Revelation: What's it really about?

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The Book of Revelation has been accepted by the Church as being the inerrant Word of God. Frequently verses are quoted from it to demonstrate concepts such as the Assumption of the Blessed Mother (Rev 12), the promise of Jesus’ return as well as the horrors that will befall mankind as God exerts His wrath.

A lone man writes in pidgin Greek on an island called Patmos (37.3130° N, 26.5469° E). He writes of Alpha and Omega, beginning and end, doors that once open can’t be closed… He writes of heaven. He measures it. He talks of celestial maidens, dragons, lions, eagles, calves and the like, drawing in references from the likes of Ezekiel and Daniel.

What does it all mean?

Actually it means very little. The alpha-omega, beginning and end etc is the winter solstice. In fact it is at sunrise. The year is 102 AD. The elements of the book are nothing more than constellations close to the horizon. The maiden and the harlot are Virgo with the 12 stars of Crater the cup close by. The four creatures are Aquila, Ophiuchus, Leo and Cancer (which looks like a calf while Taurus is the bull). The two witnesses are Gemini. The red is Mars. The scarlet woman is Mars (Maria) in Virgo. The red dragon (by the sea) is Mars in Virgo above Hydra, the sea-serpent. Saturn is Satan below Serpens Cauda, ‘the old snake’. Mercury (Michael) is close by.

Patmos, 102 AD, Winter solstice, Sunrise:


There is nothing divine about it.

The constellations were catalogued by Ptolemy around the same time so John’s references are supported historically.

The Alpha and the Omega

It is sunrise at the solstice. The constellation of Ophiuchus, the only human in the constellations (the first and the last), is risen. He is associated with Joseph in the OT among other things. Joseph had a dream of the stars, the sun and the moon bowing. The Alpha-Omega holds stars. The connection is made. As the sun rises he would appear to glow and burn. White clouds would become visible. The reference to snow connects to winter. From his mouth is a two-edged sword. Ophiuchus holds the snake with its forked tongue. There are your two edges. The passage even confirms that the sun has started to shine.

Ophiuchus and the two ends of the snake forms the Greek letters capital Alpha and lower case Omega. The girdle is the bar of the A.

The golden candlesticks are the first mention of a recurring theme connecting the planets to metals according to Babylonian-Greek tradition. The sun represents gold. The candlesticks are therefore ‘sun signs’, constellations on the ecliptic visible on our date, namely Sagittarius, Scorpio, Libra, Virgo, Leo, Cancer and Gemini.

(Mars is associated with Iron. Mars is being born of the Rev 12 maiden and will rule with a ‘rod of iron’.)

The seven stars are the seven classical planets.
 
Kei said:
Hahahahahahaha!

Thanks for the good ol laugh there buddy.
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A certain professor at Princeton known for her knowledge of the book has taken it very seriously.

I don’t have any replies left so I’m putting it here.
I’ve shared this information with an accredited religious history professor at Princeton. Her faith is irrelevant. She is an academic. She has taken it seriously. It’s an angle that nobody has taken and we both think it is compelling. All the elements of Revelation are joined by a single significant date and time (the solstice at sunrise), a place (Patmos) in a year which tallies with that understood. It’s astronomical and we now have the ability to calculate the positions of the stars and planets throughout history. Virgo is still the virgin, Leo is still the lion, Ophiuchus is still the man, Crater is still the cup… The constellations were catalogued by Ptolemy around the same time…
How she uses the information is out of my hands.
 
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“A certain professor” “who knows about the book”

I’m sorry, but this is an incredibly vague sentence without any source.

I won’t preclude it being possible, people posit all sorts of silly and ridiculous things trying to ridicule the Bible quite often.

But it’s silly.
 
So, who is this “certain Professor”? Is she a theologian? A practicing Catholic? What department of Princeton is she connected with? Or is she someone you made up to cause an argument here?
 
Name? You know it always amazes me, that these people have figured out the Bible more than people that actually wrote the Bible.
 
