From: gpalo@digi.lonestar.org (Gerry Palo)
Newsgroups: talk.religion.misc
Subject: Re: Choosing a Bible translation
Date: 23 Dec 92 16:02:41 GMT
Organization: DSC Communications Corp, Plano, TX

In article <8058@tekig7.PEN.TEK.COM> alanf@tekig6.PEN.TEK.COM (Alan M Feuerbacher) writes:
>In article <fWVg9JC@quack.sac.ca.us> pharvey@quack.sac.ca.us (Paul Harvey) writes:
>> [....]
>>>>What does the Christian Revelations 22:18-19 say again? Or does this
>>>>not apply to translations of the original Bible languages?
>> [....]
>>Rev 22:18(KJV): For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of
>>the prophecy of this book, if any man shall add unto these things, God
>>shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book:
>> [....]
>
>It should be noted that Rev. 22:18 applies ONLY to the scroll of
>Revelation.  Otherwise, the further books of the bible written by
>John would be "things added to this scroll," since they were written
>*after* Revelation.
>

My reading of this passage is that it wants to emphasize that the 
Revelation is to be taken as a whole, integrated, organic thing, and
that, whatever interpretation or expansion you may do with it, its
content is so great and so powerful that you must always return to the
whole of it.  This verse is a kind of compliment to the blessing in
1:3, 
    "Blessed is he who reads aloud the words of the prophecy, and 
     blessed are those who hear, and who keep what is written therein;"

In other words, the whole of the Apocalypse is greater than the sum
of its parts, and to the extent that one falls away from reading and
re-reading it, taking it in again and again, something like a great
musical composition, one risks becoming onesided in it, dwelling too
much on one or another detail, and given the spiritual power of these
details, this can be really damaging if it goes too far.

Likewise, the mysteries contained in the Apocalypse are so great that
they never cease to reveal new things about themselves to the faithful
reader.  Reading the Bible is a life long exercise that never ceases,
and this is doubly true for the last book of it.  I have often conducted
reading sessions where we sit down and read the entire book of Revelation
aloud in one sitting.  We don't discuss it, just read it -- either one
person or passing the book around.  I have done this with groups containing
both fundamentalists and skeptics, Christians and eastern-oriented types.
Everyone comes out of these sessions amazed at what they found in this
"book sealed with seven seals".  For me too it is always a new experience.
There is always time for discussion and interpretation later, and we try
to pause for a day or two before going into it.  Then, afterward, we try
to do a complete reading one more time.  By the way, it takes only about
an hour and a half to read the Apocalypse at a moderately measured pace.

One reason why this technique is valuable is that it is really the only
way to take in the flowing quality of the sequence of mighty images that
litterally flood the reader.  Every time you stop to focus on one of them
the dynamic quality of these revelations is interrupted.  The total 
impression becomes something quite different when you take it in as a whole.

Also, the grimness and terror of the passages leading up to the last
judgement, so fascinating as they are, can easily overwhelm the joyful
power of the last three chapters, which herald the coming of the New
Jerusalem.  

Just some (more than a few) thoughts.

Gerry Palo (73237.2006@compuserve.com)