Revelation of Jesus Christ: Which God Gave to Him to Show to His Servants What Must Soon Take Place (Revelation 1.1) [Paperback]

Margaret Barker (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 2, 2000

A new and transforming approach to the Book of Revelation. Margaret Barker bases her study on a fresh reading of the primary sources. As an Old Testament scholar, she can read Revelation as Hebrew prophecy - ancient temple oracles which inspired Jesus and his own prophecies, and influenced the whole Jerusalem Church. Jerusalem was waiting for their Great High Priest to return and complete the Atonement at the end of the Tenth Jubilee. This expectation fuelled the revolt against Rome. Josephus, who deserted to Rome, was the false prophet. John, who escaped to Patmos, compiled Revelation as a record of the first generation. In the future, he taught, the Lord would return to his people in the Eucharist.This work illuminates the formative years of Christianity, in the social, religious and political situation of mid-first-century Palestine, in a quite remarkable way. It will have profound implications for the understanding of Christian origins and the development of Christian liturgy.

Editorial Reviews

Review

'This is a very exciting and suggestive book. Margaret Barker strips off the varnish applied to the portrait of Jesus Christ by generations of desk bound scholars. She reveals a fresh and startling Christ, but one who is entirely believable in the diversity of first century Judaism which she has so dramatically illuminated.'
The Rt Revd and Rt Hon. Richard Chartres, Bishop of London
'This is a serious book and one that will provoke much debate and reflection.'
The Bible Today
'The case is argued by massive (but readable) scholarship. But does it hold together? If Margaret Barker is correct, how come this book got into the same New Testament as the letters of Paul whom it so vehemently opposed? Read her case; it will stimulate your own thinking. And then make your own mind up.'
Canon Michael Perry, Church Times
'Margaret Barker makes the Book of Revelation make sense. It no longer stands apart at the edge of the Christian Bible, but appears as a key New Testament text, showing us the world of images in which the early Christians thought their religion. Margaret Barker has written a compelling book. It reshapes our understanding of early Christianity, its literature and its liturgy.'
Professor David Melling, Manchester Metropolitan University

"This commentary-like series of essays on the book of Revelation offers a fresh and complete interpretation of what Barker considers one of the earliest […] NT writings…Barker's book demonstrates that there can be no convincing account of early Christian history without a proper understanding of the book of Revelation. Highly recommended!"
- International Review of Biblical Studies, 1999/2000

"Barker is one of a growing number who have seen the potential significance of the Temple and its mythology for the classic Christian creeds". —International Journal of Systematic Theology 3.2 (July 2001)

This is a brave book and an intriguing one… it must be said that not the least intriguing aspect of the author's presentation is the wide cast of her net: she has read and mastered an astonishingly broad range of primary texts. The Heythrop Journal, July 2003.

About the Author

Margaret Barker is a former President of the Society for Old Testament Study, and author of numerous works, including The Older Testament, The Lost Prophet, The Gate of Heaven, The Great Angel.

Product Details

• Paperback: 464 pages
• Publisher: T&T Clark Int'l (November 2, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0567087166
• ISBN-13: 978-0567087164
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.2 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,006,847 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

30 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Another Masterpiece By Margaret Barker, August 31, 2003

By 

S. E. Moore (San Diego, CA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Revelation of Jesus Christ: Which God Gave to Him to Show to His Servants What Must Soon Take Place (Revelation 1.1) (Paperback)

