The Revelation of Jesus Christ: Which God Gave to Him to Show to His Servants What Must Soon Take Place (Revelation 1.1)

Rating:
Summary: Another Masterpiece By Margaret Barker
Review: I previously reviewed Barker's, "The Risen Lord". This book is equally superb and is the best researched and documented explanation of Revelation I have ever read. Barker interprets Revelation through the eyes of first century Christians and not 21'st century evangelists.
This book explains Revelation as a book of Palestinian Christian prophecy containing heavenly visions which the risen Christ transmitted to his beloved disciple, John. These apocalyptic visions have counterparts in Daniel, Ezekiel, Enoch, the Dead Sea Scrolls and many other Jewish writings which were widely read in the first century.
Revelation is so difficult to understand and seems out of place in the New Testament because it is modeled after Jewish apocalyptic literature which uses the imagery of the first temple as a microcosm for Heaven on earth. Thus, it could only have been written by someone with an intimate knowledge of the temple symbols and their deeper meaning. Barker claims John was a priest which is corroborated by Eusebius.
This type of Jewish apocalyptic literature, was supressed after the first century because of the significant influence it had on the disastrous Jewish revolt as attested to in the writings of Josephus.
Barker repeats the theme in her earlier book that Jesus was annointed as the Lord, Son of Man, Messiah, (not to be confused with Almighty God), at his baptism. It was his destiny to become the Suffering Servant of Isaiah, the Lamb of God, and the Lord who would emerge from Heaven to redeem His people.
To outsiders, Jesus may have been a miracle-working Hasid but his identity as the Son of Man was revealed only to a select group of disciples. Thus, the kingdom could only be discerned by those who were in the resurrected state or born from above. This is why Jesus attached cosmic significance to many of his miracles as signs that the Kingdom had already arrived, ie exorcisms were the binding and casting out of Satan.
Barker claims that the tribulations in Revelation were events which led up to the destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70. This book blows all the modern sensational but poorly researched apocalyptic fictions out of the water. This is for the serious seeker. She proves that Revelation was written for Palestinian Christians living in the first century. Jesus himself made this very clear in Matthew 23:35 when he tells the Scribes and Parisees that they would have to pay for the sins of previous generations and in Mark 9:31 when he tells his disciples that some of them would live to see the Kingdom of God. The fervour of Palestinian Jews and Christians at this time proves that they expected the Kingdom to come in their lifetime and not in the distant future.
Barker gives a unique explanation for Revelation 10 which is difficult to understand. In this chapter, John receives a book which he is to eat (not reveal). This secret was never written down but passed on to the early church orally. Barker interprets this passage as a new understanding of Jesus' return and explains why he didn't return as the triumphant warrior angel which Christians living prior to A.D. 70 expected. This return was the Lord's presence in the Eucharist which mirrored the Day of Atonement ritual in the Temple. Today, we take the sacraments for granted, but to Christians living in the second century near east they had a tremendous significance which can be discerned in the writings of the Apostolic Fathers such as Justin Martyr, Ignatius of Antioch, and Origen.
The primary lesson to be learned from this book is not to attempt to reinterpret Revelation for modern times which John himself warned against in Rev. 22:18-19, but to reaffirm the significance of the sacraments we already have. If John were with us today, he would tell us that the Lord has already come but we're too blind to see it.

Rating:
Summary: Another Masterpiece By Margaret Barker
Review: I previously reviewed Barker's, "The Risen Lord". This book is equally superb and is the best researched and documented explanation of Revelation I have ever read. Barker interprets Revelation through the eyes of first century Christians and not 21'st century evangelists.
This book explains Revelation as a book of Palestinian Christian prophecy containing heavenly visions which the risen Christ transmitted to his beloved disciple, John. These apocalyptic visions have counterparts in Daniel, Ezekiel, Enoch, the Dead Sea Scrolls and many other Jewish writings which were widely read in the first century.
Revelation is so difficult to understand and seems out of place in the New Testament because it is modeled after Jewish apocalyptic literature which uses the imagery of the first temple as a microcosm for Heaven on earth. Thus, it could only have been written by someone with an intimate knowledge of the temple symbols and their deeper meaning. Barker claims John was a priest which is corroborated by Eusebius.
This type of Jewish apocalyptic literature, was supressed after the first century because of the significant influence it had on the disastrous Jewish revolt as attested to in the writings of Josephus.
Barker repeats the theme in her earlier book that Jesus was annointed as the Lord, Son of Man, Messiah, (not to be confused with Almighty God), at his baptism. It was his destiny to become the Suffering Servant of Isaiah, the Lamb of God, and the Lord who would emerge from Heaven to redeem His people.
To outsiders, Jesus may have been a miracle-working Hasid but his identity as the Son of Man was revealed only to a select group of disciples. Thus, the kingdom could only be discerned by those who were in the resurrected state or born from above. This is why Jesus attached cosmic significance to many of his miracles as signs that the Kingdom had already arrived, ie exorcisms were the binding and casting out of Satan.
Barker claims that the tribulations in Revelation were events which led up to the destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70. This book blows all the modern sensational but poorly researched apocalyptic fictions out of the water. This is for the serious seeker. She proves that Revelation was written for Palestinian Christians living in the first century. Jesus himself made this very clear in Matthew 23:35 when he tells the Scribes and Parisees that they would have to pay for the sins of previous generations and in Mark 9:31 when he tells his disciples that some of them would live to see the Kingdom of God. The fervour of Palestinian Jews and Christians at this time proves that they expected the Kingdom to come in their lifetime and not in the distant future.
Barker gives a unique explanation for Revelation 10 which is difficult to understand. In this chapter, John receives a book which he is to eat (not reveal). This secret was never written down but passed on to the early church orally. Barker interprets this passage as a new understanding of Jesus' return and explains why he didn't return as the triumphant warrior angel which Christians living prior to A.D. 70 expected. This return was the Lord's presence in the Eucharist which mirrored the Day of Atonement ritual in the Temple. Today, we take the sacraments for granted, but to Christians living in the second century near east they had a tremendous significance which can be discerned in the writings of the Apostolic Fathers such as Justin Martyr, Ignatius of Antioch, and Origen.
The primary lesson to be learned from this book is not to attempt to reinterpret Revelation for modern times which John himself warned against in Rev. 22:18-19, but to reaffirm the significance of the sacraments we already have. If John were with us today, he would tell us that the Lord has already come but we're too blind to see it.