In general, Revelation studies continue to favour going outside or behind the text (in search of its context of origin, via the historical-critical paradigm) or, more recently, in front of the text (to investigate the book's reception history, past and present). To date, relatively little synchronic exegetical work inside the text has been undertaken, with the aim of understanding the text as we have it and on its own terms. To facilitate such work, narrative criticism has supplied some much-needed tools and methods, although these are mainly used to explore the mechanics of how a text...