Revelations: Visions, Prophecy, and Politics in the Book of Revelation

Written by Elaine Pagels

Narrated by Lorna Raver

Elaine Pagels explores the surprising history of the most controversial book of the Bible.
In the waning days of the Roman Empire, militant Jews in Jerusalem had waged an
all-out war against Rome’s occupation of Judea, and their defeat resulted in the desecration
of the Great Temple in Jerusalem. In the aftermath of that war, John of Patmos, a Jewish
prophet and follower of Jesus, wrote the Book of Revelation, prophesying God’s judgment
on the pagan empire that devastated and dominated his people. Soon after, Christians fearing
arrest and execution championed John’s prophecies as offering hope for deliverance from
evil. Others seized on the Book of Revelation as a weapon against heretics and infidels
of all kinds.
     Even after John’s prophecies seemed disproven—instead of being destroyed, Rome
became a Christian empire—those who loved John’s visions refused to discard them and
instead reinterpreted them—as Christians have done for two thousand years. Brilliantly
weaving scholarship with a deep understanding of the human needs to which religion speaks,
Pagels has written what may be the masterwork in her unique career.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Penguin Random House Audio Publishing Group
• Release date: Mar 6, 2012
• ISBN: 9780307988270

Elaine Pagels

Elaine Pagels is a preeminent academic whose impressive scholarship has earned her international respect. The Harrington Spear Paine Professor of Religion at Princeton University, Pagels was awarded the Rockefeller, Guggenheim, and MacArthur Fellowships in three consecutive years. She is the author of The Gnostic Gospels, Beyond Belief, and Revelations.

Reviews for Revelations

[setnahkt · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I learned a lot of new things from this; it was … a revelation. Elaine Pagels has written several popular yet solidly researched books about early Christianity, specializing in what you might call “alternative Scripture”; the Gnostic gospels, the Nag Hammadi papyri, and other texts that didn’t make it into the orthodox Bible. In this case, it’s Revelations, which did make it – but Pagels notes it was a near thing. I hadn’t realized that there were a lot of “revelations” available to early Christians, and that Patriarch Athanasius was responsible for seeing to it that only one made it into the Bible. It was my understanding that the various Beasts, Whores, and whatnot in Revelation were supposed to be assorted Roman emperors or perhaps the Empire of Rome as a whole; Pagels suggests instead that they intended to represent early Christian groups that John of Patmos didn’t like. By the time Athanasius got a hold of it, that was the default; the apocalyptic figures were co-opted to be prophecies of Christian heresies; in particular anybody who disagreed with Athanasius. (A millennium later Martin Luther initially rejected Revelations and wanted it removed from the canon, but changed his mind on realizing that the Beasts and Whore could be used to symbolize the Catholic Church).
Short, easy read; Pagels is simultaneously scholarly and accessible. No bibliography; references are given in the endnotes. Index seems a little sparse. No illustrations.

