Astral Prophecy

Bruce Malina ( On the Genre and Message of Revelation: Star Visions and Sky Journeys ) interestingly places Revelation in the “genre” of astral prophecy.

One of the consequences of this classification is to specify the social location of the prophecy. As Malina notes, “The role of ‘prophet’ in the Hellenistic world was a social one performed usually on behalf of a whole society. And given the structure of society, the role of propht was usually a political role exercised on behalf of a king, emperor, general or the like.” At times, as in Revelation, “the role was performed on ehalf of a smaller group,” and the fact that John delivers the revelation to his “brothers” means that by the time he writes “the Israelite policy no longer served as mooring for Christian groupings, either because John and his ‘brothers’ were ejected from Israel or because the kingfom od Judea was dissolving or simply no longer existed.”

All this means that “there is no necessary connection between a writing like Revelation and groups looking forward to an imminent transformation of the world.” Contrary to the assumptions of many historians, astral prophecy does “not necessarily arise in times of crisis, nor are they always, if ever, a product of the oppressed, marginalized, and powerless.” Instead, astral prophecy arises from “some philosophical or scribal establishment for political elites.”