4 big myths of Book of Revelation

[Monseratto]

Religious Talk...

4 big myths of Book of Revelation – CNN Belief Blog - CNN.com Blogs

(CNN) – The anti-Christ. The Battle of Armageddon. The dreaded Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.

You don’t have to be a student of religion to recognize references from the Book of Revelation. The last book in the Bible has fascinated readers for centuries. People who don’t even follow religion are nonetheless familiar with figures and images from Revelation.

And why not? No other New Testament book reads like Revelation. The book virtually drips with blood and reeks of sulfur. At the center of this final battle between good and evil is an action-hero-like Jesus, who is in no mood to turn the other cheek.

Elaine Pagels, one of the world’s leading biblical scholars, first read Revelation as a teenager. She read it again in writing her latest book, “Revelations: Visions, Prophecy & Politics in the Book of Revelation.”

Pagels’ book is built around a simple question: What does Revelation mean? Her answers may disturb people who see the book as a prophecy about the end of the world.

But people have clashed over the meaning of Revelation ever since it was virtually forced into the New Testament canon over the protests of some early church leaders, Pagels says.

1. It’s about the end of the world

The author of Revelation was trying to encourage the followers of Jesus at a time when their world seemed doomed. Think of the Winston Churchill radio broadcasts delivered to the British during the darkest days of World War II.

Revelation was an anti-Roman tract and a piece of war propaganda wrapped in one. The message: God would return and destroy the Romans who had destroyed Jerusalem.

“His primary target is Rome,” Pagels says of the book’s author. “He really is deeply angry and grieved at the Jewish war and what happened to his people.”

2. The numerals 666 stand for the devil

Pagels, however, says the writer of Revelation didn’t really intend 666 as the devil’s digits. He was describing another incarnation of evil: The Roman emperor, Nero.

The arrogant and demented Nero was particularly despised by the earliest followers of Jesus, including the writer of Revelation. Nero was said to have burned followers of Jesus alive to illuminate his garden.

But the author of Revelation couldn’t safely name Nero, so he used the Jewish numerology system to spell out Nero’s imperial name, Pagels says.

3. The writer of Revelation was a Christian.

The author of Revelation was like an activist crusading for traditional values. In his case, he was a devout Jew who saw Jesus as the messiah. But he didn’t like the message that the apostle Paul and other followers of Jesus were preaching.

4. There is only one Book of Revelation

So why did the revelation from John of Patmos make it into the Bible, but not the others?

Pagels traces that decision largely to Bishop Athanasius, a pugnacious church leader who championed Revelation about 360 years after the death of Jesus.

Athanasius was so fiery that during his 46 years as bishop he was deposed and exiled five times. He was primarily responsible for shaping the New Testament while excluding books he labeled as hearsay, Pagels says.

Many church leaders opposed including Revelation in the New Testament. Athanasius’s predecessor said the book was “unintelligible, irrational and false.”

Athanasius, though, saw Revelation as a useful political tool. He transformed it into an attack ad against Christians who questioned him.

Rome was no longer the enemy; those who questioned church authority were the anti-Christs in Athanasius’s reading of Revelation, Pagels says.

“Athanasius interprets Revelation’s cosmic war as a vivid picture of his own crusade against heretics and reads John’s visions as a sharp warning to Christian dissidents,” she writes. “God is about to divide the saved from the damned – which now means dividing the ‘orthodox’ from ‘heretics.’ ’’

Centuries later, Revelation still divides people. Pagels calls it the strangest and most controversial book in the Bible.

[Harangody]

We can't talk about religion here anymore...

[niky]

Good read for those who believe the Bible is some monolithic, self-consistent single book that's existed unchanging since the beginning of time...

The book of Revelations is one of those favorites of fire-and-brimstone evangelists who hold themselves beyond criticism. It's not surprising that it was codified into the Bible by a Pope who thought in the same way.

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What is sad is that the Bible is no longer being updated for modern times. The books cover a span of over a thousand years of writing, but nothing new has been added since Revelations.

[oliver1013]

Does that mean the sacking of Rome by the barbarian Horde is the apocalypse?

[ess]

Does that mean the sacking of Rome by the barbarian Horde is the apocalypse?

Pwede. The fall of the Roman Empire was followed by what was known as the Dark Ages, where by Roman standards, civilization ceased to exist.

[donbuggy]

But there's the Beast Revelation.

And the signs of the coming Apocalypse:
- earthquake every 188 days
- tsunami
- fish falling from the sky
- baradong inidoro

[CVT]

Sabi ng iba, ang Beatles daw ang 4 Horsemen of the Apocalypse....
15.3K:jazzybass:

[CoDer]

Best of luck sa mga mag dare sa pag interpret sa Book of Revelation.

[xninjax]

I am the 5th horseman of the apocalypse.. :D

[greenlyt]

Sabi ng iba, ang Beatles daw ang 4 Horsemen of the Apocalypse....
15.3K:jazzybass:

I think that was mentioned in the movie Helter Skelter