page 66-100

Summary  This section focuses a lot on what the author of the Revelation probably thought and about his beliefs. John himself says in the Revelation that he got his visions on a isle called Patmos. There is speculation that John had been sentenced to hard labor on Patmos or that he was exiled for his preaching missions. Evangelical scholars have also added in the modern translation of the New Testament ,a phrase where John supposedly says "I was exiled to the island of Patmos for preaching the word of God...", which was not in the Greek Test of the New Testament (Kirsch 66). Kirsch discusses that John traveled around 7 cities of the Asian Minor to preach people about the end. One thing John did not like was that the 7 cities offered many opportunities for Christians to embrace the Roman lifestyle.  He also says Rome was the "agent of Satan", so anyone who worshiped Satan (Roman emperor?) would be marked with a symbol and punished in the end of time. John also stated that "the beast" caused people from every social class to be marked, so that no one can buy or sell unless he has the mark...". John is referring to how the image of the Roman emperor was on the coins and people who wanted wealth had to use the main coin of th empire. He thought of this as a violation of what the God of Israel declared the Ten Commandments (Kirsch 70). Kirsch then stated that John used the number 666 to refer to the Roman Emperor.
               John was a pure prophet,he no official title, and he didn't have a home in Asia Minor.  Some scholars believe John was rich and that he gave up his wealth to be a prophet. John hated those who aspired to be wealthy and did not like when people mixed religious beliefs-rituals. He also makes it clear in the Revelation that he all sorts of sexual conduct is wrong and dirty. Kirsch says this, because only virgins and martyrs play the good guys in the Revelation and the enemies are usually "whores and whoremongers". The idea of sex if also shown as a defilement in the Hebrew Bible, the book of Watchers, and other Jewish writings. Kirsch concludes that John is obsessed with the idea of everything being poor ; For instance, John did not like when people ate food that was sacrificed to an idol. Another thing John seems to be obsessed with is using the number 666 as a symbol for the beast. The beast is a Roman emperor, but no one knows who it is for sure. Some scholars assume that it is Caesar Nero (51 C.E-96 C.E).  The reason why John hates ALL Roman emperors so much is that during John's time Christians were tortured and punished by Romans for their beliefs.
                 The Kirsch discusses that John insists that Christians will have to go through "Tribulation" before being entered into a new heaven/earth. John says Christians will have to go through horrible things. For instance, Kirsch says that John only knew one martyr called Antipas. Antipas suffered and was executed for sticking to his beliefs. John mention in the Revelation Christians who testified that they were Christians faced the death penalty. Some scholars find it hard to believe that this true. One reason for why some some scholars think that it was easy to run away from executions, because it easy for Christians to compromise with Roman authorities. John was mainly trying to teach his readers to keep their faith and not to compromise with the evil (Romans). He wanted his readers to be patient and passive even if it meant dying. Another thing that Kirsch stated is that John wrote that he was more Jewish than any one else and that "the Son of Men" told him to record his writings.
    
Quote  "Only in John's visions of the end-times, and not in the historical record, do we find  the worst excesses of Roman persecution. ...The book of Revelation `expresses the author's expectation of persecution.`" (Kirsch 87)
Reactions Reading that scholars had added a phrase in the New Testament mad me start thinking about what Kirsch said about misinterpretations. As the years pass by some things are translated and added, which can change the real meaning of the text. It is possible that what one person thinks is John's message is completely different from John's real message. Now I understand why there are people who go crazy over this. Another thing I found interesting was that John wanted everything to be pure. Kirsch makes it seem like one can learn about John's personality through his writing which is true for some authors.
  The quote above lets the reader know what the author of this book thinks of John. Kirsch is saying that John may be exaggerating some of the things he says in the Book of Revelation. The way John describes how Romans treated Christian may be worse than the actual history. I also agree with the scholars that think it was easy for Christians to escape their fate. After all John is telling how Christians were persecuted from his point of view.