The Book of Revelation

The life and times of the New Testament’s most mystifying and incendiary book

Few biblical books have been as revered and reviled as Revelation. Many hail it as the pinnacle of prophetic vision, the cornerstone of the biblical canon, and, for those with eyes to see, the key to understanding the past, present, and future. Others denounce it as the work of a disturbed individual whose horrific dreams of inhumane violence should never have been allowed into the Bible. Timothy Beal provides a concise cultural history of Revelation and the apocalyptic imaginations it has fueled.

Taking readers from the book’s composition amid the Christian persecutions of first-century Rome to its enduring influence today in popular culture, media, and visual art, Beal explores the often wildly contradictory lives of this sometimes horrifying, sometimes inspiring biblical vision. He shows how such figures as Augustine and Hildegard of Bingen made Revelation central to their own mystical worldviews, and how, thanks to the vivid works of art it inspired, the book remained popular even as it was denounced by later church leaders such as Martin Luther. Attributed to a mysterious prophet identified only as John, Revelation speaks with a voice unlike any other in the Bible. Beal demonstrates how the book is a multimedia constellation of stories and images that mutate and evolve as they take hold in new contexts, and how Revelation is reinvented in the hearts and minds of each new generation.

This succinct book traces how Revelation continues to inspire new diagrams of history, new fantasies of rapture, and new nightmares of being left behind.

"This attractively produced book sits in Princeton University Press's Lives of Great Religious Books series, and offers an accessible, thoughtful and wide-ranging review of the afterlife of the book of Revelation."---Alison M. Jack, Journal for the Study of The New Testament

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As such, The Book of Revelation really is so much more than A Biography; it’s an engaging and
provocative account of a book that even the likes of Augustine and Martin Luther occasionally struggled
to come to terms with.

"The Book of Revelation is a breathtaking book."---A.L. Kolp, Choice Reviews

"This book is intended for the curious."---Brent Niedergall, Reading Religion

"A Choice Outstanding Academic Title of the Year"

“Raised to fear the end time prophesied in the book of Revelation, Timothy Beal, now a well-known scholar of religion, offers a lively, engaging, and readable account of how Christians ranging from Augustine, Hildegard of Bingen, and Martin Luther to contemporary evangelicals have read Revelation—and brings that book down to earth!”—Elaine Pagels, author of The Gnostic Gospels

“This is perhaps the most engaging, accessible, and thought-provoking book on Revelation that I have ever read.”—Adele Reinhartz, author of Bible and Cinema

“Engaging. Beal’s reception history captures the diverse uses of Revelation beyond the theological and ecclesiological.”—Amy-Jill Levine, author of Short Stories by Jesus: The Enigmatic Parables of a Controversial Rabbi