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 NIV is the world's best-selling modern translation, with over 150 million copies in print since its first full publication in 1978. This highly accurate and smooth-reading version of the Bible in modern English has the largest library of printed and electronic support material of any modern translation.

The Book of Revelation: A New Beginning contains the hidden secrets of Saint Johns Revelation, and as you know, it is one of the most debated and most difficult books of all the scriptures to read and understand because of the extreme symbolism tied to it. Man has always assumed the word of Gods prophets and their stories were indisputable just because of their eminence in interpreted them as being true. Man has forgotten the history of himself, Earth, God, the origin of the universe, and how the scriptures have been documented, interpreted, and strictly passed down by our ancestors and religious leaders. As symbolic as Revelation is it has nothing to do with the end days or even about a solitary Anti-Christ as we understand it nor is it about Jesus coming to save you. In truth, Saint Johns Revelation is your own guide showing you that you no longer need to look at yourself as a sinner because you have bared your cross, like Jesus, and now the time has come for you to ascend to a higher state of Mind. The book of Revelation: A New Beginning is a book that will help open the gates of your soul memories so you can become aware of your own divineness, and that you are a God too. My fellow Gods, what is coming to an end is the old ways of perceiving and understanding God. It is not that God is a mystery. It is you that is the mystery, and when fear is resolved within, you are then ready to open up to the hidden secrets behind the Book of Revelation that religions have kept as a secret for thousands of years, either on purpose or because of ignorance.

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 interpretation of the Apocalypse is explored through various methods including historical, literary, and social analysis, in combination with such reading strategies as process, postcolonial, and religion studies perspectives. Shows how diverse methods produce divergent readings of a text. Paperback edition available from the Society of Biblical Literature (www.sbl-site.org).