David A. deSilva > Quotes

“John exposes Pax Romana and Pax Augusta to be bald-faced lies. He does not allow his hearers to ignore the fact that a great deal of violence has gone into creating and sustaining empire, for example, in the brutal suppression of the Jewish Revolt. How is it truly a matter of “peace” if you use overwhelming force to subdue a country that never wished to be a part of your empire in the first place?”
― David A. Desilva, Unholy Allegiances: Heeding Revelation's Warning

“Thus apocalypses set an audience’s space within the context of a larger, invisible world, and they set the audience’s time in the context of a sacred history of God’s activity and carefully defined plan.”
― David A. Desilva, Unholy Allegiances: Heeding Revelation's Warning

“John would have disciples in every age understand—and live like they understand—that they exist to do God’s bidding, because God created all things for the doing of God’s will and pleasure (4:11).”
― David A. Desilva, Unholy Allegiances: Heeding Revelation's Warning

“In John’s vision of the cosmos, there is no room for gathering around God’s throne at one time as one’s cosmic center and at another time in the fellowship of idols and their worshipers.”
― David A. Desilva, Unholy Allegiances: Heeding Revelation's Warning

“The title “Lord of lords,” for example, was ascribed to the emperor; the acclamations of God and Christ as “worthy” (4:11; 5:9) echo the sorts of acclamations with which citizens greeted their emperor. And Zeus or Jupiter, the highest god whose power stood behind the emperor, was lauded with the formula “Zeus was, Zeus is, Zeus will be, O great Zeus!,” now taken over by John and transformed for the One God, “who was, and is, and is coming.” The shift (from “will be” to “is coming”) is significant: this God is on the way to encounter his creation and intervene once more in human affairs.”
― David A. Desilva, Unholy Allegiances: Heeding Revelation's Warning

“The cities of Asia Minor were as enthusiastic and as invested in hosting the imperial cult as modern cities are about convincing a major football team to relocate or winning the bid to host the Olympics.”
― David A. Desilva, Unholy Allegiances: Heeding Revelation's Warning

“Like Jonah’s word, Revelation as prophecy seeks mainly to stimulate faithful response among John’s audience, not to provide an absolute blueprint for an uncertain future.”
― David A. Desilva, Unholy Allegiances: Heeding Revelation's Warning

“In many instances, however, I would expect such instances of discomfort to draw our attention to the ways in which we have drunk deep from Babylon’s cup and are tempted to remain in our stupor.”
― David A. Desilva, Unholy Allegiances: Heeding Revelation's Warning

“The greatest threat the hearers face is to be found unprepared to encounter God or God’s Christ at his coming (6:12–17), thus being exposed to the threat of the “second death” (2:11) or being written out of the “Book of Life” (3:5).”
― David A. Desilva, Unholy Allegiances: Heeding Revelation's Warning

“But all of what Jesus says in this chapter should be read in light of the opening few verses: “Do whatever they teach you and follow it” (23: 3). All of it should be read in light of Jesus’ words in the earlier sermon, “unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and the Pharisees, you will never enter” (5: 20). It seems unreasonable to suggest, in light of Jesus’ comparison, that the Pharisees were not a serious, and highly influential, religious movement during the first century. Jesus’ “woes” against the tradition’s bearers is not a direct attack on tradition itself, but an attack on its appropriation especially when “justice, and mercy, and faith” are disregarded (23: 23). Religious practices ought not to replace genuine acts of piety for the sake of others. For this Jesus states clearly, “I desire mercy and not sacrifice” (9: 13; 12: 7).”
― David Desilva, Invitation to the New Testament: Participant Book: A Short-Term DISCIPLE Bible Study

“shame about being. “We say, I am ashamed of myself. I am guilty for something.”
― David A. deSilva, Honor, Patronage, Kinship & Purity: Unlocking New Testament Culture

“This tenet, however, ignores the primary purpose of prophecy, which is not to give hard and fast statements about an unchangeable future, but to evoke faithful response.”
― David A. Desilva, Unholy Allegiances: Heeding Revelation's Warning

“While such prophecy could include a predictive element, it was also—and perhaps primarily—a declaration of God’s action in the present or an announcement of God’s evaluation of the present actions of God’s people, diagnosing problems and calling for realignment with God’s values. Prophecy is essentially a “word of the Lord” breaking into the situation of the Lord’s people who need guidance or encouragement or a call to repentance and recommitment.”
― David A. Desilva, Unholy Allegiances: Heeding Revelation's Warning

“We have sought to read Revelation less as a coded text to be interpreted, and more as a text that imposed a Christ-centered interpretation upon the everyday activities, landscapes, and stories encountered by the members of the seven congregations addressed by John in their setting. Having entered the larger picture and the re-picturing of the cosmos as John’s Apocalypse was read aloud to the gathered assembly, the hearers are changed, as is their everyday world, which they see anew as but a part of a broader reality that puts the everyday world into a different perspective. The voyeuristic experience of entering into John’s encounter with the unseen world—and looking back from there upon the landscape of the visible world—provides a religious experience that disposes hearers indeed to “keep the words of this prophecy” (Rev 22:7) as they return to the normal world where they will hear the Christian prophetess “Jezebel” try to defend her position, encounter further propaganda about the emperor and Roma Aeterna, watch goods being transported to ports for transit by ship to Rome, try to engage in their business activities again, and encounter the other everyday realities of their cities. But”
― David A. Desilva, Unholy Allegiances: Heeding Revelation's Warning

“A grounded and responsible reading of Revelation begins with reading it first as we would read Paul’s Letters to the Galatians or Philippians or the Letters of the Elder (1–3 John), namely, as a piece of communication that reveals its meaning and message most fully when we immerse ourselves in the contexts and conversations of its ancient audience, when we exercise ourselves to understand it as a pastoral word to them in the midst of their concerns and circumstances.”
― David A. Desilva, Unholy Allegiances: Heeding Revelation's Warning