The present paper has the purpose of emphasizing the use of verbal tenses and moods in the poetic texts of the Apocalypse in order to demonstrate that the author uses grammar to communicate his theology and his world-view. There is diversity between individual writers and documents in the level of emphasis on anthropological and cosmological evil respectively.ĭifferent articles have been written about hymns in the Revelation, focusing on their cultural background or their specific function within the narrative of the entire book. A more accurate assessment is that the Apostolic Fathers, like the NT writings, consistently reflect theologies of evil that incorporate both anthropological and cosmological elements. His analysis understates the extent of references to mythological evil in several of the Apostolic Fathers, and his conclusions are thus invalid. Burke’s methodology is shown to rely heavily on false dichotomies and negative evidence. This response article contends that Burke’s study is flawed both in its methodology and its exegetical results. This article responds to a previous study in the same journal by Jonathan Burke, who argues “that certain texts among the Apostolic Fathers corpus exhibit a significant marginalization of Satan and demons.” Burke regards this as evidence for “a first century demythological Christianity which survived well into the second century though only as a minority report.” This marginalising or demythologising phenomenon, he believes, is efficiently explained by “non-belief in Satan and demons” on the part of the authors of these works. In hell, nineteen angels of punishment (S 74:30), often referred to as black-garbed zabāniya, who are supervised by Mālik, the keeper of hell (S 43:77), are portrayed as having a similarly shocking, gargantuan appearance, so much so that they can clutch multitudes of the damned with their enormous claws in a single moment (Suyūṭī: 416 al-Majlisī: 8:453 Lange 2016a: 144–45). Another angel, Rūmān, not mentioned in the Qurʾān, visits the graves of the deceased accompanied by two monstrous black angels with canine teeth, long shaggy hair, voices like thunder, eyes like lightning, breath like strong wind (al-Ghazālī: 23–24, ET: 33–34 cf. Exod 12:23 2 Sam 24:16 Isa 37:36), called ʿIzrāʾīl/ʿAzrāʾīl in exegetical works, who is ascribed a monstrous demeanor, prodigious dimensions, and attributes (al-Qāḍī: 5.6–8, ET: 32–35 Günther: 321). The Qurʾān speaks of an “angel of death” (Arab. In a Shiʿi tradition, the role of the tamer is played by Muḥammad’s son-in-law ʿAlī, who seizes the monster’s reins and rear mounts the beast, while holding the keys to paradise and hell (al-Majlisī: 7:243 Lange 2016a: 127–8). The notion of a beastly monster is further reinforced by its name al-ḥuṭama (S 104:4–5), “the Insatiable” or “the Crusher.” Islamic tradition and qurʾānic exegesis further embellish the gruesome activities of the personification of evil (Suyūṭī: 68, 411, 149–52, 227 al-Majlisī: 7.95–6 8.464) which, however, is heroically reined in by the prophet Muḥammad (Suyūṭī: 68, 149–52, 227 al-Majlisī: 7.95–6). gēhinnōm) who is led in chains by the angels (Lange 2016b: 74–99). aḥādīth) engage in elaborate descriptions of the hell-monster Jahannam (a cognate of Heb. 4:5 5:3, in which hell is the belly of a dragon and in Ephrem’s Nisibene Hymns, 61:26, in which hell “groans” over the sinners). 56:8, in which the mouth of hell swallows sinners 3 Bar. In the Qurʾān, hell itself is personified: gifted with speech, it dialogues with God (S 50:30), summons “those who turned their backs and fled” (S 70:17), rages and roars (S 25:12), and is “nearly bursting with rage” (S 67:7–8 parallels in Judeo-Christian sources include 1 En. As the demonic “other,” these portentous symbols of chaos, evil, and death serve as warners, revealers, and explorers. Awe-inspiring and terrifying, the supernatural landscape of the Islamic world is populated with mixed or composite shapeshifting monsters.
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