A New Heaven andA New Earth:

A Theological Conversation On Revelation

Mo-Ranch Women’s ConferencesJune 2010

www.fpcgarland.org

Social-Science Commentary on theBook of Revelation

by Bruce J. Malina & John J. Pilch

The New Jerusalem in the Revelation of John:

The City as Symbol of Life with God

by Bruce J. Malina

When you think about or ponder

the Book of Revelation, what comes to your mind?

First word: apokalypsis (Greek)Means: revelation

From: apokalyptoMeans: To make known

something secret; to reveal secrets

Revelation 1:1 “The revelation of Jesus Christ…”

Kinship with Jewish apocalyptic writers:Daniel

The visions of Ezekiel

Revelation 17 and Daniel 7:World empires and grotesque beasts

Revelation 21:2-4 and Ezekiel 43:God’s new dwelling place among God’s

people

John the seer is author and not someone else

Speaks out of shared circumstances Christian community of his own time and

not an earlier epoch as in Jewish apocalyptic writing

To be read aloud Not to be sealed up With the community referring to it often

Between the power of God and that of God’s adversary – Satan

Professor Lewie Donelson:Bloody and violent text;

All parties engage in violence,Even God and Jesus.

Hard for modern minds to grasp.

No hint as to identity of John , other than his common name

Was a prophet Nearly all John observes in his visions

is somehow related to the sky

Therefore, an astral prophet

Celestial entities were not only angelic beings but also stars

In the period of the New Testament, stars were considered personal, living beings

Astrology and astronomy were not separated in John’s time

Generally believed that those who could read the sky were able to read important secrets

John could read these “secrets” and he was asked to set them down in his book

Celestial secrets were privileged information for kings, priests, or prophets

John would have interpreted for his group of prophet seers and then they would have interpreted it for the common believer

Therefore the author understood that the average believer would not read it and understand it/aural tradition

The reading of the stars were not like individual modern horoscopes

They were for the community and the sky was read for how it would affect the present and future

House building, land purchases, travel John follows the path of his learned

contemporaries and travels to the sky to read the sky

John reports an altered state of consciousness (ASC) as he journeys to the sky (4:2) or studies the sky (12:1ff) or is transported to some nameless

wilderness (17:3) and to an unnamed high mountain

(21:10)

Four times in the Book of Revelation, John is “in spirit”:

1:10 – I was in the spirit on the Lord’s day, and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet …

4:2 – At once I was in the spirit, and there in heaven stood a throne, with one seated on the throne!

17:3 – So he carried me away in the spirit into a wilderness, and I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast that was full of blasphemous names, and it had seven heads and ten horns.

21:10 – And in the spirit he carried me away to a great, high mountain and showed me the holy city Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God.

90% of the world’s population has them Dreaming, meditative, trance, reverie,

daydreaming, sleeping, expanded consciousness and “normal” (Krippner)

For ancients, the realm of God and God’s angels, of stars and planets, of spirits, and demons were all part of the total environment in which humans lived

Most modern Euro-Americans taught strong cultural resistance to ASC’s

But was Mediterranean culture’s consensus reality

So rich in imagery because he was culturally prepared to have such an experience

Ezekiel, Zechariah, and Daniel also examples of events taking place in an altered dimension of reality

Given the cosmic dimension of the issues at hand, the solution is equally cosmic

John cared about the followers of Jesus, not individuals but the whole community of believers

At home with Israel’s sacred writings

Well tutored in understanding the sky and its formations of constellations, comets, planets, etc.