[featherbear · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

• Eusebius, Bishop of Caesarea in Palestine, author of the classic History of the Church, and a contemporary of the emperor Constantine, was ambivalent: the Book of Revelation was both “universally accepted” by Christian believers, and yet on the list of “illegitimate” books. Pagels notes similarities of Revelation to 4th Ezra, a prophetic book excluded from the Christian Old Testament canon.
• As in Reza Aslan’s Zealot, Christianity and religion are inseparable from politics. Roman religion was part of Roman imperial authority. As quid pro quo, the Romans adopted the gods of peoples they conquered in exchange for the conquered people’s acceptance of the Roman gods. The Romans tolerated the separateness of the Jewish religion up to a point, but friction eventually led to the razing of the temple at Jerusalem by the empire’s military. The Romans viewed the followers of Jesus as another Jewish sect and were accordingly held under suspicion and eventually persecuted them as subversives – potential terrorists as some consider the Muslims in the US and Europe today. So to the followers of Jesus, Rome was the evil empire. Again, while Pagels acknowledges the external references, the Christian/Roman (pagan) conflict is covered in more detail in Aslan’s Zealot.
• There may also be internal references within the religious community. The author of Revelation is most likely a Jew in a sect following Jesus; Christianity as such is still in the embryonic stage. Pagels refers to him as John of Patmos and distinguishes him from John son of Zebedee, the purported author of the gospel; the two were merged as the canon was developed, to lend greater authority to Revelation. Pagels believes that some of the animus driving the vision/prophecy applies also to gentile (non-Jewish) followers of Jesus. While Paul of Tarsus courted the gentiles, other followers within the Jesus sect believed that Jesus’ message was aimed only at the Jews themselves. As the gentiles eventually took over the Jesus cult and turned it into Christianity, reinterpretation made the Jews into the enemy, at least in one interpretative stream. But the internal conflict would also be applied to Christian heretics – see below.
• Revelation follows the model of Hebrew prophecy, using allegory, metaphor, and other styles of secret messaging to refer to contemporary events in order to ward off unmetaphorical reprisals from the powers that be. The prophetic tradition predates the Roman empire and was used to refer to the Babylonian conquerors of the Jews in earlier history. So, logically, references to Babylon in Revelation can be interpreted as references to Rome. At the time of its writing in the later 1st century CE (AD), the reference is to external politics, and the return of the Messiah (Jesus) to bring down the evil empire is expected in the near future. This didn’t happen, and perhaps this accounts for Revelation’s whiff of illegitimacy in early Christianity.
• In the transition from followers of Jesus to orthodox Christianity (the Catholic Church), reaching its culmination with the Emperor Constantine in the 4th century, the evil Empire is now the benefactor of the church, so Babylon now refers to internal politics, and the judgment formerly reserved for the Romans and their religion, is now assigned to heretics within the Christian community. Pagels appears to be suggesting that Revelation becomes the final chapter of the Christian canon, because Athanasius, the Christian with the most political authority within the Church, was using it to cement the Church’s authority over heretical thought. Although the Antichrist is not mentioned in Revelation, anti-heretical interpretation found the book to be rich in potential references to the AC. The Antichrist concept is important, because heretics may call themselves Christians but they are really minions of the AC, pod people like the invasion of the body snatchers. Heresy and paranoia go hand in hand.
• Pagels is an expert in the gnostic gospels, uncanonical spiritual writings employed by monasteries outside the authority of the orthodox, Catholic church. In her view, the gnostic gospels are more inclusive and multicultural. In contrast, Revelation’s stories are good guys versus bad guys (whoever they are), and the bad guys are thoroughly stomped. They burn in hell as Jesus’ revenge for the burning of his followers at the stake. Good guys/bad guys is probably a more expedient way of supporting authority, so Revelation is the perfect capstone for anti-heretical orthodoxy. And so, the gnostic gospels were condemned, hidden by sympathetic monks in jars to be unearthed in the deserts of Egypt after the second world war.

[mitchell_bergeson_jr · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

An interesting account about Revelations and how it made it into the New Testament Canon. This is an important book as it shows through the centuries how people interpreted it to propagate their own personal agendas (which continues today). It also discusses some of the other end time revelations (Gnostics) writings and how those differed sharply from what John wrote.

[idiotgirl · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I have a good deal of interest in this book for a variety of reasons. I found this book very interestin. How the book was written. How the book has been read. For me that past task was paramount. And I found good info--laid out over a timeline.

[william345 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Author Elaine Pagels includes here discussion of not only John of Patmos's Book of Revelations, so well-known from the New Testament, but also discussion of the numerous revelation texts found at Nag Hammadi in Upper Egypt in 1945. These are the so-called gnostic or apocryphal texts expunged by order of Egyptian bishop Athanasius in the 4th century C.E. Because of the range of her sources she's able to give us a picture of Christian revelatory thinking and mindsets through the ages.

For instance, the original "beast" or anti-Christ as conceived by John of Patmos was clearly Rome. John, a Jew, wrote in 90 C.E. This was just twenty years after the Roman destruction of Jerusalem and the scattering of the Jewish people. Once Constantine adopted the faith (312 C.E.) and ended the persecution of Christians, however, the beast was reinterpreted to mean all so-called heretics: Jews, ironically, pagans, essentially any nonconformist.

