The
Spurious Book of Revelation
The Final
Nail in the Coffin of Paul’s Revelation of the Mystery?
by Steve Santini 2002 But though we, or an angel from
heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached
unto you, let him be “cut off” Galatians 1:8, Apostle Paul There are many questions as to
the historical circumstances in which the book of Revelation was written and as to the identity of
the author. The content indicates an authorship that was outside the
understanding of the Pauline revelation. And history shows an authorship well
beyond the finality of Paul’s revelation written in his last days under house
arrest in Rome. For one to come to understand these considerations focused comparisons
between the two divergent gospels need to be made and subsequent questions must be
asked. When Eastern children were
educated they were required to sit in silence and learn from they teachers
until they reached maturity. From the time of maturity they were allowed to
ask all and any of their remaining questions. In the gospel of Luke, we read
that Joseph and Mary took the twelve-year old Jesus with them to Jerusalem
for their annual attendance of the Passover feast. During their return to Nazareth they found that He was not
traveling in the company of the other children. They returned to Jerusalem
and after three days found that Jesus had been with the temple teachers
hearing them and asking questions. It says that all who heard Him were
astounded at his understanding and answers. The effective quest of a
hungering mind follows a similar pattern. The seeker first sits in silent
study assimilating truths and searching for a foundation then, as the Spirit
leads unanswered questions do come forth. Then answers that lead to deeper
understanding and new questions are given. These are some significant
differences between Paul’s revelation of the mystery and John’s revelation of
wrath that led me to question whether the book of Revelation has application
for the Pauline church. Why does the writer of the book of Revelation focus
on the function of angels? He addresses his rebuke to the angels of each of
the seven churches. The wrath of the book of Revelation is administered by
angels and at the conclusion the author falls to the ground to worship the
angel who supposedly revealed the book to him. In Jewish theology angels
played a central role. The hand of angels gave the Old Testament Law to
preserve the bloodline of Abraham until Jesus Christ came and introduced
faith. To the Jews still zealous for the law, angels enforced the law. The Jews
believed that each local synagogue had as its final arbitrator an angel as
they so named the elder. In Paul’s gospel, which is
based on faith, hope and love rather than law, the administration of the churches,
is given to the angelically
gifted saints and those mature faithful in Christ Jesus. When he writes
to the Colossians he warns the church about those who worship angels when he
writes: “Let no man beguile you of your reward in voluntary humility and
worshipping of angels, intruding into those things which he hath not seen,
vainly puffed up in his fleshly mind.” Why does the author of the book
of Revelation end the book, as no other author in the Bible does, with a
judgmental curse upon those who would add anything or delete anything from
his writing? Curses were the standard practice of those in Jewish legalism
and were believed to be carried out by angels. Paul admonishes the church to
“curse not.” Why does the author of the book
of Revelation pay particular attention to maintaining Jewish identity? In the
rebuke to the angel of the church of Philadelphia of primary concern are
those who say they are Jews who are not. Paul makes it clear in his gospel
that there is no longer a difference between Jew and Gentile in Christ. Why
then is this such a judgmental issue to the author of Revelation? Why does the writer of the book
of Revelation base rewards solely upon works? Paul, in Corinthians, writes of
rewards being based on the building of faith upon the foundation of Jesus
Christ and Him crucified. If Peter was given the keys to the kingdom of heaven and if it is Paul’s revelation that fulfills the word of God and, why is the divergent book of Revelation, written decades after the deaths of Peter and Paul, considered by most as the end time’s revelation of the scriptures? Why hasn’t
Hebrews, which was written most likely by Paul and states in the
introduction, “and again when he bringeth the first begotten into the
habitable world,” been considered more appropriate as the “end-times”
revelation? Why does the
author Revelation mention the twelve apostles and not Paul? Paul’s revelation, as written in
scripture, fulfills the word of God. (Colossians
1:25) Why doesn’t
the author mention the “out resurrection” or, in other words, the
first resurrection that was so important to Paul? Why doesn’t
the author of Revelation mention the eventual salvation of all
men? as Paul does? Why isn’t
the role of the saints who lead the church out of wrath highlighted in the
book of Revelation as it is in Paul’s epistles? Of whom was
the author of Revelation referring, decades after Paul had said all Asia had
turned away from him, when the author wrote to the Ephesians the following:
“…thou hast tried then which say they are apostles and are not, and hast
found them liars:”? Could the author have been referring to Paul and Timothy
who had at one time, years earlier, preached the great mystery of Christ and the church extensively from
Ephesus of Asia Minor? When reading ancient rabbinical
letters of the second century it is evident that they made an effort to
disrupt the Christian “heresy” with disinformation. Comments written about
Peter’s concluding Babylonian ministry are most disparaging. In the fourth
century those rabbis in Babylon still boasted that no one had believe his
message for three hundred years. This has made me wonder if it is possible
that the book of Revelation was purposely written to or purposely directed
towards those Jews of belief to cause them to doubt Paul’s revelation of the
mystery. Why, also, did Martin Luther
dismiss the book of Revelation? And why was it that in all of John Calvin’s
extensive commentaries there is nothing written on the book of Revelation?
