine husband” (KJV), and the bridal images of Revelation 19:7 and 22:17, Morgan envisions herself in terms of an identity traditionally understood as a metaphor for the community. She effectively replaces the metaphorical mapping THE FAITHFUL COMMUNITY IS A BRIDE with A FAITHFUL INDIVIDUAL IS A BRIDE. Even though the concept BRIDE is being used to characterize an individual woman, who could be a literal bride, it is still a metaphorical identification, as it is paired with the conceptual mapping CHRIST IS A GROOM and related to the mapping THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN GOD AND THE FAITHFUL INDIVIDUAL IS A MARRIAGE. In this small crayon piece (Illustration 1) Morgan depicts herself, as she does frequently, in the black costume that she wore prior to her calling as the Bride. This self-portrait reflects Morgan’s use of costume in her real life to signal her role and relationship to the Lamb. She seemingly takes the metaphorical mappings IDENTITY IS A GARMENT and IDENTITY IS APPEARANCE quite literally. Before being called to the role of Lamb’s Bride, Morgan wore, along with Mother Margret and Sister Cora, a black uniform typical of the Holiness tradition. However, upon becoming the Bride of the Lamb, Morgan traded this uniform for another that she understood as a type of bridal attire. This was an all white outfit, including white skirt, blouse, cap, cape, and shoes, which resembled a nurse’s uniform. This costume appears in some of her pieces of artwork, including My Darling Dada Jesus (Illustration 2).70 In the text of another painting, Morgan explicitly connects her costume with her relationship to the Lamb: 1957 this is sister Gertrude morgan Becoming to be the lambs Bride she walked in the original Remnant store on canal one of the lady clerks spoke with a great surprise. O you look like a Bride I said yes this is she the lamb’s Bride God moves in mister ways he Keeps some Body wise that when this great work come to Pass in 1957 some Body was not surprised.71

69 As transcribed in Fagaly, Tools of Her Ministry: The Art of Sister Gertrude Morgan, 12, Cat. 7. 70 Sister Gertrude Morgan, My Darling Dada Jesus, mixed media, n.d., 1981.106.005, Louisiana State Museum. 71 As quoted in Fagaly, Tools of Her Ministry: The Art of Sister Gertrude Morgan, 12.

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2. Sister Gertrude Morgan, My Darling Dada Jesus. Mixed media. n.d. Courtesy of the Collections of the Louisiana State Museum.

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Like the black, the all white outfit is not unique to Morgan, as other Holiness women sometimes wore all white.72 However, when combined with Morgan’s claim to be Christ’s Bride the attire communicates her embodiment of the bridal role, her inhabiting of the conceptual metaphor THE FAITHFUL INDIVIDUAL IS A BRIDE. As evidenced in this inscription, moreover, Morgan’s costume serves an evangelistic purpose, communicating to others that Morgan is the Bride and that God works in “mister,” or mysterious, ways. In John’s Apocalypse the Bride’s garment is described as shining and clean, evoking notions of fidelity and purity (MORAL PURITY IS CLEANLINESS). In some U.S. contexts, especially middle- and upper-class contexts, the white color of bridal garments signals these same ideas (MORAL PURITY IS WHITE). Although white as a preferred color for the bride’s costume appears to have been adopted by African Americans especially after abolition,73 Morgan does not seem to evoke this metaphorical association in her inscriptions or writings. Instead, in “A Poem of My Calling,” written and distributed by Morgan in 1963, the artist uses garment color to signify clothing that reflects particular social roles or identities, writing, I did my mission work in the black robe around 18 years. Teaching holiness and righteousness, that great work, was so dear. He has taken me out of the black robe and crowned me out in white. We are now in revelation, he married me, I’m his wife. Read the 19th chapter of Revelation, the 22nd Chapter, too. Look back in Isa 54th chapter, I’m the Lord of Hosts’ wife, too. The Lord of Hosts made Himself known to me in my work through and through. When he crowned me out he let me know I was the wife of my Redeemer, too.74

In the poem “work” is used in conjunction with the black robe two times and “wife” in conjunction with white three times. The color of Morgan’s clothing signals the two distinct social roles she inhabits, first mission “worker” and then “wife” of the Lord (IDENTITY IS A GARMENT and A CHANGE IN IDENTITY IS A CHANGE IN CLOTHING). Thus, for Morgan the colors black and white do not automatically serve as metaphorical references to impurity and purity or bad and good. Instead, Morgan’s 72 Gilkes, If It Wasn’t for the Women, 47–9. 73 For a discussion of wedding garments among slaves and the association between white and bridal clothing in African American contexts, see Shane White and Graham J. White, Stylin’: African American Expressive Culture from Its Beginnings to the Zoot Suit (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1998), 33–6. For a discussion of the history behind the tradition of brides wearing white, including a discussion of the appropriation of white as a sign of purity among people of color, see Cele Otnes and Elizabeth Hafkin Pleck, Cinderella Dreams: The Allure of the Lavish Wedding (University of California Press, 2003), 30–32. 74 A version of this poem is found on a piece of artwork by Morgan entitled “Poem of My Calling.” An image of the painting can be found in Carol Crown and Charles Russell, Sacred And Profane: Voice And Vision in Southern Self-taught Art (Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2007), fig.9.

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costumes signify different periods in her life and the different roles or identities during these periods. Morgan’s claim in “A Poem of My Calling” that God “crowned me out in white” suggests that Morgan herself has very little to do with taking on the bridal attire. In this way, she echoes the seemingly passive nature of the Lamb’s Wife in Revelation, who is “granted” to be “arrayed in fine linen, clean and white” (Rev. 19:8, KJV). However, John subsequently describes the Bride as having “made herself ready” and, as discussed in Chapter 3, his suggestion that the fine linen is the deeds of the saints or “the righteousness of the saints” (KJV) implies some action on the Bride’s behalf, a view that coheres to the historical context of Revelation. John prompts the audience to imagine the community, metaphorically represented as the Bride, constructing a garment or identity. In contrast, in Morgan’s poem the imagery of the bridal attire is not about her constructing a new identity, it is about inhabiting or wearing the identity or role to which God has called her. She “puts on” this role with God’s assistance. This is consistent with evangelical Protestant teaching, which often foregrounds human folly and the need for God’s grace.75 Despite the passivity implied in the language of being “crowned out,” Morgan’s use of clothing imagery draws upon a tradition related to African American women preachers, hardly an identity associated with passivity. In an essay that focuses upon women in the African Methodist Episcopal tradition at the end of the 19th century, Pamela E. Klassen notes the importance of clothing for constructing identity among religious women. She explains that women within both AME and Holiness contexts used clothing to signal piety and respectability. This was particularly important since the dominant white culture generally imagined African American women through the stereotyped images of “Jezebel” and “Mammie.”76 Within this context clothing becomes a way of asserting one’s identity (IDENTITY IS APPEARANCE) and, therefore, it is a tool for resisting the dominant culture. More importantly, according to Klassen, within the Holiness tradition, the conceptual connection between identity and appearance, specifically garments, played a role in the visionary life of women preachers. Jerena Lee, an AME preacher living in the 19th century recounts, “That instant, it appeared to me, as if a garment, which had entirely enveloped my whole person, even to my fingers ends, split at the crown of my head, and was stripped away from me, passing like a shadow, from my sight – when the glory of God seemed to cover me in its stead.”77 Like Morgan, Lee describes being taken out of one garment and put into another, an act that symbolizes her sanctification and grants her religious authority and power, “as she received divine attention to her body and divine sanction for her calling as an evangelist.”78 This suggests that while being clothed by God may be a passive event, it points to God’s granting of authority 75 Wilson, Flashes of a Southern Spirit, 150. 76 Klassen, “The Robes of Womanhood,” 43–4. 77 As quoted in ibid., 53. 78 Ibid., 54.

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3. Sister Gertrude Morgan, Rev. 19 Chap. Drawing, crayon. c.1960. Courtesy of the Collections of the Louisiana State Museum.

and power to the one who is clothed (AUTHORITY IS A GARMENT). Lee and Morgan are not alone, as the symbolic understanding of dress plays a role in the experiences and stories of other notable African American women preachers, including Amanda Berry Smith, Sojourner Truth, Rebecca Cox Jackson, and Harriet A. Baker.79 Like her predecessors, Morgan is not afraid of embracing her power, as she reveals in one the tracks from her album Let’s Make a Record in which she chants “power, power, power,” apparently calling God’s spirit to imbue or, perhaps, clothe her with authority.80 Reflecting Morgan’s embodiment of the metaphor THE FAITHFUL INDIVIDUAL IS A BRIDE, in some of her illustrations the artist shows herself in a bridal gown. In Rev 19 Chap (Illustration 3),81 for example, the artist wears a full-length white wedding dress with white veil and shoes, evoking the concept WEDDING. In this vein, the artist depicts herself carrying 79 Ibid., 57. 80 “Power” on Morgan, Let’s Make a Record. 81 Sister Gertrude Morgan, Rev. 19 Chap, drawing, crayon, c.1960, 1981.106.009, Louisiana State Museum.

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two bridal bouquets, one of which she offers to God. This gesture presents Morgan as an active participant in her wedding, suggesting that this is the moment in which she embraces or takes on the identity to which God calls her (ACCEPTING GOD’S CALL IS MARRYING GOD). The fact that Morgan wore her bridal costume, albeit not a gown, every day suggests that she was perpetually accepting and embracing her role as Christ’s Bride. In this way, perhaps, Morgan captures the perpetual descent of the New Jerusalem, which can be understood as a perpetual wedding procession. In some of Morgan’s paintings her change in costume appears in the artwork itself, as she depicts herself in both black and white costumes. This occurs in Morgan’s “Revelation Charters,” illustrated versions of Revelation. In these works, Morgan typically depicts herself twice, once in conjunction with Revelation 19, which announces that, “the wedding of the Lamb has come,” and in conjunction with Revelation 21, which describes (two times) the descent of the New Jerusalem adorned as a bride. In the illustration that accompanies the earlier chapter, Morgan wears either the black outfit of the Holiness women or a black and white outfit (e.g. black skirt and white top), but in the illustration of chapter 21 Morgan wears a wedding dress with veil.82 In this way, Morgan captures a textual “glitch” – the introduction of the Lamb’s wife in chapter 19 of Revelation and then the description of the New Jerusalem as a bride in Revelation 21. Her image of the “wife,” however, suggests her own life before being “married” to Christ. Morgan uses her life as a lens through which she reads and interprets the text. Morgan herself becomes the source domain for understanding Revelation’s Bride (THE BRIDE OF THE LAMB IS GERTRUDE MORGAN). The wife of Revelation 19 is similar to Morgan’s life when she lived in the “black robe” and worked “teaching holiness and righteousness.” This is an identity characterized by work, as discussed above. Similarly, Revelation’s Bride is clothed in the righteous deeds, or works, of the saints (19:8). However, the New Jerusalem, characterized as God’s dwelling with his people in Revelation 21, is like Morgan when she adopted the white bridal attire and began living out her life as the Bride. This is a relationship marked not by work but by happiness and affection.

Depicting the Happy Marriage with Dada Jesus A number of Morgan’s works draw upon the cultural concept MARRIAGE to characterize the relationship between Morgan and her divine Bridegroom. These pieces highlight ideas of affection, happiness, and companionship. Indicative of Morgan’s depiction of her marriage to Christ is the crayon and pen drawing titled My Darling Dada Jesus (Illustration 2). In this small work, Morgan appears dressed in her all-white garb and wrapped in an embrace 82 Fagaly includes five of these charters, four of which follow this pattern. See Fagaly, Tools of Her Ministry: The Art of Sister Gertrude Morgan, 56–60.

