2023/05/01

89. The New Testament within the New Testament, Part 3

Revelation 13 describes a world in which those who gather authority, power and wealth conquer by taking in information beneficial to them and taking advantage of differences in people's character and abilities, especially gender differences. From their illusory and fictional world comes endless suffering, including social inequality, all sorts of discrimination and even human trafficking. The information and knowledge that originate from the relationships among people and create these situations are likened to the dragon and the two beasts. John the Baptist was killed as a very victim of these situations (cf. Mark 6:17-28). 

Founded amidst such a social environment, the Church was in constant danger. That was because the Church had a totally new identity of the people who are described as "born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God" (John 1:13) and who called God their heavenly Father. And that is, the Church had accepted Jesus' exhortation: "There are eunuchs who have made themselves eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. He who is able to receive this, let him receive it" (Matthew 19:12). Nowadays, some Bible translations replace the word "eunuch" in this phrase with "one who does not marry," "one who has become a bachelor," etc., but this is not the case. Indeed, Jesus used the firm word "eunuch." That is because only he knew the kingdom of heaven (cf. John 3:13), and "eunuchs who have made themselves eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven" referred to Jesus himself. Hence, the Church, the body of Christ, is present as "He who is able to receive this." The following words of Jesus suggest the Church: "The sons of this age marry and are given in marriage; but those who are accounted worthy to attain to that age and to the resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage, for they cannot die any more, because they are equal to angels and are sons of God, being sons of the resurrection" (Luke 20:34-36). 

As it reads, "a hundred and forty-four thousand who had his name and his Father's name written on their foreheads" (Revelation 14:1), Revelation 14 begins with the description of the Church. And the "women" in the following account, as we have discussed so far, signifies nuptial mysticism: "It is these who have not defiled themselves with women, for they are chaste" (Revelation 14:4). The "woman" called "Babylon the great" and likened to a city, is described as having "made all nations drink the wine of her impure passion" (Revelation 14:8), which could happen because nuptial mysticism took the image of the institution of marriage that is so universal and absolute a social norm. The "eternal gospel" (Revelation 14:6) carried by the angel is a New Testament prophecy that protects people from nuptial mysticism, and the contents of the "seven golden bowls full of the wrath of God" (Revelation 15:7) are the words that affect the information people possess and their knowledge, leading them to repentance. 

Revelation is a divine reality, while nuptial mysticism is a man-made fiction. The Church remains amidst chapters 17 and 18 of Revelation because it still holds nuptial mysticism (cf. blog № 77, 85).

Maria K. M.