In honor of Santorum’s (temporary, I’m sure) departure from the politicaltainment media, here’s a link to Adam Gopnik in the New Yorker discussing Elaine Pagel’s book on Santorum’s favorite Bible chapter:
The Bible, as every Sunday-school student learns, has a Hollywood ending. Not a happy ending, certainly, but one where all the dramatic plot points left open earlier, to the whispered uncertainty of the audience (“I don’t get it—when did he say he was coming back?”), are resolved in a rush, and a final, climactic confrontation between the stern-lipped action hero and the really bad guys takes place. That ending—the Book of Revelation—has every element that Michael Bay could want: dragons, seven-headed sea beasts, double-horned land beasts, huge C.G.I.-style battles involving hundreds of thousands of angels and demons, and even, in Jezebel the temptress, a part for Megan Fox. (“And I gave her space to repent of her fornication; and she repented not.”) Although Revelation got into the canonical Bible only by the skin of its teeth—it did poorly in previews, and was buried by the Apostolic suits until one key exec favored its release—it has always been a pop hit. Everybody reads Revelation; everybody gets excited about it; and generations of readers have insisted that it might even be telling the truth about what’s coming for Christmas.
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In a new book on those end pages, “Revelations: Visions, Prophecy, and Politics in the Book of Revelation” (Viking), Elaine Pagels sets out gently to bring their portents back to earth….
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… Revelation, far from being meant as a hallucinatory prophecy, is actually a coded account of events that were happening at the time John was writing. It’s essentially a political cartoon about the crisis in the Jesus movement in the late first century, with Jerusalem fallen and the Temple destroyed and the Saviour, despite his promises, still not back. All the imagery of the rapt and the raptured and the rest that the “Left Behind” books have made a staple for fundamentalist Christians represents contemporary people and events, and was well understood in those terms by the original audience. Revelation is really like one of those old-fashioned editorial drawings where Labor is a pair of overalls and a hammer, and Capital a bag of money in a tuxedo and top hat, and Economic Justice a woman in flowing robes, with a worried look… Revelation is a highly colored picture of the present, not a prophecy of the future.
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What’s more original to Pagels’s book is the view that Revelation is essentially an anti-Christian polemic. That is, it was written by an expatriate follower of Jesus who wanted the movement to remain within an entirely Jewish context, as opposed to the “Christianity” just then being invented by St. Paul, who welcomed uncircumcised and trayf-eating Gentiles into the sect. At a time when no one quite called himself “Christian,” in the modern sense, John is prophesying what would happen if people did. That’s the forward-looking worry in the book. “In retrospect, we can see that John stood on the cusp of an enormous change—one that eventually would transform the entire movement from a Jewish messianic sect into ‘Christianity,’ a new religion flooded with Gentiles,” Pagels writes. “But since this had not yet happened—not, at least, among the groups John addressed in Asia Minor—he took his stand as a Jewish prophet charged to keep God’s people holy, unpolluted by Roman culture. So, John says, Jesus twice warns his followers in Asia Minor to beware of ‘blasphemers’ among them, ‘who say they are Jews, and are not.’ They are, he says, a ‘synagogue of Satan.’ ” Balaam and Jezebel, named as satanic prophets in Revelation, are, in this view, caricatures of “Pauline” Christians, who blithely violated Jewish food and sexual laws while still claiming to be followers of the good rabbi Yeshua. Jezebel, in particular—the name that John assigns her is that of an infamous Canaanite queen, but she’s seen preaching in the nearby town of Thyatira—suggests the women evangelists who were central to Paul’s version of the movement and anathema to a pious Jew like John. She is the original shiksa goddess. (“When John accuses ‘Balaam’ and ‘Jezebel’ of inducing people to ‘eat food sacrificed to idols and practice fornication,’ he might have in mind anything from tolerating people who engage in incest to Jews who become sexually involved with Gentiles or, worse, who marry them,” Pagels notes.) The scarlet whores and mad beasts in Revelation are the Gentile followers of Paul—and so, in a neat irony, the spiritual ancestors of today’s Protestant evangelicals…
And some Opus-Dei Catholics, as well. In Santorum’s personal Book of Revelations, accept that gay people you don’t even know might have a right to marry, and before you know it we’ll be sanctioning man-on-dog fornication. Tradition!
