Israel and the Church in Romans and Revelation

The aim of this investigation is to understand the place of Israel, and its relationship to the church, according to Romans and Revelation. Reflecting on the theological resonances and dissonances between these two texts allows us to hear what each has to say about Israel more clearly, and to begin to hear what the New Testament as a whole has to say about Israel more fully. The temporal distance between Romans and Revelation introduces a socio-historical dimension to such theological comparison, inviting us to ask, How did we get from the Israel-theology of Romans to the Israel-theology of Revelation? What is the nature of the trajectory and what were the forces and factors that shaped its development? Attempting to answer these questions highlights one particularly interesting point of intersection between the two texts, from which to further explore their engagement with Israel: the influence of Rome. It is in considering the dynamics of the Rome-Israel-church triad—and in particular the noxious effect of Nero’s persecution—that the thesis makes its most distinctive contribution to understanding the theological and social relationship between Israel and the church in Romans and Revelation.