Myth, and The Mystery of Life and Death

 

An important role of mythology is to help humanity understand the world in which we live, and to come to terms with our own place in the universe. In all cultures there are myths that speak of the powers of the gods over humanity, and of the limitations to which humanity is subject, and of the relationships of humans and animals to each other, and the world they share.
In early societies, storytellers and minstrel-poets used the spoken word, music, and drama, to keep alive and pass on  a society's heritage of oral tradition. They were regarded as very important people, and were responsible for providing the framework for passing down knowledge , skills, and moral codes.

Myth, legend, and folklore, are all part of the same oral tradition. They are all intertwined and influence each other. Themes from mythology sometimes occur in legend, while in less sophisticated cultures myths are difficult to separate from folk tales. Nevertheless, each of the three types does have particular character of its own.

Today, the word "myth" is often used to label any idea considered false. However, the myths of past ages were vehicles for expressing profound truths.

Mythology is closely associated with religion.

Myth is closely bound up with religion. Its concern is with matters that shape the lives of humanity, creation of the world, the relationships between gods and humans, the origin of life, the meaning of death, and the battle between good and evil.

Myths are attempts at explaining the great underlying truths of life. One of the greatest mysteries of all is how the world began -how the earth, sky, and heavenly bodies were formed, and how humanity was created.

There is a striking similarity between the creation myths of different lands. The universe was often seen as emerging from chaos, a vast formless ocean without light, or as hatching from an egg which  contained the germs of creation. A supreme being or divine couple emerged to bring order out of chaos, and to create light and life.

Few myths try to explain the origin of matter itself. Creation was usually seen as a rearrangement of existing matter into the shape of the known world. In most mythologies, the earth and sky were gods, as were the forces of nature, such as the sun and winds, which stirred up creation. 

A Greek vase -painting of a scene from Homer's Odyssey. Odysseus is tempted by the sirens, who tried to lure mariners to their deaths by their singing.

 

 

                                 The Aztecs had no written language; their myths were recorded in pictures.

A painting illustrating the Hindu epic, the Ramayana, composed about 300 BC . The hero, Rama (center) is helped in his struggle against evil by the monkey.

 

                           Thor, the Norse thunder god, in an illustration from an Islandic saga.

 

The more advanced societies, such as those of Greece, India, Persia, and Scandinavia, constructed family relationships and hierarchies among their gods known as pantheons. Often the gods in the pantheons had battles and quarrels among themselves, reflecting the difficulties of earthly governments.

In all cultures there are myths concerning the turning points in the lives of humans births, marriage, child bearing, and death. In ancient times, when myth evolved, there was no medical or psychological knowledge to explain these mysterious events. The myths became a vehicle for expressing the hopes, fears, and bewilderment of humanity confronted by the unknown.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The human lifecycle, particularly that of the female, has its parallel in the changing rhythm of the seasons. Hence, myths about human life are closely related to other myths concerning the fertility of the spoil and the seasonal patterns of the growth, death, and regeneration of plant life. A common theme in many of these myths is the essential oneness of death and life: the renewal of fertility is often thought to depend on a prior death, and sometimes by deliberate sacrifice.

All cultures have myths about life after death. Sometimes life in the after-world was seen as a happy place, sometimes as a sort of limbo, and sometimes a place of dread.

The Sumerian underworld, called Irkalla, was situated beyond the mountains at the edge of the earth, and the dead were conveyed there across the water of death by a ferryman named Urshanabi.  Irkalla was a place of no return; its horrors could be lessened only for the brave, who were allowed to have their families join them in death for the journey.

The experiences of the individual after death were believed to depend on behaviour in his/her life, and was rewarded for bravery and  punished for misdeeds.  

The Celts had a special reward for warriors in their "land of the living" - a place of happiness, youth and health, where men and women lived in harmony, where the excitement of battle could still be savoured. Music, feasting, love-making were unlimited. Since all those who dwell in this paradise were immortal, wounds were immediately healed and the dead restored to life.

In Norse mythology, Valhalla was the paradise ordained by the god Odin for slain heroes. Here the warriors deemed worthy by the Valkyries feasted by night and fought by day.

In the mythology of  Zoroastrianism, severe judgement was passed on the souls of the dead. For every person good or bad, the three days after death were a period of danger, the newly dead were under constant attack from demons. After this time of testing, souls were weighed. Those found virtuous were led across the Chinvat Bridge, which joined earth to heaven. There they were accepted into one of four heavens, according to the degree of their good deeds in life. The wicked were unable to cross the bridge and fell into the abyss beneath it. They were punished by ingenious tortures, including wild beasts and cruel monsters representing their evil deeds. However, the Zoroastrian hell was not final - the appropriate punishment for each sin prepared the soul for ultimate redemption at a final resurrection.