So all the sudden in the 21st century, in the year 2017, we suddenly unlock this mystery what you said happened in 102 ad, the truth is we have no idea when the Book of Revelation was written, all the sudden this professor, whom you’re refusing to offer a name has figured out the Mysteries? What kind of Professor is this person? A history Professor? A theology Professor? What is the religious background of this professor? Has this been accepted by other scholars in this professor’s field?
 
You can find a professor to agree with almost anything. Like I said, if someone agrees with this, I wouldn’t be surprised.

Especially if it’s not her area of expertise.
 
TheButler said:
The Book of Revelation has been accepted by the Church as being the inerrant Word of God. …

What does it all mean?

Actually it means very little. …
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The purpose of the Book of Revelation is to provide a warning to people of all epochs.
The doctrine contained in Revelation and that in the Gospel or John, are parallel.
 
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I’ve heard that Venerable Bartholomew Holzhauser had been given revelations concerning the interpretation of the Book of Revelation. Not sure if they are approved yet though.

I seriously distrust whoever this professor is…
 
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Why would such a document be written and what relevance to to the Churches?
 
Revelation/Apocalypse of John is about past, present and future. Here is a reliable indicator - but much, as it is with God, remains a mystery. Those who claim to have completely deciphered it are simply making things up.

 
I like reading it. My favourite book of the Bible. I’ve read it more times than any other book in the Bible, and I am seriously wondering if the OP has ever so much as cracked it.
 
TheButler said:
What does it all mean?

Actually it means very little.
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So, here’s the thing…

Even if you could make your assertions stick, there’s still one problem: how could “one lone man writing in pidgin Greek on an island called Patmos” – a man who was exiled to the island by Domitian for his Christian beliefs – get the motivation to write about astronomy as if it were relevant to Christian belief? How could we assert that he knows these celestial bodies, and how could we assert that he cares about them?

If this were a murder trial, I’d say that you might have a gun and a person, but you have no theory that puts the gun in the person’s hands… 🤷‍♂️
 
First off, it’s not “pidgin Greek.” It’s Septuagint Greek. Revelation is wall-to-wall quotes from the various Septuagint translations of the OT. Because this is John’s priority, it makes his book sound a little weird.

(However, this is pretty standard for books in antiquity that quoted other books. There were poets who did nothing but make new poems out of lines of Homer or Virgil. It would be like me making a new play out of nothing but lines from Shakespeare.)

It is possible that there is some astronomical symbolism in the Book of Revelation. Other books of the Bible use astronomical symbolism, although not very extensively.

The problem is that you see people going from that assertion, to an entire list of other assertions that make no sense.

If John was describing the sky over Patmos, he was still describing its mystical meaning, as if it constituted a prophetic word from God. And if he was right, it’s the content of his message that matters, not the imagery behind it. “The skies proclaim the works of His hands. Day on day pours forth speech, and night on night reveals knowledge.” (Ps. 19:1-2)

And if he wasn’t engaging in astronomical symbolism, it’s not going to help your reading comprehension to chase after it. You have to spend a lot of time testing the hypothesis for yourself, and researching the various flavors of ancient astronomy.

Either way, the real key to reading and understanding Revelation is – the huge number of quotes from the Septuagint OT, blended with references to the NT stories. At the very least, you have to read and understand Daniel and Ezekiel, or you will be nothing but confused.
 
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Oh, and Ptolemy stinks as an astronomy constellation source. The ancient astronomy buffs are always complaining about him, because it’s become obvious to them that he didn’t understand his own sources.

Also, the ancient constellations were not precisely the same as ours. It’s not just that the star positions have changed with the years; it’s that they didn’t all use the same stars that we do. Minor differences, for the most part, but you have to be aware of them or they will really mess you up.
 
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Vico said:
The purpose of the Book of Revelation is to provide a warning to people of all epochs.
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This is one of the greatest misunderstandings of Revelation. Is a book of hope, and the fulfillment of promise, not one of warning or terror.
 
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