"Apocalypse", which means "Revelation" in Russian, is an unusual book, full of mysteries, not like other biblical texts
To get closer to understanding "Revelation", it is necessary to find out who wrote it and when. Many were suspected of authorship, from King Solomon to the Apostle John. So who created this book?
About half a century after the death of Jesus, several scrolls with the text that we now call the "Apocalypse" fell into the modest Christian community of the city of Ephesus - in the territory of modern Turkey. The name of the author was indicated in the manuscript - John. In the Christian tradition, it is believed that this is the Apostle John - a fisherman who took care of Jesus' mother, Mary, after the crucifixion of Christ. But in the text of the "Apocalypse" John never mentions himself as a disciple of Jesus and does not even say that he knew him.
The answer to the question about the creator of the "Revelation" decided to get the famous specialist in attribution of texts, Englishman Anthony Kenya. Having completed this painstaking work, he published the results of his research.
“The most important thing in determining authorship is not finding any
special turns, and the frequency of the use of the most common words - writes Anthony Kenya. - At first I chose two words for analysis - "but" and "and". The conjunction "and" is repeated in Revelation twice as often as in any other manuscript of the New Testament. But at the same time, in the Gospel of John, it is even less common than usual. At the same time, the union no, which is often found in the texts of the Apostle John, came across to me only seven times in Revelation. I did 99 comparisons between the Revelation and the Gospel of John, and I found? that there are cardinal differences in their writing.
I think that the book was written not by the apostle, but by another John."
Why did John choose Armageddon as the upcoming battle between good and evil? American scientist John Goverly explained:
“John hated Rome for persecuting Christianity. Namely, in this place - Armageddon - the sixth Roman legion, famous for its cruelty, was located, which also participated in the persecution of Christians. I am sure that John was convinced that it was with this legion that the overthrow of the evil directed against Christians should have begun."
Stunning discovery
We have firmly learned from the "Apocalypse" that the number of the beast is 666. It turns out that in the Hebrew and Greek alphabets, each letter had a specific number.
John writes: “He who has intelligence, count the number of the beast, for it is a human number. His number is 666 . According to historians, by the beast, John meant Nero, because it was this emperor who crucified Christians along the roads and turned them into living torches. When writing the name Nero Caesar in Hebrew, according to the letters, the following numbers are obtained: 50, 200, 6, 50, 100, 60, 200. Now we add them together and we get 666 - the number of Nero. But recently, in the light of recent
research, scientists have serious doubts - was 666 really the number of the beast?
A hundred years ago, during the excavation of the ancient Egyptian city of Akserinka, a group of English archaeologists made an amazing discovery. Scientists have discovered a real treasure in a ten-meter garbage pit. No, not gold or precious stones, but just tablets covered with letters. They were brought to Oxford, where they are still being studied.
In 1999, one of the fragments of ancient manuscripts was identified as an excerpt from the Apocalypse. From the deciphered text, it became clear that the number of the beast meant a completely different figure.
The number of the beast
Study participant, graphologist David Smith, stated: “We have a piece written in beautiful, legible handwriting. It contains part of the line where it says: "He who has a mind, count the number of the beast." Then letters follow. We sum up the corresponding figures and get the number 616. But if this is so, then the emperor Nero is not to blame. Whom did John mean then? Using the same calculations, we get a new character - another Roman emperor, Caligula. He ruled Rome from 37 to 41 years. The emperor's real name was Guy, and Caligula was a nickname. If we write the name Gaius Caesar in Greek, then, adding the numbers of this name, we get the number 616.
Why did John identify Caligula with the beast? There were many reasons. The main, perhaps, is the order of Caligula to erect his statue in the Jerusalem temple. Do not forget that John was a Jew, and for the Jews the act of the emperor was sacrilege, because the temple was dedicated to "the one true God." Members of the early Christian communities, who hated Caligula because he installed his statues in all churches, fully supported the Jews in this situation.
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Foresight
According to many scholars, evidence from recent historical and archaeological research indicates that the Apocalypse is not a collection of doomsday prophecies, but a passionate appeal to communities in the 1st century AD threatened to be seduced by the Roman imperial cult. But if we are only talking about a warning to the early communities that were seduced by paganism, then how did John manage to foresee the future? The "Apocalypse" predicts global climatic changes, which should have resulted in the drying up of water bodies. But modern scientists now fear the same.
English historian Paul Boer says: “In recent years, scientists have been increasingly warning us about the threat of global warming and the greenhouse effect, about the possible increase in the number of skin cancer patients, about the impact that warming may have on the planet's water resources. John predicted the shallowing of the Euphrates for the passage of the army of the eastern kingdoms of 200 million people. And the Euphrates is really shallow. And the approximate size of the Chinese army in communist times, if the entire population capable of serving were put under arms, would just be about 200 million people. Many see this as an incredibly accurate prophecy.
Star Wormwood
But one of the most terrible predictions in the "Apocalypse" is the story of the star Wormwood, which fell from the sky: "And the third part of the waters became wormwood, and many of the people died from the waters, because they became bitter." In 1986, a terrible catastrophe occurred in Chernobyl. A nuclear reactor exploded, and a wave of radiation covered the neighborhood. Some residents died, some will not be able to get rid of the effects of radiation until the end of their lives. In Ukraine, the word "Chernobyl" means "wormwood". For many, this is direct evidence of John's prophetic gift.
For two thousand years, people using the "Apocalypse" tried to calculate the date of the end of the world. Over the centuries, new versions of the exact date have been constantly being put forward: 1000.1666, 1843, 1844, 1987 and 2000.
At the beginning of the 4th century AD, Emperor Constantine decided that the policy of destroying Christianity had not justified itself, and proclaimed it one of the official religions of the empire. It is thanks to this that the Christian religion has spread throughout the world. Perhaps, John, sent into eternal exile to the island of Patmos, was not sent to the communities of the letter, if he did not warn his fellow believers about the coming troubles that would befall the apostates, the early Christians would be seduced by the riches of Rome, and their religion would forever remain only in historical sources.