Revelations: Visions, Prophecy, and Politics in the Book of Revelation by Elaine Pagels Read Free Book Online Page A

Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza,
The Book of Revelation: Justice and Judgment,
217–226. For a major critique of apocalyptic thinking, see Catherine Keller,
Apocalypse Now and Then: A Feminist Guide to the End of the World
(Boston: Beacon Press, 1996).
21 Revelation 19:11–16.
22 Revelation 19:17–18.
23 Revelation 21:8.
24 Scholars have long debated the precise dating of John’s writing, the most probable dates being either around 68 C.E. or 90–96 C.E. Although we cannot be certain of the date, I find the latter more plausible. For a short discussion of the factors to consider, see Adela Yarbro Collins,
Crisis and Catharsis: The Power of the Apocalypse
(Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1984), 54–83. For another carefully considered view of composite composition, see Aune,
Revelation 1–5, vol.
52A, lvi–lxx.
25 For the classic account of this war, see Josephus,
The Jewish War
, available in an English translation by G. A. Williamson (St. Ives Place, UK: Penguin, 1981).
26 Revelation 1:2. While John’s account has often suggested to his readers that he was forcibly exiled, perhaps as a prisoner, recent commentators have challenged that claim; see, for example, the discussion by Yarbro Collins in
Crisis and Catharsis,
especially 25–53; Aune,
Revelation 1–5
, vol. 52A, xlvii–xc; the important contribution by Leonard L. Thompson,
The Book of Revelation: Apocalypse and Empire
(New York: Oxford University Press, 1991); and Paul Duff’s careful account “Was There a Crisis Behind Revelation? An Introduction to the Problem,” in
Who Rides the Beast? Prophecy and the Rhetoric of Crisis in the Churches of the Apocalypse
(Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001), 3–16, 17–82.
27 See Bruce Malina,
On the Genre and Message of Revelation: Star Visions and Sky Journeys
(Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 1995), an interesting book (although one that, as a colleague notes, might “overplay the evidence”) about what John might have seen of constellations.
28 See Mark 6:27–30 (and parallels), which suggests that Jesus allowed his disciples to infer this designation and tacitly accepted it.
29 Revelation 19:16.
30 Mark 13:1–2.
31 Did Jesus actually predict the destruction of the temple? Many scholars maintain that these prophecies were retrojected into his teaching by his followers after that shocking event in 70 C.E. , apparently on the assumption that “Jesus could not have known that this would happen.” In a forthcoming article, I show why I find this view unpersuasive. Here’s a quick summary: First, because other prophets had made similar predictions before its destruction, as did Jesus ben Ananias, in the early 60s; second, because Mark’s account is contradictory, claiming that Jesus was accused of having threatened to destroy the temple—an accusation Mark insists is entirely false (Mark 14:56–58); third, when Mark admits that Jesus did prophesy the temple’s destruction (Mark 13:1–2), the account of his words does not accord with what actually happened, as one would tend to expect with retrojected prophecy (there are stones standing upon others—quite a few of them, to this day).
32 Mark 9:1, 13:30.
33 See Mark 13:7–19; see also 13:1–30; see also parallels in Luke 21:5–28 and Matthew 24:1–31.
34 Mark 13:29–30. See Brian Daley’s book
The Hope of the Early Church: A Handbook of Patristic Eschatology
(New York: Cambridge University Press, 1991), for an overview of the evidence for the view that early Christian preaching was primarily apocalyptic, with which many scholars, including myself, agree.
35 For discussion, see the important book by Simon R. F. Price,
Rituals and Power: The Roman Imperial Cult in Asia Minor
(Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1984), especially “Part II: The Evocations of Imperial Rituals,” 133–274.
36 The following discussion is owed especially to the outstanding study by Steven J. Friesen,
Imperial Cults and the Apocalypse ofJohn: Reading Revelation in the