Lanterna Rally
eBook PDF Download Digital Library
Revelation
Author:
Publisher: Canongate Books
Published: 1999-01-01
Total Pages: 60
ISBN-13: 0857861018
DOWNLOAD EBOOK →The final book of the Bible, Revelation prophesies the ultimate judgement of mankind in a series of allegorical visions, grisly images and numerological predictions. According to these, empires will fall, the "Beast" will be destroyed and Christ will rule a new Jerusalem. With an introduction by Will Self.
The Bible among the Myths
Author: John N. Oswalt
Publisher: Zondervan Academic
Published: 2009-08-30
Total Pages: 209
ISBN-13: 0310322421
DOWNLOAD EBOOK →Sixty years ago, most biblical scholars maintained that Israel’s religion was unique—that it stood in marked contrast to the faiths of its ancient Near Eastern neighbors. Nowadays, it is widely argued that Israel’s religion mirrors that of other West Semitic societies. What accounts for this radical change, and what are its implications for our understanding of the Old Testament? Dr. John N. Oswalt says the root of this new attitude lies in Western society’s hostility to the idea of revelation, which presupposes a reality that transcends the world of the senses, asserting the existence of a realm humans cannot control. While not advocating a “the Bible says it, and I believe it, and that settles it” point of view, Oswalt asserts convincingly that while other ancient literatures all see reality in essentially the same terms, the Bible differs radically on all the main points. The Bible Among the Myths supplies a necessary corrective to those who reject the Old Testament’s testimony about a transcendent God who breaks into time and space and reveals himself in and through human activity.
Revelations
Author: Elaine Pagels
Publisher: Penguin
Published: 2012-03-06
Total Pages: 278
ISBN-13: 110157707X
DOWNLOAD EBOOK →A startling exploration of the history of the most controversial book of the Bible, by the bestselling author of Beyond Belief. Through the bestselling books of Elaine Pagels, thousands of readers have come to know and treasure the suppressed biblical texts known as the Gnostic Gospels. As one of the world's foremost religion scholars, she has been a pioneer in interpreting these books and illuminating their place in the early history of Christianity. Her new book, however, tackles a text that is firmly, dramatically within the New Testament canon: The Book of Revelation, the surreal apocalyptic vision of the end of the world . . . or is it? In this startling and timely book, Pagels returns The Book of Revelation to its historical origin, written as its author John of Patmos took aim at the Roman Empire after what is now known as "the Jewish War," in 66 CE. Militant Jews in Jerusalem, fired with religious fervor, waged an all-out war against Rome's occupation of Judea and their defeat resulted in the desecration of Jerusalem and its Great Temple. Pagels persuasively interprets Revelation as a scathing attack on the decadence of Rome. Soon after, however, a new sect known as "Christians" seized on John's text as a weapon against heresy and infidels of all kinds-Jews, even Christians who dissented from their increasingly rigid doctrines and hierarchies. In a time when global religious violence surges, Revelations explores how often those in power throughout history have sought to force "God's enemies" to submit or be killed. It is sure to appeal to Pagels's committed readers and bring her a whole new audience who want to understand the roots of dissent, violence, and division in the world's religions, and to appreciate the lasting appeal of this extraordinary text.
The Combat Myth in the Book of Revelation
Author: Adela Yarbro Collins
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
Published: 2001-08-13
Total Pages: 308
ISBN-13: 1725203774
DOWNLOAD EBOOK →Greek Myth and the Bible
Author: Bruce Louden
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2018-11-06
Total Pages: 242
ISBN-13: 0429828047
DOWNLOAD EBOOK →Since the nineteenth-century rediscovery of the Gilgamesh epic, we have known that the Bible imports narratives from outside of Israelite culture, refiguring them for its own audience. Only more recently, however, has come the realization that Greek culture is also a prominent source of biblical narratives. Greek Myth and the Bible argues that classical mythological literature and the biblical texts were composed in a dialogic relationship. Louden examines a variety of Greek myths from a range of sources, analyzing parallels between biblical episodes and Hesiod, Euripides, Argonautic myth, selections from Ovid’s Metamorphoses, and Homeric epic. This fascinating volume offers a starting point for debate and discussion of these cultural and literary exchanges and adaptations in the wider Mediterranean world and will be an invaluable resource to students of the Hebrew Bible and the influence of Greek myth.
101 Myths of the Bible
Author: Gary Greenberg
Publisher: Sourcebooks, Inc.
Published: 2002-09
Total Pages: 341
ISBN-13: 1402230052
DOWNLOAD EBOOK →In his startling book, Gary Greenberg exposes the reality behind the greatest story ever told. Learn about the Egyptian myths and ancient folklore that survive in one of history's most sacred texts, and discover how: -King David's bodyguard, not David, killed Goliath -Noah's Ark did not land on Mount Ararat -Samson did not pull down a Philistine temple -There are at least two versions of the Ten Commandments -The walls of Jericho were destroyed 300 years before Joshua arrived there -Sodom and Gomorrah were mythical cities that never existed -The story of Esther had nothing to do with the Jews of Persia -And much, much more 101 Myths of the Bible provides a new dimension of biblical studies for believers, historians and anyone who has ever wondered about the facts behind the legends. By looking deeper into history, Greenberg shows that the true story makes the Bible more interesting than ever imagined!
