John of Patmos and the Appeal of an Exotic Apocalypse

Abstract

Abstract This article situates John of Patmos, the author of the New Testament Apocalypse of John, as an exotic ritual expert within the religious landscape of the Roman East. Through comparison with local ritual specialists of the Egyptian gods Isis and Sarapis, I argue that John similarly deploys his own culturally constructed and imperially mediated foreignness to demonstrate the exotic appeal of his Judean God among the assemblies in the cities of western Asia Minor. I consider the role of ritual experts at the Isis sanctuary in Priene and the competing Sarapeia on Delos to contextualize Revelation’s presentation of John as the only “true” expert among several “false” competitors and an authentic representative of his exotic Judean God.