Lots of scholars believe that the “beast” (what Revelation calls the figure we’ve dubbed “the Antichrist” in current popular culture) is an allegorical representation of Nero.
What makes Revelation so hard for many Christians to understand is that they are largely unaware that Revelation is part of a literary genre called “apocalypse” and uses the conventions and tropes of that genre. This is because Revelation is the only full example of apocalyptic literature in the Bible (Daniel, Ezekiel, and some of the other prophetic books have sections that are apocalyptic, but not the entirety of those writings). But there are others (Shepherd of Hermas is one that nearly made it into the New Testament; the book of Enoch is one that is contained in the Old Testament of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, but not in any other church’s Bibles). So the weird language actually begins to make sense when you read it alongside other examples of the genre. It’s a kind of poetry that also serves as a kind of “code” to obscure what is really being written about (so that authorities get confused if they were to intercept these writings).
Daniel speaks of another beast figure likely based on Antiochus Epiphanes IV, a Greek ruler who desecrated the Jewish Temple (the story behind Hanukkah is about this). Revelation used that language to talk about Nero because the early Christians, rooted in the Biblical language of the Old Testament, saw Nero cast in a similar vein as Antiochus. And so “the AntiChrist” becomes a kind of symbolic figure that many throughout history can fit into. Trump is just the latest. He might be the “final” one. But what books like Revelation are trying to do is to help Christians avoid the kind of crap people like Trump represent. Unfortunately, antiChrist figures are good at what they do and, in this case, primed many Christians to read the Bible a certain way that precludes their ability to recognize THIS antichrist in their midst.
That’s really interesting, thanks for the context. So given this, why do fundamentalist Christians seem bent on bringing about the apocalypse? If it’s a cautionary tale, why are they taking it literally and trying to fan the flames of war in Israel? I’m referring specifically to Evangelical Zionists in the US who support Israel for prophetic reasons.
Lots of scholars believe that the “beast” (what Revelation calls the figure we’ve dubbed “the Antichrist” in current popular culture) is an allegorical representation of Nero.
What makes Revelation so hard for many Christians to understand is that they are largely unaware that Revelation is part of a literary genre called “apocalypse” and uses the conventions and tropes of that genre. This is because Revelation is the only full example of apocalyptic literature in the Bible (Daniel, Ezekiel, and some of the other prophetic books have sections that are apocalyptic, but not the entirety of those writings). But there are others (Shepherd of Hermas is one that nearly made it into the New Testament; the book of Enoch is one that is contained in the Old Testament of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, but not in any other church’s Bibles). So the weird language actually begins to make sense when you read it alongside other examples of the genre. It’s a kind of poetry that also serves as a kind of “code” to obscure what is really being written about (so that authorities get confused if they were to intercept these writings).
Daniel speaks of another beast figure likely based on Antiochus Epiphanes IV, a Greek ruler who desecrated the Jewish Temple (the story behind Hanukkah is about this). Revelation used that language to talk about Nero because the early Christians, rooted in the Biblical language of the Old Testament, saw Nero cast in a similar vein as Antiochus. And so “the AntiChrist” becomes a kind of symbolic figure that many throughout history can fit into. Trump is just the latest. He might be the “final” one. But what books like Revelation are trying to do is to help Christians avoid the kind of crap people like Trump represent. Unfortunately, antiChrist figures are good at what they do and, in this case, primed many Christians to read the Bible a certain way that precludes their ability to recognize THIS antichrist in their midst.
That’s really interesting, thanks for the context. So given this, why do fundamentalist Christians seem bent on bringing about the apocalypse? If it’s a cautionary tale, why are they taking it literally and trying to fan the flames of war in Israel? I’m referring specifically to Evangelical Zionists in the US who support Israel for prophetic reasons.