Enter content here

The Amplified Theistic Evolution Bible Interpretation:

Original Revelation
The Theistic Evolution Bible Interpretation | Bible Preface | Genesis 1 | Genesis One, an interactive presentation: | Genesis 2: | Genesis 3: | Genesis 4: | Genesis 5: | Genesis 6: | Genesis 7: | Genesis 11: | Genesis 14: | Genesis 15: | Genesis 18  | Genesis 22: | Genesis 28: | Genesis 36: | Exodus 3 | Exodus 4 | Exodus 5 | Exodus 6 | Exodus 7 | Exodus 8 | Exodus 9 | Exodus 10 | Exodus 11 | Exodus 13 | Exodus 25 | Exodus 28 | Exodus 33 | Exodus 33 | Numbers 2 | Leviticus 19 | Deuteronomy 18 | Deuter 28 | Pslam 22 | Psalm 23 | Ps 66 | Ps 78 | Psalm 83 | Psalm 87 | Psalm 109: | Psalm 110 | Psalm 118 | 1Kings 6 | Isaiah 3: | Isaiah 11 | Isaiah 14 | Isaiah 17 | Isaiah 19 | Isaiah 24 | Isaiah 26 | Isaiah 28 | Isaiah 29 | Isaiah 29 | Isaiah 30 | Isaiah 32 | Isaiah 40  | Isaiah 41 | Isaiah 43 | Isaiah 44 | Isaiah 45: | Isaiah 49 | Isaiah 53: | Isaiah 60: | Isaiah 61: | Isaiah 62: | Isaiah 66 | Ezekiel 1 | Ezekiel 9 | Ezek 10 | Ezekiel 13 | Ezekiel 18 | Ezekiel 28 | Ezekiel 31 | Ez 34 | Ez 33 | Ez 34 | Ez 33 | Ez 34 | Ezekiel 36 | Ezekiel 36 | Ezekiel 37 | Ezekiel 38 | Ezekiel 39 | Ezekiel 43 | Ezekiel 43 | Ez 43 | Jer 7 | Jer 8 | Jeremiah 16 | Jer 19 | Jer 30 | Jer 31 | Jeremiah 31 | Jeremiah 49 | Daniel 2: | Daniel 4 | Daniel 7 | Daniel 8: | Dan 9 | Dan 10 | Dan 11 | Dan 12 | Joel 3 | Hosea 2:1 | Hosea 3 | Zechariah 1: | Zech 2 | Zech 3 | Zech 4 | Zech 5 | Zech 6 | Zechariah 8: | Zech 9 | Zech 11 | Zechariah 12 | Zechariah 13 | Zech 14 | Mal 3 | Malachi 4: | Matthew 1: | Matt 3 | Elijah | Matthew 4: | Matt 5 | Matt 9 | Matt 10 | Matt 11 | Matt 12 | Matt 17 | Matt 18 | Matthew 24 | Matt 25 | Matt 26 | Mark 8 | Luke 1 | Luk e 10 | John 1 | John 3 | John 5 | John 6 | John 6 | John 14 | John 15: | John 17 | John 21 | 1Peter 4 | Acts 2 | Romans 1 | Romans 5 | Romans 7 | Romans 8 | Romans 9 | Romans 11 | Romans 13 | Romans 12 | 1Co 13 | 1Cor 15 | 1 Ti 4 | 1 Ti 5 | 1 Thessalonians 4 | 2 Thessalonians 2 | THE REVELATION | Revelation 1: | Revelation 2 | Revelation 3 | Revelation 4 | Revelation 5 | Revelation 6: | Revelation 7 | Revelation 8 | Revelation 9 | Revelation 10 | Revelation 11 | Revelation 12 | Revelation 12 | Revelation 13: | Revelation 14 | Revelation 15 | Revelation 16 | Revelation 17: | Revelation 18: | Revelation 19 | Revelation 20 | Revelation21: | Revelation 22 | Original Revelation | Open

DISCOVERY: Revelation is actually a copy of a Jewish apocalypse, exactly the same as read in the New Testament. Except that the first three chapters were added by Jesus when he gave them to by John!

