GOD'S NEW WORLD, DAY 22 (the end of the beginning)
“…I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast that was full of blasphemous
names, and it had seven heads and ten horns. The woman was clothed in
purple and scarlet… and on her forehead was written a
name, a mystery: “Babylon the great, mother of whores and of earth’s
abominations.”
…the angel said to me…I will tell you the mystery of the woman, and of
the beast…that carries her.
The beast that you saw was, and is not, and is about to ascend from the
bottomless pit and go to destruction…
“This calls for a mind that has
wisdom:
the seven heads are seven mountains on which the woman is seated…
And the ten horns that you saw are ten kings who …are to receive
authority as kings for one hour, together with the beast…
“The waters that you saw, where the whore is seated, are peoples and
multitudes and nations and languages…
The woman you saw is the great city that rules over the kings of the
earth.” (Rev. 17.3-18)
It is common practice to read the book of
Revelation as a prediction of how the “end times” will unfold, as a kind of “calendar”
of the events that will transpire before the “end of the world” or “the return
of Christ” or “the rapture of believers to heaven”, etc. The fact that so many dates for “the end”
have been set by preachers and organizations[1]
is a testament to both the seemingly insatiable curiosity among certain people to
know how the world will end and the ambiguity of the language of the book of
Revelation, which gives rise to all this speculation but which (so far) has prevented
anyone from hitting on the correct date.[2] However, this is all a fool’s errand. Biblically-inspired end-times speculation is
based on a fundamental misunderstanding of how Second-Temple[3]
Jewish apocalyptic literature, of which the book of Revelation is one example,
actually works. First of all, Jews of
the Second Temple period, despite the language of cosmic destruction common to
apocalyptic texts, did not expect that the space-time universe would come to an
end. The language of cosmic collapse was
used to refer to historical events which, as we might say today, were “earth-shattering”. For example, in Isaiah chapter 13, we are
told that when the Babylonian empire collapses, the sun, moon and stars (cf.
Gn. 1.14-19) will fall from the sky.
Well, just in case you got anxious, Babylon fell to the Persians in 539
B.C. …and the sun continues to shine (except during eclipses).
Speaking of Babylon – the 6th-century
B.C. conquest of the kingdom of Judah accompanied by the destruction of both the
First Temple and the Judean capital of Jerusalem marked the beginning of a centuries-long
period during which Israel, the people of God, were subjugated by a series of
pagan empires. From this point onwards, “Babylon”
would become the “imperial bogey-man” of the Jewish imagination. It would often be used in apocalyptic texts as
a cipher, referring to any empire that sought to conquer/dominate the people of
God. This reflects the trauma inflicted
upon the Judeans by the Babylonians – it is hard to overstate the importance
for subsequent Jewish history of the events leading up to the cataclysm of the
year 587. Jewish self-understanding would
never be the same. It was during the
subsequent period of upheaval and (intermittent but intense) persecution that
apocalyptic literature appeared. Apocalyptic
texts are subversive – they both make fun of and “demonize” the powers that be,
showing that despite their arrogance and claims to absolute loyalty and even
divinity, they are destined to fall and be replaced by yet other aspiring demi-gods
(i.e., kings and emperors). Apocalypses were
written to encourage the people of God to remain faithful to their God-given
identity and vocation in the midst of the highly ambiguous circumstances of either
exile in a foreign land (Babylon) or daily life under foreign
hegemony/occupation.
The classic example of an apocalypse in
the Hebrew Bible[4]
(i.e, OT) is the book of Daniel (especially chapters 7—12). In chapter 7, Daniel has a dream of four “beasts”
that emerge from the sea and attack “the people of the saints of the Most High”,
i.e., the people of God. Following his
dream, Daniel receives its interpretation from an “attendant” (i.e. heavenly
being) who explains that each beast represents a kingdom.[5] Daniel’s dream included the judgment of the
four beasts by the “Ancient One” (i.e. the God of Israel) and the replacement
of these four empires with the kingdom of God, whose rule was entrusted to “one
like a Son of Man”, who represents the people of God and rules in Yahweh’s
name. This danielic dream is paradigmatic
for the book of Revelation, the apocalypse[6]
of the New Testament.[7] So, if the four beasts of Daniel 7 represent
four empires, the first of which was Babylon (cf. Dn. 2.31-38), which empire
does “the beast” of Revelation represent?
[1] Indeed, some heterodox “churches” (a.k.a. cults) on the fringe of
historic Christianity were established as “end-times communities” whose members
would either be the “survivors” of the “great tribulation” or the beneficiaries
of “the rapture”, the “true” believers who would be “saved” while the rest of
humanity perished, etc. E.g. in the U.S.A.,
the Jehovah’s Witnesses (founded in the 1870s) and the Church of Jesus Christ
of Latter-Day Saints (i.e., the Mormons, established in the 1820s).
[2] Of course, those who use the Bible to calculate the date of the end
do not limit themselves to the book of Revelation; other “prophetic” books/passages
will be used, as well as the Bible’s genealogies! Cf. Anglican Archbishop James Ussher’s 1654
attempt to determine the date of the beginning of the world; Ussher
determined that creation had occurred on October 22, 4004 B.C. (he was not the
only one at the time who attempted this).
Compare American preacher Harold Camping’s prediction that the rapture
would occur on May 21, 2011, followed by “the end” of the world on October 21,
2011 (Camping had previously made several other predictions about “the end”,
beginning in 1994). Camping died in
2013.
[3] The second Jerusalem Temple was built c. 515 B.C. and destroyed in
AD 70. During this period, much
apocalyptic literature was produced; modern critical editions are readily
available: e.g. Charlesworth’s 1983 Old Testament Pseudepigrapha in 2
volumes.
[4] Though there are many portions of OT books that are apocalyptic:
Is. 24—27; Zechariah; many portions of Ezekiel (esp. chapters 1—3), etc.
[5] Cp. Dn. 2 where king Nebuchadnezzar dreams of a four-part statue, a
dream that Daniel interprets as referring to four kingdoms, with the head of
the statue representing the Babylonian empire.
So, which was the third empire to follow Babylon and with which the Jews
had to deal…? Interpreting apocalyptic
texts requires knowledge of ancient history.
Naturally, many casual readers of the Bible find speculation about the
future to be much more enjoyable than attentive study of the past…
[6] From the Greek Apocalypto, meaning “to unveil” “to reveal”. This is of course the original title of the
book: “The Apocalypse” (later tradition would add “of Saint John the Divine”). Debates continue as to who the “John” of
Revelation is…
[7] Indeed, it could be said that Revelation is an extended mediation on
and expansion of Daniel (Rev. chapters 1 [Son of Man], 4 [divine throne room],
13 [beasts from sea and land], 20 [final judgment] and 22 [warnings to heed the
book’s prophecies] are especially dependent on Dn. 7 and 12).
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