About seventy years after the death of Jesus, John of Patmos sent visionary messages to the Christians in the seven cities of western Asia Minor. These messages would eventually become the Book of Revelation. What was John's message? What was its literary form? Did John write to a persecuted minority or to Christians enjoying the social and material benefits of the Roman Empire? In search of answers to these questions, Thompson critically examines the language, literaure, history and social setting of the Revelation (or Apocalypse). After discussing the importance of the Apocalypse gendre, he considers the form and the structure of the book, the unified world created through John's visions, and the social conditions of the empire in which John wrote.
