Revelation and Roman Rule in First-Century Asia Minor

This chapter examines the interactions between Revelation and Roman rule in first-century Asia Minor. While much of the discussion has posited that Roman persecution of Christians for not participating in the imperial cult was the fundamental dynamic for Revelation’s interaction with Roman rule, the chapter argues that claims of persecution are historically unfounded and that reconstructions of mandatory imperial cult observance are false. By contrast, it then argues that more sustainable scenarios of Revelation’s interaction with Roman power recognize Revelation’s perspectival rhetoric of opposing significant levels of societal participation in various aspects of Roman culture and economy. Revelation’s author opposes such accommodation and condemns imperial structures by imitating and deploying Roman gender constructs and reinscribing the empire’s destructive impact on the environment.