The Book of Revelations is, in my opinion, a convoluted mess. The  grotesque imagery and lack of a consistent place and time makes for a very confusing read. While reading it, I often thought of the author’s frame of reference and how the contributed to his story. The angels flew to the “four corners of the Earth” and stars literally fell. I think this is important since all prophecies are told from the “seers” frame of reference. Clearly, we now know that Earth doesn’t have corners and falling stars are meteors. However, despite knowing that earlier seers were wrong because of a lack of knowledge, people today still assert that their knowledge is complete enough to be right. It seems that every generation is conceited enough to think they know everything there is to know about end-time phenomena.

Something I found interesting from the first few chapters is that many Christians at the time that Revelations was written, and many more after, did not think the Revelations belonged in the Bible and that John was not really a prophet of God. I think this is important because the texts that were compiled and afterward changed history were chosen by a select group of people. It’s interesting that a text which has influenced so much of the culture since it’s beginning may not have become well known at all.

Another interesting note it that Revelations and other Jewish apocalypse texts found a need for Satan as an anti-god. Like in most stories that humans tell there is a defined good and bad, black and white.

Finally, it is interesting that the Jewish apocalyptic stories and Revelations were written as a sort of propaganda. The evil-doers were those who did not follow the religion and had societal norms different from those of the pious, and an apocalypse would be a punishment for them while those true to their religion would be saved. This sort of idea still surrounds the apocalypse today with ideas such as God creating tsunamis because he hates gays.