Abstract
This is an elegantly written, humane and scholarly treatment of the reception history of one verse in the book of Revelation, which demonstrates something, at least, of the richness of meaning which interpreters have given to/discovered in the reference in chapter one to John’s sojourn on Patmos. What might seem at first sight (not least in the light of the largely uninteresting readings of this verse to be found in commentaries of the last century or so) to be a rather limited undertaking, turns out, precisely because of its close focus on this one verse, to be a fascinating presentation of the rich potential for meaning of his text.
Boxall’s work is deeply endebted to Hans-Georg Gadamer: he is the figure who has above all made interpreters (if they are willing to listen) aware of the ways in which they are inextricably caught up in a web of links to the major texts in their cultures. Such texts are not just specimens neatly arranged in drawers in a zoological museum awaiting our inspection, they form part of the culture to which we owe a large part of what we are, but which we too can influence and modify as we engage with it in the ongoing task of interpretation and clarification. Interpretation in this sense becomes a good deal more than a matter of classifying texts, of simply introducing them in their diversity and showing their interrelatedness, though none of these arts is to be despised. It is also a matter of striving to uncover the Sache, that with which the writer was engaging and which has continued to engage interpreters down the ages. It is a process of recovering and nurturing our cultural, communal memory, and it is a process which sees texts and the history of their reception as vital entry-points to this shared memory.
Boxall’s treatment is divided chronologically and geographically (Eastern and Western readings) and within these divisions there are further subdivisions which look at different types of readings of the text. Starting with a close reading of the text which points up its ambiguity and therefore the interpretative space which it offers to the interpreter, Boxall’s survey encompasses a considerable variety of genres: commentaries, biographical works, poetry, liturgical works, hymnody, sermons and visual representations. He concludes with reflections on the hermeneutical implications of reception historical studies.
This division allows Boxall to discern a quite clear pattern of development in the interpretations of the text. Early texts are mostly biographical, setting John’s stay on Patmos in the wider context of his life, but often drawing out the parallels between John’s treatment by the Emperor and their own. Western commentaries from the 6th century to the Reformation develop allegorical and tropological readings, alongside more literal, biographical readings and tend to see Patmos as a place of revelation, a place set apart ‘where actual and mythic geography merge’ (4). A separate chapter is devoted to Eastern interpretations, with particular attention to the Acts of John by Prochorus and its typological reading linking John on Patmos with Moses on Sinai. From the Reformation/Renaissance period onwards interest in the biographical aspects of the text return, as Reformers draw parallels between John’s and their own experiences of persecution. Luther (despite his distaste for the Book of Revelation) refers to his time in the Wartburg as ‘my Patmos’; the Presbyterian John Blackadder’s tombstone in North Berwick compares his time of imprisonment on the Bass Rock to Mount Pisgah and Patmos. The theme is richly taken up by Hölderlin and some of the Victorian poets. More recent readings are treated with less enthusiasm.
Some of the most fascinating discussions occur in the chapter on visual interpretations. There are excellent, detailed and suggestive interpretations of works by Hieronymus Bosch, Sandro Botticelli, Hans Burkmaier the Elder and others. Botticelli portrays John seated on some barren, strangely book-shaped rocks on the shore of the island. Do they represent the books of the Law which ‘his’ revelation will replace? Or the works of the Renaissance against which Savanorola was preaching in Florence? Burkmaier’s work portrays John’s island as a tropical paradise, raising questions about its context in the period immediately following Columbus’ voyages and the search for an earthly Paradise. What is clear is that for much of Christian history Patmos provides a powerful metaphor for experiences of transcendence, of illumination and insight.
The range of the thesis is remarkable, as is Boxall’s sustained scholarly grasp of his subject matter. I read with growing admiration for the quality of the work and with great pleasure. I would argue that this is a work of very considerable importance for the discipline of biblical studies. It demonstrates with great clarity how much is lost through an unduly narrow historical approach to the Bible. It shows how remarkably unhistorical biblical studies can be when they neglect the rich history of texts, as their meaning unfolds through their reception by writers and artists in different times and places.
For the issue is not simply what is the plain historical/literal sense of the single verse Rev 1:9: ‘I was on the island which is called Patmos on account of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus’, difficult though that may be to resolve. There clearly are some good historical questions about the reasons for John’s presence on Patmos, both in terms of the circumstances, political or otherwise that may have brought him there, and also in terms of the wider purposes which John himself may have harboured. But beyond these lie properly theological questions about the nature of the events to which John refers and the importance, for those who live within the tradition nurtured by such texts, of moments of rupture, discontinuity, critique and of innovation and transcendence. When Luther, holed up in the Wartburg, with the forces of the Pope and the Emperor ranged against him, struggling to grasp ‘his’ gospel, to anchor that moment of illumination, of revelation, in his understanding of the tradition and of Scripture, compared his experience to that of John’s, he was claiming a place in the ranks of those who had risked all to open up their worlds to the invasion of God’s truth. And he was pointing to very specific characteristics of such invasive moments: the sense in which he stood on the boundaries of the known world, isolated in a particular place, as on an island in a sea of troubles, in a barren place where the tradition has petrified (Botticelli). Boxall’s remarkable achievement is to have shown how to read an apparently theologically unpromising text in such a way as to demonstrate its powerful contribution to the Christian conversation about its sources of truth and understanding. And to have done so in a way which is elegant, which carries its learning lightly and which has produced a book which is a joy to read.