REVELATIONS: VISIONS, PROPHECY, AND POLITICS IN THE BOOK OF REVELATION PDF, EPUB, EBOOK Elaine Pagels | 244 pages | 26 Feb 2013 | Penguin Putnam Inc | 9780143121633 | English | New York, NY, United States Revelations: Visions, Prophecy, and Politics in the Book of Revelation PDF Book For example, she compares Revelation to 4 Ezra the Revelation of Ezra , a Jewish book somewhat contemporary with Revelation. Friend Reviews. Escape the Present with These 24 Historical Romances. Who wrote it? Pagels also discusses how due to the thematic broadness of much of what John wrote he created imagery that has over two millennia been capable of being projected onto any perceived threat of the moment. Revelation was probably written about 70 years after the death of Jesus. There was nothing in the book with which to define who the faithful and the damned actually were, so it was fun for the whole family. According to John, it is essential to understand that the Second Coming is a cosmic event not just an earthly one. The book claims to be about the Book of Revelation, not about church history and the interpersonal conflicts of various individuals who lived well after the book was written. Jeffrey MacDonald, the handsome, Princeton-educated physician convicted of savagely slaying his young pregnant wife and two small children—murders he vehemently denies committing It also has a lot of church history in it, as well as discussions about apocryphal books, writings that did not make it into the Bible or have 'official church sanction' to be considered 'valid' books. Author Elaine Pagels includes here discussion of not only John of Patmos's Book of Revelations , so well-known from the New Testament, but also discussion of the numerous revelation texts found at Nag Hammadi in Upper Egypt in A timely, vividly realized reminder to slow down and harness the restorative wonders of serenity. I've been a big fan of Pagels since I read a couple of her earlier works in the '90s. Does Pagles do these questions justice? John provides a very handy explanation, therefore, about the obvious inaccuracies of Pauline teaching for Christians Jews. Send me weekly book recommendations and inside scoop. For instance Author Elaine Pagels includes here discussion of not only John of Patmos's Book of Revelations , so well-known from the New Testament, but also discussion of the numerous revelation texts found at Nag Hammadi in Upper Egypt in However, discussions on innumerable and largely forgettable codices and papyri of all sorts of revelations and secret what-not, detract from my original goal toward a greater understanding of the canonical Revelation. Pagels' scholarship is, as always, wide-ranging and clear. Maybe if I'd read this in text it may have made more sense. But she has learned to understand and interpret these associations. In her mind, Revelations isn't actual revelation. Then later I think, oh crap, I was supposed to learn something about writing there. Why--and how--do so many people still read it today? Because of the range of her sources she's able to give us a picture of Christian revelatory thinking and mindsets through the ages. Politicians and preachers, evangelical sci-fi writers and gold-bug financial planners — they all know how to sow anxiety and reap profit with those cataclysmic pictures of imminent catastrophe. And the symbols all line up: "Babylon" is something which his fellow Jews and Christians would recognize as a reference to Rome, a "pregnant woman" they would see as Israel, and the beast whose number was "" could be easily translated by those who knew Hebrew to equal the numeric value for the full name of the Emperor Nero. Spanning Chaucer's working life, these four poems build on the medieval convention of 'love visions' Uploaded by station Finally a book about The Revelation of John that puts the book in its historical and political context! The title, Revelations, is not a misspelling of the final book in our Bible; she really does mean "revelat Look. Welcome back. No Comments Yet. Her central point is that this most famous story about The End is a window on the beginnings of Christianity. Some mention Jesus while others are from other teachers or gods. Revelations: Visions, Prophecy, and Politics in the Book of Revelation Writer Like most of Pagels' books, this one is not terribly long, but has great insight. More About This Book. She then examines other apocalypses dug up at Nag Hammadi in and finds them quite different. The Book of Revelation provided the symbolism and language to preach and to celebrate the victory throughout the peninsula. The book itself stands at the end of the New Testament, and with its vision of justice as eternal vengeance. Before Rome passes away, the Lord will return in order to defeat it. It turns out the unexpected