BGinCHI
It’s always a big surprise to learn that the biggest bible thumpers know fuck all about the actual bible. They suck at critical thinking, close reading, reading comprehension, and math.
No wonder they majored in business and hate liberal teachers/professors.
Baud
And verily did I ask her what she was doing Saturday night; and she said she had other plans.
Little Boots
love the pagels.
MikeBoyScout
Books are the work of SATAN!
Remember, knowledge came form the Evil One deceiving Eve.
I think Adam was off wanking off or something
Crashman
They taught us some of this in my junior year religion class in Catholic high school. It always stuns me when I hear about Catholics who seem to think Revelation is anything more than a second century political cartoon.
Little Boots
gnosticism is even crazier than Christianity, but for some reason I like it more.
lamh35
Hmm, so Lawrence O just showed a clip of KKKlanity responded to the news by Zimmerman’s lawyers that their former client had spoken not to them, but to KKKLanity. KKKlanity said that they spoke to someone who they confirmed was George Zimmerman. KKKlanity said they had been trying for weeks to get an exclusive interview with Zimmerman so that GZ could tell “his side of the story”.
IMHO, this just confirms GZ as a raving racist. In my weirdest of times when I’m being really charitable and probably highly febrile, in the back of my mind I can somehow be convinced that Limpballs and Coulter and O’Reilly are just in it for the money, but Sean KKKlanity I truly believe is a pure d racist fuck!!! I sincerely believer that he has so much racist contempt for Blacks, Latinos, Asian, anyone who isn’t nice white “good American”.
MonkeyBoy
I thought that Paul was the one that put women hatred into Christianity and held views that women should not speak in certain circumstances.
Little Boots
@MonkeyBoy:
you should listen to the Bible Geek. seriously.
Litlebritdifrnt
@BGinCHI:
I took Religious Education in school, the idea just intrigued me, I am pretty much certain that I know more about the bible and the life and times of Jesus than any Christian wingnut in these here United States. They are quite happy to cherry pick the bible for their purposes but ignore all the “shellfish” bits cause it suits their purpose. My favorite bible quote in 2008.
Judges 5:12
“Arise, Barak, and lead away your captives, you son of Abinoam”
Persia
She’s a damn good writer too.
amk
twitterdom
Sorry, Rick, but you cannot abort your campaign after 20 weeks. You will be forced to carry it to term. #p2 #TFY— allanbrauer (@allanbrauer)
MikeJ
@MonkeyBoy: Paul had a lot to say to a lot of different people. Remember, he wasn’t writing a chapter of the bible, he was telling his friends who were having trouble running churches things that would make their lives easier.
What was good advice in Corinth wasn’t necessarily what Philippi needed, never mind the fact that Paul almost certainly didn’t write all, or even most, of the books credited to him.
jl
@MonkeyBoy:
” I thought that Paul was the one that put women hatred into Christianity and held views that women should not speak in certain circumstances. ”
You did not have to do much on gender equality to do better than the Ancient Romans or First Century Judaism, or most of the other religions in that part of the world.
And no one really knows what Paul was talking about when he said women should not talk in church: was he giving a doctrine or addressing a specific problem for the particular church he was writing to.
But, with conservative fundies bending over backwards to explain away the role of women in Paul’s ministry, everything is good material to keep the guys in charge, whether it makes any sense or not.
jl
Also, thanks for the interesting post. I slogged through Revelations line by line with a huge commentary years ago, since I figured I should figure out what was in it that made the Endtimer fundie Xtians so crazy.
