Rollens & Hart/Many Sparrows, 1. Partaking in the Great Supper of God

This essay examines the small collection of avian imagery present in the Apocalypse of John, which helps animate the unfolding conflict in the unfolding revelation. The imagery of birds is consistently aligned with the agency and activity of the divine, and they are also figures with communicative power, closely connected the divine violence that plays out in the text. Far from being merely ornamental in the story or peripheral to the eschatological visions, these feathered figures are complex and intriguing characters in the Apocalypse.