Even Jerome, the translator for the Latin Vulgate, had doubts about the
inclusion of the book of Revelation in the canon. Was there a history of the
incorporation of the book of Revelation into the canon that they were more
familiar with than we are in this day? * * * Our introduction into the text
regarding this topic comes from Acts chapter twenty verse twenty-eight
through verse thirty-one. The three-year period that Paul spent in Ephesus
teaching night and day the fullness of the mystery was the longest period of
time that he was able to freely minister of any time spent with a church. It
was because of the echoes of his ministry here that all of Asia Minor heard
of the Lord Jesus Christ. As a result he was rightfully accused of turning
the world upside down. In this record in Acts chapter twenty, Paul reminds
the church overseers of the accomplishment of the sacrificial blood of Jesus.
In his epistle to the Ephesians it is the blood of Jesus Christ that breaks
down the middle wall of partition bringing forth the one new man. Paul says
that after he is gone that grievous wolves from without shall enter into the
church not sparing the flock and that even some among the church would arise
speaking perverse things to draw away disciples after themselves. The definition of the Greek
word for the word grievous is heavy or burdensome not being concerned
for the precious nature of the select object. The definition for the word not
sparing is from Vine’s Complete Expository Dictionary of Old and New
Testament Words and is given as such: not to forego the infliction of that
evil or retribution which was designed. Rather than appropriately teaching
the in-gatherings of grace and mercy to the flock those who entered in would
bring a burdensome legalistic message, which would pronounce the infliction
of judgmental retribution in the harvest of wrath. We look to church history from
the text and later secular history to identify those who would enter in with
this message. From Galatians chapter two we see that after fourteen years of
ministry Paul began delivering a more developed message than Jesus said would
be then currently available to James, John and Peter. It was this message
that brought him into conflict with those of Israel who had started forward
in their gospel of mercy, only, for the most part, to be drawn back into the
Mosaic Law. In Romans chapter eleven Paul says that Israel was blind in part
until the fullness of the Gentiles would come into his gospel. The part that
Israel, as a nation, could not see was the “one new man” expressed in Paul’s
later epistle to the Ephesians. In their ignorance many thought Paul a
heretic and tried to undercut his work as in Corinth or attempted to have him
silenced as in Acts chapters twenty-one through twenty-eight. Some
who are now examining the Dead Sea Scrolls are saying they
have identified Paul as “the liar” to have been excommunicated by
the church in Jerusalem. Historians also say that by the beginning of the
second century the Ebionites, who claimed that they were from the original
followers of Peter, James, and John, had begun to revile the churches
following Paul’s gospel. After Peter and Paul died and
during, and after, the failed Jewish revolt of 64 to 73 AD some fleeing
refugees resettled in Asia Minor. One of these could very well have been
John, the eventual author of the book of Revelation. John, having the
credentials of being a believer from Israel, would have been able to gain
access to the Pauline churches of Ephesus as other blinded Jews had been
accepted by the young Pauline church of Corinth decades before. From a
cursory reading of the book of Revelation is obvious that this book brings
the burden of judgment and retribution down upon the church in Ephesus and
the churches in the region. Although the book, over time, gained regional
recognition in Asia Minor where all had turned away from Paul, it was not
until the fifth century after Jerome had completed his standardized version,
and Roman secular power was used to force conformity, that the book of
