I have been aware of the Book of Revelation and it’s implications for most of my life, however growing up without a strong faith in religion has caused me to bypass ever reading it or recognizing it’s significance in society. Some of the imagery described in this writing gives horrific visions of what the apocalypse will bring upon the Earth – most notably in the sounding of the Seven Trumpets. There are many different interpretations of what the text is meant to portray. Some believe that this is just a symbolic portrayal of the battle between good and evil. Others believe that the Book of Revelation is a prediction of events to come. The main question I had while reading this text concerns how much of an influence text this has had on people and our long time belief of an eventual apocalypse. Prior to the existence of this book, did people believe that there was an imminent end to our world? Many early Christians believed that the end was going to come at some point, but did it change the way they lived at all? In a time when science could not effectively explain natural phenomena and the idea of Armageddon, it is not surprising that so many people would take the predictions of the Revelation as truth. In the modern world, there is certainly a common belief that the world, someday, will come to an end. I feel that even though humans have thought this for most of our existence, the belief of how the world will end has changed dramatically. Religion is still a major influence on many people today, and even though I don’t follow a certain faith, I also have an idea that the clock is ticking. I don’t think the world will end because of my lack of devotion to God, but more because we have no control of mother nature and how/when she will stop providing for us. If not a natural disaster, we could cease to exist because of a nuclear bomb, world war, or even aliens… I wonder if people were not taught about a possible apocalypse if we would develop the belief on our own.
Category Archives: September 4
Relating to Holy Texts about the End of the World
As a student that attended bi-weekly afterschool classes at a reform (progressive) Jewish synagogue from grades 1 -12, I learned to view the Old Testament, including segments of Daniel concerning the Moshiah, and its classical interpretatiations as metaphor. As someone who spent much of her remaining time using modern technology and interacting with other secular peers, I learned to see the bible as a period piece. It would be impossible for me, as it was for Kirsch, to read Revelation outside of a historical context, even with its fantastic imagery. (I also understand those that accept much of the Christian faith but are dumbfounded by John’s visions. Oddly enough, it seemed that the more cross-cultural references and allusions described, the more the tone of Revelation fit with that of the rest of the scriptures. ) The reading and the accompanying commentary reminded me how difficult it is to separate the idea of “biblical allegory” from “allegory.” Continue reading
Weekly Response #1: The Book of Revelation and 666
What interested me most in the first three chapters of Jonathan Kirsch’s A History of the End of the World is what was referred to as St. John’s cryptogram. While reading the Book of Revelations, it was difficult not to notice the abundance of numerical references throughout the texts. Not just to be taken literally, I knew that the numbers had other meanings. The number 666 was most interesting because it is referred to as the number of the beast. Beyond that, many have tried to decipher the value behind 666, which corresponds to a name in Latin, Hebrew, or Greek. The number can be deciphered in so many different ways so there is not necessarily one right answer. Several names fit the puzzle, but varieties in spelling must also be put into account. Furthermore, the number of the beast is sometimes depicted as 616 in earlier manuscripts, which adds to the dilemma of solving the puzzle.
St. John’s cryptogram is only an example of one of the many ways that different people can interpret the Book of Revelation as a whole. Based solely on one example, I can finally understand why the Book of Revelation would be the inspiration of so many who predict the apocalypse. There is so much material in the Book of Revelations that can be interpreted in so many ways. If one prophet’s interpretation of the apocalypse turns out not to be true, another prophet can easily come by and interpret the text in a novel way.
Response to the timely posts
Hi everyone,
For this first set of posts, I’ll write a response that picks up on several of the key issues you have raised, since they will continue to be points of discussion and debate throughout the term and they might also prompt you to choose one for further exploration for your research essay. Only half of you have responded in time to be included in this response, so next week be sure to post according to the deadline (which may mean shuffling your reading time).
First, let me point out that Revelation in the title is singular—not plural—so whenever you refer to it, drop the s!
Eric and Anastassia raised the intertwined issues of orality and literacy. As Eric notes, the poetic nature and repetition of key words in the Book of Revelation is an indicator that it was initially heard rather than read by communities of people. The fact that we inherit it as a written text, as Anastassia points out, was due to decisions made by an elite group of male leaders a few centuries after John of Patmos traveled about preaching his vision. This raises certain questions about the differences between primarily oral cultures and more widely literate ones, and also points us to ponder the effects of digital cultures today. Walter Ong remains a key scholar for discussions of orality and there have been a number of studies since his pathbreaking works from the 1980s. For our discussion Tuesday, consider the implications further of oral and written impact. What is the main power relation involved in each? What are the emotional and intellectual effects of each form?