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with her bridegroom, identified as “Dada Jesus.” She stands on her toes and looks up to him, suggesting his strength and importance (IMPORTANCE IS UP). The closeness of their bodies indicates their love and affection and, presumably, their spiritual connection (SPIRITUAL CLOSENESS IS PHYSICAL CLOSENESS and AFFECTION IS CLOSENESS). Dada Jesus smiles lovingly at his Bride and the inscription reiterates her love for him: “My darling dada/Jesus O how I love you/my/Big/dada/gave/me/to you/in 19/57/O I’m/so/happy/for the two.”83 Whereas Revelation’s depiction of the Bride suggests the ancient value of concordia and Hadewijch emphasizes the erotic dimension of the relationship between the Divine and the individual Soul, here Morgan emphasizes affection and happiness. Elsewhere Morgan similarly captures the affection between the two, who are depicted sitting arm in arm on a green couch in a painting entitled Bride and Groom84 and sitting next to each other on a swing, Morgan’s hand on Jesus’ thigh, in New Jerusalem from the Prayer Room.85 Again, SPIRITUAL CLOSENESS is metaphorically represented through PHYSICAL CLOSENESS. The happiness that Morgan experiences in this relationship is a theme throughout her work. In Canty. ISA. 54:5, REV.19 she writes, “I am/very/happy/for who/I am…” (Illustration 1) and in another self-portrait she writes, “WHO ARE YOU/LiTTLE LADY? THE LAMBS INTENDED/WIFE/I’M THE HAPPI/EST/FEELi/NG/ SOUL/I/EVER/BEN/iN LIFE.”86 For Morgan, the bridal costume signals her relationship to Jesus, a relationship characterized entirely by happiness. The pure joy expressed by Morgan captures the sense that the bridal New Jerusalem is an existence in which there are neither tears nor sorrow (Rev 21:4). For Morgan the MARRIAGE domain includes attention to the different parties involved in the marriage and their relationships. This includes not only the relationship between the Bride and her Groom, which is Jesus (CHRIST IS A GROOM), but also the relationship between the couple and the Father, who is variously called Big Dada, Dada God, God, and Lord (GOD IS A FATHER). God, in Morgan’s work, plays the role of both father of the Groom and the Bride. As father of the Bride, Dada God “gives away” Morgan née Williams to William Morgan, her earthly husband, but ultimately preserves her for Jesus (Illustration 1). However, God is also Father to Jesus for Morgan and, in some sense, Jesus himself. The equation of Jesus and God appears visually in pieces such as Rev 19 Chap (Illustration 3), where the two figures appear as identical white men with red hair and mustaches. In this work, while one male figure, the Lamb or Jesus, holds Morgan’s arm as they marry, the other male figure, God, looks on from his throne in the sky (POWER IS A THRONE). Morgan holds two bouquets, suggesting she marries both the Lamb and God. Similarly, 83 This is my own transcription of the text. 84 Sister Gertrude Morgan, Bride and Groom, c.1970, 1998.025.028, Louisiana State Museum. 85 See Fagaly, Tools of Her Ministry: The Art of Sister Gertrude Morgan, 17, CAT. 14. 86 This inscription is found on Sister Gertrude Morgan, Who Are You, Little Lady?, painting, c.1960, 1981.106.003, Louisiana State Museum.

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in a crayon piece entitled Dada, God, Mama, Morgan, wearing her white garb, stands between two male figures of identical appearance and in matching clothes, white shirts, black pants, and black bow ties.87 She grasps a hand of each, as the one to her left (the viewer’s right) hands her a bridal bouquet. The figures are labeled as DADA GOD and DADA JESUS and the portrait of Morgan is labeled MAMA. Here, God and Jesus are both understood as DADA or father and presumably husband and Morgan is both bride and MAMA or mother. In some black Pentecostal traditions, especially those that are more fundamentalist, there is an affirmation of the “oneness” of God and Jesus, the belief that Jehovah and Jesus are one in the same.88 Even though Morgan does not necessarily belong to a “oneness” sect, in Morgan’s work God and Jesus are sometimes indistinguishable and overlapping. For Morgan, Jesus’ love is God’s love. Furthermore, in her work the distinction between PARENT and SPOUSE seems non-existent as characters are referenced as both. One of the many interesting aspects of Morgan’s work is the depiction of Jesus and God as a red-headed and mustache-wearing white man (GOD IS A MAN). Fagaly suggests this depiction reflects the influence of popular depictions of a white Jesus upon Morgan, such as the famous paintings by Warner Sallman, or the possibility that Morgan intentionally depicted the bridal union as an inter-racial marriage.89 Given that Morgan lived during a time when anti-miscegenation laws were in place and then overturned, it is possible that her depiction of a black Bride and white Groom points to the “other-worldly” nature of this marriage. The depiction may also imply the interracial harmony of the New Jerusalem, which Morgan depicts through the image of a multi-racial crowd in Rev 19 Chap (Illustration 2). While Morgan’s motivation for depicting Jesus as a white man may be lost to history, the imagery is provocative and points to how the mappings GOD IS A MAN and CHRIST IS A BRIDEGROOM include ideas about race. Furthermore, Morgan’s individual embrace of the role of Lamb’s Bride, characteristic of her life and her artwork, does not mitigate the communal implications of the imagery. While Fagaly reports that some thought of Morgan as “vain,” given her affection for the limelight, her self-depiction as the Bride is neither simply nor solely about herself.90 The communal relevance of Morgan’s identification as the Bride emerges in Rev 19 Chap (Illustration 2), another crayon drawing by the artist. Morgan is the only Bride in the marriage

87 Sister Gertrude Morgan, Dada, God, Mama, mixed media, c.1960, 1981.106.006, Louisiana State Museum. 88 Alexander, Black Fire, 237–41. 89 Fagaly, Tools of Her Ministry: The Art of Sister Gertrude Morgan, 38. 90 Ibid., 29.

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to Christ, who holds her arm, yet a multitude follows behind the couple. In one sense, this image illustrates the text of Rev 19:1-8, which is inscribed on the piece and includes the command, “Praise our God, all ye his servants, and ye that fear him, both small and great” (KJV). Thus, Morgan carefully includes figures of varying height, small and great, in her depiction of the multitude. In another sense, the illustration of the multitude reflects the effect that the Lamb’s wedding has upon a larger community of people, drawing together people in praise of God. Even though Morgan’s focus seems to be on imagining herself as the Lamb’s Bride, as noted above, the workings of the Spirit in Pentecostal traditions may be personal but they are rarely private. They often serve a purpose within or for a community.91 Morgan’s appropriation of the bridal imagery communicates something about her relationship to Christ, but it also communicates something to those who view her images about the nature of Christ and God, who oversees the marriage. These images visually indicate that the “personal relationship with Jesus” is not simply an abstract concept; rather, the personal relationship is like a physical, earthly relationship between the human and the divine. It has visible and obvious effects upon the faithful individual. In this way, through her art and her life, Morgan uses herself to “think with” theologically.

Conjuring the New Jerusalem Court on Gloryland Street A frequent theme in Sister Gertrude Morgan’s artwork is the New Jerusalem. Art historian Regina Perry observes that after 1970 Morgan’s art focused almost entirely on Revelation and especially the image of heavenly city.92 Morgan attributes her depiction of the city to a divine inspiration, describing her initial rendering of the New Jerusalem in a manner that suggests the phenomenon of spirit writing: “…I started marking down some lines on the paper, it was some sort of box I was drawing. I made a line up thisaway, and one across up there, and one down here and I says to myself, ‘Now what is this, what can this be?’ And the Lord said it was the New Jerusalem, and that’s what it was!”93 Much like John’s attribution of Revelation to God in Rev 1:1, Morgan’s attribution of her vision of the New Jerusalem to a divine source infuses the imagery with an unquestionable authority. In some sense, Morgan is like John, as both are given visions of the heavenly city by the Divine. Morgan’s New Jerusalem paintings and illustrations are dominated by structures suggesting, but not literally replicating, the city described in Revelation 21. Some pieces have multiple buildings, but most, including

91 Wacker, Heaven Below, 38–40. 92 Perry, Free Within Ourselves, 144. 93 From a 1974 interview, as quoted in Fagaly, Tools of Her Ministry: The Art of Sister Gertrude Morgan, 12.

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4. Sister Gertrude Morgan, New Jerusalem Court. Gloryland St. Acrylic, mixed media. 12¾ x 12¾ in. (32.4 x 32.4 cm). c.1960. Courtesy of the Collections of the Louisiana State Museum. the two represented in this book (Illustrations 4 and 5),94 depict the city as a single building. These single buildings, however, resemble apartments with multiple levels, doors, and windows, suggesting the metaphorical mappings. THE NEW JERUSALEM IS AN APARTMENT BUILDING and AN INVITATION IS AN ENTRANCE.95 Morgan’s use of the designation “Court,” a typical designation for an apartment complex, in the painting New Jerusalem Court. Gloryland St. (Illustration 4), plays upon this metaphorical connection. 96 In addition, while in many of Morgan’s New Jerusalem paintings she 94 Sister Gertrude Morgan, New Jerusalem Court, Gloryland St., acrylic, mixed media, c.1960, 1981.106.001, Louisiana State Museum; Sister Gertrude Morgan, New Jerusalem, Acrylic and tempera on cardboard, c.1970, 1986.21.1, American Folk Art Museum, http://www. folkartmuseum.org/. 95 Cheryl Rivers, “Sister Gertrude Morgan (1900-1980),” in Coming Home! Self-Taught Artists, the Bible and the American South, ed. Carol Crown (Memphis: Art Museum of the University of Memphis, 2004), 60. In some of Morgan’s later depictions of the New Jerusalem, the imagery only loosely suggests a building, becoming simpler as time progresses. 96 For instance, Emlah Court was a New Orleans luxury apartment complex completed in 1913. See Kerri McCaffety and Cynthia Reece McCaffety, The Majesty of St. Charles Avenue (Pelican Publishing, 2001), 97.

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5. Sister Gertrude Morgan, The New Jerusalem. Acrylic and tempera on cardboard. 12 x 19 in (30 x 48.3 cm). c.1970. Courtesy of the Collections of the Louisiana State Museum.

draws upon the numbers from Revelation’s text, especially twelve, she often modifies the city’s structural aspects to fit the concept “apartment building.” For example, Morgan depicts the gates of the New Jerusalem as picket-like gates in a wall surrounding the apartment building in The New Jerusalem (Illustration 5). Morgan transforms Revelation’s imagery by drawing upon conceptual domains and ideas within those domains that exist within her own cultural and historical context. The translation of the New Jerusalem from CITY to APARTMENT BUILDING literally places the heavenly city within 20thcentury New Orleans. In addition, the concept APARTMENT BUILDING, in contrast to a single dwelling, suggests the concept COMMUNITY. Thus, even though she imagines herself as the Lamb’s Bride, often appearing as such in illustrations of the New Jerusalem (Illustration 5), the New Jerusalem is about the possibility of other people (COMMUNITY) dwelling with God.

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In Conjuring Culture: Biblical Formations of Black America, Theophus H. Smith describes African American biblical interpretation in relation to the African folk tradition of conjuring, engaging in mimetic and imitative performances for the sake of healing and/or harming. For Smith biblical images and figures are used in conjuring in a curative way, “for the purpose for reenvisioning and transforming lived experience and social reality…”97 Although Morgan resisted and denounced the practice of voodoo and other traditional spiritual practices that she thought of as the work of the Devil,98 it is possible to understand her use of Revelation’s metaphorical imagery, especially the image of the New Jerusalem, as a type of conjuring. In some sense, through the repeated practice of visually creating the New Jerusalem, depicted as a 20th-century multiple-family dwelling, Morgan erases the boundary between earth and heaven. The New Jerusalem for Morgan and for her viewer is a habitation in the here and now. Just as John depicts the New Jerusalem in a state of descent, suggesting the imminence of the heavenly city (TEMPORAL NEARNESS IS PHYSICAL NEARNESS), so Morgan places the future city in the present (THE FUTURE IS THE PRESENT). In the painting Jesus is my air Plane, which resides as part of the Smithsonian American Art collection, the artist asserts the present and future nature of the heavenly kingdom, writing, “Study of all the passage, relating to the Kingdom/ of God will show that it is Regarded Both as/a Present Possession and as a future inherita-/nce.”99 She conjures this collapse of present and future in her appearance as well, for she is the eschatological Bride made present. Jerusalem Court. Gloryland St (Illustration 4), which is tempera on cardboard, is distinctive for Morgan given its precision and detail, as well as the fact that it lacks human or angelic figures. The colors are also muted in contrast to later paintings of the holy city, which feature bright reds, oranges, and yellows. Alluding to the A CITY IS A CONTAINER conceptual mapping, Fagaly suggests that the composition and color of this piece “emphasize the stately and protective nature of the tabernacle in the new holy city.”100 While the numerous doors and windows in the building suggest abundance, the absence of figures is haunting – New Jerusalem seems like a vacant complex. An inscription on the back of the painting suggests the meaning behind this vacant city: “Busy Lucifer is Bossing and carrying so/many People to their Ruin.”101 Perhaps this is what is in store for the New Jerusalem, if the Devil, a recurring 97 Smith, Conjuring Culture, 18. 98 Jason Berry, “New Orleans In the Years of Sister Gertrude Morgan,” 80. 99 Sister Gertrude Morgan, Jesus is my air Plane, tempera, ballpoint pen and ink, and pencil on paper, 18 x 26 3/8 in. (45.7 x 67.0 cm.), c.1970, 1986.65.187, Smithsonian American Art Museum, http://americanart.si.edu/index3.cfm. 100 Fagaly, Tools of Her Ministry: The Art of Sister Gertrude Morgan, 45. For Morgan, the BRIDE is not specifically imagined as a CONTAINER in the visual works of Morgan. She avoids the associations we saw in the writings of Hildegard and Hadewijch, which highlight the Bride’s womb and the possibility of “receiving” the Divine. 101 Ibid., 52.

