Revelations: Visions, Prophecy, & Politics in the Book of Revelation

 

Revelations: Visions, Prophecy, & Politics in the Book of Revelation by Elaine Pagels

This is one of those books that was not at all what I was expecting, but I ended up enjoying it immensely regardless.  In fact, my biggest gripe about this book is that it wasn’t long enough.  Excluding end notes, indices, etc., the actual reading material consisted of 177 pages.  I felt like this topic needed about 500. I wanted more. I really wish the author would have expanded on the subject matter she presents here for her audience.

The Book of Revelation is by far the most controversial book of the New Testament.  It’s controversial because most can’t seem to come to an agreement as to how all of the wild imagery, strange narratives, and bizarre predictions are supposed to actually look like, represent, and unfold.  Sadly, for 2,000 years, many have used this book of the Bible to justify that the people of the earth are now living in the “end times” and that “Jesus is coming SOON”.   There are many learned scholars, though, who speculate that maybe the majority of Christians are misunderstanding the book.  Perhaps the author of Revelation was alluding to events that happened shortly after Jesus’ ministry, and much of the bizarre settings and language has already, to some extent, taken place.

Author Elaine Pagles is a renowned historian of religion and a professor at Princeton University.  She’s authored at least one book on Gnosticism, so it shouldn’t be a surprise that much of her ideas and speculations aren’t closely aligned to what many would consider mainstream Christianity.  This should be an asset rather than a deterrent when studying the subject matter, however, since the vast majority of Christians don’t really have much of a knowledge of the history of their faith nor their church.  Where things such as The Bible are concerned, most Christians are perfectly content to believe what their pastor or their parent have always taught them since birth.

So some of Pagels’ findings are not immediately embraced by the dogmatically devout, but she presents her thesis in a calm, non-threatening way when discussing the early history of the Christian church. In fact, there were times when I forgot I was reading a book supposedly about the book of Revelation since she tends to focus so strongly on the many personalities and situations during these early times as opposed to keeping the particular book of the Bible as her main subject.  So if you’re looking for a verse by verse explanation of Revelation, you won’t find that here.

Instead, her focus is mainly on the fact that there were multiple accounts and gospels that were written in the first couple of hundred years after Christ, and several were “revelations” of future times. These other revelations, while just as peculiar, seemed to be a bit lighter overall. It wasn’t until the 4^th century at the Council of Nicaea where what we know as “The Bible” was actually created. So why did it take over 300 years?  If “The Bible” is supposedly such a cornerstone of the Christian faith, shouldn’t it have been compiled a lot sooner?  Say, immediately after the ascension of Jesus?  The answer to this seems to be more of the focus of this book rather than a verse by verse explanation of Revelation.

Pagels give us a brief look at early Christianity, and how they were mostly persecuted by the pagan Roman government.  The underlying theme is that since Christianity was such as a small (yet important and growing) sect that was always facing persecution, having a strict canon of scripture wasn’t exactly the focus of any of the early leaders.  When Constantine becomes emperor of Rome in the year 306, however, he soon becomes a Christian himself.  Talk about a shift in culture.  Well, like what happens in present day, now that Christianity is so popular, there’s a lot of bickering and infighting as to what the true faith should look like as well as the nature of Jesus Christ himself.  A canon of scripture called “The New Testament” needs to be formed to curtail the squabbling, and the Book of Revelation does get included. But it almost does not.

This is where this book becomes the most interesting. We read about the politics of the time and how certain religious leaders insist on this book’s inclusion (even though many believe the events within the book have already happened). The main reason Revelation is included in the New Testament, the author argues, was to keep the masses of followers somewhat in line with what the current leaders felt was necessary.  I’ll state again, I wish there was more included about this particular argument.  It really does warrant much more page space.

We read other things as well that might come as a shock to many mainline Christians.  The author alleges that John of Zebedee (the author of the “John” gospel) very well might be a different “John” who penned Revelation.  She then spends an adequate amount of time stating that the author of Revelation (she refers to him as “John of Patmos”) was trying to reach an entirely different audience than the apostle Paul, and there wasn’t always harmony between the two audiences. She also makes a convincing argument that the “Beast” in Revelation may very well be referring to the maliciously deranged emperor of Rome at the time, Nero. (The Hebrew letters of the name “Nero”, when corresponding to each number of each letter add up to 666.) Nero used to illuminate his nightly parties by lighting Christians on fire. So, yes, one can see how one might come to such a conclusion.

The last part of the book that explains how, ever since Jesus ascended, nations and Christian leaders are constantly trying to assign the “Beast” within Revelation, as well as everything else within the book, to whomever and whatever they see as a threat of Christianity during the present time.  I never realized, for example, that the lyrics of the U.S. Civil War anthem “The Battle Hymn of the Republic” makes this exact claim about their confederate enemy and the particular time of strife during the country’s history.  Pagels spends very little time discussing this notion, and again, I would have enjoyed a much lengthier exposition.

So overall, a very good book, but simply too brief.  I’m sure that was the author’s intention, but this seems to be such a hot topic within the Christian church today. I would have welcomed a much deeper account into the subject matter.  Maybe she’ll pen up a follow up one day?