The commentary compared different approaches to interpretation and concluded that John was condemning Rome and paganism. The idea that it was talking about the Endtimes brought on by evil coming out of
Russia, Soviet Union, China, European Union, Iran, US Democratic Party, Balloon-Juice (? hey, maybe so, the book was to early to cover the BJ threat).The commentary I had said nothing about John being irritated by Paul. I would be interested in plowing through Revelations again with Pagels, except I did that once and in retrospect, that was once too much.
Edit: suddenly a lot of conservative Christian stuff in the BJ ads. They need to refine those blog ad ‘bots, I guess.
Brother Shotgun of Sweet Reason
@Baud:
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We have your intenets for you, sir.
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You may pick them up Saturday night, because apparently you’ll be otherwise unoccupied.
eemom
I heard this lady on NPR. She is very smart and interesting.
Santorscum, not so much.
kdaug
What does “Holy” mean?
Lyrebird
Pagels is pretty amazing. There’s another (older) book called Stealing Jesus that documents the growth of the rapture wing; one of my Christian relatives found it both depressing and comforting at the same time.
Since this is an open thread… anyone else get the Elizabeth Warren fundraising letter which quotes Scott Brown’s letter, like this?
I love it… If I had an account at GOS I would try to start a discussion of the nature of Harry Reid Democrats…
(I’m a Nancy Smash! Democrat if anything, plus a huge E-Dub fan!)
Edited: glad carriage returns show up; sorry they mess up block quotes.
jl
@Lyrebird:
Harry Reid Democrat: What’s in it for Nevada, with my name on it?
Which could describe most NV, and other ‘small state’ Senators.
Brown must be feeling desperate if he is trying to scare people with the the Harry Reid Democrat threat.
Lyrebird
@jl:
Especially by including them in same salad as the Far Left Juggernaut!! That’s almost good enough for a rotating tagline, or maybe I am just easily amused.
Gex
@Brother Shotgun of Sweet Reason: What? No love for me?
Gex
Little Boots
@kdaug:
oh, thereby hangs a tale.
lacp
Does anybody in MA actually give a shit about Harry Reid?
MikeJ
Is anyone else watching Yeux sans visage, and are you thrown off by the incidental music that sounds very similar to that in Curb Your Enthusiasm?
Montysano
Despite efforts to cancel his appearance, Louis Farrakhan spoke tonight at Alabama A&M University, an HBCU here in north Alabama. I attended, and was subjected to controversial subjects such as a call for a new generation of black farmers, the unity of the 3 religions of Abraham, and Farrakhan’s fervent wish for an end to booty shaking and saggy pants. Truth be told, it was a bit of a letdown.
kdaug
@Little Boots:
Let’s dance, kiddo. Night’s still young.
Little Boots
@kdaug:
true this.
Gian
there’s a pretty good argument that the wizard of oz is about monetary policy. A bit of a story about how the gold standard is bad. The magic slippers were silver in the book if I recall. and the tin man is the heartless northern industrialists, the scarecrow was I think possibly farmers who supported the gold standard.
anyway, if in 2000 years people start to believe in witches, wizards, flying monkeys and a land of OZ – that’s about the same as having a literal interpretation of Revelations.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_interpretations_of_The_Wonderful_Wizard_of_Oz
Little Boots
@Gian:
do we have to wait 2000 years?
Little Boots
I still think we need more music.
I blame John.
Little Boots
Ill do this here too.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JWWMmxyKOR0
Brother Shotgun of Sweet Reason
@Gex: Well, yeah, “forced to carry it to term” was also LMFAO funny.
Unfortunately, only one internets winner per thread. Good luck next time, thanks for playing, and enjoy the home version of our game!
Drive-by Nomad
@Lyrebird:
…who pitched in some crumpled dollar bills with In
GodWe Trust crossed out and a roach of excellent Jersey homegrown.Seriously, how out-of-touch are GOP propaganda hacks?
Little Boots
wall street sucks.
John knows.
seriously, wall street sucks.
Omnes Omnibus
@Baud: With me. So there.