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topic in West’s preaching, is successful – an empty eschatological city. The solution, she also notes on the back of the painting, is to read Revelation and 2 Thessalonians and “to turn.” This points to one of the primary aims of West’s art, as she put it in a letter to Perry, to help people “wake up and look.”102 In this way, Jerusalem Court. Gloryland St can be understood as an evangelistic warning to repent and become part of the future city. In The New Jerusalem (Illustration 5), the apartment-like structure appears less vacant than the previous painting, even though it is definitely not full. The image of the partially occupied building suggests that the New Jerusalem waits ready to be populated. The bridal couple stands on the porch, Jesus’ arm around the waist of his Bride (AFFECTION IS CLOSENESS), as if to welcome new occupants. The current residents in the city, twenty-four small figures who represent the twenty-four elders, might be understood as a visual invitation to those attending Morgan’s services – they too can become part of the future city. In the inscription on one of Morgan’s later New Jerusalem paintings, NEW JERUSALEM 24 ELDERS 48 ANGELS, she writes, “time did he have to Preach, wake up now/People its Judgment day are you one of/God’s sons or daughters God’s calling…you all every/Body learn God’s/way, that [illegible] will Be able to live/in the NEW JERUSALEM/ 24 ELDERS 48/ ANGELS.”103 For Morgan, depictions of the New Jerusalem serve an evangelistic function, calling believers to become part of the present and future city. One of the primary criticisms of Revelation’s bridal imagery, a criticism articulated especially by feminist scholars, is that it valorizes feminine passivity. Reflecting ancient gender expectations, in which women were associated with the passive role and the household, the imagery risks reinforcing oppressive, patriarchal structures. Morgan negotiates this in an interesting way. She portrays herself in terms of traditional gender roles, describing herself as the nurse to “Doctor Jesus” and as “Housekeeper for Dada God;” however, she did not literally embrace these roles and she asserted her authority by describing herself as “Prophetess,” even taking on the name Anna in reference to the prophetess in Luke who encounters Jesus as an infant.104 Morgan’s authority stems from her divine calling and her visionary experiences.105 This is an authority she exercised in her life and in her artwork. Morgan’s reading strategy, to draw upon the insights of Renita Weems, involves resisting those voices, including John’s, who deny the possibility of counter or alternative revelations.106 While John would have no one add or take away from the 102 As quoted in Ibid., 38. 103 As transcribed in Ibid., 67, Cat. 69. 104 Ibid., 29. 105 For a discussion of vision and self-taught artists, see Charles Reagan Wilson, “SelfTaught Art, the Bible, and Southern Creativity,” in Sacred and Profane: Voice and Vision in Southern Self-Taught Art, ed. Carol Crown and Charles Russell (Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2007), 11. 106 Renita J. Weems, “Reading Her Way through the Struggle: African American Women and the Bible,” in Stony the Road We Trod: African American Biblical Interpretation, ed. Cain Hope Felder (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1991), 72.

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text (Rev 22:18-19), Morgan’s inclusion of herself within the narrative (THE BRIDE OF THE LAMB IS GERTRUDE MORGAN) extends the text’s meaning, putting her on par with John and making her a partner to Christ. In a painting entitled Come in My Room, Come On in the Prayer Room, Morgan depicts the prayer room in her “Everlasting Gospel Mission.”107 She sits dressed in white next to a painting of the New Jerusalem and under a painting that portrays her with Jesus. Inscribed at the top of the piece are the first verses of Revelation, “the Revelation of Jesus Christ which God gave unto him to shew his servants things which must shorely come to Pass…” In this piece, which also includes an invitation to enter Morgan’s prayer room, the artist aligns her work with John’s Apocalypse. Morgan’s actualization of Revelation’s bridal imagery includes embodying the role of the Bride and inviting her audience to enter into the New Jerusalem, just as the Bride says, “Come!” in Rev 22:17. However, even though Morgan’s visionary and evangelisitic impulses parallel those of John, there is one area in which she seems somewhat different than the ancient Seer. According to her biographer, William Fagaly, Morgan was generally uninterested in the events unfolding around her. She was interested in neither the events that befell her neighbors, such as a house burning down, nor the large historical changes happening in the mid to late 20th century, such as the civil rights movement.108 In this way, her interpretation of Revelation is markedly different than the dispensationalist approach to the text, an approach that proved influential in the South and in the apocalyptic artwork of Myrtice West

Finding Comfort with the Bride, Myrtice West Born in 1923, Myrtice Snead grew up on a family farm in the foothills of Appalachia, in Cherokee County, Alabama. Growing up during the Great Depression, Myrtice left school in the eighth grade and began picking cotton, a job to which she would return at various points in her life. In 1940, the young Myrtice married Wallace West, the man to whom she would be married until her death Shortly after the couple married, Wallace was drafted into the U.S. Army and stationed in Okinawa. During this time, realizing that many men were not returning home, Myrtice turned to reading her Bible, which she read in its entirety at least four times.109 This practice of turning to the Bible for solace in times of stress would become a pattern for West, who was baptized in the Baptist church, a tradition that emphasizes the Bible as a personal guide. 107 Sister Gertrude Morgan, Come in My Room, Come on in the Prayer Room, tempera, acrylic, ballpoint pen, and pencil on paperboard, c.1970, 1986.65.186, Smithsonian American Art Museum, http://americanart.si.edu/index3.cfm. 108 Fagaly, Tools of Her Ministry: The Art of Sister Gertrude Morgan, 67. 109 Ann Oppenhimer and Chuck Rosenak, “The Story of Myrtice West and the Revelations Series,” in Wonders to Behold: The Visionary Art of Myrtice West (Memphis: Mustang Publishing, 1999), 44.

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After Wallace returned home from his tour of duty in 1946, the couple hoped to start a family, a process that would take them years and entail much heartache. After two miscarriages, which led to periods of depression, West began drawing and painting, focusing especially on pictures of Jesus.110 It was during this time that West began developing her artistic talent. Starting a photo studio with her husband, West took a correspondence course on handtinting black and white photographs, a skill that would serve her when she began painting in earnest. In spite of these endeavors, the Wests still desired a family. In 1956, after various health problems and being told that she would be unable to conceive due to tumors, West became pregnant again and gave birth to a daughter. Of the baby girl, that they named Martha Jane, West explained, “I thought she was our miracle, our gift from God.”111 Unfortunately, the happiness surrounding Martha Jane’s birth would be relatively short lived. West’s daughter married at the age of 15 to a man, James Brett Barnett, who would soon begin abusing his wife. Her daughter’s abusive marriage was anxiety-provoking for West, especially when Martha Jane and her children followed Barnett to Japan in 1978, where he was stationed with the Air Force. As they left, West says she thought it was the end of the world.112 Martha Jane and her family returned to the U.S. in 1980 and Martha Jane divorced Barnett in 1985. Sadly, this was not the end of the story for the two, as West’s worst fears were confirmed in 1986 when Barnett shot and killed Martha Jane at a birthday celebration for their daughter.113 This narrative of anxiety and loss, a narrative of persecution and “patient endurance” to use the language of Rev 1:9, would color not only West’s life, but also her artwork. West’s first major religious painting was of Christ; however, much of her later work and her most famous set of paintings, the Revelations Series, focus upon John’s Apocalypse. Her interest in Revelation was especially notable during the time Martha Jane lived in Japan, as the worried mother sat up at nights reading the book.114 While she often turned to the Bible during difficult times, she was drawn to the Book of Revelation through a seemingly supernatural persuasion. In a letter to Riggs, the artist explains, One Sunday, I started in the car to my church, but I wound up about 20 miles in the opposite direction to a church I’d never been in, a Holiness church. A woman I knew stood up speaking in the unknown tongue, and I could feel my hair standing up. When I realized next, I was in their pulpit reading Revelation 1-4…a woman I 110 Myrtice West, “A Letter from Myrtice West,” 11. 111 As quoted in Oppenhimer and Rosenak, “The Story of Myrtice West and the Revelations Series,” 46. 112 Myrtice West, “A Letter from Myrtice West,” 12. 113 This biographical information is drawn from Crown, “More Than Meets the Eye: Visions of the Sacred in Southern Self-Taught Art”; ed. Carol Crown, “Time Line: Myrtice Snead West,” in Wonders to Behold: The Visionary Art of Myrtice West, ed. Carol Crown (Memphis: Mustang Publishing, 1999), 14–17; Oppenhimer and Rosenak, “The Story of Myrtice West and the Revelations Series.” 114 Oppenhimer and Rosenak, “The Story of Myrtice West and the Revelations Series,” 46.

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worked with, stood up and said, “You all don’t know this woman, but I do. She is a Christian and she paints, and she could put that on canvas.”115

For West, this experience was one of many in which God guided her to this final book of the canon. As she read Revelation in her home, West explained in a self-published booklet, “I saw Revelations in flashes…Whether it was through my eyes, God’s eyes, or St. John’s eyes, I’m not sure. But the hand of God directed me to put it down.”116 These visions or flashes resulted in the Revelations Series, which she began in 1978.117 Speaking of these paintings, which would be completed in the year of Martha Jane’s death, the artist noted, “I knew I felt and could see what John had seen and heard.”118 During her time of turmoil West heeded John’s call to “Look!,” as she envisioned and visually represented what the text reveals. Even though West was not as prolific as Gertrude Morgan, she too understood her art as a reflection of divine inspiration and influence.119 Painting on plywood and upholstery cloth, West spent up to three months drawing out the details of each of the thirteen paintings in the Revelations Series. The images were drawn first with pencil and then filled in with paint made from powder. After this, West filled in the color more fully with oils, acrylics, and accents of glitter.120 Despite these obvious efforts, West understood these paintings as coming from a divine source, although afterwards she explained, “Christ now has drawn a curtain, and I can’t remember how I drew them.”121 In some sense, West’s understanding of her paintings’ origins bears a similarity to how the Apocalypse’s origin can be understood. That is, while both West and John attest to recreating what God shows them, attributing the work entirely to divine inspiration, their products reflect the artist and author’s careful construction, as they draw upon past traditions, images, and ideas. For instance, West’s paintings recall the charts used in many evangelical Christian contexts to teach about Revelation’s relationship to historical events.122 Like these charts, West’s paintings follow the text of Revelation chapter by 115 Myrtice West, “A Letter from Myrtice West,” 12. 116 As quoted in Oppenhimer and Rosenak, “The Story of Myrtice West and the Revelations Series,” 47. 117 Reluctant to sell the Revelations Series, West painted a second set of paintings that she put up for sale. The second series lacks some of the detail and depth of the first series, for while the first set took seven years to complete, the second set was completed over the course of year. Ibid., 48–9. 118 Carol Crown, “The Revelations Series: Divinely Inspired, Evangelically Conceived,” in Wonders to Behold: The Visionary Art of Myrtice West, ed. Carol Crown (Memphis: Mustang Publishing, 1999), 23. 119 Ibid., 24. 120 Oppenhimer and Rosenak, “The Story of Myrtice West and the Revelations Series,” 47. 121 As quoted in Ibid. 122 Ben Apfelbaum, “Christ’s Seals Broken,” in Wonders to Behold: The Visionary Art of Myrtice West, ed. Carol Crown (Memphis: Mustang Publishing, 1999), 72; Crown, “More Than Meets the Eye: Visions of the Sacred in Southern Self-Taught Art,” 41–3.

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6. Myrtice West, Mother of Harlots. Oil on wood, 42¾ x 30¾ in (109 x 78.5 cm). c.1980. Courtesy of Rollin and Tamara Riggs.

chapter, moving through the narrative as it unfolds. The series begins with a vision of the Son of Man, includes a representation of the seven churches to which Revelation is addressed, and comes to a conclusion with paintings that depict Revelation’s image of the Great Whore and two paintings that depict the Lamb’s Bride. Still, as we will see, West’s appropriation of Revelation’s imagery involves engaging the CITY–WOMAN mapping on her own terms, downplaying certain aspects of the original text’s imagery and highlighting other elements.