focus didn't disappoint me. View all 5 comments. In the chapters that follow, Pagels goes on to demonstrate how — and how thoroughly — John lost the battle of interpretation over the story he left behind. This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. Pagels then examines the politics of how and why this particular book gets added as the capstone to official canon while others are discarded as heretical. More by Robert Greene. If John of Patmos were brought back to life today he would be shocked to learn that his book was combined with the letters written by Paul and titled The New Testament to served as sacred Christian scriptures. Already have an account? An exploration of the importance of clarity through calmness in an increasingly fast-paced world. Books Video icon An illustration of two cells of a film strip. Thanks for telling us about the problem. It reminds me of the serpen Pagels says John created anti-Roman propaganda with the Book of Revelation. In doing so, what he produced was a vision for the future, to be taken up by all those who feel themselves oppressed, which explains how so much of that imagery is retained in the very conservative Christianity that is so threatened by modernity sinners eternally tormented in the lake of fire, the mark of the beast, , and so on. Rather, the relevant metric is that of the lifespan of the imperial regime, Rome itself, the whore of Babylon with its pseudo-Jewish clients. No trivia or quizzes yet. The Book of Revelation, written in response to the catastrophic fall of Jerusalem in CE 70, gave the persecuted Christians being put on the stake or tossed to lion's mouth courage and hope of the Divine intervention and eventual triumph in glory--a vivid illustration of what Nietzsche later calls 'ressentiment. One example: In a discussion of the hated "Babylon" in Revelation, I believe its original meaning referred not to Rome, but to Jerusalem. Yet largely due to good old Athanasius, who re-interpreted the bad guys in Revelation to represent those he hated as heretics, managed to get the book included in our bible. During the Cold War, believers believed it foretold an epic confrontation in which the United States, with the help of Jesus, would vanquish the Soviet Union. History and Christian thought were changing rapidly during this period, and even fifteen years makes a major difference. No, John just made it up using other similar 'stories' from other 'prophets' as war propaganda against the Romans. These very same questions that have perplexed and boggled minds across all spectrums of human experience when applied to this enigmatic tome are truly voluminous, of which, here are a few: Why was is written? And so it is with the dense and often incoherent piece, the Book of Revelation, that was supposedly written there. Please select an existing bookshelf OR Create a new bookshelf Continue. Elaine Pagels is my favorite author when it comes to the history of Christianity. It was okay; not at all what I thought it would be about. But, as the writer of Revelation attempts to show, not necessarily for Jewish faith in the messiah. More Details Revelations: Visions, Prophecy, and Politics in the Book of Revelation Reviews And when we see Jesus' earliest followers, including Peter, James, and Paul, not as we usually see them, as early Christians , but as they saw themselves—as Jews who had found God's messiah —we can see that they struggled with the same question. See updates with more stuff. She describes how the various writings found at Nag Hammadi could have been used and studied. Let me add that there's a wonderful book by Norman Cohn called Pursuit of the Millennium which I discuss elsewhere that looks at this penchant for flexible interpretation of anti-Christ during the 11th through 15th centuries or so, and how this capacity in turn engendered the most appalling mass hysteria and genocide in central and southern Europe. And what are the meanings of its surreal images of dragons, monsters, angels, and cosmic war? Page Count: Publisher: Portfolio. Other Editions Pagels ponders why the Book of Revelation is the only one of these apocalypses that made it into the canon of scripture. The irony is that he used words of such obscure meanings that few people Pagels excepted in subsequent generations understood toward whom his barbs were directed. The beauty of the Book of Revelation is not its accuracy or insight, but rather its ambiguity and abstraction. The book of Revelation remained in the canon because it could be reinterpreted in expedient ways, and it has continued to intrigue Christians in generations since because natural disasters and wars have led others to believe they were living in the 'end of days' and consequently the meaning and interpretation of the book has continued to evolve.