Final Exam essay prep

The major idea in Pagels’ second chapter titled “Visions of Heaven and Hell: From Ezekiel and John of Patmos to Paul” is how there are numerous ways that people have interpreted Revelation in terms of their current life circumstances. John was one of many people writing books of revelation in response to current events as uncovered from finds at Nag Hammadi. John denounces these other prophets’ writings and tries to establish his authority by giving an exact time for when he received the revelation like the prophets Ezekial and Isaiah did. John of Patmos also aligns his unique message with Isaiah and Ezekial by including four-winged creatures around the throne of God and not using physical terms since no one can see God and live. Interestingly, in John’s interpretation of the world around him, he seems to be continuing the Christian idea of seeing visions, which Jesus saw when he was baptized and which many people claimed to have seen after Jesus' resurrection. Paul, who importantly had a vision that set off his wildly successful ministry, similarly gave a specific time to lend his vision credence. Paul acts like John of Patmos in that Paul strongly hints that he was caught up into heaven (2 Cor 12:2-5).

Even though most scholars think John of Patmos was not living in an age of active Christian persecution, John is likely looking back to major figures of the church—Peter, Paul, and James, for example—who were killed to give people encouragement in the time he was writing. John seems to be writing to Jewish groups because he warns of people who say they are Jews but are not, and he warns against people committing adultery against the Lord in a metaphorical way (by assimilating) like Hosea and Jeremiah warned against. The 144,000 that John talks about being virgins are likely virgins in the sense that they abstain from unnecessary sexual practice, like soldiers in ancient Israel, ultimately sending the message that people should stay holy and not defiled by the Romans. The mark of the beast may have been a reference to Roman trade guild tattoos, imperial stamps on official documents, or Roman emperor images stamped on coins. John doesn’t seem to urge followers to fight a literal battle but a metaphorical one unto death by remaining holy.

Some even posit that John of Patmos is directly criticizing Paul’s espoused practices for Christians. People cite how Paul said that eating meat from sacrificial alters doesn’t do any harm, in marked contrast to John of Patmos’ persuasions. Also, Jezebel and Balaam were despised characters from outside Israel so this implies John of Patmos may not have been thrilled about Gentiles in the faith. Evidence from Paul’s letter to the Galatians suggests there was significant disagreement between James (Jesus’ brother) and Paul regarding the place of Gentiles in the movement. John of Patmos seems to most align with Jesus’ brother James’ teaching of being a Jew who acknowledges Jesus as Messiah based on references like “synagogues of satan” (Rev 3:9) likely referring to people following Paul’s teaching. This seems like a radical thing to say, but in writings like Romans Paul implies that Gentiles have taken the place of and superseded the Israelites as God’s people (2:28). John may have been denouncing Paul’s converts who at Paul’s nudging were boasting and saying they were “Israel” (God’s people) now instead of the actual Jews. Ignatius seems to similarly be a Christian leader like John of Patmos and provides an interesting contrast because Ignatius was the first to act like a bishop and supervisor of churches instead of being an active oracle of God like John of Patmos was. John may have criticized leaders like Ignatius in Revelation when he denounces those who call themselves apostles but are not, and Ignatius returns the favor warning against active prophetic groups like John’s in Philadelphia. Ignatius particularly doesn’t accept Hebrew scripture as authoritative when he claims that “whoever is not called by this [new] name [Christian] does not belong to God” (70 Pagels).