Seeing the Mother of Harlots

In the tenth painting of West’s series, entitled Mother of Harlots (Illustration 6),123 the artist depicts the Great Whore or Harlot, according to the KJV, and the destruction of Babylon described in Revelation 17-18. While the Harlot gives the painting its title, the character, who appears twice, occupies only about half 123 Myrtice West, Mother of Harlots, oil on wood, c.1980, Collection of Rollin and Tamara Riggs.

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of the painting’s surface.124 Filling the rest of the canvas are representations of Christ holding a lamb, angels clothed in white, and multi-hued hills in which the “kings of the earth” appear in windows.125 In the foreground of the painting is a scene not present in Revelation’s narrative: A small girl stands with three sheep, two of which are lambs, on an outcropping of rocks. Running through the painting is a river that the seven-headed beast, upon which the Harlot rides, straddles. A second representation of the Harlot, which evokes the CITY domain, appears in the upper-right corner of the canvas. Of the two depictions of the Harlot, the one that catches the viewer’s eye first is the Harlot on the Beast, a depiction of Revelation 17. In this image, larger and closer to the painting’s foreground than the other Harlot image, West highlights the idea of seduction within the conceptual domain PROSTITUTE. The Harlot sits “side-saddle,” leaning slightly back and extending one of her legs in a seductive pose. Her skirt is slit in two places and there is a small “cut-out” on the dress’s bodice suggesting that she is accessible and sexually available. Her lips are painted bright red and her hair is “done.” The Harlot’s clothing is red and purple, as described in the text, and she wears jewelry of gold and precious stones. In addition, West embellishes the costume with glitter, suggesting the Harlot’s extravagant look and life of wealth. Again, clothing is used metaphorically to represent identity (IDENTITY IS APPEARANCE). Looking out toward the audience with pale blue eyes, the attractive woman wears a golden crown upon which “Mother of Harlots” is written. Although West could be alluduing to the imperial aspect of Revelation’s imagery by depicting the Harlot wearing purple and adorned with a crown, there is little to suggest that this woman represents a violently oppressive and powerful city. Further, while in Rev 17:15, the water that the Harlot sits upon is described as “peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues,” this scene suggests more of a rural setting, possibly reflecting the artist’s setting. Still, West does capture from Revelation 17, albeit subtly, the seven hills upon which the Harlot sits. Reflecting the fact that these hills are also interpreted as seven kings in 17:9-10, West’s kings appear within the hills, looking out through windows, as mentioned above. Thus, West retains some of the political imagery from the chapter, although for West the Harlot is not primarily an indictment of political systems. As a part of evangelical Christianity, many fundamentalist interpreters embraced the perspectives of premillennial dispensationalism, as described above. Among dispensationalists, the Whore of Revelation 17 (as opposed to the depiction of Babylon in chapter 18) is often interpreted as an “apostate church.” The Scofield Reference Bible reads, for example, “Two ‘Babylons’ 124 This painting is painted on plywood. Like a few of the works in the series, this is a two-sided work, the opposite side depicting White Throne of Judgment. See Carol Crown, “The Revelations Series: Divinely Inspired, Evangelically Conceived,” 20. 125 Norbert H. Kox, “Mother of Harlots,” in Wonders to Behold: The Visionary Art of Myrtice West, ed. Carol Crown (Memphis: Mustang Publishing, 1999), 114. Kox is himself a selftaught artist who focuses upon apocalyptic imagery.

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are to be distinguished in the Revelation: ecclesiastical Babylon, which is apostate Christendom, headed up under the Papacy and political Babylon, which is the Beast’s confederated empire, the last form of Gentile worlddomination. Ecclesiastical Babylon is ‘the great whore’…”126 Thus, the Scofield Reference Bible interprets the text’s image of the Harlot riding upon the beast in terms of the metaphorical mappings THE CHURCH IS A WOMAN and THE UNFAITHFUL CHURCH IS A WHORE evoking the prophetic tradition APOSTASY IS ADULTERY. In an interview with Carol Crown, West expressed a similar sentiment, saying, “When Satan attacks, the Church begins to go along…we’re almost there. He will not permit his bride to be a whore.”127 In addition to implying that Revelation’s Harlot represents the unfaithful Church, West conveys something that undergirds her paintings, a sense that the Whore and Bride are two identities from which the Church can choose. In terms of conceptual metaphor theory, THE CHURCH IS A WOMAN and only those within the Church can determine whether the target domain WOMAN is specified as WHORE or BRIDE. In the second depiction of the Harlot, in the upper-right corner of the painting, West references the CITY domain more directly. She does this through a faint and simply drawn structure around the image of the Harlot evoking the CITY domain. The Harlot stands taller than the city, suggesting that West sees the female image as symbolic, and burns along with the city, her low-cut red dress blending with the flames. Here the domains CITY and WOMAN are collapsed as the imagery also draws upon the metaphorical mapping A CITY IS CONTAINER, as people, presumably those who have associated themselves with Babylon, jump out of the burning city (JUDGMENT IS FIRE). Faithful souls clothed in white are ushered into heaven by an angel. These are those who have heeded the call of Revelation 18:4, “Come out of her, my people” (KJV). In this way, West prompts the audience to reject the seductive figure of the Whore. In the foreground of the painting, West presents the image of a small girl with a sheep. The imagery, which is not specifically from the text of Revelation, provides a stark contrast to the Harlot, suggesting the metaphorical mapping INNOCENCE IS A CHILD.128 While this part of the painting could be understood primarily as offering a contrast to the Whore, it can also be read in relation to the image of Christ, who appears in the painting’s upper 126 Cyrus Ingerson Scofield, The Scofield Reference Bible (Oxford University Press, 1909), 1346. For a discussion of fundamentalist interpretation of the Bible in relation to West’s painting, see Crown, “The Revelations Series: Divinely Inspired, Evangelically Conceived,” 32– 5. 127 As quoted in Crown, “The Revelations Series: Divinely Inspired, Evangelically Conceived,” 29. 128 In the painting Satan Takes Over, West includes images of children in her depiction of those threatened by evil and corruption in the world. For the sense that West sees children and families being particularly threatened by evil, see her discussion of this painting in Roger Manley, “Satan Takes Over,” in Wonders to Behold: The Visionary Art of Myrtice West, ed. Carol Crown (Memphis: Mustang Publishing, 1999), 100–101.

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left quadrant holding a lamb. Even though Revelation depicts Christ as the Lamb, in the Gospel of John, traditionally assumed to be by the same author as Revelation, Jesus is depicted not only as sheep, but also as a good shepherd, the one who “lays down his life for the sheep” (John 10:11).129 This metaphorical image of Jesus as shepherd was made part of the American Protestant visual imagination through a 1943 illustration by Warner Sallman titled The Lord is My Shepherd, a piece that David Morgan calls the “Icon of American Protestantism.”130 Specifically, Sallman depicted an image of a white Jesus with brown hair and white robes holding a small lamb in the crook of his left arm. The adult sheep surround Jesus and one even looks up at him. West’s depiction of Christ holding a lamb, albeit in the crook of his right arm, in Mother of Harlots recalls Sallman’s painting. In light of this visual reference, the sheep at the bottom of the painting can be read as the sheep that surround Jesus, those metaphorical sheep who are part of Jesus’ “flock.” In other words, the image of the sheep and the girl can be understood as a metaphorical representation of those who are faithful to Jesus (THE FAITHFUL ARE SHEEP and THE FAITHFUL ARE INNOCENT CHILDREN). As Norbert H. Kox, a self-taught artist writes of West’s Mother of Harlots, “…the child and the lambs represent Yahweh’s true followers. They are separated from the waters of the beast, and receive not its mark…”131 Thus, West sets up a contrast between the Harlot, a supposedly unfaithful woman, and the Church, even before she introduces the image of the Bride.

Christ Returns as Church Gets Ready Dominated by a representation of Christ on a white horse, the painting Christ Returns as Church Gets Ready; King of Kings and Lord of Lords (Illustration 7) encapsulates the text of Revelation 19, including its reference to the Bride of the Lamb.132 As Benjamin G. Wright III explains, the painting should be read from the upper left corner (the throne room) to the upper right corner (the Bride), to the center (Christ and his armies), down to the lower right corner (the angel standing in the sun) and then to the lower left corner (the beast thrown into the lake of fire).133 The sections of the painting are delineated lightly with areas of grayish-blue, although the central focus of the painting 129 Similarly, there is a Christian tradition of interpreting Psalm 23, in which the Psalmist proclaims “The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not want” (Ps 23:1; KJV), as a reference to Jesus. 130 For a discussion of this piece and Sallman’s art in general, see David Morgan, “Warner Sallman and the Visual Culture of American Protestantism,” in Icons of American Protestantism: The Art of Warner Sallman, ed. David Morgan (Hew Haven: Yale University Press, 1996), 26–60. 131 Norbert H. Kox, “Mother of Harlots,” 114. 132 Myrtice West, Christ Returns as Church Gets Ready; King of Kings and Lord of Lords, oil on wood, c.1980, Collection of Rollin and Tamara Riggs. 133 Benjamin G. Wright III, “Christ Returns as Church Gets Ready; King of Kings and Lord of Lords,” in Wonders to Behold: The Visionary Art of Myrtice West, ed. Carol Crown (Memphis: Mustang Publishing, 1999), 124.

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7. Myrtice West, Christ Returns as Church Gets Ready; King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Oil on canvas. 33 x 64½ in. (84 x 163 cm). c.1980. Courtesy of Rollin and Tamara Riggs

is Christ as “King of Kings and Lord of Lords.” The inclusion of the bridal image within a painting focused upon Christ the King of Kings reveals that West follows the traditional chapter divisions of Revelation, as Christ upon his mount plays a significant role in chapter 19. In the upper right corner of West’s painting, the Bride appears ready for her wedding to the Lamb. Represented as a smiling white woman with long brown hair, the Bride wears a modern white wedding gown embellished with glitter. She is accompanied by six attendants, wearing a range of pastel-colored dresses, and a blonde flower girl. Although Revelation 19:9 includes a reference to the “marriage supper of the Lamb,” the ancient text does not specifically reference a bridal party. In including the attendants in Christ Returns as Church Gets Ready, West draws upon associations within the contemporary understanding of the WEDDING domain. More importantly, by wearing muted colors and modest gowns, the women of the bridal party provide a distinct contrast to the image of the Harlot in Mother of Harlots (Illustration 6). Similar to her attendants’ attire, the Bride’s traditional white dress likely suggests purity and innocence. Even though, as discussed above, white wedding attire does not always connote purity, given West’s espousal of traditional evangelical understandings of sin and morality, the connotation of sexual purity seems

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likely (MORAL PURITY IS WHITE).134 In addition, West’s inclusion of the young flower girl next to the Bride contributes to the sense of innocence and moral purity, given a traditional metaphorical association INNOCENCE IS A CHILD. For West, it appears, the Lamb’s Bride offers an image of purity and faithfulness in contrast to the Harlot, understood as the apostate Church (THE FAITHFUL CHURCH IS A BRIDE). As such, West interprets the Bride of Revelation, as she explained to Crown, as an image of the “Raptured Church” in particular (THE RAPTURED CHURCH IS A BRIDE).135 By indicating that the image should be understood in this way, West reveals that her understanding of the Bride corresponds to the dispensationalist perspectives expressed in the Scofield Reference Bible.136 The “Raptured Church,” in particular, refers to those faithful Christians who will be taken from earth prior to a period of tribulation, which occurs prior to the Last Judgment. For West the Bride of the Lamb apparently represents those who will be preserved on account of their innocence and faith. One of the most striking aspects of West’s interpretation of bridal imagery is the resemblance between this image of the Bride and her attendants and a photo of her daughter’s 1972 wedding.137 In the photo, Martha Jane stands wearing a pure white, long-sleeved and high-collared wedding gown, in the midst of her six attendants, wearing pastel-colored gowns, with a young flower girl at her side. The clear similarity suggests that Martha Jane serves as source domain for West’s depiction of the Lamb’s Bride (THE BRIDE OF THE LAMB IS MARTHA JANE). Martha Jane’s life structures West’s understanding of the Lamb’s Bride just as Morgan’s life was a source domain for her vision of the Bride. Taking Martha Jane’s life into account, a possible association between the young woman and the image of the Raptured Church emerges. Just as the Church, prior to the Rapture, experiences increasing evil and distress (which West understood in very moralistic terms and as Satan’s attack),138 so Martha Jane experienced abuse at the hands of a man who West feared.139 Moreover, both the faithful Church and Martha Jane, as an innocent, will eventually be united with the Bridegroom, Christ, at the Rapture (THE RAPTURE IS A WEDDING).140 While the visual allusion to Martha Jane 134 Carol Crown, “A Continuing Revelation: Religious Vision in Southern Self-Taught Art,” Image: A Journal of the Arts and Religion 24 (1999): 37–8. For a discussion of the history and meaning of white wedding gowns, see Otnes and Pleck, Cinderella Dreams, 31–2. 135 Crown, “More Than Meets the Eye: Visions of the Sacred in Southern Self-Taught Art,” 45. 136 Scofield, The Scofield Reference Bible, 1348. 137 For a copy of the picture, see Crown, “The Revelations Series: Divinely Inspired, Evangelically Conceived,” 22. 138 Carol Crown, “A Continuing Revelation: Religious Vision in Southern Self-Taught Art,” 37–8. 139 Oppenhimer and Rosenak, “The Story of Myrtice West and the Revelations Series,” 46. 140 In fact, years after painting Christ Returns as Church Gets Ready and more than ten years after Martha Jane’s death, Myrtice experienced a vision during surgery in which she saw Martha Jane in heaven. Carol Crown, “Time Line: Myrtice Snead West,” 17.

