2 Sjef van Tilborg Revelation was indeed written in response to a crisis, but one that resulted from the clash between the expectations of John and like- minded Christians and the social reality within which they had to live (3), E. Schüssler Fiorenza thinks that Like John, Christians of Asia Minor suffered a deep tension between their faith and their experience. They believed in the ultimate power of God and Christ, but at the same time they experienced daily their powerlessness in the face of harassment, oppression, and persecu- tion (4). I don’t think it is possible to reconstruct from a fictional text — and the Apocalypse is in the NT a fictional text par excellence — the historico-sociological setting in which the book would have arisen. The social reality has influenced the thinking and the imagination of the author but in my opinion it is not possible to retrieve this from the text. What is very well possible is to show parallel lines: to make a reconstruction of a historico-sociological reality and parallel to it to show that (parts of) the text of the Apocalypse reflect this reality; that they refer to it within this particular historico-sociological context; that the same type of language is used. There has always been a big interest in the relationship between the cult of the emperor and the persecution. In the study of the Apocalypse the role of Nero and Domitian in particular has then been examined. Meanwhile it is clear that, aside from the incidental actions against some Christians in Rome, there was no question of State persecution. The actions in Rome had no — or in any case no demonstrable — consequences in the provinces, in Asia Minor in this case(5). This may all be true but according to P. Prigent it should not lead to the conclusion that there would not have been any real danger to the life of Christians in the Asia Minor area covered by the Apocalypse: (3) A. YARBO COLLINS, Crisis and Catharsis (Philadelphia 1984) 165. (4) E. SCHÜSSLER FIORENZA, Invitation to the Book of Revelation (Garden City, NY 1981) 28. (5) See e.g. E. GRIFFE, Les persécutions contre les chrétiens aux Ier et IIe siècles (Paris 1967); Opposition et Résistance à l’Empire d’Auguste à Trajan (ed. G. ADALBERTO) (Vandoeuvres – Genève 1987); L.L. THOMPSON, Book of Revelation, 95-132; B.W. JONES, The Emperor Domitian (London – New York 1992); Sh. BARTSCH, Actors in the Audience. Theatricality and Doublespeak from Nero to Hadrian (Cambridge, MA 1994); R.A. BAUMAN, Crime and Punishment in Ancient Rome (London – New York 1996); B. LEVICK, Vespasian (London – New York 1999); FRIESEN, Imperial Cults and the Apocalypse, 145-151.