, p.85.] The rather stern critique offered of Fee and Stuart herein should not indicate that this book is entirely without value, merely that its presentation in title and chapter headings is somewhat misleading. There is plenty of common sense in what Fee and Stuart are doing here, but the difficulty is that very often an intelligent decision on their part is mingled with an overall failure to highlight many of the most important issues involved in the interpretation of a Biblical text. Their last chapter on Revelation indicates both the best and worst of their method. In some sense, Fee and Stuart are going to be on their most careful behavior in this passage, as the idiotic handling of Revelation by any heretic with a penchant for paranoia has been well-evidenced over the past two millennia. But the history of this particular Biblical book, such as has been outlined by a responsible (and practicing Christian) scholar like Elaine Pagels, is entirely left out. For example, the early church arguments over whether to include Revelation in the New Testament at all are not mentioned. The fact that the book was unknown to Paul himself likewise goes unmentioned. What is salutary in the chapter is Fee and Stuart's emphasis on caution in interpreting the book, yet they leave out the abundance of disinterested historical evidence indicating that much of the text is referring to events in the immediate lifetime of its author (such as the solution to the 666 gematria which widely acknowledges this is probably a coded reference...
This, again, reflects a particular social and political positioning of American Evangelical Protestantism, and it would be foolish to pretend it was actual scholarship rather than a rather blandly-phrased form of indoctrination.Our semester plans gives you unlimited, unrestricted access to our entire library of resources —writing tools, guides, example essays, tutorials, class notes, and more.
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