Early Christian Apocalypticism : genre and social setting

In analyzing generic concepts from a paradigmatic point of view, Hellholm notes that genres participate in three separate, though related, aspects: form, content, and function. This is true for all levels of abstraction, called (in linguistic analysis) subsememe, sememe, archisememe, superarchisememe, etc. Applying this to apocalypses, the author suggests 31 semes-noemes; no apocalypse has all characteristics but all have some from each aspect. In spite of the necessary hierarchization of these characteristics, Hellholm maintains that even this is unsatisfactory. We need to complement it with text-linguistic analysis. This approach can take into account not only content, form, and function, but also the syntagmatic aspects (microas well as macro-syntagmatic structures). This latter analysis requires hierarchically-arranged communication levels of different ranks. The final result is a threedimensional analysis of texts. Using a previous text analysis he did with The Shepherd of Hermas as a model, the author concludes by performing this procedure on the Apocalypse of John, noting both significant similarities and differences. For Geo Widengren on his 75th birthday 1. Models and Reality 1.1 "Texts are abbreviations; they abridge, they simplify what is to be designated—and they do so by omitting" (Raíble, 1979a: 2; Husserl: 354•Public lecture delivered on February 18, 1982, at the Divinity School, The University of Chicago. 1 Regarding concepts defined by extension I am—as far as textlinguistic analyses are concerned—in total agreement with Kurt Baldinger (269), when he writes that these "have no ontologica! implications concerning, for instance, the distinction between 'real' and 'fictitious'