The Great Whore of Babylon in the Vision of Apocalypse 17. A gender-informed approach bridging ...

408 Pages·2016·1.46 MB·English

The Great Whore of Babylon in the Vision of Apocalypse 17.
A gender-informed approach bridging the gap between socio-historical and
feminist-critical interpretations.
A Dissertation
Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the
Doctor of Theology
Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Tobias Nicklas
Phd Candidate: Maria Hladiuc
Faculty of Roman-Catholic Theology
University of Regensburg
Acknowledgments
I would like to express my deepest gratitude to Prof. Dr. Tobias Nicklas, my Doktorvater,
who offered me unconditioned guidance and invaluable support in accomplishing this
endeavour. His propensity for detail set an example for academic consistency, which has
influenced and shaped the current research.
Apart from his professional assistance, I would like to thank Tobias Nicklas for his warm
engagement and the chance to learn from him, despite the linguistic, cultural and
geographical barriers. His understanding and efforts are dearly appreciated.
I gratefully acknowledge the support from Koordinationsstelle Chancengleichheit & Familie
of University Regensburg, in particular Katja Weber-Khan and Kerstin Schlögl-Flierl.
My thanks go to my former colleagues, Augustine Anthony, Tina Hartl and Michael
Sommer, whose significant support and encouragements have helped me in times of great
distress.
I would like to thank my family for theirlove, patience and belief in me, for their continued
encouragements in all my pursuits. I am deeply appreciative of their existence.
A warm heart-felt thank you for his prayers goes to Fr. Árpád Bodoni, whose discrete
presence and steadfastness are always examples to follow.
Thank you to all the others, who contributed through their discussions to this research!
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Table of Contents
Introduction..................................................................................................7
Part I: Laying the Theoretical Foundations..................................................18
1. Delineating the Feminist Horizon.......................................................................................18
1.1 Main criticism to the historical-critical method from a feminist orientation..................................19
Provisional Conclusions (1)....................................................................................................................31
1.2 Approaches from Socio-critical Perspective...................................................................................34
Provisional Conclusions (2)....................................................................................................................44
1.3 Approaches belonging to Literary Criticism...................................................................................47
Provisional Conclusions (3)....................................................................................................................63
1.4 Feminist Contribution to understanding of the above mentioned Perspectives............................66
1.5. Delineating feminist perspectives with regard to ‘apocalypse’ and Apocalypse...........................73
General Assessment...............................................................................................................................77
2. History of Research...........................................................................................................88
2.1 Coordinates of the main analyses of feminine imagery in the Apocalypse of John........................89
2.1.1 Gendered images overall in the Apocalypse.......................................................................89
2.1.2 Some relevant examples of gender-informed analysis of Apocalypse 17..........................101
Political focuses on the Great Whore..................................................................................................105
Literary Readings of the Great Whore.................................................................................................110
Sociological Readings of the Great Whore...........................................................................................118
Mythological Focus..............................................................................................................................121
Rhetographical Focus...........................................................................................................................123
The Great Whore as constitutive to Slander Discourse.......................................................................125
Assessment..................................................................................................................................128
Part II: The Vision of the Great Whore in Apocalypse 17:1-6......................133
Introduction........................................................................................................................133
i. Identifying the Problem...............................................................................................137
ii. The Construction of the Gendered Metaphor...............................................................139
Textual Compositional Elements.........................................................................................................140
Implied Elements.................................................................................................................................142
1. Introduction to Vision: vv. 1-2......................................................................................146
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1.1 Introducing the Protagonists.......................................................................................................146
One of the seven angels having the seven bowls................................................................................148
Spoke to me.........................................................................................................................................149
The judgment of the Great Whore......................................................................................................152
Seated upon many waters...................................................................................................................158
1.2 Provisional Assessment (1)..........................................................................................................164
1.3Reasons for Judgment.................................................................................................................166
The kings of the earth fornicated with her..........................................................................................168
The inhabitants of the earth have become inebriated........................................................................170
The wine of her fornication.................................................................................................................171
1.4 Provisional Assessment (2)..........................................................................................................173
1.5 Feminist Substance of Interest....................................................................................................174
2. General Overview of the Vision (17:3-6)...........................................................................180
2.1. Preliminary Methodical Considerations and Structural Overview...............................................180
3. Posture...........................................................................................................................187
3.1. Setting........................................................................................................................................187
And he carried me away......................................................................................................................187
In the spirit...........................................................................................................................................189
To a desert...........................................................................................................................................191
Further associations and contrasts.............................................................................................195
Summary.....................................................................................................................................198
3.2 Description of the Whore and the Beast. Introduction................................................................200
And I saw..............................................................................................................................................201
A woman..............................................................................................................................................203
Excursus on the apocalyptic use of ‘woman’ and its associations..............................................204
Seated..................................................................................................................................................209