Pagels also discusses how due to the thematic broadness of much of what John wrote he created imagery that has over two millennia been capable of being projected onto any perceived threat of the moment. The list of examples is extensive, but includes Martin Luther's depiction of the pope as the beast, and the Church's depiction, in turn, of Martin Luther as such. We might also add Hitler as beast, Stalin as best, western sexual and moral laxness as beast, and let's not forget the current favorite: Obama as beast. Recommended.

Let me add that there's a wonderful book by Norman Cohn called Pursuit of the Millennium which I discuss elsewhere that looks at this penchant for flexible interpretation of anti-Christ during the 11th through 15th centuries or so, and how this capacity in turn engendered the most appalling mass hysteria and genocide in central and southern Europe. Cohn's is an astonishing book and I recommended it highly.

[stephenbarkley · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Frustrated again.

I should know by now not to make assumptions based on the subtitle. When I read, “Visions, Prophecy, & Politics in the Book of Revelation,” I assumed Pagels would be exploring the politically subversive nature of John’s Revelation. Instead, I read a book about the reconstructed political factions of the early church that Pagels believes comes to light in John’s Revelation.

An example of this is her discussion of John’s message to Smyrna:

"I know your tribulation and your poverty (but you are rich) and the slander of those who say that they are Jews and are not, but are a synagogue of Satan" (Revelation 2:9 ESV).

Pagels suggests that John’s talking about Paul and his disciples here—those Gentile believers who claim to be included in the seed of Abraham but who eschew Jewish law.

Returning to her bread-and-butter, Pagels describes a conspiracy by who would later be called Orthodox Christians to suppress minority opinions and alternate writings. For her, John’s revelation is the only one which survived because the powerful could use it to increase their power.

While I do agree that many scriptural books have been horribly misused in the name of power against the aims of Jesus, I can’t give the alternate books the credit Pagels does. When I read (what remains of) alternate texts like the Secret Revelation of John, and the Gospel of Truth, I don’t see the sort of sort of scripture-soaked reflection I find in John’s Revelation.

Of course, given my theological viewpoint, I believe the Holy Spirit had a role in preserving the canon. If God could use tyrants like Nebuchadnezzar to accomplish his purpose, he could certainly use Constantine.

If you’re intrigued by Pagels’ thesis and have spent time reading scripture, I encourage you to read the apocryphal texts for yourself. Form your own opinion before turning to Pagels’ Revelations.

[big_bang_gorilla · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Being exposition of the meaning and historical background of the mysterious book of Revelation. The author views the author of Revelation (she brushes aside the traditional identification of said author as St. John the Evangelist in favor of an unknown she calls John of Patmos) as the successor to such great Old Testament grouches as Ezekiel and Jeremiah who inveighed against the foibles of their time with hugely creative, surreal imagery. As for the object of the book's scorn, she joins in the traditional wisdom that it was the Roman Empire to a limited degree, but clearly believes that it was mostly an attack upon St. Paul and his big tent theory of Christianity as opposed to Ss. Peter and James' philosophy that a member of the sect had to be, and live as, a Jew.
These are enlightening and profitable streams of inquiry, as well as being engagingly written, but the middle third of the book consists of out-of-control meanderings into territory largely both unrelated and uninteresting, such as the origins of monasticism, the conversion of Christianity, and the organization of the adolescent church.

[magicians_nephew · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

One for the scholar - and maybe not just for the scholar.

If you write a book about the gnostic or "hidden" books of the Bible, you might expect your book to sell a few hundred copies (if you were lucky) and then go quietly to sleep on the shelves of pastors and scholars..

But Elaine Pagels's book The Gnostic Gospels came out a decade ago and was read by everybody and was a National Book Award winner and was a hard kick in the pants to a lot of sleeping sacred cows.

With a sharp eye and a fresh insight it showed the process of choosing texts to be included in the Christian Bible to be a deeply political and human process while shining a bright clear light on the very human figures that we often see done in marble outside of the churches.

Now we have come to Revelations: Visions, Prophecy and Politics a new and very exciting book about the last book in the Bible, the Revelation of St John.

