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An Adult Sunday School Class On The Revelation to John, Courtesy of Trinity Episcopal Church, Hattiesburg, Mississippi

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The Best of Times, The End of Times:
The Revelation to John
Updated 24 April 2007

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     Prophetic and apocalyptic literature is among the most misunderstood and most difficult kind of literature in the Bible. Some, like the purveyors of tabloids, use the apocalyptic vision of prophets to sell newspapers (like the cover at the right from the Feb 25, 2003 issue of the Sun). Others see current events as indicators of Biblical prophecies to predict the end of the world. This seven week course will study the apocalyptic vision of John of Patmos to try to make sense of apocalyptic and prophetic litertaure, and to demystify the Book of Revelation. The Book of Revelation makes great demands on those who read it. It is first and foremost apocalyptic in nature, which means it is a prophetic work, but not a work that foretells the future. Rather, it tells the truths of God as revealed to the prophet. Our task in reading prophetic literature, is to understand the imagery and symbolism in its historical context, so that we do not read into the work things from our own culture and time period. The writer of Revelation gives us God's perceptions of the situation of the original readers (hearers) of the work, and then tells us what God will do about that situation. In the end, John tells us, the righteous will be rewarded, and the wicked will be punished.

     Our goal in this class is to develop an understanding of the Book of Revelation and what it said to first Century readers, and to apply that to us today - insofar as that is possible. In this class we will use a book by Charles T. Chapman, Jr. to guide our reading of the Biblical text itself (see immediately below). The Chapman book and the Book of revelation have been divided to accommodate a five week class. Check out the class schedule.

The text on which this class is based:

• Charles T. Chapman, Jr. The Message of the Book of Revelation. Collegeville, MN: The Liturgical Press. 1995. The book is now out of print, but used copies are available through Amazon.com.

Bible

Although any version of the Bible can be used, the following study Bible NRSV translation is recommended.

• The Harper Collins Study Bible, New Revised Standard Edition. San Francisco, CA: Harper Collins Publishers. 1989.
• There is also an on line version of the NRSV.

Commentary

An additional text that would be useful is a commentary on Revelation. I recommend:

• Christopher C. Rowland. "The Book of Revelation." The New Interpreter's Bible, Vol. XII. Leander E. Keck, et al. (Eds). Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press. 1998. pp.503-736.

Other Bibliographic References

In 2004, I was given a collection of books on the Revelation to John by The Rev. Don White of Fayetteville, Arkansas. These are as follows:

Caird, G.B. The Revelation of St. John The Divine. New York, NY: Harper & Row Publishers, 1966.
Erdman, Charles R. The Revelation of John. Philadelphia, PA: The Westminster Press, 1936.
Erdoes, Richard. A.D. 1000, A World on the Brink of Collapse. Berkeleyy, CA: Seastone, 1998.
Gettys, Joseph M. How To STudt The Revelation. Richmond, VA: John Knox Press, 1946.
Gortner, J. Narver. Studies in Revelation. Springfield, MO: The Gospel Publishing House, 1948.
Henry, Carl F.H., (Ed.). revelation and the Bible: Contemporary Evangelical Thought. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, 1958.
Russell, D.S. The Method and Message of Jewish Apocalyptic. Philadelphia, PA: The Westminster Press, 1964.
Schmithals, Walter. The Apocalyptic Movement: Introduction and Interpretation. Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press, Inc., 1973.

Art

Art inspired by the Book of Revelation shown in this class is used by permission of Pat Marvenko Smith, © 1992. Prints of her beautiful collection of art can be purchased at http://www.revelationillustrated.com.

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The Session Schedule
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