Upon a scarlet beast............................................................................................................................212
Summary.....................................................................................................................................216
Full of blasphemous names.................................................................................................................219
Having seven heads and ten horns......................................................................................................221
Summary.....................................................................................................................................223
3.3. Provisional Assessment (3).........................................................................................................226
4. Dress and Ornaments......................................................................................................228
4.1 Preliminary Considerations..........................................................................................................228
And the woman has been clothed.......................................................................................................229
Excursus on various attires in the Apocalypse. Implications.......................................................230
Summary.....................................................................................................................................234
With purple and scarlet.......................................................................................................................235
Summary.....................................................................................................................................240
And has been adorned with gold and precious stones and pearls......................................................240
Summary.....................................................................................................................................245
In her hand, she had a golden cup.......................................................................................................247
Full with abominations and with the impurities of her prostitution...................................................250
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Summary.....................................................................................................................................254
4.2 Provisional Assessment (4)..........................................................................................................256
5. Titles of Harlotry.............................................................................................................259
5.1 Preliminary Considerations..........................................................................................................259
Upon her forehead, a name.................................................................................................................260
Summary.....................................................................................................................................264
Has been written..................................................................................................................................265
Summary.....................................................................................................................................267
Mystery................................................................................................................................................267
Summary.....................................................................................................................................270
Babylon the Great................................................................................................................................270
Excursus on female images as cities............................................................................................276
Mother of Whores...............................................................................................................................280
Summary.....................................................................................................................................290
Mother. Further Interpretational Options..................................................................................292
Summary.....................................................................................................................................295
(Mother) of the Earth’s abominations.................................................................................................296
5.2Provisional Assessment (5)..........................................................................................................298
6. Seer’s reaction to the vision.............................................................................................301
6.1 Preliminary Considerations..........................................................................................................301
And I saw the woman drunk................................................................................................................305
Summary.....................................................................................................................................314
With the blood.....................................................................................................................................315
Implications of the metaphor......................................................................................................318
Other implications.......................................................................................................................324
Summary.....................................................................................................................................326
[blood of] the saints and the blood of the witnesses to Jesus.............................................................327
Saints....................................................................................................................................................329
Witnesses of Jesus...............................................................................................................................332
Summary.....................................................................................................................................335
And I was greatly amazed....................................................................................................................337
Summary.....................................................................................................................................345
Upon seeing her/this...........................................................................................................................346
Summary.....................................................................................................................................348
6.2 Provisional Assessment (6)..........................................................................................................349
Conclusions...............................................................................................353
Bibliography .............................................................................................362
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Abstract
The vision of Apocalypse 17 describes in a judgmental manner the Great Whore. Whereas
nothing in her attire or adornment indicates the justification of such a title, sexual
appellatives permeate her description thus confining her interpretation within certain
boundaries.
This research subjects the vision of the Great Whore to a feminist critique by employing
various interpretative strategies, especially readers’ response in order to overcome the gap
existing between socio-historical (traditional) interpretations of the Great Whore and
feminist-critical (postmodern) ones.
Preoccupied with analyzing the effects the text has on readers, the dissertation is
ultimately a reaction to readings that conceive the Great Whore figuratively, as referring to
a city. For this reason, I embrace the sexuality permeating the description of the Great
Whore.
The thematic approach currently described implies engaging with the vision of the
Apocalypse afresh, by articulating the stand against the androcentric ideology in the text
and inadequate treatment of feminine imagery.
In this attempt, I fully acknowledge the power of the metaphorical expressions contained
in the image of the Great Whore, as well as value the sources identified traditionally in the
construction of this counter-creation of God.
Ultimately, I offer a corrective approach in the textual treatment of the Great Whore,
which is frequently read and interpreted in the light of Apocalypse 18.
Intertextuality and intersubjectivity help maintain a balance while interpreting by
constantly unmasking the ideological effects of Biblical texts, contained in particular
generic expressions
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Introduction
In terms of exegetical difficulties, Apocalypse 17 is a genuine minefield.