The Letters to the Seven Churches:
The first part (i. 4-iii. 22) contains a vision by John, who is told by Jesus to send a letter to the seven angels of the seven churches in Asia (founded by Paul and his associates), rebuking them for the libertinism that has taken hold of many "who pass as Jews, but show by their blasphemy and licentiousness that they are of the synagogue of Satan" (ii. 9, iii. 9, Greek). These seven churches were those of Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamus, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea. Owing to their heathen associations many of their members had lapsed into pagan or semipagan views and practises, under the influence of heretic leaders. Of these one is singled out by the name of Nicolaites (ii. 6, 15; comp. Acts vi. 5), called also Balaam (ii. 14, ="Nicolaos"), because, like Balaam, he seduced the people to idolatry and fornication by his false prophecies and witchcraft (Num. xxv. 1; xxxi. 8, 16). Another singled out was a woman, probably a prophetess, called Jezebel (ii. 20) on account of her idolatrous practises (I Kings xviii. 19, xxi. 25). Evidently the seed sown by Paul and his associates, who in their antinomian Gnosticism boasted of having penetrated "the deep things of God" (I Cor. ii. 10), had borne evil fruit, so that the seer of Patmos calls these heretics "false apostles and liars" (ii. 2), and their teachings "the depths of Satan" (ii. 24).

How much local cults, as that of Esculapius in Pergamos ("Satan's seat"; ii. 13), had to do with these heresies it is difficult to say; certain it is that many were "polluted" by pagan practises (ii. 13, 26; iii. 4). All the more severely does the seer condemn the Pauline teaching as "the teaching of Balaam" (comp. II Peter ii. 15; Jude 11; Sanh. 106b; Giṭ. 57a; see Balaam). On the other hand, Jesus, through John, promises to the poor, the meek, and the patient toilers of the churches who refuse to partake of the meals of the pagans that "they shall eat of the tree of life" in paradise (ii. 2, 7); to those who are to suffer from the pagan powers that they shall, as true "athletes" of this world, be given the "crown of life" (ii. 10); to him "that overcometh" in the contest (comp. the rabbinical term, "zokeh") will be given a lot or mark ("goral") bearing the Ineffable Name, and he shall "eat of the hidden manna" (ii. 17; comp. Tan., Beshallaḥ, ed. Buber, p. 21; Ḥag. 12b; Apoc. Baruch, xxix. 8; Sibyllines, ii. 348); or, like the Messiah, he will "rule them [the heathen] with a rod of iron" and be given the crown of glory (ii. 26-28; the "morning star," taken from xxii. 16, if it is not the error of a copyist); those who "have not defiled their garments" "shall be clothed in white raiment," and their names shall be written in the book of life and proclaimed before God and His angels (iii. 4-5); while those who stand the test of Satan's trials shall be spared in the great Messianic time of trial and become pillars in the temple of the "new Jerusalem" (iii. 10-13, Greek), or shall partake of the Messianic banquet, sitting by (scarcely "in") the seat of Jesus (iii. 21).

Jewish Point of View of Writer:
Obviously, the writer of these visionary letters to the seven churches of Asia was in his own estimation a Jew, while believing in Jesus as the risen Messiah. He beheld him in his vision as "the faithful witness" (martyr) who is next to God, "who is, was, and will be" ("come" is the emendation of the late compiler), his seven angelic spirits standing "before his throne" (i. 4-5); "the Son of man" grasping seven stars in his right hand, while out of his mouth came a sharp two-edged sword (i. 13-16; ii. 1, 12 [taken from the apocalypse, xiv. 14]; iii. 1); who "holds the keys of hell and of death" (i. 18); who is "the holy and true one" that "holds the key of David" (iii. 7, with reference to Isa. xxii. 22); who is called also "the beginning of the creation of God" (iii. 14). However, the identification of "him who was dead and became alive again" with God, who is the First and the Last, the ever-living Almighty (i. 17; comp. i. 8 and ii. 8), is the work of the late compiler. The close of the visionary letters is found at xxii. 16, where Jesus is represented as saying, "I am the root and the offspring of David" (comp. Isa. xi. 1, 10), "the bright and morning star" (after Num. xxiv. 17 and [probably] Ps. cx. 3; comp. LXX.). To find in these chapters traces of a persecution of the early Christians by the Jews, as do most modern exegetes, is absurdly illogical. On the contrary, the writer condemns the anti-Jewish attitude of the Pauline churches; the document is therefore of great historical value. It is important in this connection to note the Hebraisms of the whole of this part of the book, which prove that the writer or—if he himself originally wrote Hebrew or Aramaic—the translator could neither write nor speak Greek correctly. As to the relation of this to the apocalypse which follows see below.

