Scan barcode
A review by dean_issov
Revelations: Visions, Prophecy, and Politics in the Book of Revelation by Elaine Pagels
informative
medium-paced
5.0
đź“š Description
"How did this book (Book of Revelation) speak to people when it was written two thousand years ago, and how does it continue to do so today? These questions led to this book, for, whether we love or hate it, the Book of Revelation speaks to something deep in human nature. I began this writing during a time of war, when some who advocated war claimed to find its meaning in Revelation, which was itself written in the aftermath of war. Exploring how this book has fascinated readers for two thousand years tells us much about ourselves and about how religion evokes such powerful responses—for better and for worse—to this day."
- Elaine Pagels (Chapter 1)
✔️ What I liked
1. It gives a good overview of the history behind the Book of Revelation, not exhautive but long enough for both the layperson and academic to enjoy.
2. Pagel's clear and smooth writing shines in this book.
3. The notes section is full of information that can be a resource for further reading into the subject.
❌ What I didn't like
1. It ended! Lol
đź“‘ Notes/Highlights
1. Although John held all emperors in contempt, he apparently chose Nero—who was said to have burned Jewish followers of Jesus alive to illuminate his garden—to epitomize “the beast” that was Roman rule. To make sure that no one missed his meaning, he offered this telling clue: “This calls for wisdom: let anyone with understanding calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a person. Its number is six hundred sixty-six.” Historians familiar with the numerological system Jews called gematria, which assigns a numerical value to each letter and calculates the relationship between the numbers, have offered various suggestions to interpret this mysterious number. Some still debate its meaning, but many now agree that the most obvious calculations suggest that the “number of the beast” spells out Nero’s imperial name
2. Although John’s prophecies are in the New Testament, we do not actually know whether he saw himself as a Christian. There is no doubt that John was a devoted follower of Jesus Christ, but he never actually uses the term “Christian”—probably because what we call Christianity had not yet become entirely separate from Judaism. Instead, like Peter, Paul, and other early followers of Jesus, John clearly saw himself as a Jew who had found the messiah. Because this placed him among a minority, he also saw himself as part of Israel’s “holy remnant,” through whom he envisioned that all nations would finally come to share in Israel’s blessings. The New Testament Book of Acts says that certain believers did come to be called Christians for the first time just around the time John was writing—but, as we’ll see, unlike John, many of them probably were not born Jews.
3. Seventy years after John wrote Revelation, his visions of terror and hope inspired a revival movement called the New Prophecy—an early instance of how John’s prophecies have galvanized Christians to this day. Earthquakes, plague, and outbreaks of violence convinced the “new prophets”—as they have persuaded countless others throughout two thousand years—that they were living in the last days before God’s final judgment. The revival began in the late 160s, when a Christian named Montanus began speaking “in the spirit” near Philadelphia, a city in Asia Minor famous for its prophets, where, Montanus liked to point out, the Son of Man first revealed to John of Patmos an “open door” into heaven.
4. Irenaeus suggests that the increased intensity of persecution not only proves that John of Patmos’ prophecies are true but also shows clear continuity between his prophecies and those of Daniel and Jesus. “What Daniel prophesied about the end-times has been confirmed by the Lord” when Jesus prophesied the desecration of the Jerusalem Temple, just as John, “writing at the time of Domitian, … has shown in the Revelation even more clearly what shall happen in the end-times.” Irenaeus declares that all three—Daniel, Jesus, and John of Patmos—anticipated “what shall happen in the time of Antichrist.” By linking John’s visions of “the beast” and the “false prophet” with Antichrist, Irenaeus introduced an interpretation that, from his time to our own, has proved enormously influential. For although many readers, like Irenaeus, claim to find “the Antichrist”—that is, a false, deceptive messiah—in the Book of Revelation, this figure is never mentioned there. In all the New Testament, it is mentioned only in a short letter attributed to John, although Irenaeus encouraged believers to see it implied as well in Daniel’s vision of the “fourth beast” and in the Gospel of John, where Jesus prophesies the coming of a “deceiver.”
5. The fourth century began in a decade of terror. Rome was now “making war” on Jesus’ followers, just as John of Patmos had prophesied that “the beast” would do. On February 23, 303, the emperor Diocletian ordered his soldiers to destroy churches, confiscate and burn their sacred books, and strip anyone who resisted of civil rights, status, and police protection. This edict was enforced throughout much of the empire but most seriously in Egypt, where Christians experienced increasingly systematic persecution.
6. Athanasius concluded his own New Testament canon with that most controversial of books, John’s Book of Revelation, although he knew that it had ignited heated arguments ever since John had written it three hundred years earlier—arguments still ongoing. Had it not been for Athanasius, would Revelation be in the Bible? Christian leaders in earlier centuries—Justin, Irenaeus, Tertullian—had championed it; but when bishops and Christian leaders among Athanasius’ contemporaries composed their lists of “canonical books,” all others whose lists survive left out John’s Book of Revelation—and often only this book.
7. Bishop Eusebius of Caesarea, in Palestine, who forty years earlier had sparred with Athanasius’ mentor, Bishop Alexander, over the wording of the Nicene Creed and who later became a confidant of the emperor Constantine, shows in his enormously influential History of the Church how much controversy John’s book had aroused. Eusebius acknowledges that at the time he was writing (c. 325–340), there was as yet no officially accepted list of “canonized” New Testament books. Yet Eusebius expresses so much ambivalence about the Book of Revelation that he actually places it both on the list of books he calls “universally accepted” and on the list of books he calls “illegitimate.”
âť“ Would I recommend this book?
