Far more powerful, and expressive of intense hatred of rome, the babellike destroyer of judea, is the second jewish apocalypse, or series of apocalypses, written during the siege and after the destruction of jerusalem, and contained in ch. The book of revelation session one with rabbi brian bileci at destiny duration. The interpreters using the historicist approach for revelation had their origins in the jewish apocalyptic writings such as we see in the book of daniel, which predicted the future the time between their writing and the end of the world. In the course of his search, he encountered certain people who proclaimed a new spiritual christianity, one which understood the old testament. Aleister crowley 18751947 claimed that he was the beast prophecized in the book of revelation and took the name. It was popular to see jesus and the earliest christians as a continuation of the old testament prophets and standing apart from the apocalyptic tradition see. The reason most commentaries fail to enlighten the book s contents is because they violate one or more of the three basic principles of sound biblical interpretation. He sent an angel to present this revelation to his servant john. My guest, elaine pagels, is the author of a new book about what she describes as the strangest book in the. Key to understanding commentaries on revelations is knowing the position of the commentator. James tabors popular taborblog, a site that discusses and reports on all things biblical from the hebrew bible to early christianity in the roman world and. Book of revelation for dummies cheat sheet dummies.
So, the divine author of revelation is jesus christ and the human author is the apostle john. The book of revelation is the final book of the new testament, and consequently is also the final book of the christian bible. This mode of interpretation, which sees later events in christian history as fulfilling predictions in the book of revelation, is known as the continuous history view. John, the writer of the book of revelation, sets out to tell his readers something vital about the paradox of the days and years ahead. Walter wessel, my new covenant professor of greek and revelation at bethel seminary west, who taught me the valuable use of greek while interpreting the scriptures.
Can a prechristian version of the book of revelation be recovered. While the book of revelation is an apocalypse when it comes to its genre, it is not a pure apocalypse in that it is set in the context of a letter. The book of revelation is johns record of that vision revelation 1. The book of revelation starts with this is a revelation from jesus christ, which god gave him to show his servants the events that must soon take place. John was a christian leader of jewish origin who was in exile on the roman prison island of patmos. For this is the way of wisdom to acquire ideas one after another until, in the end, there emerges one complete concept for which all of the prefaces were necessary. It cant be said that no one pays any attention to scholarly books about the bible. Elaine pagels and the jewish cult behind the book of. Introduction revelation is a confusing book to most people despite the many commentaries written. Historicist interpretations of the book of revelation. Youll find four major interpretive approaches to the book of revelation that can help you read, understand, and figure out the apocalyptic letter of john.