Ehrman haș done it again.  I’ve read a number of Ehrman’s books,. 10 or 12 probably out of 30.  Sometimes he gets repetitious and seems to only insert one paragraph of new information in each book.  Other times it all feels new. This is a happy case of the latter.  

Armageddon: What the Bible Really Says About the End 
by Bart D Ehrman
2023 / 
Read by Robert Petcoff 7h 57m
Rating – 9 /  Christian history and studies  

The Book of Revelations in the Bible is o complex book.  I read it one time simply to say I had read it – I’d read the rest of the Bible – just not Revelations because what I’d heard scared me.   

Revelations seemed very confused to me but I didn’t examine further – just having read it was my only goal.  Ehrman, however, has studied it and drawn some conclusions as well as very interesting points of historical interest. 

He covers his own youthful indoctrination into the evangelical Christian world view (parts of this are in almost all of his books) and then gets into Revelations specifically.  What does it say? What does it mean? And how has it been interpreted down through the centuries?   

Ehrman goes from describing the author, John of Patmos and his background, to the Israeli/Palestinian conflict covering a number of prophets of the end times since, David Koresh, contemporary Evangelicals, Ronald Reagan and the environmentalists and apathetics. And then there are other apocalypses like Daniel and have visions and dreams containing wild beasts and supernatural beings.  The visions reveal Heavenly Truths,  explain human suffering and overcoming.   

Revelations is a tale of armageddon as told by John of Patmos who received a visio – this is NOT St. John the disciple and author of the Gospel John and some Epistles.  John of Patmos wrote Revelations for his own followers and there were and are many people who claimed it did not belong in the Bible.  

The book is well worth reading if you’re interested in the subject. There’s a lot of new information from Ehrman and it’s fascinating in places in addition to being as well organized as possible on this topic, and nicely written.