Canuckistani Tom
I once actually tried to read The Book. I figured that yeah, it’s long and the language is archaic and full of weird names, so it’s basically the Silmarillion on steroids :)
So I got through the first two books, and had to stop. Because it’s badly written, even repetitive. I mean, there are sections that you’d swear the man upstairs had a minimum word count, and so decided to just ctrl-C some portions to pad it out.
satanicpanic
@Montysano:
Did he say anything about hippety-hoppity music?
Little Boots
oh, great, her4’s omnes.
now I can’t post any of my awesome music.
Mark S.
@Gian:
I thought the argument was that the gold standard is good (follow the yellow brick road). But it seems that this was a theory someone came up with well after the fact. Digging deeper, I found that Baum was pro-Women’s Suffrage, hated Indians, and wrote a poem in support of William McKinley (which is about the lamest thing I’ve ever heard, like writing a rock song about Bush).
Little Boots
well too bad.
human wheels:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JWWMmxyKOR0
Omnes Omnibus
@Little Boots: I was going to say, if I could figure out a way to do so without being insulting, that you were, until a short time ago, really doing a great job of making interesting and cogent comments. Of course, now I won’t say it.
satanicpanic
@Little Boots: It’s an open thread, why not?
Little Boots
@Omnes Omnibus:
see I knew you were angry.
did you like the mellanacamp, at least?
Little Boots
@satanicpanic:
tell Omnes, he’s bitter.
Omnes Omnibus
@satanicpanic: He’ll post the Numa Numa song. I fucking hate that song.
@Little Boots: I haven’t checked any of the links. I just got home from teaching a class and am having a drink to wind down before I sleep.
Little Boots
@Omnes Omnibus:
in which case you totally need mellancamp.
Valdivia
@Omnes Omnibus:
my favorite thing to do after teaching a night class: have a drink! enjoy yours.
satanicpanic
@Omnes Omnibus: Oh, in that case Little Boots please desist. I don’t mind Mellencamp.
Little Boots
everyone stop loving the Omnes.
he’s bitter.
Mark S.
@satanicpanic:
I do. Unless it’s that Scarecrow song. But Jack and Diane is one of the worst songs of all time.
policomic
@Mark S.: I researched this years ago, but if memory serves, it was against the gold standard only in the sense that it was in favor of a “bimetalic” silver AND gold standard, which would have been a kind of loose money, somewhat inflationary policy, which was supposed to result in a somewhat more even distribution of wealth. The silver slippers on the gold (yellow brick) road was the path to Oz (abbreviation for ounce). The Emerald City was a parody of the “greenback” idea. The city was actually just white, but everyone was required to wear green-tinted glasses.
The Tinman was labor, the Scarecrow farmers, and the Cowardly Lion was William Jennings Bryan, the great proponent of bimetallism and failed nominee (in 1896, 4 years before Baum’s book was published) of both the Democratic and People’s (aka Populist) parties. (Then as now, the reform candidate was criticized for being insufficiently bold.)
kdaug
@Mark S.:
This is how it always begins.
Omnes Omnibus
@Little Boots: You want wheels? Try some Lone Justice. Just to show no current hard feelings. Bed soon.
satanicpanic
@Mark S.: That song does suck. But did you know Mick Ronson played guitar on it? Actually, that doesn’t reflect well on him so maybe I should stop telling people about that.
Yutsano
@Omnes Omnibus: I didn’t know you were moonlighting. I guess it keeps you out of trouble.
I’ll never understand people who don’t like seafood. I’m eating an amazing seared salmon with cannelini bean puree for dinner. Tummy very happy.
Omnes Omnibus
@Valdivia: Thanks. The class went well. First one of the course. The students seem interested and prepared. I am always keyed up after teaching though – hence the drink.
@Yutsano: I have been teaching occasional classes since 2010. I like seafood; why direct this at me?
Little Boots
@Omnes Omnibus: @Omnes Omnibus:
awesome.
Omnes, why are you awesome.
that pisses me off worse.