Revelation was universally accepted as the final book to be incorporated into
what we have today as the Bible. According to the records of the Council of
Carthage, even as late as 397 AD John’s book of Revelation was not accepted as a
part of the canon by those attending. It was, I believe, John’s
misshapen book of Revelation that gave those who had walked an additional
opportunity to arise and speak perverse things drawing disciples after
themselves. These are the ones whose god became their bellies and who became
enemies of the cross of Christ. In Acts twenty verse thirty Paul says that
those who are to arise to draw disciples after themselves would speak perverse
things. This word perverse from the definition of the Greek word means
to divide and reverse in twisted disarray. The basis for all division is the
judgment in the mind of man that separates the supposed good from the
supposed evil. What in Ephesus was there to divide? There was the family of
God. If you can divide the elements of a family, like commonly done in
military strategy with an opposing army, you can drive them back in twisted
disarray. If you can muddle and separate mature figurative males from
figurative females or visa versa you can cut off the spiritual family
just as would be done with an earthly family. From the initial division in
Ephesus where Paul had once preached the fullness of the mystery, the truth
of the family of God was obfuscated and then buried, I would say, layer by
layer over the early centuries of the Christian church. The fact that it took over
three hundred years for the church to universally accept the book of
Revelation into the canon of scripture is, though, a testament to the power
of Paul’s revelation of the mystery. It is also a testament to one man who
out of the rubble of the disarray in Ephesus gravitated to Paul’s message and
insured that it was preserved as an integral part of the canon. That man is
the so-called heretic Marcion. After a period of approximately sixty years of
seemingly mute historical silence regarding the church after Paul’s death, we
see a very different church emerging in Ephesus. According to Robert Eisler’s
most interesting book, The Enigma of the Fourth Gospel, John, the
author of Revelation, is now at the center of the church with a scriptorium.
It is into this scriptorium that the young Marcion from Sinope, on the
southern coasts of the Black Sea, enters as a copyist. In time there is a deep
split between John and Marcion to the point that John would not enter the
public baths if Marcion were present. Could the split have been over a
differing regard for the Pauline epistles? Could there have been an ongoing
orchestrated attempt to sweep Paul under the rug of disrepute that Marcion
was resisting? This may have been the case because both the highly respected
textual critics Bauer and Goodspeed have commented on the crashing silence
regarding the Pauline epistles by the Orthodox Church in the second century.
Justin Martyr never mentions Paul or his writings and those that do, as one
author has said, “make slight mention of him and when they do it is as ill
prepared school boys.” Could Marcion in his comings and goings in Ephesus
have run into a small isolated remnant, who, through Timothy’s former
pastorate in the years of silence, maintained a regard for Paul’s revelation
and preserved copies of his letters? We do not know for sure yet considering
the forthcoming events it seems to be most likely. (We have assumed that the John
who wrote the book of Revelation is the same as the John who wrote the gospel
of John and the letters of John. If the dating in church traditions of
Marcion’s relationship with John in Ephesus is correct, it seems unlikely
that they could have been the same. The apostle John had been with Jesus in
30 AD and the relationship between the John of Ephesus and Marcion is dated
around 125 AD. Even if John the apostle were a young man at the time of Jesus
he would have to have been well over one hundred to have been the same John
in Ephesus. It is unlikely that the author could have been John Mark either.