First Jewish Apocalypse
After the introductory verses, part of i. 1, 8 ("I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was and will be ["will come" is a Christian alteration], the Almighty") and part of i. 12-19, the apocalyptic seer describes (iv. 1 et seq.) how he was carried up by the spirit (with the angel's word, "Come down hither," compare the expression "Yorede Merkabah"), and how he saw "a throne set in heaven and One sitting on the throne," after the manner of Ezek. i. 26-28. "Round about the throne were twenty-four seats, and upon these I saw twenty-four elders sitting, clothed in white raiment, and they had golden crowns on their heads": obviously heavenly representations of the twenty-four classes of priests serving in the Temple (Ta'an. iv. 2; I Chron. xxiv. 7-18; Josephus, "Ant." vii. 14, § 7; comp., however, Gunkel, "Schöpfung und Chaos," pp. 302-308, and Isa. xxiv. 23 [Bousset]). After a description of the four "ḥayyot," taken from Ezek. i. 5-10, 18 and combined with that of the seraphim in Isa. vi. 2-3, the text continues, "They rest not day and night, saying, Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God of hosts [παυτοκράτωρ, translated "Almighty" in A. V.; comp. Amos iv. 13], who was, is, and shall be" (Greek text, "is to come"). And when the ḥayyot give glory and honor and praise to Him who sits on the throne, Him who lives forever and ever ("ḥe ha-'olamin"), the twenty-four elders prostrate themselves and, laying down their crowns, say, "Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power, for Thou hast created all things, and by Thy will they have been created."

Ch. v.: The seer then describes how he saw at the right hand of God a scroll written within and without and sealed with seven seals (it was customary for the last will to be sealed with seven seals and opened by seven witnesses; see Huschke, "Das Buch mit den Sieben Siegeln," 1860; Zahn, "Einleitung in das Neue Testament," ii. 591), which none in heaven, on earth, or beneath the earth was found worthy to open until one of the twenty-four elders pointed out that "the lion of the tribe of Judah, the root of David, had merited to open the book and loose its seven seals." Then the lion (the Christian reviser rather awkwardly substituted "the slain lamb") suddenly appeared, with seven horns and seven eyes, standing between the throne and the four ḥayyot and the twenty-four elders; and he stepped forth and took the scroll while the ḥayyot and the elders prostrated themselves before him, saying, "Thou art worthy to take the book and open the seals thereof; for . . ." The remainder has been worked over by the Christian reviser.

Ch. vi. 1-12: At the opening of the first seal by the Messiah the seer hears the thunder-call of one of the four ḥayyot, and sees a white horse appear, with a rider holding a bow (representing, probably, Pestilence);

at the opening of the second seal, a red horse, with a rider armed with a great sword (representing War);

at the opening of the third seal, a black horse, with a rider holding a pair of balances to weigh flour, bread having become scarce (signifying Famine);

at the opening of the fourth seal, a "pale" horse, the rider thereof being Death.

These four are to destroy the fourth part of the earth by the sword, famine, pestilence, and wild beasts.

What plague is ushered in at the opening of the fifth seal is no longer stated; apparently it is persecution of the saints, as the text continues: "I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God, and for the testimony they gave" (as martyrs; see Ḳiddush ha-Shem). "And they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost Thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth." And white robes were given them, and they were told to rest for a while until the number of the martyrs was full (comp. Apocalypse of Baruch, xxx. 2; IV Esd. iv. 36).

After this the seer beholds a great multitude of people of every land and language, both Jews and proselytes, also arrayed in white robes, standing before the throne; and he is told that, "having undergone great tribulation, they have made their robes white by the blood of the martyrs" (of course, not "of the lamb," as the Christian reviser has it); and that now they serve God in the heavenly temple day and night, and the Shekinah dwells with them (vii. 9-17, which part is misplaced).

Ch. vi. 12-17: At the opening of the sixth seal "the birth-throes of the Messianic time" appear, as depicted in Joel iii. 3-4; Isa. ii. 10, xxiv., xxxiv. 4; and Hosea x. 8. Fear of the great day of God's wrath (Mal. iii. 2) and of the wrath of His anointed (Ps. ii. 12) seizes the whole world.

(link to continue)

First Jewish Apocalypse is called the Main Apocalypse:
The succeeding part (iv.-xx. 8) contains several Jewish apocalypses worked into one, so altered, interpolated, and remodeled as to impress the reader as the work of the author of the letters to the seven churches. In the following the attempt is made to acquaint the reader with the contents of the two original Jewish apocalypses, as far as they can be restored, the Christian interpolations and alterations being put aside.

Click to open The Book of Revelation
s6xs6x5.jpg
Truth reveals the Almighty Reality that it birth!

Click for full description of Lotus Leaf Notebook!
origbible.jpg