I think the overall main idea of this chapter is how Revelation is drawing off of very Hebrew sources to adapt to changing times with direct knowledge from God. This has a lot of connections to other apocalyptic literature we have read, like with the almost-entirely Jewish 4 Ezra apocalypse. Both Revelation and 4 Ezra are trying to deal with the question of people outside Judaism, as the first dialogue section in 4 Ezra 3:1-5:20 deals heavily with why Babylon is prospering and John more implicitly deals with outsiders by making the beasts—symbolizing Rome and Nero—so powerful. Since the outsiders are powerful, persecution of the righteous is prominent in Revelation and 4 Ezra which both draw a lot from the Hebrew Bible, emphasizing the Jewishness of both of these sources. Maintaining a Jewish identity in Revelation and 4 Ezra in the face of outsiders who insidiously encourage compromise relates to the book of Daniel’s fear that people would Hellenize: “He shall seduce with intrigue those who violate the covenant; but the people who are loyal to their God shall stand firm and take action” (Dan 11:32). Pagels’ overall theme of people adapting to changing times helps put into perspective how both Revelation, 4 Ezra, and Daniel in identity-trying periods described their rescuer, the messiah-figure, as appearing “white as snow…[and] like pure wool” (Dan 7:9, Rev 1:14). The language of a lamb is very Jewish and the white color symbolizes purity which was so important to Jewish identity. This makes their ultimate hope—the Messiah—fundamentally a part of their cultural identity as Jews and separate from the contemporary hegemony, helping make sense of John of Patmos’ denouncing of those who call themselves Jews but are not (Rev 2:9). The harsh “synagogues of Satan” language John of Patmos uses in calling people who presumably follow much of what Paul taught, specifically eating food from idols and accepting intermarriages, can be put into the context of the harsh treatment the Qumran community gave of other Jewish groups. There is a tendency to denounce similar groups with the most fervor in order to separate yourself from your rival, and the Qumran community is similarly extreme in their treatment of similar groups when they exclude tribes other than “the sons of Levi, Judah…Benjamin, [and] the exiles in the desert” (War Scroll 1:2) from the good forces in the War Scroll. This presumably includes other Jews in the forces of darkness that will be massacred in the final battle, so I think understanding the harsh language of Qumran and John in terms of closeness provides greater understanding to their apocalypses.

I also think it is interesting how Pagels’ main theme in this chapter relates to the Jonestown group that I researched for summary 8 because the Jonestown group drew on ancient resources like the Bible—admittedly not very often—to relate to the current events around them in the rise of socialism and communism in the 1970’s. While drawing on the Bible, Jim Jones heavily criticized Christianity, too, which is similar to the vigorously-mixed way John of Patmos likely agreed with the leaders he termed Jezebel and Balaam on most issues (Jesus as Lord, for example) but not on certain, very important ones like intermarriage, hence the heavy criticism. Jim Jones considered himself an active prophet like John of Patmos, and the status as a prophet within the community is likely the reason a notable figure from Jewish history (like Ezra or Enoch) and some kind of ex-eventu prophecy is notably lacking in Revelation. The dissemination of Revelation throughout John’s churches because of the letter’s specific attachment to John (their leader) probably increased its chances through popularity of making it to the eyes of Athanasius and into the canon. If the letter was attached to a random figure of the Old Testament, then the letter would have relevance to the smaller group of Jewish-Christians and not as much to the ever-growing Gentile community of charismatic Christians. On the other hand, the letter may still have had relevance to Ignatius’ church who referred to his group as Israel, indicating they and the Gentiles were the replacement as God’s people, so they could have been interested in a message from a prophet of old.

This semester I thought it was really interesting how these writers tried to create something interesting and entertaining while at the same time giving hope and encouragement to people during a difficult time. Daniel and his descriptions of other-worldly beasts and creatures would have been interesting to visualize for the ancient reader who didn’t have access to animated films where a beast with four heads could be made within a computer. The inclusion of such an intriguing creature, the overall message that history is pre-ordained by God, and the sense of justice in how evil acts would eventually be given retribution provided a sense of calm and reassurance which I think probably served a vital role for a lot of isolated groups through history. I was very pleasantly surprised how the complex imagery in Revelation took on a much simpler appearance to me with the background of other apocalypses. I was initially weary of reading all these seemingly-random ancient works of literature before studying what I really wanted to study (Revelation), but I am very glad that we did read those because they provided a lot of context to what is easily the most outlandish book of the Bible. Before the class I was very skeptical when I heard people mention that the strange imagery in Revelation was referring to Rome because it seemed like such a strange way to allude to something that you could just outright name. However, now that we have gone through all of the somewhat subtle identity hints for the beasts and also read other works like Daniel (where multi-headed beasts are obviously used to relate to kingdoms), it now is more probable in my mind that John was referring to Rome. John of Patmos simply didn’t want to incriminate himself and his churches by specifically naming the identity of the beast. Also, the strange imagery John used was following a well-established genre in Daniel in the Old Testament and with other non-canonical apocalypses. I think the scariness of revelation has been reduced for me since I have taken this course because the meaning has become more allegorical to me rather than literal.