Re: Revelations
jason varsoke (jjv@caesun.msd.ray.com)
Tue, 06 Jul 1999 11:48:49 -0400 (EDT)
> Those are pretty good questions. I think the "incomprehensibility" of
> prophecy comes from the stupidity of interpreters, for one thing, but
> when you get into Jewish apocalyptic literature (Revelation, Daniel,
> Ezekiel, etc.) you do get into some stuff that's genuinely
> incomprehensible :)
>
> I'd start by addressing the interpreters first. If the guy doesn't work
> for a college somewhere and doesn't have a commentary on the book (say,
> Revelation) published by a reputable book publisher (Eerdmans, Word,
> Baker, whatever...) then he's an expert of nothing, probably. Just a
> minister who's read too many second rate commentaries and wants to get
> attention. There's a big difference between that and a scholar. Word
> Biblical Commentary is pretty good; if you want good work on Revelation,
> go there and it will refer you to hundreds of resources beyond that. The
> commentator will also provide his or her own translation of the Greek and
> include detailed notes describing the decisions he or she made in their
> translation. Very first rate.
Unfortunately, interpreters can't be trusted -- the text can't be
trusted. Deconstructionist theory of the 20th century has shown that a
text can be interpreted to mean anything we want it to mean. I'm not
talking about reader-response, I'm talking about verifying the
interpretation internally. There is a famous case where a nursery rhyme
was taken, something like Mary and her lamb, and shown to be apocolyptic
and perverted.
The thing about the escallation of poverty, famine, etc, is that each
generation always percieves that there is more than the last generation.
"When I was growing up, kids repected their parents." Whatever.
I always look for the signs and find it humors to point them out.
For example for a while I thought that the Budwiser campaign with the
frogs, "Bud-wise-er." Was the "Plague of Frogs." The damn billboards
where everywhere.
As for the reestabilishment of the temple of Jeruslam. One of the
requirements is a red heffer. There is a few guys in either Scotland, or
the US that have a line of heffers and were selling it to a few Jews in
Jeruslam. This was all reported on NPR about a year ago. The strange
thing was that there was a miscomminication about the price though the
translation. The Americans had a chance to gouge the Jews. But instead
they gave the money back to them. I've forgotten where, but this exact
thing happened elsewhere in the Tora. The two parties were pretty happy
about the whole thing. I don't know if the heffer was delivered yet or
not.
-j