Seeing Christ through Hearing the Apocalypse: An Exploration of John’s Use of Ekphrasis in Revelation 1 and 19

Abstract

Utilizing rhetorical criticism, this study explores the manner in which Revelation describes two visions of Christ (Rev. 1.12-18; 19.11-16) in order to understand how such descriptions are used in the service of the author’s rhetoric. As a rhetorical technique, ekphrasis mediates what a speaker sees to an audience through descriptive words. A successful ekphrasis bridges the distance between the verbal and the visual, causing hearers to see for themselves, and evokes an emotional response ( pathos) in the audience. The visions of Rev. 1 and 19 are thus understood as poetic-rhetorical acts, or mimesis: representations of life that point toward reality beyond the particulars, intended to evoke an emotional response. Such characterization of Christ through ekphrasis moves the audience to embrace the text’s worldview of a critical distance from Roman imperial ideology and a commitment to Jesus as Lord over against the deceitful powers of empire.