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Summary This book is about how the book of Revelation has affected history and what people think will happen in the end of the world. According to this book no one knows who wrote the Revelation but the Kirsch believes that the author is Jewish. The Revelation tells the story of how the world is suppose to end based on the visions that the author of the Revelation claims he has seen. This book has had so many influences on Western culture and it always makes people question whether it is true or not. People either completely ignore the Revelation as part of the bible or they get obsessed with the Revelation. The Revelation is also very hard to understand, because most of the phrase,words,images, and numbers mentioned symbolize something.
According to the Revelation in the end of time there will be a a black, a bloody red moon, and stars falling to the earth. There will also be false prophets,famine and pestilence (epidemic diseases). Then Satan also known as the Antichrist is suppose to come to Earth and rule for 7 years. After living under oppression and persecution, Jesus Christ descends from heaven in the form of warrior king accompanied by an army of saints. The battles between the ''king's army'' and Satan is called the Battle of Armageddon, which is when Satan is draped with chains and confined in a pit, so Jesus rules earth for one thousand years. Then Satan breaks out of his chains and Jesus Christ fights with Satan a second time. Christ wins and he decides that the dead will be resurructed. The living and dead are judged on Judgement day and then the earth is destroyed once and for all. Kirsch believes that the author of Revelation was trying to tell people that God would avenge himself on their enemies and prosecutors by ending the world. (Kirsch 15) Then a new earth and a new heaven is created. The saints and martyrs go to heaven and the rest burn in hell with Satan for eternity.
Kirsch argues that the author of the Revelation was probably influenced by earlier writings, prophecies, and so called apocalypses. The Revelation is one of the exceptions that have survived in time and that have not been excluded from the Bible. For example, the book of Daniel is included in the Hebrew Bible and the book of Revelation is part of the New Testament. Some scenes in the Revelation can alsobe found in the Hebrew bible so th author of revelation did borrow ideas from other sources not just from his visions (Kirsch 24).
Quote " 'Apocalypse' is one of the various titles that appear on ancient manuscripts of the last book of the New Testament, but the same word is also used b scholars to identify any text in which the author describes the secret knowledge that has been revealed to a human being by a supernatural figure of some kind." (Kirsch 21)
Reactions I found it amusing that every people of every worry about the world ending, but in the end it doesn't really end up happening during their time or their's grandchildren's time. People find themselves obsessing over finding the precise date of the end of the world, but no one really knows when it will happen or if it will happen.So far I have learned so many things about the Revelation book and it is influences by the book of David. In the book of David, God is placed in heaven, the angles serve him, and there is monsters that attack the earth which is also seen in the Revelation. Another thing I learned was that "..all apocalyptic writings, including the book of Revelation -- is found in the simple fact that its night visions are not to be taken literally." This means that most apocalyptic writings are symbolic and the readers has to pay careful attention to the crazy images used.
The quote above define the meaning of the world apocalypse and explains why the book of Revelation is considered an apocalypse. I also found it confusing that some people still try to "break the code and reveal the hidden message" in the book of David when the date of the end of the world mentioned by David was wrong. Finding the real message would probably take years of research.
