Below
is an excerpt from the Introduction to my booklet “The Seven Letters of
Revelation – A Radical Interpretation”. It represents the first part of the
introduction to the booklet.
When Paul began the process of finalizing his gospels
sometime in the early AD 90s, he had read (or had with him) the following
materials: The Torah which included Isaiah and its prophesies; which also
generated the Moses and Joshua typologies that he would use to describe Jesus.
From Philo of Alexandria, he had the conceptual and doctrinal framework upon
which he would build the story of the life of Jesus as well as the document
“Flaccus” about the punishment and death of a Roman official named Flaccus.
He also had the works of Josephus about the Jewish War
and Jewish Antiquities from which he pulled the historical background for the
early life of Jesus. From these documents, he took events in Herod’s life, John
the Baptist and Pilate among others. He might also have had a document called
“The Testament of Moses” which presaged the Messiah desired by the Jews during
the war, and a copy of the original document by Clement from which the
Pseudo-Clementine Reflections were taken which supplied information about what
would become the Last Supper. He may also have had an original copy of the
document from which “Sirach” came that helped Matthew write his gospel.
Paul also had access to letters between Vespasian and
Titus, as well as letters between Titus and Rome which were the “good news”
dispatches to the troops approved by Titus in the field and disseminated
throughout the empire by Roman propagandists to “inform” the public.
Among other documents, Paul used his personal
knowledge of the mystery religion known as Mithraism as well as a working
knowledge of Pythagoreanism. As a widely travelled man, he gained access to
many documents and had learned the major concepts of the time from his many
Roman, Jewish and Egyptian connections.
He likely started writing his gospels sometime after
arriving in Rome in about AD 70 by gaining access to a “history” of the kings
of Judah written by his one-time patron Agrippa Jr. otherwise known as Marcus
Agrippa Jr. He noted that this document did not mention his current patron
Titus and so he decided to write his own history by adding Titus and his
activities in Judaea that gained him the “title” of “Jesus” and “Savior”.
Because Agrippa would have known that Paul had used his document and
essentially plagiarized it, he held back his first gospel which likely became
the document “Mark” some time later.
After Titus’ death in AD 81, Titus’ writing team,
likely being led by Josephus, created a document about the life of Titus and
his “miraculous” accomplishments during the war. This document was needed by
the Senate as testimony for consideration of his deification. This document was
also edited by Paul’s team later and likely became the document named Luke.
After Agrippa Jr. died about AD 92, Paul wanted to
release his documents in the “churches” of Asia to which he had access.
Domitian, the current emperor had such a disdain for Titus, he had refused to
allow any documents to be read that praised Titus and/or used the various
titles he had won in the war. To get around this restriction, Paul created a Jewish
prophet, dated him to the first part of the century and invented separate
personae for himself and Josephus.
Once Domitian became aware that these documents were
being read in “his” churches, he became furious and had Paul tried and executed
as well as Peter which ended Josephus’ long and illustrious life. Why he killed
Josephus is not known but it is possible that Domitian thought he was somehow
complicit in Paul’s project despite the fact that Josephus was equally offended
by Paul’s treatment of him.
In his gospels, Paul had been able to integrate the
themes of the documents mentioned above into one religion that had created a
new savior for many people influenced by the Commune Asiae and the Roman
Imperial Cult, so much so that Romans everywhere were picking up the new
religious amalgamation. And it was precisely this amalgamation that was blamed
by Domitian for fomenting disrespect of the emperor. After dealing cruelly with
Paul and his fellow writers, he responded to the new gospel by having John write
Revelation.
The idea that Domitian was the author, through John,
of Revelation is a relatively new idea. But, if this is true, it answers many
questions about the purpose of Revelation and what events led up to it. By
connecting the document to Domitian, we are also able to connect it to Pauline
Christianity and understand the context for both Christian writings and
Revelation.
Indeed, Revelation seems to be an outlier compared to
most of the documents in the gospels. With a few minor exceptions, there are no
monsters, fire-breathing dragons, apocalyptic imagery and dire warnings about
catastrophic future destructions in the gospels; unlike Revelation which is
replete with such imagery. In fact, the imagery sounds like it is coming from a
different mind, one oriented to a perspective that warns, threatens and even
murders, unlike the Jesus of the gospels who declared his desire to sacrifice
for man in order to avert destruction. One sees very little “Christ-like”
behavior in the Jesus of the Revelation document. In fact, its only saving
grace is that one can still discern the often-elegant poeticisms typical of
John to whom the letters were dictated.
In my book, “Coded Messages in the Pastorals”,
I advanced my theory that the Pastorals were written immediately before the
deaths of Josephus, Paul, Clement and Domitian. By seeing what was directly in
front of my face, I was able to identify that the crux of the conflict between
Paul (with his “Christians”) and Domitian (with his cult) was the emperor’s
belief that Paul had fabricated the Jewish Messiah and invented a false
timeline that went all the way back to the first part of the century. The
gospels, then were put into their (more or less) present forms in about AD 95
with Revelation being written immediately after Domitian became aware of the
forged content of the gospels.
However, I want to be clear; the purpose of this
writing, my booklet, is to help people struggling with nightmare visions
emanating from the Revelation document. I think it is a travesty that religious
leaders use this document to manipulate innocent children and adults by giving
them nightmare visions and other psychological problems. As I have suggested,
Revelation was written by the emperor Domitian, a mere man, in response to the
gospels written by Paul about a Jewish prophet named Jesus. Domitian believed
that Paul had created a rival “god” designed to usurp his own claims to
divinity and, using John, he communicated his displeasure to seven cities in
Asia over their acceptance of Paul’s creed.
This means that the creator of the Revelation document
did not really have the power to summon treacherous demons and make them
destroy all life on the planet. The catastrophic allusions in the document come
from a metaphysic that sees destruction as man’s final fate, in essence, a
nihilistic metaphysic – not one that envisions a beautiful future in heaven for
good works. Strange that few scholars question the obvious incongruities in the
document.
Despite Domitian’s aversion to Paul and his works,
Revelation was later accepted into the Christian canon and was thought to have
been an actual message to the world from Jesus Christ, the character who, in
Paul’s vision, came to redeem the world through his singular sacrifice on the
cross.
This could not have been the case, as we have
suggested, but, for some reason, later church fathers did not understand the
distinct divisions between Domitian’s vision and Paul’s vision. How Revelation
became known as a message from “Jesus” can be attributed to Domitian’s
ambiguity about his brother Titus who was the Roman model or “type” made by
Paul into a Jewish prophet.
I believe that once people understand the actual
events that occurred in the political battles between Domitian and Paul they
will see that Revelation is nothing more than a man-made expression of
religious sentiments that had nothing to do with miracles and/or the “received”
history. In short, Revelation is anathema to the gospels and was written to
oppose them.
The
text of Revelation and its prophesies about an “end time” destroyed by dragons
and other monsters represents a false message that needs to be refuted. It is
false because this idea was not intended to be a Christian message. I find it
regrettable that so many innocents are needlessly traumatized by the violent
aspects of the document. Most scholars believe that the God who is writing to
the seven churches is the Jesus Christ of Christianity. In fact, that god
is Domitian attempting to overrule his Christian opponents because of his
vision of himself as a “living god”.
To Purchase “Coded Messages
in the Pastorals” go to https://amzn.to/3bJwRCY
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