Add in that at the time he was the focus of a mystery cult that believed he would rise from the dead.
And the references to horsemen sweeping out of the east? There was a tribe (actually one of the kewl things in the King Arthur movie was that this was the tribe they had Lancelot from) about whom at the time Revelation was composed there were a lot of from-the-battle-front rumors about these guys royally kicking Imperial Army Ass. So this was a "You've heard of these guys, right? Lemme tell you something.... God sent them... yeah, they're gonna kick Roman butt and not bother with names. Just hang in there, guys... we haven't gotta put up with this BS for much longer."
And a lot of the absolutely weirdest imagery is actually inherited from older prophetic works like Daniel, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Isaiah. There are a few passages where if you do some comparison... it seems there apparently was a tradition of going back to an earlier prophetic work.... taking some imagery that was giving a similar message to what you were trying to say this time.... filing off a couple serial numbers.... adjusting things a touch.... and voila! A vision with teeth.
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Date: 2006-06-07 04:49 am (UTC)And the references to horsemen sweeping out of the east? There was a tribe (actually one of the kewl things in the King Arthur movie was that this was the tribe they had Lancelot from) about whom at the time Revelation was composed there were a lot of from-the-battle-front rumors about these guys royally kicking Imperial Army Ass. So this was a "You've heard of these guys, right? Lemme tell you something.... God sent them... yeah, they're gonna kick Roman butt and not bother with names. Just hang in there, guys... we haven't gotta put up with this BS for much longer."
And a lot of the absolutely weirdest imagery is actually inherited from older prophetic works like Daniel, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Isaiah. There are a few passages where if you do some comparison... it seems there apparently was a tradition of going back to an earlier prophetic work.... taking some imagery that was giving a similar message to what you were trying to say this time.... filing off a couple serial numbers.... adjusting things a touch.... and voila! A vision with teeth.