The Real History of the End of the World (7 page)

Some Christians felt the need to convince pagans that their own seers had foreseen the coming of the Messiah as well as to convince them of their version of the end of the world. Following on the work of Jewish scholars, they rewrote the Greek oracles of the Sibyl. The most famous of the sibyls was at Delphi. Her prophesies were respected by kings and commoners alike. Sometime at the end of the second century, they were given a Christian twist. The apocalypse recounted in book two of these Christian Sibylline Oracles is a mixture of Jewish and early Christian themes. In it the earth is destroyed first, “A dark mist shall cover the boundless world. . . . And then shall a great river of flaming fire flow from heaven and consume all places, the earth and the great ocean and the gleaming seas, lakes and rivers and fountains, and merciless Hades and the vault of Heaven . . . the stars shall all fall from heaven into the sea.”
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That about covers it.

In these oracles, the angel Uriel will open the gates of hell and bring out not only people but the Titans of Greek mythology and the giants in the earth who were drowned in Noah's flood. Then God, Adonai Sabaoth, will arrive—followed by Christ, “the undying,” trailed by angels and clouds of glory—to judge all. He will be followed by Moses, Abraham, and all the Hebrew Patriarchs. Then the evil will be punished and the good rewarded, as usual.
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The oracles end on a conciliatory note. For the saved are merciful and ask God to take the pagans out of their punishments and “remove them elsewhere, sending them for the sake of his people to another life eternal and immortal in the Elysian plain.”
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Even if pagans have persecuted them, Christians can still be kind to their enemies, they are telling the still-dominant society. But think how much better your afterlife would be if you converted?

It's not known how many pagans were swayed by this, but throughout the Middle Ages and Renaissance, the Sibylline oracles were held in high esteem by Christians, and new ones were being written all the time. They figured in many religious works of art, including those of Raphael, and the Sibyls even appear in Michelangelo's paintings in the Sistine Chapel.

So the Book of Revelation was only one of many competing Apocalypses. Therefore, how was this one chosen over all the others to become the final book of the New Testament? It's a long and twisty story that I shall summarize next.

Now some before our time have set aside this book . . . criticizing
it chapter by chapter and endeavoring to show it without sense
or reason. . . . They hold that it can be no sort of revelation
because it is covered with so gross and dense an ignorance. . . .
But I, . . . although I cannot comprehend it, I still suspect that
there is some deeper sense underlying the words.”

—Dionysius the Great, bishop of Alexandria (d. 264 C.E.)

 

 

 

 

O
f all the writings that have affected apocalyptic thought, none has had a larger impact than the Apocalypse, also called the Book of Revelation. Today it is the one apocalyptic book of the New Testament. But as the last chapter showed, when it was written there were any number of other visions and prophesies of the end times floating around the Roman world. Why was this one chosen to be part of the Christian holy books? Who wrote it and when? Like Bishop Dionysius, many were puzzled by the imagery. And, like those he mentions, some people were decidedly against it. So what is the fascination that it has held for nearly two thousand years of readers?

First, just in case it's been a while since you read it, let's review the main points of Revelation. If you know the book by heart, feel free to skip ahead.

It begins as many of the other New Testament epistles (letters) do, with greetings to seven churches in Asia Minor. John writes from his exile on the island of Patmos, off what is now Turkey (Revelation 1:9). His letter immediately hints that this won't be a normal chatty exhortation, for John has seen Christ in a vision. The Lord tells John that he must write to the seven churches and report all that he is about to see in a vision of the end times. First, Christ has a few words to let each church know that he means business, telling them in turn how they are succeeding or failing to maintain His faith.

In chapter four, the vision proper begins. John sees through a door into heaven where someone is seated on the throne. Around the throne are twenty-four more thrones and an “elder” is seated in each one. There are also four living creatures, “full of eyes in front and behind: the first . . . like a lion, the second . . . like an ox, the third . . . with a face like a human face and the fourth . . . like a flying eagle” (Revelation 4:6-7).

The one on the throne holds a scroll “sealed with seven seals” (Revelation 5:1). These seals will be important later and have been interpreted many ways, even though they are explained in the text.
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Then a lamb appears “as if it had been slaughtered.” It has seven horns and seven eyes (Revelation 5:6), but you don't have to worry about what that means because John says right away that they are “the seven spirits of God sent out into all the earth” (Revelation 5:6).

After some prayers and praise, the lamb opens the seven seals. The first releases a rider on a white horse wearing a crown, ready to conquer. The second seal lets out a rider on a red horse, who was permitted to “take peace from the earth” (Revelation 6:4). At the opening of the third seal, a rider on a black horse arrives with a set of scales. The final rider comes when the fourth seal is opened. He rides a pale horse and John has no problem knowing him. His “name was Death, and Hades followed with him” (Revelation 7:8). This pair was given the power to kill one quarter of the earth.

Tradition has named the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, Pestilence, War, Famine, and Death. I can understand war and death but the other two seem to me like tyranny and the tax collector. But I'm writing about the way in which Revelation has been perceived by others, not my own idiosyncratic problems with interpretation.

Now, the fifth seal is a quick interlude. John sees the martyrs who cry out for vengeance. They are each given a white robe and told to wait a bit longer. The fifth seal is not a big subject for art or exegesis.