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might suggest that West interprets Revelation’s bridal imagery through the image of an individual, the group of women surrounding the Bride suggests, among other things, the communal nature of the Church. As we saw in Mother of Harlots, West’s visual imagery only hints at the fact that the WOMAN domain characterizes something other than an individual woman. Although the artist may understand the imagery to symbolize the Church, little in the painting itself suggests this beyond the bridal party. One way that West’s image of the Bride does evoke, however, Revelation’s New Jerusalem imagery is through a faint, almost transparent, “structure” that surrounds the bridal party. In addition, a golden square, accented with glitter, appears behind the Bride. Could these allude to the New Jerusalem, which is described in Revelation 21 as “pure gold, like unto clear glass” (Rev 21:18; KJV)? The fact that John appears in the corner or the structure, which seems to come from heaven, suggests it is possible, since John views the heavenly city in Rev 21:1 and 21:9. West draws upon the CONTAINER domain to depict this New Jerusalem, which does not look at all like a city. This CONTAINER surrounds and protects the Bride and her wedding party, the Raptured Church, as the heavenly forces defeat the Antichrist and his forces on the opposite side of the painting. That the Church is metaphorically represented as someone who did not experience a life of comfort and protection makes the CONTAINER domain even more significant, as it conveys a sense of protection and hope. As Benjamin G. Wright, a biblical scholar, expresses in his discussion of the painting in Wonders to Behold, it is difficult not to see in this painting West’s discovery of “a mythic frame in which to place her own personal experience, to understand it, and to her emotional and psychological wounds.”141 West’s longing for her daughter’s safety and comfort is palpable. Perhaps, West’s act of drawing the New Jerusalem as a CONTAINER around her daughter was her attempt at “conjuring” a protected existence for Martha Jane. And yet, West’s paintings, which include the image of the Whore being burned as a City and the image of a Bride based upon the life of an abuse victim, underscore an important question raised by some feminist interpreters of Revelation: Can a text that portrays the destruction of a woman, albeit metaphorically depicted as a city, be a liberating vision for women, especially those that have experienced violence and its effect firsthand?142

141 Benjamin G. Wright III, “Christ Returns as Church Gets Ready; King of Kings and Lord of Lords,” 126. 142 For a discussion of apocalyptic and violence against women, see Mary Wilson Carpenter, “Representing Apocalypse: Sexual Politics and the Violence of Revelation,” in Postmodern Apocalypse: Theory and Cultural Practice at the End, ed. Richard Dellamora (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1995), 107–35.

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Coming into Wedding As the title Christ and Bride Coming into Wedding (Illustration 8)143 implies, West’s thirteenth and final painting in the Revelations Series focuses upon the bridal couple. The Bride’s attire now signals her role as the Church, as her dress’s hem and her veil both bear three glitter crosses (THE CHURCH IS A BRIDE). The heavenly throne room, including a relatively small rendering of an anthropomorphized deity (GOD IS A MAN) and the twenty-four elders, appears above the couple. Structural imagery frames the couple and evokes aspects of the New Jerusalem described in Revelation 21: Gates on either side of the painting are labeled with the twelve tribes of Israel and parts of a building depicted in the lower third of the canvas are identified with the twelve apostles. The detailed painting recognizes both the CITY and WOMAN domains at play in Revelation’s imagery, although they still remain distinct. Situated just above the center of the painting, the bridal couple and their flower girl, the same girl as was seen in the earlier painting, provide the piece’s focus. The inclusion of Christ, who is accompanied by a lamb (another allusion to Christ as the Lamb), evokes Rev 21:9, which references “the Bride, the Lamb’s wife” (KJV). That the imagery includes Bride and Groom, as well as the flower girl from the earlier painting, suggests the conceptual domain WEDDING. Specifically, as in Revelation, West asserts the conceptual mapping THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN A DEITY AND COMMUNITY IS A WEDDING. The WEDDING domain, combined with the reference to a wedding supper or banquet in 19:9, seemingly prompts West to include an image of wedding supper or reception below the couple. The reception set-up includes two covered tables, one of which holds a punch bowl and glasses, implying this is not a MARRIAGE, a mundane life with potential for abuse. The tables are attended by angels, who seem to be waiting and ready to serve even though the wedding guests have not yet arrived. In this way, the WEDDING imagery suggests that the painting’s viewer still has time to RSVP for the wedding. West’s painting serves a similar function as Morgan’s representations of the New Jerusalem, as both artists use their talents for evangelistic ends. West’s Bride appears passive and submissive in these paintings, especially in comparison to the Bride depicted by Morgan. Whereas Morgan’s Bride is active and engaged, particularly as she embodied the role of Bride, West’s Bride stands relatively still and quiet. Whereas Morgan’s Bride stands or sits next to Christ, sharing the responsibility of drawing people into the New Jerusalem, in the final painting from the Revelations Series by West, the Bride stands slightly behind Christ, his hand drawing her forward (ACTIVE IS FORWARD and PASSIVE IS BACK).144 Perhaps West’s somewhat passive bride reflects 143 Myrtice West, Christ and Bride Coming into Wedding, oil on canvas, c.1980, Collection of Rollin and Tamara Riggs. 144 The imagery in this detail suggests that West’s Bride is akin to a small girl, the flower girl perhaps serving as an equivalent to the image of the Lamb, both representing the identities of the larger figures.

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8. Myrtice West, Christ and Bride Coming into Wedding. Oil on canvas. 33 x 64½ in. (84 x 163 cm). c.1980. Courtesy of Rollin and Tamara Riggs.

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that she’s evoking, an image of Martha Jane from her wedding photo and placing it in another context. Or, perhaps, it reflects her social and religious context and assumptions: She did believe that the “traditional family,” along with the government and the church, was under attack from Satan.145 Perhaps, however, the Bride’s passivity was simply West’s hope that her daughter’s pain, as well as the pain of others who make up the Church, might be taken on by Christ at the Rapture. In this vein, Daniel Wojcik has noted the therapeutic nature of some “outsider” art created in response to adversity and tragedy.146 While the Groom and Bride are at the center of the painting, they are surrounded by imagery suggesting the heavenly city, the New Jerusalem. Reflecting the conceptual mapping A CITY IS A CONTAINER, they are literally contained by elements from Revelation’s depiction of the New Jerusalem. Immediately surrounding the couple appears to be the River of Life, which flows from the throne of God according to Rev 22:1. The river forms a complete boundary around the couple, along with the dove, presumably a representation of God’s Spirit, which covers the couple with its large wings. Outside of the river is what appears to be a stair or terraced pathway on which saints dressed in white walk, talk, and even shake hands. Next to the edge of the painting, on the other side of the pathway, are buildings labeled with the twelve tribes of Israel. Crown interprets these as “grand gates,” which would conform to Revelation’s identification of the city’s gates with the tribes of Israel (Rev 21:12).147 These gates are also identified on the city’s walls, which appear below the couple. In some sense, West offers the audience two views of the city gates. This highlighting of the city’s gates reminds the viewer that the city is a CONTAINER and the gates metonymically suggest openness and the possibility of entering the city (AN INVITATION IS AN ENTRANCE). This possibility is emphasized by West, who depicts crowds of white-clad saints entering in the city through the gates. Again, the painting serves as an invitation to become an inhabitant of the New Jerusalem. For West, the imagery of the New Jerusalem and the conclusion of the Book of Revelation are ultimately about a promise within the concept WEDDING, which for the artist is arguably a promise of invitation, comfort, and protection. This is evidenced through West’s depictions of the New Jerusalem as a CONTAINER. It is also, a promise of renewal and rebirth. Within this CONTAINER one finds joy. Martha Jane appears happy and content, evoking the throne’s proclamation in 21:4, “he will wipe every tear from their eyes… mourning and crying and pain will be no more.” Even if West’s paintings serve as a tool for interpreting her grief, she also understood them as tools of testimony and teaching. West believed she was empowered by God to open the door of the Word, a recurrent theme in her 145 Manley, “Satan Takes Over.” 146 Daniel Wojcik, “Outsider Art, Vernacular Traditions, Trauma, and Creativity,” Western Folklore 67, no.2/3 (2008). 147 Crown, “More Than Meets the Eye: Visions of the Sacred in Southern Self-Taught Art,” 46.

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paintings.148 In other words, West, like Morgan, does not adopt a passive, traditionally feminine, role, but claims an amazing amount of interpretive authority. While she acknowledges her own grief and pain, and Revelation’s promise of healing, this does not preclude her living purposefully and powerfully. Discussing one of West’s paintings, fellow outsider artist and friend of Myrtice West, Howard Finster explains, “John, he’s the one that’s showing you…what he’s seein’. That’s what Revelations is about – what he seen. What he’s seen is things that we touch and feel and are acquainted with, that’s what he seen.”149 Revelation may be about what John saw in the past, but Finster suggests that Revelation’s imagery is also about what is real for modern viewers. Sister Gertrude Morgan and Myrtice West, both of whom emerge within the context of Southern evangelical religion, would likely agree with Finster’s assessment. For both Morgan and West, Revelation provides the conceptual lenses through which to understand their own experiences. When they see along with John in their visionary experiences they manage to see themselves and those around them. This is especially true for Morgan, who imagines herself within the narrative of Revelation in very distinct ways, reflecting the observations of womanist theologian Jacquleyn Grant in Black Women’s Jesus and White Women’s Christ. Morgan’s depiction of the wedding between her and Jesus reflects, among other things, Grant’s claim that black women’s identification with Jesus allows them “full participation in the church and society.” 150 Morgan accepts this invitation, building upon the unity of Bride and Groom to depict herself as a true partner of Christ, sharing a swing with him and beckoning others to enter the New Jerusalem. The Bride’s invitation to “Come!” is both accepted and articulated by Morgan herself. In contrast, while West uses her daughter’s life to envision the Raptured church, this imagery is more about a future hope, which is consistent with premillennial belief. Still, for both visionaries Revelation’s CITY–WOMAN is about shaping Christian identity and calling an audience to a life of faithfulness.

148 Crown, “The Revelations Series: Divinely Inspired, Evangelically Conceived,” 23–4. 149 Howard Finster, “The Beast Out of the Sea.” 150 Recently, theologian Monica Coleman has summarized Grant, explaining, “First, black women identify with Jesus as sufferer, embracer of the outcast and liberator. This identification is so strong that Grant describes Christ as a black woman. Second, black women can pattern their lives as disciples rather than as servants. Salvation, then, is black women’s invitation to full participation in church and society.” Monica A. Coleman, Making a Way out of No Way: A Womanist Theology (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2008), 13. See also, Jacquelyn Grant, White Women’s Christ and Black Women’s Jesus: Feminist Christology and Womanist Response (Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1989).