John read the sky with concern for the followers of Jesus

John and his cohorts would have understood the social life and its context and would not have had to explain it

Today, we need to understand the context because we do not have the perspective the ancients did

This understanding requires a conscious effort on our part

Antonio Otzoy -- Mayans

God’s secrets mediated by Jesus the Messiah will be indicated in signs requiring interpretation rather than in words

God’s secrets mediated by Jesus are revealed in celestial phenomena

Clearly readable by John the seer, but need God’s sky servant to receive explanation

The secrets are about what’s forthcoming and not about some time in the far-off, distant future

“I was in the spirit on the Lord’s day…”

Another reading:In the Spirit

Revelation 1:10b - 17

…and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet 11saying, ‘Write in a book what you see and send it to the seven churches, to Ephesus, to Smyrna, to Pergamum, to Thyatira, to Sardis, to Philadelphia, and to Laodicea.’

12 Then I turned to see whose voice it was that spoke to me, and on turning I saw seven golden lampstands, 13and in the midst of the lampstands I saw one like the Son of Man, clothed with a long robe and with a golden sash across his chest. 14His head and his hair were white as white wool, white as snow; his eyes were like a flame of fire, 15his feet were like burnished bronze, refined as in a furnace, and his voice was like the sound of many waters. 16In his right hand he held seven stars, and from his mouth came a sharp, two-edged sword, and his face was like the sun shining with full force.

17 When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. But he placed his right hand on me, saying, ‘Do not be afraid; I am the first and the last, 18and the living one.

Revelation 1:20

As for the mystery of the seven stars that

you saw in my right hand, and the seven golden lampstands:

the seven stars are the angelsof the seven churches, and the

seven lampstands are the seven churches.

John “was in the sky power” – NRSV “in the spirit” – entailed trips to the sky or to distantlands, while remaining on earth (meant standing outside oneself (ekstasis); Paul in 2 Corinthians 12:2-4)

Being in this “sky power” was one of several ways people received direct information from God

Most common way was through God’s sky servants (angels) in dreams (Joseph in Matthew 2, for instance)

Loud voice like a trumpet: a common understanding of thunder as the voice of God

Means both voice and sound – a sort of incomprehensible yell – sounded like a first century trumpet

Trumpets used at festival times, public games, and war

Sounds from the sky were common in antiquity – Jesus’ baptism (Mark 1:11 and parallels)

Seven golden lampstands reflect the planets

Probably form a menorah, an ancient symbol of the planetary sky

Amidst the lampstands, John sees a celestial configuration which he fleshes out as having human form

He understands this is clearly of concern to human beings on the land below

Taking into account the sky of antiquity, the seven stars in the right hand of the human shaped constellation (like the son of man), they were likely the seven stars of Ursa Minor at the north pole

Sharp two-edged sword from mouth is actually a comet: they were understood to be in the shapes of swords, bowls and trumpets

A sword-shaped comet emanating from his mouth means something negative for human beings on the land below.

What John receives in the vision is in reference to what will happen to the churches below

Sky events reveal what is forthcoming for the churches

The sword-comet protruding from the mouth proclaims an approaching crisis

The opening cosmic vision is matched at the end of the book by the final vista of the new Jerusalem, a cube some 1,380 miles on each side, descending from the sky (Revelation 21:16)

He reveals to the seven churches what is forthcoming!

John interprets those events to his fellow prophets who in turn interpret them to the churches of believers

The most cosmopolitan of the seven cities, possessed one of the seven wonders of the ancient world: the Temple of Artemis

Church needed to repent and the word, repent, here means to have a change of heart where it is evident in an observable change of behavior!

The name of the city, Smyrna, is associated with myrrh, a spice used in death and burial in expectation of an afterlife

Nicodemus used myrrh in abundance at the death of Jesus (John 19:38)

Ultimately Smyrna was known to be loyal to its leaders because of choosing allies carefully

Was least known, least important, and least remarkable of the cities mentioned

It served as an outpost of protection for Pergamum and Sardis

It had many guilds: bronze workers, coppersmiths, tanners, leather workers, dyers (especially purple: Acts 16:14), workers in wool and linen, bakers, potters, those who dealt in slaves

Its importance was due, first to its military strength.

Secondly to its situation on an important highway leading from the interior to the Aegean coast.