Yes. I recommend this especially to all Christians who fear the endtimes and to the bigots who use the Book of Revelation to put fear on others.
"How did this book (Book of Revelation) speak to people when it was written two thousand years ago, and how does it continue to do so today? These questions led to this book, for, whether we love or hate it, the Book of Revelation speaks to something deep in human nature. I began this writing during a time of war, when some who advocated war claimed to find its meaning in Revelation, which was itself written in the aftermath of war. Exploring how this book has fascinated readers for two thousand years tells us much about ourselves and about how religion evokes such powerful responses—for better and for worse—to this day."
- Elaine Pagels (Chapter 1)
✔️ What I liked
1. It gives a good overview of the history behind the Book of Revelation, not exhautive but long enough for both the layperson and academic to enjoy.
2. Pagel's clear and smooth writing shines in this book.
3. The notes section is full of information that can be a resource for further reading into the subject.
❌ What I didn't like
1. It ended! Lol
đź“‘ Notes/Highlights
1. Although John held all emperors in contempt, he apparently chose Nero—who was said to have burned Jewish followers of Jesus alive to illuminate his garden—to epitomize “the beast” that was Roman rule. To make sure that no one missed his meaning, he offered this telling clue: “This calls for wisdom: let anyone with understanding calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a person. Its number is six hundred sixty-six.” Historians familiar with the numerological system Jews called gematria, which assigns a numerical value to each letter and calculates the relationship between the numbers, have offered various suggestions to interpret this mysterious number. Some still debate its meaning, but many now agree that the most obvious calculations suggest that the “number of the beast” spells out Nero’s imperial name
2. Although John’s prophecies are in the New Testament, we do not actually know whether he saw himself as a Christian. There is no doubt that John was a devoted follower of Jesus Christ, but he never actually uses the term “Christian”—probably because what we call Christianity had not yet become entirely separate from Judaism. Instead, like Peter, Paul, and other early followers of Jesus, John clearly saw himself as a Jew who had found the messiah. Because this placed him among a minority, he also saw himself as part of Israel’s “holy remnant,” through whom he envisioned that all nations would finally come to share in Israel’s blessings. The New Testament Book of Acts says that certain believers did come to be called Christians for the first time just around the time John was writing—but, as we’ll see, unlike John, many of them probably were not born Jews.
3. Seventy years after John wrote Revelation, his visions of terror and hope inspired a revival movement called the New Prophecy—an early instance of how John’s prophecies have galvanized Christians to this day. Earthquakes, plague, and outbreaks of violence convinced the “new prophets”—as they have persuaded countless others throughout two thousand years—that they were living in the last days before God’s final judgment. The revival began in the late 160s, when a Christian named Montanus began speaking “in the spirit” near Philadelphia, a city in Asia Minor famous for its prophets, where, Montanus liked to point out, the Son of Man first revealed to John of Patmos an “open door” into heaven.
4. Irenaeus suggests that the increased intensity of persecution not only proves that John of Patmos’ prophecies are true but also shows clear continuity between his prophecies and those of Daniel and Jesus. “What Daniel prophesied about the end-times has been confirmed by the Lord” when Jesus prophesied the desecration of the Jerusalem Temple, just as John, “writing at the time of Domitian, … has shown in the Revelation even more clearly what shall happen in the end-times.” Irenaeus declares that all three—Daniel, Jesus, and John of Patmos—anticipated “what shall happen in the time of Antichrist.” By linking John’s visions of “the beast” and the “false prophet” with Antichrist, Irenaeus introduced an interpretation that, from his time to our own, has proved enormously influential. For although many readers, like Irenaeus, claim to find “the Antichrist”—that is, a false, deceptive messiah—in the Book of Revelation, this figure is never mentioned there. In all the New Testament, it is mentioned only in a short letter attributed to John, although Irenaeus encouraged believers to see it implied as well in Daniel’s vision of the “fourth beast” and in the Gospel of John, where Jesus prophesies the coming of a “deceiver.”
5. The fourth century began in a decade of terror. Rome was now “making war” on Jesus’ followers, just as John of Patmos had prophesied that “the beast” would do. On February 23, 303, the emperor Diocletian ordered his soldiers to destroy churches, confiscate and burn their sacred books, and strip anyone who resisted of civil rights, status, and police protection. This edict was enforced throughout much of the empire but most seriously in Egypt, where Christians experienced increasingly systematic persecution.
6. Athanasius concluded his own New Testament canon with that most controversial of books, John’s Book of Revelation, although he knew that it had ignited heated arguments ever since John had written it three hundred years earlier—arguments still ongoing. Had it not been for Athanasius, would Revelation be in the Bible? Christian leaders in earlier centuries—Justin, Irenaeus, Tertullian—had championed it; but when bishops and Christian leaders among Athanasius’ contemporaries composed their lists of “canonical books,” all others whose lists survive left out John’s Book of Revelation—and often only this book.
7. Bishop Eusebius of Caesarea, in Palestine, who forty years earlier had sparred with Athanasius’ mentor, Bishop Alexander, over the wording of the Nicene Creed and who later became a confidant of the emperor Constantine, shows in his enormously influential History of the Church how much controversy John’s book had aroused. Eusebius acknowledges that at the time he was writing (c. 325–340), there was as yet no officially accepted list of “canonized” New Testament books. Yet Eusebius expresses so much ambivalence about the Book of Revelation that he actually places it both on the list of books he calls “universally accepted” and on the list of books he calls “illegitimate.”
âť“ Would I recommend this book?
Yes. I recommend this especially to all Christians who fear the endtimes and to the bigots who use the Book of Revelation to put fear on others.