John Mark remained loyal to Paul and his message to the end of Paul’s life
when most all of his Jewish brethren had turned against him. We also need to
realize that in the second century as the church emerges from the historical
silence that there were many pseudo gospels coming forth. Could it have been
that the names of former spiritual luminaries were placed on these gospels to
give them credibility or to hide the true identity of the actual authors?
This is another aspect of the disarray that emerges in the second century. So
this John in Ephesus was most likely out from among those Jews who were still
zealous for the law and Jewish traditions and who ignorantly held Paul and
his writings in disdain.) After the split between John
and Marcion in Ephesus, Marcion gathers together the gospel of Luke and
Paul’s epistles and begins to establish churches throughout the Roman Empire.
He was so successful that eventually his following rivaled the numbers
following the Orthodox Church. Marcion is labeled as a facilitator of the
so-called Gnostic heresy and through rumor and innuendo attempts are made to
squash the rebellion. He persists, though he and his followers endure
persecution at the hands of the secular church. Over the following centuries
the Marcionite churches dwindle slowly until the sixth century when we have the
last historical record of their existence in the East. By placing the Pauline
epistles in the hand of the “common” man throughout the Roman Empire at this
critical juncture Marcion insured that the responses of each of the later
church councils would include the Pauline letters in the canon. It may also
be said that his influence was a reason that some churches resisted placing
the book of James in the canon and the reason that the majority of church
councils rejected placing the book of Revelation in the canon until the fifth
century when it was almost universally accepted. When we take into the account
of the conflict between John and Marcion and the differences between Paul’s
end times revelation and that of John, we must consider that, at the worst,
the book of Revelation was written with fragmented knowledge to purposely
reconstitute a legalistic Jewish gospel in order to draw more Christians away
from Paul’s revelation of the mystery.
At the very best we could consider that the writer of the book of
Revelation was a sincere, yet mistaken, believing Judean writing from his
limited knowledge and lack of understanding a subjectively laced prophecy to
drive those formerly of Israel back to zealousness for the law. Contrary to what is assumed, Paul did write at length of the end
times in his letters. In the introductory section of the book of Hebrews he
wrote, “again when he bringeth the first begotten into the world.” When we
look more closely at the Greek words in this phrase it becomes apparent that
Paul was writing of a period of time that would culminate again with the
actual presence on earth of Jesus Christ. The word for into is the Greek word eis
that means motion from the center to a point focusing more on the motion than
the point. The word bringeth also
connotes a time period through which the action takes place. The word is used
of a flock driven to market or sheepfold. The book of Revelation has
grasped our attention more so, in part, because of the descriptive and
spectacular catastrophic actions of angels. It also has grasped our attention
because it is last in the present canon scripture. But, even today some
canons used in eastern churches, do not contain the book of Revelation but
conclude with the book of Hebrews. Even in the west, the oldest complete
Greek manuscript of the bible from the fourth century appropriately places
Hebrews after II Thessalonians at the end of Paul’s letters. This is not to
say that the book of Revelation is without some fragments of truth since even the
book of Hebrews speaks of the heaven and earth being shaken again. In all of this, we need not be
doubtfully confused by the plethora of random interpretations of a book of
very questionable overall validity. Nor do we need to be intimidated by the
book of Revelation because, in the least common denominator, Paul writes that
those who believe in his gospel are to be delivered away from the future
wrath that will be directed towards unbelief. (I Thessalonians 1:10) The Spurious Book of Revelation Revisited - June, 2015 Main Index of Articles and Introduction Select
Bibliography
Eisler, R., The Enigma of the
Fourth Gospel, London, Metheun, 1938 Rubenstein, R.E., When Jesus
Became God: The Epic Fight over Christ’s Divinity in the Last Days of Rome,
New York, Harcourt Brace, 1999 The
Lion Handbook to the Bible, Lion Publishing,
Herts, England, 1973 Waite, C.B.,
History of the Christian Religion to the Year Two Hundred, Chicago,
C.V. Waite & Co., 1881 Gleason, D. The Historical
and Theological Wars that inspired the Book of Revelation Copyright, Steve Santini, 2002 |