I previously reviewed Barker's, "The Risen Lord". This book is equally superb and is the best researched and documented explanation of Revelation I have ever read. Barker interprets Revelation through the eyes of first century Christians and not 21'st century evangelists.
This book explains Revelation as a book of Palestinian Christian prophecy containing heavenly visions which the risen Christ transmitted to his beloved disciple, John. These apocalyptic visions have counterparts in Daniel, Ezekiel, Enoch, the Dead Sea Scrolls and many other Jewish writings which were widely read in the first century.
Revelation is so difficult to understand and seems out of place in the New Testament because it is modeled after Jewish apocalyptic literature which uses the imagery of the first temple as a microcosm for Heaven on earth. Thus, it could only have been written by someone with an intimate knowledge of the temple symbols and their deeper meaning. Barker claims John was a priest which is corroborated by Eusebius.
This type of Jewish apocalyptic literature, was supressed after the first century because of the significant influence it had on the disastrous Jewish revolt as attested to in the writings of Josephus.
Barker repeats the theme in her earlier book that Jesus was annointed as the Lord, Son of Man, Messiah, (not to be confused with Almighty God), at his baptism. It was his destiny to become the Suffering Servant of Isaiah, the Lamb of God, and the Lord who would emerge from Heaven to redeem His people.
To outsiders, Jesus may have been a miracle-working Hasid but his identity as the Son of Man was revealed only to a select group of disciples. Thus, the kingdom could only be discerned by those who were in the resurrected state or born from above. This is why Jesus attached cosmic significance to many of his miracles as signs that the Kingdom had already arrived, ie exorcisms were the binding and casting out of Satan.
Barker claims that the tribulations in Revelation were events which led up to the destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70. This book blows all the modern sensational but poorly researched apocalyptic fictions out of the water. This is for the serious seeker. She proves that Revelation was written for Palestinian Christians living in the first century. Jesus himself made this very clear in Matthew 23:35 when he tells the Scribes and Parisees that they would have to pay for the sins of previous generations and in Mark 9:31 when he tells his disciples that some of them would live to see the Kingdom of God. The fervour of Palestinian Jews and Christians at this time proves that they expected the Kingdom to come in their lifetime and not in the distant future.
Barker gives a unique explanation for Revelation 10 which is difficult to understand. In this chapter, John receives a book which he is to eat (not reveal). This secret was never written down but passed on to the early church orally. Barker interprets this passage as a new understanding of Jesus' return and explains why he didn't return as the triumphant warrior angel which Christians living prior to A.D. 70 expected. This return was the Lord's presence in the Eucharist which mirrored the Day of Atonement ritual in the Temple. Today, we take the sacraments for granted, but to Christians living in the second century near east they had a tremendous significance which can be discerned in the writings of the Apostolic Fathers such as Justin Martyr, Ignatius of Antioch, and Origen.
The primary lesson to be learned from this book is not to attempt to reinterpret Revelation for modern times which John himself warned against in Rev. 22:18-19, but to reaffirm the significance of the sacraments we already have. If John were with us today, he would tell us that the Lord has already come but we're too blind to see it.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Expert Explication, March 17, 2011

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nova-power "nova-power" - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Revelation of Jesus Christ: Which God Gave to Him to Show to His Servants What Must Soon Take Place (Revelation 1.1) (Paperback)

I love this book. It makes sense of the sacred texts vs. my experience of them vs. centuries of missing information. It affirms my belief that certain trajectories of Gnostic Christianity preserved the original traditions. The author demonstrates a vast and comprehensive knowledge of sacred writings. I find her explication of Revelation and Judaic Christianity, with its direct ties to the monolatrist practices of the 1st temple, potently rich in explanation, and illustrative of a beautiful and ancient system of worship and practice. It is a gem I will treasure always.

Thank you MB for illuminating 1st century Palestine and Hebrew Christianity. I'm still pondering the ramifications.

Recommended for scholars and lay persons, any openminded seeker of the Way. For those who have no belief and simply want to understand the context of the New Testament, but also for mystics, and those who have conversed with angels.

4 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars I want 3 hours of my life back!, March 11, 2011

By 

Emma (Chicago, IL) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Revelation of Jesus Christ: Which God Gave to Him to Show to His Servants What Must Soon Take Place (Revelation 1.1) (Paperback)

This is a truly terribly book on Revelation. If it is intended for an academic audience, the lack of footnotes and citations of her so-called 'evidence' are entirely lacking making it impossible to trace the sources for her controversial views. If intended for laity, it is misleading and confounding.

Readers should be aware that Barker holds some rather controversial (some would say entirely unfounded) views about Revelation. She considers it to contain some of the earliest material in the NT, actually containing the visions of Jesus whilst acting as High Priest in the temple. Her evidence for this is, for example, that the Letter to the Hebrews calls Jesus a High Priest. Has she heard of metaphor? The named author, John, is seen as a compiler of this earlier material. She firmly claims him to be the beloved disciple, again based on what evidence? Barker interprets the Whore of Babylon as Jerusalem and many of the other symbols of evil as leaders in Jerusalem rendering evil as corruption of the temple and Jewish ways. Furthermore, she thinks Rev was written in Hebrew and translated to Greek based upon a few idioms but with no real linguistic analysis.

The temple and priestly motifs dominate her interpretation. All the visions occur in the temple, Jesus is High Priest, and angels are priests. While there is a lot of imagery that derives from temple cult, this is only one part of the picture. There is equally a large amount of imagery in Revelation that draws upon Greco-Roman traditions and myths. These are entirely ignored in her rather one-sided interpretation.

If you are looking for a good intro level book on Revelation, please read instead Eugene Boring's Interpretation commentary "Revelation", Elisabeth Schuessler-Fiorenza's "Revelation: Vision of a Just World" or perhaps David Barr's edited volume "Reality of Apocalypse". These three represent a much better standard of scholarship.