The Seven Letters of Revelation

A Radical Interpretation

By: Robert Villegas

Narrated by: Virtual Voice

The idea that Domitian was the author, through John, of Revelation is a relatively new idea. But, if this is true, it answers many questions about the purpose of Revelation and what events led up to it. By connecting the document to Domitian, we are also able to connect it to Pauline Christianity and understand the context for both Christian writings and Revelation. Indeed, Revelation seems to be an outlier compared to most of the documents in the gospels. With a few minor exceptions, there are no monsters, fire-breathing dragons, apocalyptic imagery and dire warnings about catastrophic future destructions in the gospels; unlike Revelation which is replete with such imagery. The imagery sounds like it is coming from a different mind, one oriented to a perspective that warns, threatens and even murders, unlike the Jesus of the gospels who declared his desire to sacrifice for man in order to avert destruction. One sees very little “Christ-like” behavior in the Jesus of the Revelation document. In fact, its only saving grace is that one can still perceive the often elegant poeticisms typical of John to whom the letters were dictated.