Humor, Resistance, and Jewish Cultural Persistence in the Book of Revelation

Will appeal to those interested in the book of Revelation, humor and the Bible, the Jewishness of the New Testament, and contemporary and critical approaches to the New Testament. This book positions Revelation within an ancient Jewish context and demonstrates the ways in which the author used humor as a means of resisting Roman power.

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Empire-critical and postcolonial readings of Revelation are now commonplace, but scholars have not yet put these views into conversation with Jewish trauma and cultural survival strategies. In this book, Sarah Emanuel positions Revelation within its ancient Jewish context. Proposing a new reading of Revelation, she demonstrates how the text's author, a first century CE Jewish Christ-follower, used humor as a means of resisting Roman power. Emanuel uses multiple critical lenses, including humor, trauma, and postcolonial theory, together with historical-critical methods. These approaches enable a deeper understanding of the Jewishness of the early Christ-centered movement, and how Jews in antiquity related to their cultural and religious identity. Emanuel's volume offers new insights and fills a gap in contemporary scholarship on Revelation and biblical scholarship more broadly.