The sixth seal, by contrast, is very dramatic. This is often quoted and very popular in medieval and Renaissance art. There is a great earthquake; the sun turns black and the moon blood red. The stars fall (but not all of them because there are angels and a dragon coming to sweep some away). The sky vanishes, and mountains and islands are removed (Revelation 6:24). Some of the population must be left because the people hide in caves and among mountain rocks.

In case the faithful are becoming too terrified to read further, John takes a moment to introduce the 144,000 virgins who have been sealed with the mark of God on their foreheads and won't have to undergo the trials of the destruction on the earth. Of course, this is the beginning of the idea of the elect that has resurfaced over and over through all of Christian history and has been to blame for a lot of arrogance, anguish, and dissension.

The seventh seal is rather an anticlimax. When it is finally opened, “there was silence in heaven for about half an hour” (Revelation 8:1). People have given all sorts of theories about what that means but it's not really that important in the grand scheme of the Apocalypse.

Next, seven angels with trumpets each cause natural (or supernatural) disasters. More stars fall, a flaming mountain falls into the sea, turning one third of it to blood. The sun and moon are darkened again. The fifth angel releases a shaft into the earth and “from the shaft rose smoke like the smoke of a great furnace and the sun and the air were darkened with the smoke from the shaft” (Revelation 9:2). Twentieth-century interpreters point to this one as proof that John knew about atomic bombs.

There are a number of other plagues, wars, and disasters, but those few people who survive still don't repent. I suppose they don't like being bullied. In another interlude it is announced that the seventh trumpet will signal that the “mystery of God will be fulfilled” (Revelation 10:7). This is taken to mean the real end of everything. So the seventh angel has to wait a while longer before he can blow the trumpet because the story isn't over yet.

Two witnesses suddenly appear. They have come to prophesy for 1260 days (see Daniel), but they have to wear sackcloth, perhaps to mourn for the doomed world. These witnesses aren't named, but a later tradition makes them Old Testament prophets. After the stated time has passed, the witnesses are martyred, brought back to life and taken to heaven.

Now the seventh angel can blow its trumpet. If you think that really is the end, forget it. The Apocalypse is just revving up. In the sky, a woman appears, “clothed with the sun, with the moon at her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars” (Revelation 12:2). She is in the process of giving birth, and beneath her a dragon waits to snap up the newborn. The dragon is one of the two instantly recognizable villains in the vision. It is red, with seven heads and ten horns and seven diadems on his heads.

You would think that there are no more stars left after all the destruction, but the dragon still brushes down a third of them to the earth in his excited anticipation of devouring the baby. But, just as the child is born, it is snatched into heaven and safety! The woman hides in the wilderness, again for 1260 days, while there is war in heaven over the child.

The archangel Michael and his angels fight the dragon and his angels. The dragon is defeated and thrown from heaven. It will come as no surprise to the astute reader that the dragon is also known as the Devil and Satan (Revelation 12:9 and Milton's
Paradise Lost
).

But the dragon has not been destroyed, only thrown out of heaven. So now he chases after the poor mother who has been hiding in the wilderness. She miraculously escapes, leaving the angry dragon to make war on “the rest of her children, those who keep the commandments of God and hold the testimony of Jesus” (Revelation 12:17). Throughout the Middle Ages, the woman is assumed to represent the Church.

Finally the super villain arrives, “a beast rising from the sea and on its horns were ten diadems and on its heads were blasphemous names . . . [it was] like a leopard and it's feet were like a bear's and its mouth was like a lion's mouth” (Revelation 13:2). This beast, generally considered the antichrist of John I and II, is worshiped by the few people left and is allowed to rule for forty-two months (Revelation 13:4-6). Another beast arrives as an enforcer for the first.

Those who will not worship the image of the beast are killed. Everyone else is marked with the number of the beast, which is (ready?) 666
.
Without this number no one can buy or sell. John then challenges his readers to figure out who the beast is. “This calls for wisdom: let anyone with understanding calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a person” (Revelation 13:18). So many people took the challenge that I would need a separate chapter to give even an overview of the guesses. Pretty much every king, dictator, pope, and president has made the list at one time or another.

Again John reminds the members of the seven churches that the faithful will be saved. After reassuring them, he continues his tale of the Last Days. Next, Babylon falls, but the Whore still has to make an appearance, so it must not be completely in ruins. Metaphorical grain and grapes are harvested. Seven angels appear with seven bowls “full of the wrath of God” (Revelation 15:7). Six of the angels pour out the bowls that cause plagues, which really seems like overkill since there is hardly anyone left.

The beast sends demons to gather up all the kings of what's left of the world to assemble at Armageddon for a final battle. Then the seventh angel pours out the final plague, and “a loud voice came out of the temple, from the throne, saying ‘It is done!' ” (Revelation 16:17). But it isn't really. There's thunder, lightning, and earthquakes. Babylon falls again, and the mountains and islands vanish as they did in Revelation 6:24.

The Whore of Babylon (Apocalypse 17:1-5), from
Commentary on the Apocalypse
Flemish [Bruges], third quarter of the fifteenth century, M.68).
Art Resource, New York City

Now the great Whore of Babylon is judged. She is another popular subject for illustrated Apocalypses. She is “clothed in purple and scarlet, and adorned with gold and jewels and pearls, holding in her hand a golden cup full of her abominations and the impurities of her fornication” (Revelation 17:4). Added to this, she is seated on a scarlet beast “that was full of blasphemous names, and it had seven heads and ten horns” (Revelation 17:3). There must be a nest of those beasts somewhere, presumably in the bottomless pit.