Conclusion Lifting a Veil Poets use metaphor all the time because they are constantly speaking about the great unknowns – mortality, love, fear, joy, guilt, hope, and so on. Religious language is deeply metaphorical for the same reason…Far from being an esoteric or ornamental rhetorical device superimposed on ordinary language, metaphor is ordinary language. It is the way we think. Sallie McFague, Metaphorical Theology1 Is it possible to understand the images as reaching forwards into the readers’ worlds as well as back into their own – to see reference to our own context while still acknowledging the images’ first-century context? Ian Paul, “The Book of Revelation: Image, Symbol, and Metaphor”2

Throughout these pages we have observed some of the ways that Revelation encourages its audience to envision along with it. The text’s visual elements, including its visionary narrative and rhetorical calls to “Look!”, are key to understanding how the text works to persuade and why it is successful in shaping the imaginations of so many of its readers, even though the narrative proves unwieldy and the imagery kaleidoscopic. By encouraging, if not forcing, an audience to see along with him, John leads his audience through a conceptual landscape in which earthly powers are kings fornicating with a Great Whore and the community of saints is the Lamb’s Bride weaving and donning a garment comprised of faithful deeds. Through metaphor these things are reality, even though they are not the concrete realities of first-century Asia Minor. For ancient rhetoricians, including Aristotle, this ability to prompt an audience to see one thing as another is the purpose of metaphorical language. Metaphor allows the audience to notice similarities and connections and to see things in ways that they might not have seen before. In this way, metaphor is inherently revelatory, inherently an unveiling, inherently apocalyptic. Even though there are scholars who highlight the ability of metaphor to construct new or novel meanings, some of the most persuasive metaphors are those that are conventional or well worn. For the most part Revelation’s metaphorical language and imagery fall into this latter category, drawing heavily upon Jewish literary traditions and the discourses of the Roman 1 McFague, Metaphorical Theology, 15–16. 2 Paul, “The Book of Revelation: Image, Symbol and Metaphor,” 133.

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Empire. The conventional nature of Revelation’s imagery provides this vision an air of familiarity, a sense of credence, since it sounds so similar to the discourses of the day. By thinking with women in ways similar to Roman discourses and prophetic texts John taps into “the way we [his audience] think[s],” to use the language of McFague. The fact, for instance, that John’s depiction of the Great Whore parallels Juvenal’s depiction of the EmpressWhore Messalina confirms John’s assessment of the Empire as a Whore. For some in John’s audience, the descriptions of Rome as a whorish Babylon and the community as a virginal Bride becoming a New Jerusalem “make sense” because they reflect the metaphorical logic of Revelation’s context. Cities and communities are women, and women in this context are containers that are permeable, and the exteriors of containers reveal their contents. The exterior of these two female “containers,” garish luxury on one hand and pure light on the other, reveal the character of those who are “within” these containers – those who comprise and identify with these cities or communities. Through only a few words, at least in the case of the bridal imagery, John taps into this system of metaphorical and imagistic thinking, communicating his vision of ideal community as an identity for his audience to adopt in contrast to the identities and myths put forward by Roman powers. This ability of metaphorical language to conjure conceptual domains, mappings, and blends and the networks of ideas within these conceptual networks is part of the power inherent in metaphorical language and discourse. As readers, especially those who understand themselves as seeing along with John, draw upon and appropriate Revelation’s metaphorical expressions, the domains and mappings undergirding these expressions are often adopted as well. In fact, the visionaries whose interpretations we have explored often employ Revelation’s conceptual domains and structures without drawing upon the specific language of the original text. These conceptual elements provide the visionary interpreters, moreover, an opportunity to expand upon the imagery’s meanings in new contexts, even though John seemingly thought that the imagery of the Apocalypse had a quickly approaching expiration date (Rev 1:1). They draw upon elements seemingly implied in a domain, such as the bridal party being present at a WEDDING, even though these aspects of the domain are not necessarily present in the Apocalypse itself. Conceptual domains such as BRIDE, PROSTITUTE, and CONTAINER imply certain entailments, even if John does not make use of all these entailments in his metaphorical mappings. Thus, while John insisted that no one add or take away from his text, promising plagues and even death to those who tamper with it (22:18-19), visionary readers of John’s Apocalypse have continued to find new meanings in his imagery. For example, Hildegard draws upon the metaphorical mapping A WOMAN IS A CONTAINER to describe the Church as giving birth. Even more innovative is Hadewijch’s extension of the BRIDE and WEDDING domains to imagine the erotic aspects of the Soul’s relationship to God. Morgan extends the WEDDING domain to imagine a loving relationship between the groom and the bride with whom she personally

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identifies embodying the mapping IDENTITY IS APPEARANCE. And West uses Revelation’s CITY–WOMAN imagery to envision a future wedding, the Rapture, when pain and abuse will give way to joy and hope. The flexibility and fluidity of Revelation’s conceptual elements means that it is easily applied to various contexts, even though the text itself reveals a particular set of rhetorical concerns when read in its historical context. Revelation employs the metaphorical depiction of cities as Whore and Bride as a form of cultural critique and as tool for constructing the faithful community’s identity. However, the interpretations we have examined marshal the text’s images toward various other ends. While Hildegard used the Bride and Whore imagery to challenge clerics who she saw as being in need of reform, Hadewijch used the imagery as a tool for describing and teaching others the art of finding union with the Divine. In the modern context, Gertrude Morgan embraces the images of the Bride and of the New Jerusalem, seemingly disentangled, in particular as a model of ministry and evangelism, while Myrtice West uses bridal and city imagery to make sense of loss. These diverse emphases underscore the extent to which an author, particularly one who immerses his narrative in metaphor, lacks control over his or her final production. Even though biblical scholars might fault these re-workings of Revelation’s imagery for failing to capture the rhetorical intentions of the text,3 we cannot deny that these interpreters understand themselves as faithful to John’s vision, as they describe themselves seeing with John. Although the interpretations of these medieval and modern visionaries may diverge from John’s counter-imperial aims, they raise important questions for understanding John’s text. Seeing the directions that subsequent interpreters take some of Revelation’s metaphors beg the question as to why John did not move in similar directions. To name a few possible lines of inquiry: Why is gate imagery so prevalent in the depiction of the New Jerusalem as Bride, but not in the depiction of Rome/Babylon as Whore, an image that would seem to resonate with the idea of permeability? Why might John resist extending the bridal image into familial imagery in the closing chapters of the text? Is this related to his idealization of virginity in the description of the 144,000 virgins in Revelation 14? Similarly, what is the effect of John’s resisting the erotic aspect implied in the WEDDING domain? While we will never discern why John takes a metaphor in one direction and not another, seeing some of the range of interpretive possibilities hopefully helps us understand what the text of Revelation tries to emphasize. In addition to revealing the “ways not taken” in Revelation, engaging these re-visionings of Revelation underscores just how influential biography is in interpretation. These interpretations may be exceptional in how vividly personal biography appears, as the interpreters all understood themselves as visionaries, yet we can imagine that even in less explicitly personal interpretations biography plays an important role in 3 Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza emphasizes the importance of interpreting Revelation within rhetorical settings that reflect the rhetorical setting assumed in the text. See Schüssler Fiorenza, The Book of Revelation – Justice and Judgment, 139.

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how one envisions the text. One wonders whether the visionary aspect of the Apocalypse, the calls for the audience to see along with the author, heightens the self-referential nature of its interpretations. One of the conversations that I have hoped to engage throughout and one in which I would situate this work is that of feminist biblical criticism. While feminist biblical criticism has evolved over the past half-century, one of its persistent themes has been that feminist interpretation includes a commitment to a vision of justice, for women and all who might be defined as “others.”4 The question of how this commitment is made manifest in one’s textual interpretation, however, has been answered variously. For some interpreters, the primary aim of feminist interpretation is to uncover the ways that biblical texts participate in and perpetuate the cultural constructions of gender. Critical attention to how images, such as the Whore and Bride, purposely employ gender stereotypes and cultural assumptions about women as tools of persuasion can, hopefully, help us chip away at the power of these images to limit the lives of both women and men. Engaging the works of feminist biblical scholars, including those who converse with Revelation and its prophetic predecessors, raises the question of whether the narrative’s gendered images can be marshaled in the struggle for justice. Despite their different approaches and conclusions, one of the questions that unites the work of Tina Pippin and Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza is whether Revelation’s female images are in any way “liberating,” especially for women.5 The assumption being, presumably, that the biblical texts should offer such images. Looking at the interpretations of these four visionary women, however, is partly an attempt at shifting this question from whether the text’s metaphors are liberating to how certain women make use of these images. In so doing, I have not sought to answer whether these images were liberating for Hadewijch or West or whether Hildegard and Morgan were successful in deploying them against patriarchal norms. Instead, shaped by Elizabeth Dryer’s discussion of the appropriation of medieval mystics by modern interpreters, I understand that by carefully and humbly naming the past I participate in shaping the present.6 This is my feminist agenda: By listening to the variety of women’s interpretations of Revelation, I seek to contribute to the scholarly recognition of the complexity of women’s experiences and the creativity of women’s intellectual production vis-à-vis Revelation as a way of making space for future productions by women and men who identify with women. In addition, I hope to reveal that while Revelation, like the discourses upon which it draws, may encourage its audience to use the conceptual domain 4 For one account of the history of feminist biblical criticism, see Schüssler Fiorenza, Sharing Her Word. 5 The question of whether apocalyptic texts, including Revelation, offer liberation to women and gay men is pursued, to a negative end, by Tina Pippin, Apocalyptic Bodies: The Biblical End of the World in Text and Image (London: Routledge, 1999). 6 Elizabeth A. Dreyer, “Whose Story Is It? The Appropriation of Medieval Mysticism,” Spiritus 4 (2004): 167.

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WOMAN as an aid, actual women readers are far from passive when it comes to engaging this domain.7 In these interpretations, we see female interpreters claiming authority akin to John, expanding upon and even resisting his text. In spite of the fact that they seemingly work within and alongside of the parameters set through Revelation’s conceptual domains and metaphorical mappings, these interpreters bring into sight ideas that John never could have imagined. And by exploring and engaging their interpretations, the veil over the Apocalypse’s metaphor is lifted at least a little.

7 Pamela Thimmes makes a similar revelation when she explores how contemporary women scholars interpret Revelation’s image of “Jezebel.”

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Index 144,000 44, 74, 80, 87, 108–9, 170 Abomination 60, 65 Absence 122 Active 46, 146, 164 Acts, Book of 39 Adornment 76–8, 80, 81, 83, 85–7, 92, 103–4, 108, 117–19, 122, 124, 158 African-American interpretation 6, 128, 133–6, 143–5, 152 Age of Augustus (saeculum Augustum) 35, 38 Anakalypsis 1, 76, 81, 87 Antichrist 97, 100, 110–14, 135, 163 Apartment 150–51, 153 Aphrodisias 45–6, 52, 62, 69 Apocalypse cycles 10–11, 91–2, 111–12 Apocalyptic 5, 8, 16–20, 22, 41 n.27, 42 n.34, 96–7, 99, 129, 163 n.142, 168 Apokalypsis 1, 11–12 Apostasy 52–3, 66, 159 Appearance 67, 77–8, 83, 87, 102–4, 107, 109, 117, 119, 124, 141, 144, 152, 158 Ara Pacis 34–5, 44–5 Aristotle 28–9, 51, 168 Asia Minor 5, 35–6, 38–9, 41, 43, 45–6, 63, 66–7, 83 Attire see Clothing Augustine 18, 96–7 Augustus, Augustan 34–5, 37–8, 44, 48, 65 n.37, 80 Aune, David E. 20–21, 44 Authority 8, 17, 22–3, 37–8, 69, 73, 77 n.75, 100, 132, 136, 144–5, 149, 153, 167, 172 Babylon 13, 40, 53, 58–74, 86–7, 113, 157–9, 169–70

Bahktin, Mikhail 32 Banquet 80, 95, 164 Baptist (denomination) 136, 154 Barr, David L. 18 Baruch, Book 2 of 82 Bassard, Katherine Clay 133, 135 n.44 Beale, Gregory K. 13, 70, 87 Beast(s) 15, 23, 40–41, 60, 69–70, 72, 75, 100, 110–14, 158–60 Beguine 90, 115–16, 121 n.122, 125 Beloved 106, 116, 121–3 Beloved Disciple, the 94–5 Benedictine 89–90, 94, 98 Bernard of Clairvaux 93, 104 n.71 Best, Sue 55, 88 Biernoff, Suzannah 93 Birth 45, 48, 57, 76 n.73, 101–2, 104–6, 110, 112–13, 114 n.97, 125, 137, 155, 169 Black 106–7, 111, 138, 141, 143, 146, 148 Black Church 134, 136, 148, 167 Blasphemous 36, 39–40, 60 Blend (conceptual) 3, 30 n.87 and n.89, 31–2, 46, 54–5, 60, 74, 78, 100, 102, 106, 113, 122, 140, 169 Blood 23, 40, 61, 65, 75, 101, 111, 113, 131 Blount, Brian 6, 85, 136 Boring, Eugene 41 Boundary (see also Wall) 47, 55, 59, 67, 86, 113–14, 121, 123–5, 152, 166 Bride 31, 35, 40, 43, 53, 55, 56–8, 60, 73, 74–87, 101–10, 113–14, 118–26, 137, 140–41, 143–9, 151–4, 159–67, 168–71 Bride, Roman 1–2, 76–9 Brothel 2, 61, 63 n.27, 64, 65 n.36, 67–8 Building 34, 38, 91 n.8, 101, 104, 149– 53, 166 Bynum, Caroline Walker 7, 94