From a gender-informed perspective, the vision of the Great Whore as depicted in
Apocalypse 17:1-6 is a challenging text. It employs derogatory signifiers and accusations
addressed to a gendered textual construction, such as the Great Whore.
The current academic endeavour aims to respond to the dissatisfaction with the treatment
of this image complex, as with the following formulation: “[…] male characters or male-
identified characters in the Apocalypse are also stereotyped, vilified, criticized or idealized.
But they are rarely ‘typed’ with the explicit sexual signifiers used of female characters”.1
As a disclaimer, I acknowledge the fact that the Bible represents for me, the author of this
study a sacred text, capable of inspiring and guiding communities nowadays as previously,
having full authority.
Nevertheless, I acknowledge also the fact that patriarchal thinking was the context in which
the Bible emerged and developed traditionally. My standpoint, informed by feminist critical
issues, revolves on unmasking patriarchal ideology, as interpretation is not innocent.
In general, the feminist critique approaches Biblical texts with suspicion, in order to unravel
their androcentric character. Also this type of exegetical endeavour relies on full
acknowledgement of the texts’ historical conditionedness, biases,2 prejudices, value-
systems. At the same time, the interpreter’s values are overtly subjected to the same
scrutiny, evidencing his/her standpoint, in terms of biases and prejudices.
The analytical lenses provided by a gender-informed perspective with regard to the
analysis of Biblical texts largely encompass questions such as: what and how does a text
refer to women?; in what type of relationship with other characters is the feminine
character portrayed?; does this portrayal contain derogatory concepts that fail to address
women as fully human, especially when placed in the post-modern context?; how are
gendered readers to interpret and relate to such image?
The more I started reading on various interpretations of the Great Whore as depicted in
the vision of Apocalypse 17, the more baffled I became at the academic attempts featured
within the spectre of the historical-critical method. Often, it implied a total rejection of the
1 Pamela Thimmes, Women Reading Women in the Apocalypse: Reading Scenario 1, the Letter to Thyatira
(Rev. 2. 18-29), in: Currents in Biblical Research, 2/2003, 128-144, 129.
2 I understand ‘bias’, ‘biasness’ as the deliberate stance of an author, or interpreted to present a specific
angle of vision. In view of this ‘feminist bias’ is in this case, the theoretical commitment to partake in the
empowerment of women.
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corporeal dimension of the character in discussion, although the text made specific
reference to the Great Whore as ‘woman’, ‘whore’ and described her in terms belonging to
the feminine dimension.
At the other end of the interpretative spectrum, with postmodern perspectives,
Apocalypse began to be read as fantasy literature, and the ‘whore’ more like whore. This
seemed to be an orientation I was also not able to completely fall for.
Additionally, various stances adopted by the feminist exegetes cover rejection of the
Biblical message contained in Apocalypse 17, or its unnatural positive evaluation.
In other words, the scholarship usually registers nowadays a gap based on the socio-
historical, as well as literary aspects entrenched in the understanding of the ancient
readers (Elizabeth Schüssler-Fiorenza, Barbara Rossing etc.) on the one hand, and on the
other the understanding of post-modern readers, informed by postmodern categories,
among which gender, without considering the ancient ones (Tina Pippin).
To exemplify, with a challenging text at hand, such as the Whore in Apocalypse 17,
elaborating a positive evaluation of the gendered character can be hindered. The way to
salvage the text is to look into its political potential, by placing the character in the larger
context of various expressions of liberation theologies, and by deeming gender as
secondaryin importance.3
With the latter’s formulation, gender is brought into the focus at the expense of the text,
for a theological formulation of the Great Whore is adamantly rejected and so, it reinstates
the oppressive patternsconcerning women.
The readings above motivated my search for an in-between evaluation. This dissertation
does not describe an ‘either-or’ situation. As a result, exposing the corporeal dimension
evident with the depiction of the Great Whore does not trigger a rejection of the text, nor
does it imply an entirely subjective understanding.
Instead, it shows that a compromise at the level of interpretative options can be achieved.
It envisions collaboration between the two academic orientations presented above.
For this reason, the current perspective takes a moderatestandpoint in the feminist debate
with regard to the assessment of the gendered character in question.
It contains valuable contributions from both socio-historical part, as well as the feminist-
critical one. Subsequently, the insufficiency of textual contrastive schemes, major OT
3Elisabeth Schüssler-Fiorenza, Revelation. Vision of A Just World (Proclamation Commentaries), Minneapolis:
Fortress Press, 1991.