(This is the book with "The Number of the Beast" in it. 666 and so forth).

(This is also the book that doesn't mention Jesus - even through the New Testament is supposed to be all about Jesus.)

Dr. Pagels is wonderful about the fact that there were many hundreds of books of mystical "Revelations" written during the Roman Era. So why did this one come down through history and not the others?

And THAT question is a very interesting one - bringing in issues about the early Church and the Roman empire and what people under repression could get away with and not get away with.

Professor Pagels is a wonderful writer and scholar, and reading her books you are caught up in the excitement of the chase and the wonder of discovery.

Good book, fascinating topic, brilliant writing. Worth a look for you if you want to learn something new.

[jarvenpa · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I grew up in a tradition in which the Bible was considered to be literally true. As a young reader of 11 years I spent my days on the playground with my New Testament, reading and rereading the book of Revelations and trying to make sense of it.

Since I love Pagel's Chalice and the Blade and other writings, I was very eager to see her take upon the book that had so puzzled me. (oops. Sharon has correctly informed me that of course the Chalice and Blade is by Riane Eisler). Which Pagels so caught my heart I eagerly rushed for this one? Perhaps the Gnostic Gospels.

Pagel's book reads a bit like a paper for a graduate school class on a particularly period of Roman (and other) history. As such it was hard going for me, but I did learn a bit more than I knew before. The actual book is 177 pages; all else is notes and footnotes, and I confess I merely glanced at those.

It's a book that fails to go deep, I think. But..interesting nonetheless.

[kaulsu · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Many may not care for Pagels' all-encompassing interest in the Kumran scrolls, and should therefore not attempt this book. But in my opinion, there can not be too many books explaining the inexplicable book of Revelation. Pagels, true to form, explains John's psychotrophic visions and goes on to put him in his time and place. She also throws in a vast amount of history of the very early Christian Church. Definietly worth the read...or listen, as was my case!

[theampersand · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

As other reviewers have noted, this one's not specifically about that most ancient of awesome horror flicks, the Book of Revelations. Pagels's focus is on the now-hidden history of Christianity, and how a small Jewish sect with a wide spectrum of often contradictory beliefs became the relatively uniform world-spanning religion we know today. People researching the history of Christianity, seeking new perspectives on Christian belief, or wanting to know more about how the ancients saw their own world will likely find this one extremely useful. People seeking to understand why this one particular book has exercised such a fascination in so many people for the better part of two millennia should probably start elsewhere, though it is, in a sense, an entertaining look back to an era where Christians (or at least Christ-oriented Jews) believed all sorts of odd-sounding stuff and "prophet" was a full-time gig for a surprisingly large number of people. "Revelations: Visions, Prophecy, and Politics in the Book of Revelation" is well written and assiduously researched, and it'll likely challenge the long-held assumptions of both the faithful and the merely curious.

[the_hibernator · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

In her newest book, Pagels explores the history of John of Patmos' Book of Revelation. She outlines what we know about John of Patmos, what he was trying to say with his preaching, and how contemporaries may have responded. The second half of the book covers the history of Christianity in the first two centuries C.E., with emphasis on Pagels' favorite topic of disparate beliefs among early groups. She completes the book with a description of how the Bible Cannon was chosen, with some suggestions about why John of Patmos' Book of Revelation was the only apocalyptic literature included. Pagels' writing is clear and interesting, though a bit repetitive--especially if you've read some of her earlier works. If you're interested in early church history, especially the disparate groups of Christians, then this is the book for you. If you're interested in apocalyptic literature in early Christian history, then the first half of this book, and the tail end, is for you.

[theageofsilt · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This book focuses on presenting the historical context for the "Revelations". The most fascinating aspect was how a group of people decided which gospels were to be considered as authentic and included as Christian canon while other writings were rejected. There were many books of prophesy and only John's was accepted. It really demonstrates how arbitrary the version of Christianity we are accustomed to actually is. Pagel's book is very readable, albeit a little repetitive. I'm sure it will be ignored by the evangelical community because it introduces quite a bit of uncertainty into what is now dogma