Riches, Poverty, and the Faithful Mathews Paperback Cambridge University Press

Riches, Poverty, and the FaithfulPerspectives on Wealth in the Second Temple Period and the Apocalypse of John\nAuthor(s): Mark D. Mathews\nFormat: Paperback\nPublisher: Cambridge University Press, United Kingdom\nImprint: Cambridge University Press\nISBN-13: 9781107567443, 978-1107567443\nSynopsis\nIn the book of Revelation, John appeals to the faithful to avoid the temptations of wealth, which he connects with evil and disobedience within secular society. New Testament scholars have traditionally viewed his somewhat radical stance as a reaction to the social injustices and idolatry of the imperial Roman cults of the day. Mark D. Mathews argues that John's rejection of affluence was instead shaped by ideas in the Jewish literature of the Second Temple period which associated the rich with the wicked and viewed the poor as the righteous. Mathews explores how traditions preserved in the Epistle of Enoch and later Enochic texts played a formative role in shaping John's theological pers.