THEOLOGY
The Book of Revelation appears to be an account of things that take place beyond the earth where Jesus of Nazareth lived and died as well as where John's community was living. It is a vision of events in the heavens or the sky. If we do not assume that all the details about the sky and those who live in the sky were immediately and supernaturally revealed to John, then John and his readers could have become familiar with these details from two types of persons in the Mediterranean society who devoted themselves to knowledge of the sky. One type of person was those called "the wise men, the learned, the scholars." These people were in awe of the sky and insisted that no one could really grasp the greatness and magnificence of the celestial spheres. The best posture was to stand in awe of the creator. They thought that as far as celestial phenomena were concerned, one need only pay attention to traditional lore about weather, farming, sailing, and the like. On the other hand there was the type that believed one could surely get to understand what impact the sky and celestial beings had on human societies. This group included Babylonian, Greek, Roman, Egyptian, and Israelite astronomers, astrologers, prop
But no matter who described the sky, there was one feature all agreed on: the universe was a closed system, closed in by celestial vault of firmament. Smoke is interpreted as indicating God's presence ("because God came down upon it in fire"); thunder is interpreted as God's voice (" God replied to him in thunder"). They believed that the events in the sky were significant for the people on earth also because only people of high ranking or status were able to view these sights. For the others, there were God, gods, lesser deities, and demons. Yes, their cultural assumption that favors lineal or hierarchical patterns of personal relationships influence the interest in the sky and sky beings because back then they followed tradition. Their interests would be from lineal patterns because they wouldn't know any better. The sky to them was the all mighty everything that the sky did like lightning, thunder etc. For the ancients, nothing could possibly happen in the sky that did not in some way impact the earth and its inhabitants. For example the account of Moses' meeting with God on Sinai is replete with the atmospheric phenomena. The model required to imagine the scenes in the ancient Israelite creation story, the earth was flat and stable, rooted in place by means of solid pillars, surrounded by water and containing some underworld within. So John wasn't the only one with all of these details about the sky. People today consider events in the sky that impact on the earth and its inhabitants as atmospheric phenomena. And the stars are affixed to this vault, while sun and moon make their way across it. There were other sources where you would be able to find such information as just explained above. They would never take anything for what it was meaning they would not just say okay it is noise coming from the sky.
Common topics in this essay:
God Sinai,
Israelites Hellenistic,
John John,
Egyptian Israelite,
Jesus Nazareth,
Book Revelation,
events sky,
perceived sky,
people earth,
impact earth inhabitants,
sky sky followed,
mediterranean's perceived sky,
sky automatically,
human social realties,
mediterranean's perceived,
earth people,
ancient mediterranean's,
social realties,
sky followed,
significant people earth,
john readers,
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Acceptance Essays