Little Boots
actually, that’s lovely, omnes.
not John Mellencamp lovely, but lovely.
Valdivia
@Omnes Omnibus:
It is the exact same thing for me–teaching at night was always tricky for me, I felt my brain still running for a while after it, and if the class went really well, even more so. Cheers!
Bill D.
@Gian
The farmers of the day *opposed* the gold standard and supported Bryan. They wanted a more inflationary monetary policy rather than the deflationary one that harmed borrowers such as themselves.
Omnes Omnibus
@Little Boots: Maria McKee is awesome. Crazy, but awesome.
Yutsano
@Omnes Omnibus: The comment is not directed at anyone. But I had a roommate in college who HATED any seafood. Of course she was from Arizona, so she wasn’t in a position to ever know how good this stuff is when you can literally get it out of the water. I never did get her to warm up to the idea. Oh well.
The prophet Nostradumbass
If you want to see a truly surreal illustrated version of a bible book, you should look at The Book of Genesis Illustrated by R. Crumb.
There was an exhibit of the pages of it at the San Jose Museum of Art a few months back, and it’s really something else.
Little Boots
@Omnes Omnibus:
as are you, incidentally.
Little Boots
I still think we need mellencamp:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JWWMmxyKOR0
Omnes Omnibus
@Little Boots: Step off or I’ll play M.I.A.
Little Boots
@Omnes Omnibus:
I dare you.
Omnes Omnibus
@Little Boots: You asked for it. This is really good.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Little Boots: You planted an earworm in me on Sat night with the mention of “Driver’s Seat”. Damn you Little Boots!!! Though it did remind me of a Korean girl I was lusting after at the time. Mmmmm Korean girls :)
@Yutsano: I really learned to appreciate salmon during my years up there. Just not the same here in CA, though we’re right by the coast.
Little Boots
wow, actually, that’s p0retty awesome,omnes.
The prophet Nostradumbass
@BillinGlendaleCA:
Well, if you’re in Glendale, I can see why you’d think that.
satanicpanic
@Omnes Omnibus: Woah my mind is blown
BillinGlendaleCA
@The prophet Nostradumbass: Well we do have cars and it’s only about 15 miles. The wife has been talking about getting some crab someday. But we’re both old and forget quickly.
Little Boots
@satanicpanic:
don’t encourage him.
Omnes Omnibus
@satanicpanic: She is amazing. Her family was involved in the Tamil dissident movement, and she is remarkably political. Some critics make comparisons to The Clash (Oh, Holiest of Holies (Elvis Costello be praised, amen)).
The prophet Nostradumbass
@BillinGlendaleCA: I was really more suggesting that there is no salmon caught in southern California, any you get there has to be shipped in from several hundred miles away, at least.
MikeJ
@Omnes Omnibus: I lurve M.I.A.
Omnes Omnibus
@MikeJ: Easy to do, mate.
BillinGlendaleCA
@The prophet Nostradumbass: True, true. Years ago I was on a business trip to Juneau, AK and they had a sushi bar that just served different types of salmon.
Joseph Nobles
@MonkeyBoy: The very worst passages in Paul’s letters are either in the false letters attributed to Paul or appear to have been inserted into the text of actual letters from Paul. Any of the “women shall not speak in the church” passages are like that.
MikeJ
Now for something totally unlike that, The Long Ryders.
handy
@MikeJ:
Love this song! Thanks.
Marcellus Shale, Public Dick
did i miss something, or is religion still stupid?
Martin
@The prophet Nostradumbass: Unlikely that you’d find it in the store, but there is salmon here in socal – at least Ventura/SB county. They’re trying to reintroduce them all the way down to SD.
A fairly worthwhile local cause.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Martin: When I was growing up, some of the “old timers” used to talk about catching good sized steelhead in the Ventura river. I only remember it as pretty much a dry river bed.
