Seeing Things John's Way: Rhetography and Conceptual Blending in Revelation 14:6–13

Abstract During the past decade, socio-rhetorical interpretation has incorporated insights from cognitive science into its interpretive model. The result has been an emphasis on "rhetography," inviting interpreters to give more explicit attention to the mental images evoked by a particular text, and "conceptual blending," inviting interpreters to consider what conceptual frames are evoked by these images and how these larger frames supply premises that advance argumentation. This mode of analysis is especially promising in regard to uncovering the argumentative force of narrative and pictorial/visionary texts, like Revelation, that contain relatively few explicit indications of argumentation. The present study undertakes an exploration of Rev 14:6–13 with a view to demonstrating these interpretive tools at work and assessing their promise for interpretation.