Finally to its commanding the wide and fertile plain of the Hermus.

Controlled remarkably fertile territory

Its volcanic soil was especially suitable for vines

"Philadelphos", literally means "one who loves his brother"

As a crossroad of two important roads, this city had an important commercial and logistical position.

There was also development of a medical industry, based on the eye salves and Phrygian powders used in eye treatment (Rev. 3:15-16).

The banking and money exchange industry also thrived in the city, an ironic reality of the city that was called poor and naked and blind!

What is truly remarkable about all the letters is the distress over deception found in the churches

According to Malina and Pilch, there is no real concern actually in the text for persecution, political or otherwise

May have been conflict, but persecution is not indicated in the work

Inauthenticity? Misrepresentation? Lies? Deceit? Denial? Delusion?

Do our churches today have a heavy overlay of appearance and not true faith?

“After this I looked, and there in heaven a door stood open! And the first voice, which I had heard speaking to me like a trumpet, said, ‘Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after this.’ At once I was in the spirit, and there in heaven stood a throne, with one seated on the throne! And the one seated there looks like jasper and carnelian, and around the throne is a rainbow that looks like an emerald.

Jasper/carnelian – yellowish in color – the color of the polar star

Polar star marks the central spot proper to the one in charge of the cosmos

Celestial beings surrounding altar are called presbyteros (meaning?); synonym in Greek – dekanos

Connected with astral deities known as “decans” – truly significant astronomic beings of antiquity

What do you think?

What’s appealing?

What’s hard to process?

(Show mp4?)

“In the spirit,” John is taken to a high mountain to be as close to the observation as possible

John can read the city’s distinctions because he is in a position to look at the descending city from on high

John’s belief in the resurrection affects how he reads these visions

No question John is seeing astral phenomena The city is of astronomical proportions:

Each side of the cube is the length ofthe Great Wall of China!

The cube would cover half of the U.S. and reach to the height of 260 Mount Everests!

For ancients, square was the ideal form In the Jerusalem sanctuary, the square was

the image of holiness If the square symbolizes holiness and purity,

the cube symbolizes heightened holiness (holy of holies)

The new Jerusalem is the central place of all humankind (except the liars)

God, and only God, does the attracting of the city’s people

Central theology of Book: to interpret the visions as the call of God and to help people hear that call and to follow all that God embodies

There is a lamb equally centered on the throne in this city

A significant clue to the identity of the Lamb is the fact that it is standing though it had been slaughtered (see Rev. 5:9)

Sufficient indication of the astral Lamb, known to Romans and Greeks, as Aries

Aries was always known as a “Male Lamb”

Reverted head looks directly over its back to Taurus (and is first “sign” in zodiac)

Only a being with a broken neck could have a head turned directly backwards

And yet it remains standing in spite of a broken neck

Represents the crucified Christ

Fits newness well because constellation stands at the beginning of things

It is only at the close of the book that we learn that the bride is the holy city, the new Jerusalem,

And that this city is the cosmic bride destined to be the wife of the Lamb of God (21:9-10)

There’s no pre-existing constellation of this wedding

There were, however, known constellations and astronomical weddings, where a prophet could appropriate it to his tradition.

Members of faithful believers in Jesus, knew that the cosmic lamb and the descending city formed the intersection for a so-called marriage

When John “read” these signs, he knew it was God’s new sign of the new world and new cosmos that God had designed

We want a satisfactory ending, but the purpose of John’s relaying of his visions was in order to reassure the believers of what must take place soon

A constant theme of the Book is for believers to not be deceived

Instead of abstract theology, we make acquaintance of our flesh-and-blood ancestors in faith and their quest for meaningful human existence

It enables us to find out what these biblical documents meant to their initial, Mediterranean audiences and groups of faithful believers

What difference does this form of looking at the Book of Revelation make to you?

What might these thoughts and perspectives mean for us and for our churches today?

Does it matter?