 

                                        Souls crossing the Chinvat Bridge in Zoroastianism

 

 

In the Egyptian hall of the dead, the corn-god Osiris became king of the dead when he was killed and resurrected by the arts of embalming practiced by his wife Isis. It was believed that mortals could also achieve life after death if the exact techniques used by the gods were followed. When a man died, his widow impersonated Isis and led the mourners. The body was properly prepared by embalming, and the soul was judged. It was weighed against a feather, representing truth, under the direction of Thoth, the baboon-headed god of wisdom, and Anubis, jackal-headed conductor of dead souls. If the scales balanced, the deceased was brought before Osiris, who judged him to be worthy of an afterlife of eternal bliss. The wicked were devoured by a monster.

 

 

The god Anubis weighs the souls of the dead against a feather , symbolizing Moat, goddess  of truth. The monster Amemait waits below the scales, ready to devour those found unworthy.

 

 

 

Osiris, supreme judge of the dead, seated on his throne. Before him stand the four sons of the god Horus, guardians of the jars in which the intestines of the dead were embalmed.

It's doubtful whether any new myths are being evolved in the modern world. Perhaps because it is too steeped in scientific attitudes. Folk tales have been largely superseded by literature. Legend, however, although stripped of its more fantastic and magical elements, is still a living form, as people always feel the need to invest those they admire  with larger-than-life characteristics.

It has been stated that 'myth is a charter for social action,' meaning that myths were models for acceptable behaviour, or illustrations for sanctions against things not socially acceptable, and therefore, were the basis of ethics.

 

  

 

 

 

 

Aging and Mental Illness

 

Since the time of Hippocrates, physicians included conditions what we now consider mental illnesses in their classifications of disease. These conditions were treated in the  same way as physical disorders, using potions, medicine, and other forms of physical intervention. Nevertheless, the belief that insanity is similar to other diseases met with resistance during two periods in Western history. The first followed Thomas Aquinas, a philosopher and theologian who attributed insanity to supernatural possession. The second occurred late in the eighteenth century, when physicians influenced by René Descartes, considered mental illness a disease of the mind rather than body. The psychoanalytic schools emerging at the end of the 19th century promoted this philosophy, treating mental illnesses as psychiatric disorders. Although, medical opinion continues to be uneasy about this issue.  

The study of the frequency of diseases is called epidemiology. Epidemiological studies provided the first comprehensive survey of mental disorders at different ages.

Depression in later life stands opposite to mental well being on a mental health continuum. The symptoms of depression in older people include

- depressed mood

- loss of pleasure

- sleep disturbance

- appetite disturbance

- loss of energy

- difficulty in concentration

- low self-esteem

- psychomotor agitation

- suicidal thoughts

At least five symptoms must be present almost everyday during a two-week period. The worldwide prevalence of depression indicates higher rates among women than in men, and for unmarried  (e.g., divorced, separated) than for married people. Depression in older people increases the risk of mortality from physical illness and suicide. It also contributes to cognitive decline in the non-demented elderly, and may be an early manifestation (rather than predictor) of dementia. 

 Diseases of Memory and Judgement

 The two main conditions associated with impaired cognitive functions in later life are dementia and delirium. Dementia at this stage in life takes the form  of Alzheimer's disease, and to a lesser extent vascular dementia. Both involve a progressive deterioration in cognitive capability because of changes within the brain, but they have different causes. Alxheimer's disease is associated with plaques and tangles in brain matter. Vascular dementia is caused by stroke or artery disease, which staves the brain of oxygen, and includes signs of focal neurological damage. Delirium is a disturbance of the consciousness and cognition associated with a medical condition. Delirium may also be caused by the use or withdrawal  of drugs, or other conditions.

Risk factors for dementia included family history, low education, and head injury, with low risk associated with arthritis and the use of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs.  Recent research on risk factors show that low physical activity in people aged over 65 years may be predictive of the onset of dementia within a six-year period. 

There is a predictable stage-by-stage progression of cognitive decline in Alzheimer's disease. The symptoms include forgetfulness, confusion, failure to recognize familiar people, loss of memory for recent events, disorientation, and the loss of all verbal ability. Other symptoms that accompany cognitive decline include lack of social involvement, behavioural disturbance, and limitations in everyday activity.

Delirium differs from dementia because its (1) onset is abrupt, (2) duration is usually brief, and (3) appearance coincides with that of another ailment.  