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traditions carrying a political undertone will be provided with the metaphorical power to
render an image effective, by employing gender.
The scope of my dissertation is the realization that ‘liberation’ from oppressive textual
formulations can be achieved also by exposing the patriarchal biases and androcentric
constructions. Even if the text is surfacing a violent misogynist view, rejecting it is not an
option.
For the reasons above, I formulate the current dissertation as a means of bridging the gap
between the different understandings in reclaiming the Biblical text from a theological
perspective. Finding the balance between various formulations of feminist interpretations
oscillating between accepting and rejecting the text is crucial.
The approach I am currently pursuing is not primarily historical, but theoretical. The
distinction is formulated more clearly, if we consider the former to search for a
correspondence between real historical events and persons and the Biblical narratives,
whereas with the latter approach “events and people are understood and analyzed
through a lens of theory and conjecture”4, in this particular case, gender.
A reading of the Apocalypse from postmodern gender-informed optics reveals that in the
history of the text’s reception, the difference between ‘sex’ and ‘gender’ has often been
blurred, especially when analyzing the concept ‘genre’ historically.
Attention is given to the literary unity between sex –marking biological distinctions
between ‘man’ and ‘woman’ and gender –encapsulating the types of social and cultural
performances relative to particular sex-distinctions in Ancient Greek as well as lack of
issues stemming from this dissociation. That is why, for Ancient readers, certain concepts
of substance for the postmodern gender-informed perspective are most certainly gender-
inclusive.
At the same time, a constructivist approach of gender, respectively, gendered images in
the Apocalypse5 gains contours: I am not basing the thesis on an essentialist perspective,
associated with the first and second wave feminism. This view is fundamentally rooted in
women’s nature, fixed biological attributes, having their liberation as a necessary aim.
4Judy Diehl, ‘Babylon’: Then, Now and ‘Not Yet’: Anti-Roman Rhetoric in the Book of Revelation, in: Currents
inBiblical Research, 11(2)/2013, 168-195, 172.
5 Jorunn Økland, Sex, Gender and Ancient Greek: A Case Study in Theoretical Misfit, in: Studia Theologica-
Nordic Journal of Theology, 5(2)/2003, 124-147, 131.
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Instead, a constructivist approach is pursued, which conceives sex, gender, sexuality to be
the result of socio-cultural and historical circumstances, ever changing.6
It is for this reason that the historical-critical method will be useful, for it anchors the text
in the actual contemporary context of John’s times.
Even if I operate within the framework of gender-informed studies, I consider the necessity
of interpretation with the ancient socio-historical background in mind.
It adds a deeper dimension to understanding by critically assessing cultural data and
norms, thus provide the possibility of a more ‘sober’ interpretation.
With the Apocalypse nowadays, being culturally recepted by various groups of people, of
various cultural backgrounds and formation –gender is considered constitutive in the
construction of identity throughout the Apocalypse.7
Postmodern readers and interpretations should also acknowledge the fact that at the time
when the Apocalypse was written a one-sex model operated, so gender issues were not a
concern.
These emerged with the advent of modernism, with the broadening of the spectrum of the
various theoretical models having interdisciplinary nature, which were applied to exegesis,
starting with the second half of the 20th century. The feminist interest shaped all
subsequent feminist critical interpretations of the Apocalypse, however to various degrees.
The theoretical model of feminist exegesis acknowledges the fact that gender is not a
neutral category, but reveals political, cultural and social attitudes that are not
unproblematic.
This effort can be also conceived as a multilayered interdisciplinary approach, where
intertextuality ranks high. The concept of intertextuality is important because it entails
much more than a literary understanding. The embeddedness of the text of the Apocalypse
in other dimensions is valued as well, comprising thus historical, social and rhetorical
formulations. Intertexts enrich our understanding further on certain standardized ancient
literary and theological motifs, called topoi, rotted in the social realities of the 1stcentury.
As a contextual approach, the feminist orientation is aiming to respond to the following
questions: how is gender biasness represented in this text? How is the meaning of the text
altered if read from a feminist perspective, is there a hope for feminist interpretation of this
text?
6Økland, Sex, Gender, 129.
7This is one of the important theses in the article by Hanna Stenström, Is Salvation Only for True Men?, On
Gendered Imagery in the Book of Revelation, in: Michael Labahn, Outi Lehtipuu (eds.), Imagery in the Book of
Revelation,Leuven/Paris/Walpole, MA: Peeters, 2011, 183-198,193.
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