One view that Ong argued is that orality tends to accentuate violent conflict posed through binary oppositions. This relates to Amy’s discussion of violence and how the ideas in Revelation might contribute to what is regarded as righteous violence. This is a theme that will certainly carry out throughout the readings and the films—and one we see repeated in instances of social life and conflict. It is also one that Albert notes in his reference to the video game Halo, which draws on biblical scripture. I have written about the use of Halo 3 as a “recruiting tool” (the minister’s term) for evangelical youth. Here we might consider the ways in patriarchal values associated with orality continue to be reinforced through entertainment media. That leads us to ask, with Alison, how the portrayal of female figures in Revelation might continue to script today’s portrayals, albeit with different implications involving gender and sexuality.
Colby’s post gets to one of the prime movers of apocalyptic belief—fear of death and desire to defeat it. As she indicates through Kirsch’s discussion of the shift in views of God and Satan as sources of death and evil in the world, the way we think about death dramatically shapes the way we think about the value of life and the earth. Kirsch doesn’t go into the more ancient belief systems about death and afterlife, in ancient Egypt for example, but that is a good topic for further research. Norman Cohn’s book on the recommended list is a good place to start. One point worth raising in class is how these beliefs vary if a culture is polytheistic versus one that is monotheistic. That is a shift that took place of over centuries in the ancient world and there are glimpses of the defeat of polytheism and the rise of the Yahweh Only movement in the Hebrew Bible or what Christians call the Old Testament. The desire to defeat death is also to be found in certain scientific efforts today.
The Book of Revelations
The Book of Revelations is, in my opinion, a convoluted mess. The grotesque imagery and lack of a consistent place and time makes for a very confusing read. While reading it, I often thought of the author’s frame of reference and how the contributed to his story. The angels flew to the “four corners of the Earth” and stars literally fell. I think this is important since all prophecies are told from the “seers” frame of reference. Clearly, we now know that Earth doesn’t have corners and falling stars are meteors. However, despite knowing that earlier seers were wrong because of a lack of knowledge, people today still assert that their knowledge is complete enough to be right. It seems that every generation is conceited enough to think they know everything there is to know about end-time phenomena.
Something I found interesting from the first few chapters is that many Christians at the time that Revelations was written, and many more after, did not think the Revelations belonged in the Bible and that John was not really a prophet of God. I think this is important because the texts that were compiled and afterward changed history were chosen by a select group of people. It’s interesting that a text which has influenced so much of the culture since it’s beginning may not have become well known at all.
Another interesting note it that Revelations and other Jewish apocalypse texts found a need for Satan as an anti-god. Like in most stories that humans tell there is a defined good and bad, black and white.
Finally, it is interesting that the Jewish apocalyptic stories and Revelations were written as a sort of propaganda. The evil-doers were those who did not follow the religion and had societal norms different from those of the pious, and an apocalypse would be a punishment for them while those true to their religion would be saved. This sort of idea still surrounds the apocalypse today with ideas such as God creating tsunamis because he hates gays.
Violence & End of World
After reading the selection of A History of the End of the World by Jonathan Kirsch (whose last name, ironically, reminds me of “kirche,” the German word for “church”) and Revelations (KJV), I found myself reflecting on the way “apocalypse” is represented and how it influences groups.
Growing up in Texas, I often found myself among people who are largely Christian, those who believe in most of the Bible and take a lot of its word as their Law. When Kirsch discusses the influence that “The Apocalypse” had on people – and how it often drives certain people, (such as David Koresh, or Al Quaeda), towards violence, I found myself coming to the conclusion that violence seems empowered by Revelation if one reads it from the “right” perspective.
To elaborate, those that take the word of “Revelation,” as truth or as a part of the Bible that they believe in are faced with a set of specific circumstances: 1) If the tribulation is already happening, then they must suffer; 2) if tribulation is happening, then Satan has or shall soon appear; 3) If 1, and 2, have occurred, then they are waiting for their king, Jesus. If they believe that the End Time is not near, then they must endure. Under normal circumstances, we have seen that small-scale versions of “end times,” such as tsunamis, hurricanes, and other natural disasters have driven people to all kinds of violence – when Hurricane Katrina ravaged New Orleans, people were robbing from one another, breaking into houses, and chaos ensued. I think that if one believes one is acting in accordance to their God, then violence could be seen as “defending” their earthly “kingdom,” or if one believes that Satan has come to power, that one might be faced with “defending” oneself from Satan — and those around one who might be influenced by Satan, or in accordance with him would probably also be something to “defend” oneself against.