Mental health is a continuum  ranging from well-being to distress, and, although older people have rates lower than young people for most diagnosed mental health issues, old people have a higher number for cognitive impairment. Also, the findings on depression may be misleading. Older people often express depression without sadness, but with a loss of pleasure. Depression in elderly people responds well to treatment.

Democracy is More Than A Right

As a scientist, I find it fascinating how science and democracy are defining the values of western society. Although the tension between the two  has long been a critical theme, the two are mutually supportive. Considering that democracy stands for open discussion on the part of all citizens, science has always been the domain of knowledge elites. Whereas  democracy seeks to encourage a wide range  of viewpoints and perspectives, science strives to limit the number of participants in the pursuit of the one correct answer. Reconciling these differences has never proved easy.   It has been argued that democracy can be grounded in the scientific pursuit of truth, however, the most prominent argument, from the social constructionist perspective seeks to understand science in a social-political perspective.

A look at democracy

Citizen participation is the cornerstone of the democratic political process. Government decisions should reflect the consent of those who are governed. Citizens in a democracy have the right and obligation  to participate meaningfully in public decision making and to be informed about the basis of government policies. In this respect, citizen participation in the policy process can contribute to the legitimization of policy development and implementation. It can also be understood as helping to build and preserve present and future decision-making capacities. Based on individual knowledge and use of reasoning, participation prevents the effects of interest groups that often plague the majority of voters.

In this respect, broad public participation makes an effective as well as a normative contribution to democratic policy making. By decreasing conflict and increasing acceptance in decisions made  by government agencies, it can provide citizens with an opportunity to learn about policy problems. Such learning is the only way that can improve the chances that the public will support the resulting decisions. On the other hand, even when it does not increase such support, it offers the possibility of clearing up misunderstandings about the nature of a controversy and the views of various participants. This can also contribute to building trust in the process, with benefits for dealing with similar issues in the future.

In regards to the scientific approach associated with citizen participation, the relevant wisdom is not limited to scientific specialists and public officials. Participation by diverse groups and individuals can provide important information  and insights about policy problems. Non-specialists may contribute substantially to identifying various aspects of problems  that need analysis, by raising important questions of fact that experts have not addressed, and by offering knowledge about specific conditions.  Public participation can also play a significant role in the examination and consideration of social, ethical, and political values that cannot be addressed solely by analytical techniques. Citizen participation plays an important role in politics and the construction of social knowledge.

Women in Ancient politics, marriage and Christianity

The connection between the power of women and politics in the ancient world can be found in the Hellenistic period. An example is shown in a marriage arrangement by a military officer by the name of Antipater. Antipater (397 BC - 319 BC), was a general in the army of Alexander the Great.

Antipater had three daughters, Nicaea, Phila, and Eurydice, with whom he opened negotiations for their marriage to two of Alexander's generals, Perdiccas and Craterus. The third selected male was Ptolemy (367 BC - 283 BC), who was a Greco-Egyptian writer.

In the case of the two generals, Antipater planned to make them his sons-in-law, which was clearly a political move to maintain the "collegiate leadership" under Alexander the Great.  As a result, Perdiccas, became engaged to General Nicaea, General Craterus agreed to marry  Phila, and Ptolemy accepted the hand of Eurydice.

Antipater, however, had a formidable enemy in the person of the aged Olympias, who was the mother of Alexander the Great. Olympias lived in exile in her native land in Epirus where she devised a plan to play Perdiccas against Antipater: she offered Antipater the hand of her daughter Cleopatra, the sister of Alexander the Great,

Perdiccas was thus trapped between the promise he had given to Antipater, whose daughter was about to arrive at his headquarters, unknowingly at the same time as Cleopatra's arrival. The tempting visions conjured up by a marriage to Cleopatra, would have made him the posthumous son-in-law of Philip II, the posthumous brother-in-law of Alexander the Great, and the uncle of the young Alexander IV gave him pause.. However, it seems the attitude of Perdiccas was equivocal. He did not break off the engagement with Nicaea, and he did not refuse the hand of Cleopatra.

After much political discussion and thought, he married Cleopatra.

This is not the first time we see the female factor intervening in Hellenistic affairs.

For all the abilities and political importance  of Some Hellenistic queens and the occasional appearance of wealthy women making loans to the state , receiving thanks and honours in public decrees, or contributing creatively to intellectual and artistic life, most women remained confined to the private domain.

Women were the transmitters of citizen status and rights without being able to exercise their privileges themselves.

Marriage was mainly used as an instrument for child creation and being owned property.

Also, consolidation of a dynasty may have been behind the adoption of marriage  within the same family (e.g. brother-sister, father-daughter, etc.)  up to the time of Cleopatra, of which she was the last member of the practice in a royal dynasty.

