Socio-political: external

Question 1

Wine imagery

Answer 1

‘Wine of her fornication’
Explicitly parallels Roman civilisation with the ‘wine of the wrath of God’ - suggesting Christians will rise as Rome did?

Question 2

‘The beast that thou sawest…’

Answer 2

‘The beast that thou sawest was, and is not; and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit, and go into perdition: and they that dwell on the earth shall wonder, whose names were not written in the book of life from the foundation of the world, when they behold the beast that was, and is not, and yet is.’

Question 3

‘New Jerusalem…’

Answer 3

‘New Jerusalem…prepared as a bride for her husband’

Question 4

‘We give thanks…’

Answer 4

• ‘we give thanks, O lord God Almighty…because thou hast taken to thee thy great power, and hast reigned’

Question 5

‘For true…’

Answer 5

‘for true and righteous are his judgements: for he hath judged the great whore….and hath avenged the blood of his servants at her hand’

Question 6

How is 666 also read?

Answer 6

As 616 - name of Nero

Question 7

What does the Mark of the Beast suggest?

Answer 7

Parodies sealing of the Elect, but also suggests need for Christian exclusivism and retreat from social life

Question 8

‘many men died of the waters’

Answer 8

Comparison to contemporary sicknesses; even etiological in that it explains illnesses/suggests illnesses have divine causes?

Question 9

‘No men might buy or sell…’

Answer 9

‘No men might buy or sell, save he that had the mark’ -

showing clear cultural/economic basis