I am not defending violence as a logical thing to be done, but I found that violence, from a modern perspective within the end times, was an interesting thing to analyze.
9-4-12 Response
When I read the Book of Revelation, it played out as if it was some religious movie that involved with Jesus as well as a large cast of characters. I never directly involved myself with Christian material such as the Bible, but I could see why people who had prior experience with reading the Bible could benefit from reading the Book of Revelation. There seemed to be a lot of references to characters and in fact, it’s the last book of the New Testament, so expecting that whoever read the bible were to have read it in order, the reader would’ve been accustomed to almost every character. Therefore, I don’t think I fully understood the deeper meaning behind the text since it pretty much took it for face value.
Kirsch seemed to fuse both religious themes and historic significance between certain items in the Bible. For example, in chapter two, he lists the messiahs that the Jews used to believe and the one that would eventually be known as Jesus (46-48). He also uses references to other books within the Bible in order to show an ideal messiah, and tying that in to the history of the previous messiahs when Jews and Greeks were in conflict, one could speculate that certain books in the Bible are trying to glorify a messiah’s role (49). I admire how he is able to use history and religion to show “why” certain things were shown. Also, while I read the Book of Revelation, the video game Halo popped up into my head because of its constant use of the number seven. Nevertheless I like Kirsch’s ability to balance religion and history without preaching to the reader.
Mnemonics and Orality in the Book of Revelation
Reading the book of Revelation, I feel as though it, like so many of its characters, embodies a strange duality, managing to be at once both simplistic and baffling. As to be expected from such an enduring work, there’s quite a lot from it that piques my interest, but nothing more so than the book’s language and rhythm, both of which, in my view, imbue the book with a distinct orality. Throughout many sections of Revelation, I got the sense that its phrasing was intended for—as is said in the book itself and as Kirsch notes in his introductory chapters—hearers rather than readers.
That alone isn’t an earth-shattering assertion, but I believe one can find further evidence of its orality in the way some passages are structured. Take, for instance, verse 19:18, “That ye may eat the flesh of kings, ad the flesh of captains, and the flesh of mighty men, and the flesh of horses, and of them that sit on them, and the flesh of all men, both free and bond, both small and great.” Gruesome subject matter aside, the repetition here strikes me not only as a poetic device, but also as mnemonic aid, designed to help the text’s speaker (who probably needed to have large bits of it, if not all of it, memorized, if only for performance’s sake) navigate it more easily. This is hardly the only example of such repetition; the passages that deal with the seven seals, seven vials, four beasts and twelve gates all have a similar repetitive, sequential structure that makes the most sense in an oral context. This reminds me—and ironically so, considering the probable author of Revelation’s disdain for all things Greek—of the Greek epic poems The Odyssey and The Iliad, both of which employ similar repetition-based mnemonic techniques, especially in terms of characterization (e.g. “the grey-eyed Athena,” which appears no less than 19 times in The Odyssey’s first book alone).
In short, not only is the book of Revelation best read aloud thanks to its odd, at-times gripping poeticisms, but it’s a text whose very structure lends itself to internalization and the spoken word.
A History of the End of the World Response
After the first reading of A History of the End of the World, by Jonathan Kirsch, I was surprised by the presence of the Bible in our modern (seemingly) secular culture. The ideals of the “end-times” are ever present in Western civilization, but there are also themes present in the Book of Revelation that shed light on particular beliefs held today.
One of the most continuous themes in the Book of Revelation is the negative portrayal of women. While there is one incident of a positive illustration, the woman bathed in the sun, most women depicted in Revelation are evil temptresses attempting to make those who are pure, impure. The occurrences of these radical beliefs are still present in modern society, however; thankfully a minority of society follows such beliefs. But the mere existence of these notions leads me to believe that despite progress, archaic ways of thinking still remain. Despite the resistance of avid protesters to the Book of Revelation, the symbols and themes within the book remain entrenched in the modern world.
Kirsch indicates that modern followers of this apocalyptic view are mainly mentally unstable and dangerous lunatics. Many, usually with some source of persuasive power, present a threatening force that poses the question as to how the prophecy has an impact on modern society. However the most dangerous point Kirsch alludes to is the interconnection of political power and the Revelation. While the symbolic meanings within Revelation are open for debate, the fear mongering within the Bible is quite clear. Those who are “true believers” will be saved, while everyone else will burn in hell. And unfortunately, if intersected with political power, this influential reevaluation of how life should be lived may cause catastrophic disagreements. It is both interesting and frightening to realize that the Book of Revelation is entrenched within our history, politics and social belief systems.
