The Book of Revelation: A Biography

 

The Book of Revelation: A Biography – Timothy Beal

When one reads a book about a book of the Bible, one might expect to see the words “a study of” or perhaps even “the history of” to enunciate the particular book.  But the word “biography”?  That might initially seem a strange complimentary word for a book of the Bible, but when one really looks at the book of Revelation and its place within the canon of scripture for the last 2,000 years, “biography” is actually very appropriate.  Revelation has a very complex history and has been interpreted many ways by church leaders throughout the ages, but most Protestant Christians have no idea of this.

This is a bit strange since, my guess is, Revelation probably gets more attention than any other book of the Bible; New Testament or Old.  After all, this is a study guide for the preparation of the “end times”, and the “end times” are right around the corner. Right?  I confess that I was a disciple of this somewhat warped eschatology for many years of my youth, and my personal beliefs about “the end” are much more agnostic these days.  I’m simply not as swayed towards much of what the many media messiahs scream about when they prey on the fears of the multitudes.

Anyway. What this book does is pick snippets of history; some well-known and some obscure, about how Christians everywhere have interpreted and/or used this book to try to explain the rather rich and sometimes frightening language.  To be fair, I would have preferred this book to be a bit more focused in many areas.  The author sometimes rambles and focuses on areas that I don’t think warrant the attention that he sometimes devotes. I also felt this way about another book of his that I read called “The Rise and Fall of the Bible”.   I have to state that I enjoyed reading this offering but wish it had been a tad more concentrated.

An example: We read that John, the author of Revelation (also known as “The Apocalypse of John”), is not the same John that authored one of our four gospels and a few epistles of the New Testament.  The “John”, the author tells us, is “John of Patmos” and a different person altogether. This isn’t the first time I’ve read this speculation, but since so many within today’s Christian community believe that the John is the same one as mentioned, I feel more study and information should have been espoused.  Again, though, maybe this isn’t what the author feels necessary when writing a “biography”.

Another example: We also read an entire strange chapter about a man named James Hampton, who around the year 1950, rented a large garage and “built” the entire book of Revelation in a rather impressive sculpture-like layout.  This wasn’t discovered until after Hampton died, and based on the illustrations we see in this book, it was quite the achievement.  However I couldn’t help wonder if such an accomplishment, while impressive, was somewhat inconsequential when studying 2,000 years of church history and the importance of Revelation.

Other chapters are more rewarding, however.  One of my favorite stories is how Martin Luther really didn’t think the Revelation should have been included in the New Testament, and based on how Luther had such enormous influence, you have to wonder just how different the last 500 years of Christianity would have been had he prevailed.  Well, what reversed Luther’s decision was that he had a close associate who was a talented wood cut illustrator named Lucas Cranach.  We must remember that “printing” in and of itself was a very new medium, and what could be better than also being able to print illustrations en masse ?   Especially something as vivid as scenes from Revelation?  So in a sense Luther caved into the demands of the public wanting illustrations to supplement the holy words and the rest is rich, detailed, conflicted history.

Obviously there’s a lot here covering the 20^th and 21^st centuries with all of the “Left Behind” and mass media that has been available, and Revelation has definitely left quite the impression with books, videos, and YouTube predictions. Again, though, the author seems to subtly think the whole present-day culture is overblown and not at all what the early church fathers taught, but he doesn’t come down with too heavy of a criticism.  Again, we have to remind ourselves that this is a biography.

So I found this book rewarding and educational, but I guess I was hoping for much more. I should also point out that this book is part of a series called “Lives of Great Religious Books” that came out about four or five years ago. Apparently these “great religious books” include everything from The Tibetan Book of the Dead to C.S. Lewis’s Mere Christianity.  I suppose my interest is a tad piqued by some of the titles, but I don’t think any of these offerings ever made too big a splash sales-wise, so I wouldn’t think it’s any major transgression if people look elsewhere to learn more about the various topics. I can especially state this about the book of Revelation. This book was interesting but by no means essential.