198

Index

Camille, Michael 93 Camp, Claudia 26 Carey, Greg 15–16, 22 Child, children 43, 45–6, 48–9, 73, 76 n.73, 77, 80, 84 n.99, 102, 105–6, 113, 125, 137, 155, 159–60, 162 Christ 2, 12–13, 16, 22–4, 36, 39–42, 74, 85, 90, 94–5, 101, 106, 116, 123, 141, 146, 148–9, 156, 158–62, 164–7 Church 100–108, 110–14, 125, 134, 136, 159–64, 166, 169 Cicero 15, 21, 29 City 3, 23, 31, 38–9, 45, 47–9, 51–5, 58–60, 62–4, 68–74, 76, 81–7, 90, 100–107, 110, 113–14, 117–19, 122, 128–9, 137–8, 140, 149–53, 157–9, 163–4, 166–7, 170 Clean, cleanliness 78, 106–7, 131, 143 Cleric, clergy 100, 103, 107, 110, 113– 14, 115, 170 Closeness (including proximity) 72, 78, 85, 147, 153 Clothing (including attire, costume, garment) 52, 58 n.9, 64, 68–8, 77–9, 83, 87, 102, 103 n.69, 107, 109, 114, 119, 123–5, 138 n.59, 138, 141, 143–6, 158, 161, 164, 169 Coins 37, 64 Community (see also Faithful) 3, 39–40, 42–3, 45–9, 51–3, 55, 66, 73, 75, 79–81, 83–5, 87, 103, 106, 109, 114–15, 118–19, 125, 132, 136, 141, 144, 148–9, 151, 164, 168–70 Conceptual blend see Blend Conceptual domain see Domain Concordia 78, 84, 147 Conquest 46, 69, 113 Contagion 65, 72–3 Contain, container 2, 46–7, 49, 54–5, 71–3, 85–6, 104–5, 107, 112–14, 118, 121, 123, 125, 152, 159, 163, 166, 169 Contemplation 92–3, 96, 115–16, 118– 19, 123–5 Costume see Clothing

Courtly love 96, 115, 119–20, 125 Crown, Carol 129 n.9, 159, 162, 166 Daniel, Book of 13, 40, 110, 112 Deeds 70, 79, 103–4, 107, 114, 119, 146, 168 De Silva, David A. 15, 19, 65 Devil see Satan Difference 72 Dio Cassius 48, 80 Dionysius of Alexandria 3–4 Dirt (including filth) 61, 64–5, 68, 78, 106, 113 Distance 41, 53, 65, 72 Divine see God Domain 24, 30–32, 45–6, 54–5, 58 Domitian 36–7, 38, 48–9 Door 14, 24, 150–52, 166 Dreams 13, 20–22, 92, 96, 99 Dronke, Peter 99–100 Drunk, drunkenness 60, 65, 70 DuBois, Page 11, 54 Dwell, dwelling 71, 73, 81, 84–5, 122, 146, 152 Ecclesia 101, 112–113 Edwards, Catherine 63 Ekphrasis 5, 15, 23, 61 Elliott, Dyan 109, 120 n.116 Emmerson, Richard K. 95, 111–13 Enmity 40–41, 58, 64 Enter, entrance 24, 46, 85, 87, 106, 154,166–7 Ephesus 39 Erotic 72, 120–21, 125, 147, 169–70 Eubanks, Philip 32 Evangelical Christianity 130–36, 144, 156, 158, 161, 167 Evil 21, 39, 42, 62, 74, 96 n.40, 101, 110–14, 134, 159 n.128, 162 Excess 40, 65–8, 67 n.42, 72, 79 External 30, 67, 119 Ezekiel, Book of 19, 26, 51–53, 63, 69, 85 Ezra, Book 4 of 82 Fagaly, William A. 127 n.3, 137–8, 148, 152, 154

Index Faithful, the (see also Community) 36, 41, 43–4, 65, 73, 75, 79–81, 83–7, 104, 106–7, 109, 114, 117, 141, 143, 149, 160, 162 Faithful, faithfulness 36, 40–41, 43–4, 47, 51–3, 73, 75, 79, 95, 101, 108, 110, 141, 143, 159–60, 162, 167–8, 170 Family 34, 38, 44–6, 73, 76–7, 136, 154–5, 166 Father 25, 37, 44, 77 n.75, 87, 108–9, 147–8 Female 2, 7, 34–5, 37, 39, 44–6, 49–54, 56 n.2 and n.3, 57–8, 66, 69, 73, 76, 84, 87, 94, 106 n.77, 109–11, 114, 123–6, 159, 169, 171–2 Feminine 7, 45–6, 51, 56 n.3, 70–71, 73, 77–8, 80 n.88, 87, 117 n.108, 122–3, 153, 167 Feminist 8, 26–7, 51 n.73, 54 n.84, 57–9, 98, 126, 153, 163, 171 Filth see Dirt Finster, Howard 11, 127, 167 Flavian 37 Fraeters, Veerle 116, 124 Friesen, Steven J. 36 n.6, 39 Frilingos, Christopher A. 13 Fundamentalist 134, 158, 159 n.126 Gaca, Kathy 65–6 Galinksy, Karl 37, 65 n.37 Garment see Clothing Gate 81, 85, 151, 164, 166, 170 Gender-bending 2, 71, 80, 87, 124, 126 Ghebruken (fruition) 120 Glancy, Jennifer 61, 68 God (including Divine) 12–13, 16–17, 20, 22, 25–6, 39–41, 44, 50, 52–3, 59, 65–7, 73, 75, 78–9, 81–6, 93–5, 99–100, 110, 115–17, 119–25, 128, 131–2, 136–8, 141, 143–9, 152–3, 156, 164, 166 Gods 21, 38–9, 52, 66 Golden Legend, The 94 Groom, bridegroom 2, 67, 76, 83–4, 106, 109, 113, 120, 123–4, 141, 146–8, 162, 166–7, 169 Guest 80, 164

­199

Gundry, Robert 81, 84 Hadewijch of Brabant 115–26 Happy, happiness 140, 146–7, 155 Hear, hearing 13–16, 18, 20, 22–3, 44 91, 104, 117, 128, 132–3, 156 Heaven 12, 14, 16–17, 20, 24, 41, 57, 69–70, 74–5, 81, 84, 95–6, 98, 100–102, 104, 106–8, 110–11, 117, 128, 136–7, 149, 151–2, 159, 163–4, 166 Hersch, Karen 76 n.73, 77, 84 n.99 Hildegard of Bingen 98–114, 125–6 Holiness 131, 135–6, 138, 141, 144–6, 155 Hollywood, Amy 95, 122 Honor 41, 63–4, 68, 120 Hosea, Book of 51 Humphrey, Edith M. 18, 78 n.82 Husband 1, 47, 50–53, 66–7, 77, 80–81, 83, 85, 120, 138, 141, 147–8, 155 Hylen, Susan 27, 58–60 Iamblichus 21 Idolatry 25, 52,–3, 59 Image, imagery 1–9, 10–11, 13, 16, 18–19, 24–7, 29–33, 34–5, 38–40, 43–6, 49–55, 59–60, 69, 73–4, 80, 90–93, 95–7, 99–102, 111, 114–16, 118, 124, 129, 132–5, 140, 144, 149, 151–2, 154, 156, 167–71 Imperative (including command) 14–16, 18, 23, 72, 84, 87, 99, 120, 128, 138, 149 Imperial cult 34, 38–9 Imperial family 34, 38, 45, 68, 73 Imperial mythology and discourse 35–9, 44–5, 47–8, 63, 73 Impurity 64–5, 78–9, 86, 106, 113, 143 Internal 30, 67, 112, 119 Invariance principle 31 Isaiah, Book of 71, 72, 83, 85–6, 128, 140–41, 143, 147 Israel 36 n.9, 43–4, 50–51, 54, 74, 80–81, 83, 85, 164, 166 Jerusalem 24, 26, 50–53, 62, 66, 81

200 Jezebel 39, 43, 57, 60, 144, 172 n.7 Joachim of Fiore 97 John 1–2, 7, 11–16, 18–23, 35–6, 39–40, 43, 50, 80, 82, 90–92, 94–5, 98, 100, 108 n.79, 114–18, 127–9, 149, 153–4, 156, 163, 167–70 John, Gospel of 12 n.9, 94–5, 160 John of the Cross 126 Johnson, Mark 29–30 Josephus 12 Juvenal 2, 48, 64, 68, 169 Kittay, Eva Feder 53–4 Klassen, Pamela E. 144 Kovacs, Judith 4–5, 91, 134 Lakoff, George 29–31 Lamb (animal) 158, 160, 164 Lamb, the 14, 24, 41–2, 44, 74–5, 78, 80, 83–4, 86, 91, 95, 108, 122, 131, 141, 160, 164 Land(s) 37, 54, 69, 83, 121 Lehrvisionen (teaching visions) 99–100 Lewis, Suzanne 92 Light 78, 86 Literacy 94, 133 Literal, literalism 2, 24–5, 30, 43, 45, 48, 60, 97, 108, 114, 133 Livy 47 Lochrie, Karma 120–21 Look, looking 12, 14–16, 18, 23, 153, 156, 158, 160, 168 Lopez, Davina C. 45 Love 52, 66, 85, 96, 109, 113, 115, 118– 25, 141, 147–8 Lucretia 47 Luxury 64, 70–73, 169 Lynch, Kathryn L. 93 Maier, Christl M. 26 Maier, Harry O. 42 Male 2, 43, 51, 56–7, 67 n.42, 76, 80, 84, 87, 98, 106 n.77, 108, 109, 115, 123, 126 Marriage 74 n.66, 77 n.75, 79, 84, 105, 115, 118–20, 141, 146–9, 155, 164 Martial 63, 67

Index Mary 102 n.65, 106 Masculine 46, 59, 72, 80, 123–4 Matter, E. Ann 91, 95 n.34 McFague, Sallie 25–6, 168–9 McGinn, Bernard 93, 97 McGinn, Thomas A. J. 63 n.27, 65 n.36 Medieval interpretation of Revelation 90–97, 111, 114, 125 Messalina 2, 68 Metaphor 4–7, 11, 23–33, 40–43, 46–7, 50–55, 58, 60, 62, 79, 90, 92, 97, 99–101, 125, 129, 152, 168–71 Mews, Constant J. 99–100, 101 n.62 Milnor, Kristina 37, 48 Mirror 78 Monastic 10, 90–92, 94, 100, 115 Moore, Stephen D. 61, 68 Morgan, David 160 Morgan, Gertrude 137–54 Mother 47, 60, 63, 82, 101, 103–8, 113– 15, 125, 148, 155, 158 Mystic, mysticism 7 n.23, 95, 115–16, 121, 126, 171 Nakedness 64, 69, 118 Name 28, 40, 42, 60–62, 81, 83, 85, 104, 108, 117, 122, 153 Nation(s) 24, 41, 44–6, 48–9, 52, 54, 62, 66, 69–70, 158 Net 102, 106–7 New, newness 18, 30–31, 35, 43, 47, 74, 77, 79, 81–5, 87, 90, 94, 98, 100–102, 108, 114, 117, 119, 125, 127, 114, 135, 138, 144, 152–3, 166, 168–9 New Jerusalem 3, 40, 60, 62, 66, 74, 76, 81–7, 91–2, 101–2, 104, 107–8, 110, 112, 117–18, 121–2, 124–5, 127–9, 132, 137, 140, 146–54, 163–4, 166–7, 169–70 Newman, Barbara 7, 99, 104, 106, 113 O’Connor, Flannery 131 Open 13–14, 17, 27, 85–6, 102, 106, 122, 166 Ovid 35 n.4, 47 Parent (see also Mother and Father) 148