The Gnostic Gospels
Author: Elaine Pagels
Publisher: Random House
Published: 2004-06-29
Total Pages: 281
ISBN-13: 1588364178
DOWNLOAD EBOOK →Selected by the Modern Library as one of the 100 best nonfiction books of all time The Gnostic Gospels is a landmark study of the long-buried roots of Christianity, a work of luminous scholarship and wide popular appeal. First published in 1979 to critical acclaim, winning the National Book Award and the National Book Critics Circle Award, The Gnostic Gospels has continued to grow in reputation and influence over the past two decades. It is now widely recognized as one of the most brilliant and accessible histories of early Christian spirituality published in our time. In 1945 an Egyptian peasant unearthed what proved to be the Gnostic Gospels, thirteen papyrus volumes that expounded a radically different view of the life and teachings of Jesus Christ from that of the New Testament. In this spellbinding book, renowned religious scholar Elaine Pagels elucidates the mysteries and meanings of these sacred texts both in the world of the first Christians and in the context of Christianity today. With insight and passion, Pagels explores a remarkable range of recently discovered gospels, including the Gospel of Thomas and the Gospel of Mary Magdalene, to show how a variety of “Christianities” emerged at a time of extraordinary spiritual upheaval. Some Christians questioned the need for clergy and church doctrine, and taught that the divine could be discovered through spiritual search. Many others, like Buddhists and Hindus, sought enlightenment—and access to God—within. Such explorations raised questions: Was the resurrection to be understood symbolically and not literally? Was God to be envisioned only in masculine form, or feminine as well? Was martyrdom a necessary—or worthy—expression of faith? These early Christians dared to ask questions that orthodox Christians later suppressed—and their explorations led to profoundly different visions of Jesus and his message. Brilliant, provocative, and stunning in its implications, The Gnostic Gospels is a radical, eloquent reconsideration of the origins of the Christian faith.
The Combat Myth in the Book of Revelation
Author: Adela Yarbro Collins
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
Published: 2001-08-13
Total Pages: 309
ISBN-13: 1579107168
DOWNLOAD EBOOK →This edition of The Combat Myth in the Book of Revelation by Adela Yabro Collins is a digital scan of the 1976 Harvard Theological Review edition. Adela Yarbro Collins is the Buckingham Professor of New Testament Criticism and Interpretation at the Yale University Divinity School. She was Professor of New Testament in the faculty of the University of Chicago Divinity School from 1991 to 2000; Professor in the Department of Theology at the University of Notre Dame from 1985 to 1991; and a member of the faculty of McCormick Theological Seminary from 1973 to 1985. She holds the Ph.D. from Harvard University in New Testament and Christian Origins and was awarded an honorary doctorate in Theology by the University of Oslo, Norway, in 1994. Professor Collins was awarded a Fellowship for University Teachers by the National Endowment for the Humanities for 1995-96. In addition to her first book, The Combat Myth in the Book of Revelation, she has published Cosmology and Eschatology in Jewish and Christian Apocalypticism; The Beginning of the Gospel: Probings of Mark in Context, Crisis and Catharsis: The Power of the Apocalypse, and The Apocalypse (New Testament Message series). Her current research project is a commentary on the Gospel according to Mark for the Hermeneia commentary series. Professor Collins is serving as a member of the Committee of the Society of New Testament Studies and as the delegate of the Society of Biblical Literature to the American Council of Learned Societies. She was the Editor of the Society of Biblical Literature's Monograph Series from 1985-1990. She has also served on the editorial boards of The Journal of Biblical Literature, The Catholic Biblical Quarterly, New Testament Studies, The Journal for the Study of the New Testament, The Journal of Religion, and Biblical Interpretation.
On the Historicity of Jesus
Author: Richard Carrier
Publisher:
Published: 2023-05-05
Total Pages: 0
ISBN-13: 9781914490231
DOWNLOAD EBOOK →The assumption that Jesus existed as a historical person has occasionally been questioned in the course of the last hundred years or so, but any doubts that have been raised have usually been put to rest in favor of imagining a blend of the historical, the mythical and the theological in the surviving records of Jesus. Carrier re-examines the whole question and finds compelling reasons to suspect the more daring assumption is correct. He lays out extensive research on the evidence for Jesus and the origins of Christianity and poses the key questions that must now be answered if the historicity of Jesus is to survive as a dominant paradigm. Carrier contrasts the most credible reconstruction of a historical Jesus with the most credible theory of Christian origins if a historical Jesus did not exist. Such a theory would posit that the Jesus figure was originally conceived of as a celestial being known only through private revelations and hidden messages in scripture; then stories placing this being in earth history were crafted to communicate the claims of the gospel allegorically; such stories eventually came to be believed or promoted in the struggle for control of the Christian churches that survived the tribulations of the first century. Carrier finds the latter theory more credible than has been previously imagined. He explains why it offers a better explanation for all the disparate evidence surviving from the first two centuries of the Christian era. He argues that we need a more careful and robust theory of cultural syncretism between Jewish theology and politics of the second-temple period and the most popular features of pagan religion and philosophy of the time. For anyone intent on defending a historical Jesus, this is the book to challenge.
