Bob,
I'm certainly no scholar, either. So here's a few things on Revelation 13, according to Schonfield:
3, the fatal wound: The heads are Roman emperors. The one wounded to death is Nero. The stroke was healed because the Imperial regime continued under a new dynasty, the Flavian.
4, deceiving the whole world: Agrippa's speech, "Almost every nation under the sun does homage to the Roman arms." - Josephus, "Jewish War" II 16:380.
16-18, the number of the beast: As per my previous post, #reply-4395820, the Imperial stamp for AD 95-96 translates to "14th year of Caesar's reign", which refers to Domitian.
There's no explanation of the fire from heaven.
Are you a literalist? That is, do you take everything in the Bible literally? If so, then I have no explanation that will satisfy you regarding statements about "world-wide" references in the Bible. I would equally counter, however, that "there are many things that don't add up with the idea that" the Bible should be taken literally. I am familiar with the argument that our lack of understanding the paradoxes (inconsistencies) of the Bible are purely a lack of understanding of the way of the Lord. That argument strikes me as a little too much along the lines of: it's true because it's true.
Greg |
