John as Theologos: the Imperial Mysteries and the Apocalypse

Abstract

The title θεoλόγoς was used in Ephesus in the sixth century in connection with the cult of St John in which the evangelist and Seer were considered one and the same person. Furthermore, θεoλόγoς was a term with its own pagan cultic connotations from earlier centuries, one of whose forms specifically related to the imperial cult. My concern in this paper has been to argue that the Christian application of this term to John the Seer reflected that earlier paganism. Such reflections bear their own witness to what I establish by independent analysis, namely that the visions of the Apocalypse are contra-cultural reflections of the imperial cult. John the Seer produces for the Christian cult alternative images to those produced by the func tionary in the imperial cult who bears the title of θεoλόγoς.