I used to teach in seminary, to the girls who refused to stop talking, that it was proof positive that there were going to be no women in heaven. That lasted about 2 days.:)

Much of the narration of Revelation reads just like Nephi’s vision (which indeed makes the link explicit when Nephi says John would continue his history of the world). The same symbols of the Lamb and of Babylon, whore of all the earth, are present. Perhaps you could do our Catholic friends a favor and point out the true nature of these important symbols and leave the beasts alone.

Also note in Revelation the talk of white stones, of new names, and other ideas late in Joseph Smith’s thought. (It seems he was influenced by it when writing the BofM, early, and also late in the Nauvoo period).

I was also very interested in how Revelation ties together the apocalyptic Jewish literature of Daniel and Ezekiel, making direct references to them, while re-reading them as Christian; then Joseph re-reads them as Mormon. This could turn into a useful discussion of Mormon hermeneutics and how we should read scriptures–and I know you have a lot of interesting ideas about that.

I apologize that I don’t have time or my marked scriptures to give you more specifics. But I’m very excited about Revelation. There is a lot there of interest to Mormons.

Another thing to talk about in Revelation is what may be called the spirit of revenge. I remember Nietzsche said something to the effect that it is the most vindictive book ever written. But Christian commentaries have also been troubled by the animosity in it toward the wicked. What do we make of these passages? I think this is a great topic for your average member to ponder!

This is fairly in keeping with Merkabah literature. It doesn’t really help with the future prophecy bit. But I think a lot of people don’t realize the significance of the form. (And clearly it isn’t *exactly* the endowment – but is closer than most realize, as is Merkabah literature) It also quotes extensively from 1 Enoch. Due to the merkabah parallels reading 3 Enoch and the Midrash Alpha Beta can be very helpful as well.

Personally when I teach it I try to avoid the discussion of the future apocalypt and try to focus in on those elements most miss when they read it. I always get uncomfortable in speculations about the second coming.

Of course Revelation can be a little trickier in terms of that. To be honest I’ve never taught it and I think how you teach it really depends upon ones audience. When I taught Sunday School last year the majority of the class probably weren’t that well educated so I had to try and put it in terms they could understand. Sometimes that was tricky. But I always tried to present the same stuff but from an angel perhaps they’d never encountered before.

(For some reason Nietzsche’s comments on perspectivism always impact how I teach Sunday School)

It has more import if you are familiar with the heavenly ascent literature. For instance the role of the third heaven in terms of the Adam myth.

That paper Ben linked to is good and discusses most of what I was getting at, although it leaves out some of the more interesting symbolism. Of course I admit I’m biased due to the fascinating semiotics of the early part of the text.

Though J.M. Ford’s Anchor Bible Commentary has problems, it hasn’t yet been replaced. On the other hand, not all of the replacements in the Anchor Bible series are better than the versions they replaced. For example, I don’t think that Marcus’s commentary on Mark (what there is of it so far) is better than Mann’s.

Ben: I haven’t seen Parry and Draper’s article, but I need to go look at it. It looks like the kind of thing that lines up with what I did.

All: now I’ve got to figure out what to do for the second lesson, but this has given me a good start. Thanks.