I think you’re all having too much fun with this. I haven’t heard anybody give a more reasonable interpretation of this scripture, you’re just poking fun at the JW’s. If you find their interpretation unreasonable, I’d like to see you stick your necks out a little and explain it the proper way. Any takers? Or are you afraid to be mocked like you mocked the JW’s?
I think GK Chesterton once said that St. John wrote about some pretty scary creatures in the Book of Revelation but that St. John never met anything as scary as the modern day commentators on the Book of Revelation.
That quote always makes me laugh since I spent most of my life as a JW and JWs base much of their endtimes theology on their rather unique (and scary) interpretations of the Book of Revelation.
Interestingly, the Book of Revelation was not widely accepted in the early church but eventually the Church did accept it as canonical. Most commentators (those less scary than the JWs) say that the book was written to comfort those Christians who were being persecuted at the end of the 1st Century A.D. and into the beginning of the 2nd Century A.D.
The book is full of Jewish symbolism that can be easily misinterpreted and as I am sure Chesterton would agree many of the commentators in his day and our day have really missed the point of this book of the Bible.
In any case, the Catholic understanding of Revelation 14 is as follows:
According to the Navarre Commentary the scene in Revelation 14:1 of the Lamb (Jesus Christ) on Mount Zion (Heaven) with the 144,000 (all Christians who make it to Heaven whatever that number might be) is one of hope and comfort to those Christians who were being persecuted by the Jews and the Romans simultaneously throughout the Roman Empire.
The JWs believe that this scripture teaches that only 144,000 people will get to heaven. However, the number 144,000 is symbolic; it represents 12 (as in the 12 tribes of Israel) X 12 (as in the 12 apostles) X 1000 (signifying a very large and complete number). In other words, the actually number of Christians in Heaven is too large to be counted but is complete as in God will not leave anyone behind. It was common in ancient times to use numbers to send a message and not necessarily to tell someone the exact amount of something. This is known as numerology and you see this quite often in apocalyptic literature.
In addition, the Jews understood the comment in verse 4 about virginity or chastity as referring to idolatry. Throughout Jewish history, the Jewish nation was referred to as Yahweh’s unfaithful spouse whenever the nation would leave Yahweh and begin worshipping idols. Since the Romans were trying to force Christians to worship the Emperor as God Almighty (which is the sin of idolatry), the comment that the 144,000 are virgins or are chaste is saying that only those who reject idolatry (Emperor worship) would make it to heaven.
As with any type of interpretation of scripture one must be familiar with the time period in which the book was written, the historical events that are occurring when the book was written, and the type of literature (as in narrative, poetry, apocalyptic, etc.) that the Book is. One does this so as to understand what the author is trying to say and how he is trying to say it.
The good commentators do this well. However, most cults such as the JWs do not do this at all when interpreting the Bible and this results in the scary things that GK Chesterton and others see and in some cases, like my own, live through.
I hope this helps.
Jeff S.
www.catholicxjw.com
) if you have the patience.