Narcissus
How much space does one need to repent of fornication anyway
Is it more or less space than P90X
Yutsano
@BillinGlendaleCA: I have a friend from college who married a Native with fishing rights. They stock up on the runs and smoke every year. I’ve promised to invade and steal some when it comes that time for them. I’m thinking about 20 pounds should work. :)
BillinGlendaleCA
@Yutsano: My parents, prior to moving to CA, would fish up on the Hoh river. I think there were fewer regulations then. I don’t think they smoked the catch, but at this point I have no way of knowing.
asiangrrlMN
@Little Boots: I quoted many Mellencamp songs on teh Twitter Machine earlier before I saw this. Bizarre!
I am currently listening to this. My personal anthem.
@Jewish Steel: Jewish Steel! I haven’t seen you FOREVER. How you be? Rumor has it you’re going to be in Seattle at some point in the summer?
Who’s still up?
Jewish Steel
@Yutsano: I grew up in largely in the Midwest and Arizona too. Seafood, in the 70s was ga-ross. One friend put it that, “It all tasted like mud.” True.
I didn’t develop a taste for it until I moved downstate and got my first taste of good sushi. Thanks, Mitsubishi executives!
We’ve got pretty kick-ass Indian now too thanks to, I think, State Farm’s IT dept.
Jewish Steel
@asiangrrlMN: Yo! I am but not for long. Hope you are thriving!
BillinGlendaleCA
@asiangrrlMN: Still up here and will be for a while. However in 5 minutes I’m off to watch the local news and catch the portion of Leno with Rachel.
asiangrrlMN
@Jewish Steel: Sleep well, JS!
@BillinGlendaleCA: Have fun!
Jewish Steel
@asiangrrl: unless airline ticket prices go down precipitously, my Seattle plans are probably on hold. Que lastima!
RadioOne
I don’t think there’s any evidence Revelation was meant to be a Jewish polemic against first century Paul. I think it was included in the cannon as evidence from the first century orthodox church that there were texts against the beliefs of Marcion and the first and second century gnostic texts.
Bubblegum Tate
@Canuckistani Tom:
I found David Plotz’s “Blogging the Bible” seres at Slate(!) quote good–he sums up the books, gives good critical insight, and points out the massive inconsistencies.
The prophet Nostradumbass
@BillinGlendaleCA: Having to slog through a 1/2 an hour (or more?) of Leno is pretty awful. He’s been phoning it in forever.
Brutusettu
I advise all kids in high school of a fundamentalist family, that have not read a book of a bible before, to read Genesis, then perhaps Exodus if they so will, and then Revelation. If that doesn’t get the ball rolling to non-fundieism, then probably nothing will.
amk
Now that sick rantorum is out, will he start his own fundie church for his flock and continue to fleece them ? Teh bible needs more nutjobs ‘preaching’ it.
squirrelhugger
I tried to click on the book link and got a popup with this:
“Firefox doesn’t know how to open this address, because the protocol (revelations) isn’t associated with any program.” Goddam open source liberals.
Svensker
I’m not sure Elaine Pagels is the best authority. She’s a scholar, certainly, but she’s always had a slightly odd approach. Doesn’t make her wrong, of course, but, having read her for years, I take her work with a big grain of salt.
Also, too, Revelation is a very strange book that has been interpreted in hugely different ways for centuries. The Orthodox Church wasn’t wild about adding it to the Canon and still give it very short shrift. As do most liberal churches — cool language (written in barbaric Greek, so probably not the same guy as John of the Gospels) and cool images, and good for the occasional snappy quote, but otherwise left alone.
MomSense
thebricktestament.com or “lego bible” is awesome.
evodevo
@MonkeyBoy:
Many biblical scholars are of the opinion that that passage was an interpolation by some unknown with a misogynistic agenda, because it doesn’t gibe with what is considered Paul’s other theological writings. That said, Paul DID say that the man was the head of the household, etc. etc.
furthist
See also Apocalypse, by D.H. Lawrence.
jake the snake
@Canuckistani Tom:
You try to make a living on a widow’s mite per word.