Now that I have provided some posts on the book of Revelation "in a nutshell," including discussions of who wrote it, when, and why -- along with how it is commonly misinterpreted by readers (those who read it!) today -- I can give a quick summary, of Revelation at a Glance, along with three questions to spur your own thinking further. *********************   AT A GLANCE The Book of Revelation The book of Revelation gives a narrative description of a prophet’s vision of what will happen when God brings the world to a cataclysmic end and creates a new heaven and a new earth for his people. The book is best understood within its own historical context as one of the ancient Jewish and Christian apocalypses. Unlike most other apocalypses, it is not pseudonymous: It was written by a Christian prophet named John. This was not, however, John the son of Zebedee. Like other apocalypses, the book is filled with bizarre symbolic visions (whose interpretation the author often intimates), violent repetitions of action, [...]

To most modern readers, the Apocalypse of John seems mystical and bizarre, quite unlike anything else that they have read or, well, want to read. In part, this explains some (other) peoples’ fascination with the book—it is so strange, so unearthly, that its descriptions cannot simply have been dreamt up. Its supernatural feel seems to vindicate its supernatural character. The historian who approaches the book, however, sees it in a somewhat different light, for this was not the only book of its kind to be written in the ancient world, even if it is the only one that most of us have ever read. As with all genres (novels, epic poems, short stories, limericks) apocalypses shared a number of literary conventions that made them different from other kinds of writing.  If you understand these conventions, you will be much better equipped to understand this particular book in light of them. In this post I’ll explain what those conventions were and in the next I’ll show how they help shape the book of Revelation.  [...]

In my previous posts I have given a sketch of what the book of Revelation (AKA the Apocalypse of John) is all about, and discussed who actually wrote it (some fellow named John, but not John the son of Zebedee). Now we can move into the question of when it was written and why.   I have taken this account from my textbook The Bible: A Historical and Literary Introduction 2nd ed. (Oxford University Press). ****************************** As with all the apocalypses of the ancient world, it is important to situate the Revelation of John in some kind of historical context to make sense of its bizarre symbolism. There are hints scattered throughout the book that portions of it were written in the time of the emperor Nero (in the early 60s C.E.), although the final product is usually dated to the end of the first century, around the year 95 C.E. or so, during the reign of the emperor Domitian. It is clear from the letters written to the seven churches in Revelation chapters [...]

Now that I have summarized the book of Revelation – it’s not that difficult to follow the basic structure of the narrative -- we get to the thorny questions of who wrote it, when, and why.  In this post we deal with the WHO. The author of Revelation certainly claims to be John (1:1), but there were numerous “Johns” in the early Christian community.  Which one was he? He does give some information about himself (1:9):  he is the “brother” of the Christians he is addressing and he shares their tribulation as he writes to them from the island of Patmos, off the west coast of Asia Minor.  Since his readers knew him, he had no need to explain any further who he was.  Later readers, however, have tried to figure out his identity. John was a common name in Jewish circles, and eventually became a name taken up by non-Jewish Christians It is important to recognize that this John does not claim to be any particular John.  He does not, for instance, [...]

We are fast approaching the end of this series on “The New Testament in a Nutshell,” in which I explain in summary fashion each book of the Christian (“new”) Scriptures.  As is natural, we end with the final book of the New Testament which, as is also natural, is a detailed account of how the world as we know it will end, the book of Revelation.  (Please note!  It is not "Revelations" but "Revelation.") The Revelation of John, also known as the Apocalypse of John or just the Apocalypse (“apocalypse” is the Greek word for the Latin term “revelation” – both mean an “unveiling,” a “disclosure,” a revealing”) is the most mystifying and at-first-glance bizarre book of the New Testament, one of the the least read (people generally find it too strange), and the most widely misunderstood (since those who *do* read it take it to mean something other than it does). If I were to summarize it in fifty words, I could probably do worse (and better, for that matter) than this: [...]

A few months ago I was invited to do a remote interview with a podcaster from Ukraine, Mikhail Abakumov, who has emigrated to Poland because of the war.  Mikhail is a Christian scholar, working with Ukranian refugees, and writing a dissertation on the famous German theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer, famous for being involved with, and eventually executed for, an assassination plot against Hitler.  Bonhoeffer has been an inspiration to many Christian seminarians, pastors, theologians, and thinkers at large ever since. During my interview with Mikhail I learned something that blew my mind.  I knew full well that many American fundamentalists had long identified the Soviet Union, and then Russia (or one of its leaders) as the "Antichrist" (the "evil empire"); I had no idea that conservative Slavic Christians returned the favor and thought the same of the USA.  Particularly today.  That in fact the war in Ukraine was a fulfillment of Scriptural prophecies, especially the book of Revelation, which showed how the conflict would end and what world order would emerge from its ashes. I asked [...]

I continue here my post from yesterday, explaining the Christian background to U.S. Support of Israel, taken from my recently-published book Armageddon: What the Bible Really Says About the End ****************************** It is important to stress that evangelicals think God is faithful to Israel even if Jews are not faithful to God.  He has fulfilled and will continue to fulfill his promises that Israel will have the Promised Land.  But Jews who reject his messiah cannot possibly be saved.  That is not God’s fault.  He is not the one who broke the eternal covenant.  Jews did when they rejected their own messiah.  Therefore, they will be punished. To evangelical readers that is clear from the book of Revelation, which describes “the End” as standing in straight continuity with and in fulfillment of “the Beginning.” As we have seen, according to Revelation, the only inhabitants of the earth who will be saved are those who refuse the mark of the beast and instead receive the seal of God.  In Revelation 7 the two groups of these [...]

One section of new book Armageddon: What the Bible Really Says About the End explains some of the socio-political consequences of the belief that “the end is near.  Here’s a consequence that I bet is not widely known:  U.S. Foreign Policy on Israel. In my book I emphatically state that I am not taking a stand on U.S. policy per se and certainly not on the Israeli-Palestinian issue itself.  I am interested purely in the historical question: why has the U.S. been (and still is) so invested in supporting Israel in particular? This is how I explain it in the book (this will take two posts).   ****************************** Modern Israel in Ancient Prophecy? Many people – possibly most – hold some beliefs without knowing quite why.  Because of our upbringing, environment, and news sources, certain ideas just seem like common sense.  Those raised in families, communities, and churches that believe the United States needs to provide substantial support for Israel usually know some of the reasons: we need to promote stability in the Middle East, [...]