2 - John, Eyewitness and Herald of the Visions

Summary

This chapter is dedicated to showing the technique used by John to portray himself as an eyewitness: description. This description, in the classical rhetorical tradition of ante oculos ponere, engages the audience in the narrative by giving them the opportunity to visualize what John himself saw. For example, descriptions introduced by the phrase ?a? e?d?? are rendered as though they formed part of a transcription of a vision made at the very moment it occurred. This is why they appear in the text ex abrupto, marked only by the introductory sign ?a? e?d??, a device habitually used to signal the reader/listener that a given vision has occurred unexpectedly. The ?a? e?d?? structure mimics the mechanics of sight. However, the descriptive forms employed in the book of Revelation are not limited to the use of this ?a? e?d?? pattern. On the contrary, throughout the text John employs six other kinds of descriptions: 1) ????sa ?a? e?d?? descriptions, or ecphrasis; 2) e?d??-????? descriptions; 3) t? p???e??µe?a descriptions; 4) ?a? e?d?? ???e??? descriptions; 5) ?? t? d????se? descriptions; 6) t?p?? or t?p???af?a descriptions.