Index Passive 46, 54, 57, 144, 153, 164, 167, 172 Pattemore, Stephen 27 n.73, 43–4 Pax Romana 35, 37 Penetrate 45–47 Pentecostalism 131–3, 136, 148–9 Perception, image-based 30 Perry, Regina 137, 140 n.67, 149, 153 Persecution 18, 36, 155 Peter, Book 1 of 104 Pippin, Tina 59, 60 n.15, 69, 72, 86 n.104, 171 Plutarch 78 Power 1, 18, 23–4, 26–7, 30, 32–3, 34–5, 37–42, 46, 48, 52, 55, 60–68, 70–75, 88–9, 92, 94, 112, 128, 133–4, 144–5, 147, 158, 166–7, 168–71 Pregnant 57, 101–2, 104–5, 155 Premillennialism 134–6, 158, 167, 171 Procession 44, 76–7, 84, 146 Procreate, procreation 54, 84, 105–6, 114 Propertius 71 Prophecy belief 134–135 Prophet, prophetic 5, 19–20, 22, 24, 26, 35, 43, 50–53, 59, 62–3, 66, 79, 82–3, 94, 98–100, 153, 159, 169 Prostitute see Whore Prostitution (Roman) 2, 61, 63-–7 Proximity see Closeness Pure, purity 78–9, 107, 122, 132, 143, 147, 161–3, 169 Purple 60, 64, 67–8, 79, 123 n.126, 158 Queering 120, 124–5 Quintilian 15–16, 29 Rape 11, 43, 46–7, 59, 65 n.36, 69–70, 112–13 Rapture 134–5, 162–3, 166, 170 Rhetoric 5–7, 11, 14–15, 19, 22, 25–33, 36, 39–40, 44, 46, 50, 53, 56, 58, 61, 72–3, 88, 168–70 Rhetoric ad Herennium 29 Richlin, Amy 64 Richard of St. Victor 89, 92, 96 Ricoeur, Paul 24–5 Riggs, Rollin 137, 155

201­

Roma 34, 44, 46 Rossing, Barbara 58, 72, 135 Rowland, Christopher 91, 134 Royalty, Robert 64, 73 n.64 Rupert of Deutz 92 Satan (including Devil) 24, 36 n.9, 40, 100, 117, 152, 159, 162, 166 Schüssler Fiorenza, Elisabeth 5, 19, 27, 34, 59, 60 n.15, 170 n.3, 171 Scofield Reference Bible 135, 158 Self-taught artists 11,129, 140 Sex, sexual 7, 45–6, 51–2, 54 n.84, 61, 64, 66–7, 69, 73, 78, 106–7, 113, 120, 158, 161 Shepherd of Hermas 42 n.34, 96, 104 Shine, shining 58 n.9, 78, 82, 102, 114, 143 Sign 56 n.4, 57, 77, 84 Simile 23–4, 29 Slave, slavery 47, 61, 63, 133 Slingerland, Edward 30 Smith, Theophus H. 128 n.5, 152 Song of Songs 95, 109 Soskice, Janet Martin 25, 93 n.16 Soul 36, 43, 93, 96, 106–7, 115, 117–25, 147, 159, 169 Southern interpretation of Revelation 130–37 Spirit 4, 14, 16, 18, 20–21, 60, 70–71, 81, 87, 117–18, 120, 122, 128–9, 131–2, 134, 141, 145, 149, 166 Spirituals 127–8, 131, 134 Staples, Adriane 47 Stone 60, 64, 81, 86, 104, 122, 158 Suffering 118–22 Swancutt, Diane M. 68 n.48, 71 Synagogue 36 n.9, 100–101 Temple 38, 45, 53, 62, 82, 85–7, 117 Toga virilis 77 Transition 76–6, 83–5, 106 Tunica recta 77 Unfaithful, unfaithfulness 26, 66–7, 82–3, 159 Union 115–16, 120–25, 148 Unveil 1–2, 13, 22–3, 76, 87, 168

202 Vander Stichele, Caroline 59 n.12, 60, 66 Veil 1–2, 11–12, 77, 87, 108–9, 145–6, 164 Vestal Virgin 46–7, 73, 76 Vice 72 Violability (see also Penetrate) 47, 82 Violence 11, 51, 59, 62–3, 65, 70, 72, 113, 121, 163 n.142 Virgin, virginal 43, 46, 57 n.7, 73, 76–7, 80, 87, 90, 94, 103, 106–10, 113, 169–70 Virginity 47, 87, 95, 106–8, 170 Virtue 37, 65, 79, 104, 118–19, 124 Visionary 3, 5, 7–8, 11, 14, 16–23, 35, 39–43, 50, 85, 90, 92, 94–7, 98–100, 115–17, 129, 132, 144, 149, 153–4, 156, 167–70 Visual 11–16, 29, 33, 43, 73, 90–97, 129, 156, 168–72 Wacker, Grant 132 Wall (see also Boundary) 47, 55, 81, 85–6, 110, 151 Watchers, Book of (Enoch) 17 Wedding 1–2, 77, 83–4, 87, 94, 103, 105, 109, 119, 143 n.73, 161–2 Wedding of the Lamb 74–8, 80, 83–4, 122, 145–6, 149, 161–6, 169–70 Weems, Renita 26, 153 West, Myrtice 154–67 White 106–9, 111, 116, 122, 123 n.126, 127, 131, 133–5, 138, 143–6, 148, 154, 158–62, 166, 167 Whore (including prostitute) 2, 24, 40–41, 52–3, 57–75, 78–9, 86, 88, 111–14, 125, 137, 157–8, 163, 168–71 Wife 16, 26, 44, 47, 48–9, 50–53, 66, 68, 75–7, 137, 143, 146–7, 155, 164 Wilson, Charles Regan 129, 131 Wójcik, Daniel 134, 166 Woman 45–55, 58, 60–61, 68–72, 76–7, 80, 83, 86, 88, 89, 100–106, 110–14, 122–6, 141, 155, 158–64, 169–72

Index Woman, metaphor 26, 44, 47–53, 66, 68, 75–8, 80–82, 84, 103, 120, 125, 137, 143, 147, 155, 164 Woman Clothed in the Sun 10, 56–8, 67, 78 n.82, 102, 105, 111–12 Womb 45, 54, 101–2, 105–7, 114, 152 n.100 Wonder 12–13, 40, 61, 120 Wool 47, 49, 77–8 Wright III, Benjamin G. 160, 163

Conceptual Metaphors and Blends* ACCEPTING GOD’S CALL IS MARRYING GOD 146 ACTIVE IS FORWARD 164 AFFECTION IS CLOSENESS 147, 153 THE ANTICHRIST IS A MONSTER 111 THE ANTICHRIST IS A RAPIST 113 APOSTASY IS ADULTERY 52, 53, 66, 159 AUTHORITY IS A GARMENT 145 BABYLON-ROME 62, 63, 64, 65, 66, 70, 71, 72 BAPTISM IS BEING BORN 107 BAPTISM IS WASHING 106 THE BODY IS EXILE 121 THE BRIDE OF THE LAMB IS GERTRUDE MORGAN 146, 154 THE BRIDE OF THE LAMB IS MARTHA JANE 162 A CHANGE IN IDENTITY IS A CHANGE IN CLOTHING 143 A CHANGE IN IDENTITY IS A CHANGE IN LOCATION 76, 84 CHRIST IS A GROOM 141, 147, 148

* These conceptual metaphors and blends should be understood heuristically, as ways of describing the metaphorical equations and blends undergirding the texts and images discussed. This is not an exhaustive or concretized list of the conceptual structures within these works and many of the mappings overlap.

Index THE CHURCH IS A BRIDE 164 THE CHURCH IS A CITY CONSTRUCTED WITH PEOPLE 104 THE CHURCH IS A CITY-WOMAN 102–3 THE CHURCH IS A MOTHER 104, 105, 114 THE CHURCH IS A WOMAN 159 THE CHURCH IS A WOMB 105, 114 THE CHURCH-WOMB IS A NET 106, 107 A CITY IS A CONTAINER 47, 49, 55, 72, 73, 85, 118, 122, 152, 162 A CITY IS A WOMAN 48, 49, 53, 55, 58, 62, 64, 69, 71, 74, 76, 81, 82 A CITY’S MORAL CONDITION IS A WOMAN’S MORAL CONDITION 48, 49, 68 CITY-WOMAN 71, 86, 90, 98, 102–7, 113, 129 157, 167, 170 A COMMUNITY IS AN INDIVIDUAL 79 A CONTEMPLATIVE SOUL IS A BRIDE 118, 123 A CONTEMPLATIVE SOUL/BRIDE IS LOVE 124 A CONTEMPLATIVE SOUL IS DIVINE 124 CONQUEST IS SEXUAL PENTRATION/RAPE 46, 69, 113 DEEDS ARE A GARMENT 79, 103, 107 A DEFEATED NATION IS A PENETRATED WOMAN 46 DIFFERENCE IS DISTANCE 72 THE DIVINE IS A BRIDEGROOM 123 THE DIVINE IS LOVE 124 DIVINITY IS LIGHT 78 EARTHLY POWERS ARE BEASTS 40 AN EVIL ENTITY IS A BEAST 112 THE FAITHFUL ARE INNOCENT CHILDREN 160 THE FAITHFUL ARE LIVING STONES 104

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THE FAITHFUL ARE A NEW ISRAEL 43 THE FAITHFUL ARE SHEEP 160 THE FAITHFUL ARE WEDDING GUESTS 79 THE FAITHFUL COMMUNITY IS A BRIDE/WIFE 79, 80, 87, 141, 162 THE FAITHFUL COMMUNITY IS GOD’S DWELLING PLACE 85 THE FAITHFUL COMMUNITY IS A NEW JERUSALEM 81, 83 A FAITHFUL INDIVIDUAL IS A BRIDE OF CHRIST 109, 141, 143 FAITHFUL VIRGINS ARE DAUGHTERS OF ZION 108 FOREIGN NATIONS ARE LOVERS 66 THE FUTURE IS THE PRESENT 152 GOD IS A BRIDEGROOM 83 GOD IS A FATHER 147 GOD IS A HUSBAND 50, 66 GOD (THE DIVINE) IS A KING/ CAESAR 41, 123 GOD IS A MAN 164 HEAVEN IS A THRONE ROOM 41 THE HEAVENLY JERUSALEM IS A MOTHER 108 THE HEAVENLY JERUSALEM IS A VIRGIN 107 HONOR IS CLOTHING 64 HONOR IS A PRODUCT 63 HUMANNESS IS EXILE 121 IDENTITY IS APPEARANCE 78, 83, 87, 103, 104, 109, 119, 124, 141, 144, 158 IDENTITY IS A GARMENT 79, 83, 141, 143 AN IDENTITY IS A NAME 83 IMPORTANCE IS UP 147 IMPURITY IS DIRT 65, 78, 106, 113 INNOCENCE IS A CHILD 159, 162 THE INTERNAL IS THE EXTERNAL 67, 119 AN INVITATION IS AN ENTRANCE 150, 166

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Index

JUDGMENT IS FIRE 159 KNOWING IS SEEING 33, 42, 123 LACK OF CONTROL IS DRUNKENNESS 65 THE LAMB IS A HUSBAND 80 LOVE IS AN ANIMAL 121 LOVE IS A BURDEN 121 LOVE IS FIRE 121 LOVE IS A QUEEN 124 LOVE IS SUFFERING 121 THE LOVE OF GOD IS A FLUID 121 MARITAL PIETY IS WOOL WORKING 47, 49, 77 MORAL IMPURITY IS DIRT 78 MORAL PURITY IS CLEANLINESS 78, 107 MORAL PURITY IS WHITE 143, 162 A NATION IS A WOMAN 45–6, 49, 54 THE NEW JERUSALEM IS AN APARTMENT BUILDING 150 THE NEW JERUSALEM IS A BRIDE 81, 87, 118, 121 PASSIVE IS BACK 164 A POLITICAL ALLIANCE IS SEX 66, 67 POLITICAL POWER IS SEXUAL DOMINANCE 67 THE RAPTURE IS A WEDDING 162 THE RAPTURED CHURCH IS A BRIDE 162 THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN A COMMUNITY AND A DEITY IS A MARRIAGE 51, 79, 164

THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE CONTEMPLATIVE SOUL AND GOD IS A MARRIAGE 119 THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN GOD AND THE FAITHFUL INDIVIDUAL IS A MARRIAGE 141 ROME IS BABYLON 62 ROME IS AN IMPERIAL WOMAN 68 ROME IS A WHORE-EMPRESS 68 SEPARATION IS EXILE 121 SHAME IS NAKEDNESS 64, 69 SIMILARITY IS PROXIMITY 72, 78 SPIRITUAL CLOSENESS IS PHYSICAL CLOSENESS 147 TEMPORAL NEARNESS IS PHYSICAL NEARNESS 152 THE UNFAITHFUL CHURCH IS A WHORE 159 UNION IS ANNHILATION 121 VICE IS A CONTAGION 72 VIOLENCE IS WINE 65 VIRTUES ARE ADORNMENTS 119, 124 WHORE-EMPRESS 67, 68 A WIFE IS A MIRROR 78 THE WILL IS A GARMENT 124 A WOMAN IS A CONTAINER 46–7, 49, 54, 73, 86, 112, 169

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