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
Many historians also figured out another way in how the ancients perceived the whole sky and earth perspective. 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. This flat earth was covered by the vault of the sky that was stretched out something like half-circular tent. The vault of the sky separates the waters above from the waters below. And the stars are affixed to this vault, while sun and moon make their way across it. The sky was an immense region, variously imagined by persons in antiquity. 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. hets and or seers. This group sought information about their human groups from and concerning those living beings that controlled the skies. Of course their perception of the sky and their descriptions of those perceptions followed from their ethnic stories and ideologies. But for Israelites in the Hellenistic period, there would be God and a whole range of living sky beings, good and evil, never labeled as deities even if they performed the functions of deities. For the others, there were God, gods, lesser deities, and demons. Everyone who read and experienced sky phenomena perceived the various servants of God and the range of celestial forces, as well as thunder lightning, earthquakes, sky rumblings, hail, rain, sulfur rain. So John wasn't the only one with all of these details about the sky. There were other sources where you would be able to find such information as just explained above. John and his readers wou
Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1185
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)
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