Revelation
Mar. 7th, 2012 12:16 pmThe Book of Revelation is the strangest book in the Bible, and the most controversial. Instead of stories and moral teaching, it offers only visions—dreams and nightmares, the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, earthquakes, plagues and war. In the climactic battle scene, Jesus appears as a divine warrior, Satan is thrown into a pit, and all humans who had died faithful to God reign over the earth for 1,000 years.
-- Elaine Pagels, "Revelations: Visions, Prophecy and Politics in the Book of Revelation"
I have come across some of the Internet buzz over Ms. Pagels's new book on the Bible's "Revelation". I will do a few posts on it. Today we have an extended excerpt. The first revelation for me is that a number of books of revelation were written, besides the one that made it into our New Testament.
( Rest of Excerpt )
-- Elaine Pagels, "Revelations: Visions, Prophecy and Politics in the Book of Revelation"
I have come across some of the Internet buzz over Ms. Pagels's new book on the Bible's "Revelation". I will do a few posts on it. Today we have an extended excerpt. The first revelation for me is that a number of books of revelation were written, besides the one that made it into our New Testament.
( Rest of Excerpt )