In the Old Testament, men were permitted to have concubines  and wet nurses. One reason was the demand to produce children (www.whensexwasreligion.org). If a wife did not produce a child, it was assumed that the wife was sterile, and bareness was a just cause for her husband to procure a divorce. As an alternative he was allowed to take another wife without having to divorce the first.
Among the Greeks and Romans, monogamy was the prevailing system, although in both instances concubines were wide spread.  Concubines were women usually captured during warfare, taken for the purpose of cohabitation, and they did not have the legal status as wives.
The Greeks held their women, including wives, in low esteem, but they patronized the hetairal. a sophisticated class of prostitutes, many of whom were well educated and conversant with political and historical matters.
By 312 BC, Christianity was granted legal recognition in the Roman Empire, and the new  religion had marked effects on the institution of marriage. Concubines and prostitution were discouraged, and plural marriage was prohibited.
The Churches gradually assumed control over marriage during the Middle Ages, and by the 10th century the marriage ceremony was being held in the Churchyard where a member of the clergy was required to be present.
By the 13th century the wedding ceremony was held inside the Church.
At the Council of Trent  (1545 AD - 63 AD), The church proclaimed the  sacramental  nature of marriage to be a divine creation. Henceforth, all marriages were to be under the auspices of the Church, and once solemnized, marriages were held to be indissoluble until death.
It was during the Middle Ages that the Church began granting annulments, the voiding of a marriage because of a premarital impediment. In some cases, a remote blood relationship was deemed sufficient ground for an annulment.
The Church could also grant divortium a mensa et thoro (" a divorce from bread and board"), which though it did not allow remarriage, it did permit the spouses to live apart.
By the 16th century the Church was under increasing attack and open revolt broke out. It was led by Martin Luther King, an Augustinian monk. The revolt soon spread from Germany to France and Scotland, where John Calvin and John Knox also protested against what they considered the misuse of ecclesiastical authority. Luther felt that marriage should be under civil rather than religious auspices, despite the fact that he believed marriage was spiritual in nature and that individual couples should have their marital unions solemnized in Church.
This led to the modern belief by the Christian Church that marriage is a perpetual and exclusive bond.

Religion and magic

Diana and King of the Wood

The landscape of a little woodland Lake of Nemi, called by the ancients “Diana’s Mirror,” was located in a green hollow of the Alban hills in Italy. The two Italian villages, and the palace on its banks with terraced gardens, descended steeply to the lake. It was a scene of a strange and recurring tragedy.

   

                                            18th century depiction of Lake Nemi

On the northern side of the lake stood the sacred grove and sanctuary of Diana of the wood, or Diana at Nemi. In this sacred grove there grew a certain tree which at any time of the day and far into the night, a grim figure might be seen to prowl. In his hand he carried a drawn sword as he kept peering cautiously about him as if at any moment he expected to be set upon by an enemy. He was a priest and a murderer. The man for whom he looked for was sooner or later to murder him, and the priesthood would be transferred to the new killer.

A candidate for the priesthood could only succeed to office by slaying the priest, and having slain him, the candidate retained the office, till he himself was slain by a stronger challenger.

The post which he held carried with it the title of king. Year in and year out, night and day, in fair weather or foul, he had to keep his lonely watch. Whenever he snatched a troubled sleep, it was at the peril of his life.

The least relaxation of his vigilance, the smallest loss of strength of limb or skill put him in jeopardy; grey hairs might seal his death. Pilgrims who visit the shrine and catch sight of him would be overcome with fear and gloom.

The strange role of this priesthood was found in most ancient civilizations,  and surviving into the Roman imperial period about the 3^rd century AD.

According to one story the worship of Diana at Nemi was instituted by Orestes, who after killing Thoas, King of the Tauric Chersonese (the Crimea), fled with his sister to Italy, bringing with him the image of Diana hidden in a faggot of sticks.

After his death his bones were transported from Aricia to Rome and buried in front of the temple of Saturn.  

                                                                The Temple of Saturn

The bloody ritual which legend ascribed to Diana, mentions that every stranger who landed was sacrificed on her alter. The rite, after transported to Italy, assumed a milder form. Within the sanctuary at Nemi grew a certain tree of which no branch might be broken. The only person allowed to break off one of the boughs was a runaway slave if he could. Success in the attempt entitled him to fight the priest in single combat, and if he slew him he reigned with the title of King of the Wood.

According to public opinion of the ancients, the fateful branch was the Golden Bough. It was said the flight of Orestes after his combat with the priest was reminiscent  of the human sacrifice once offered to Diana. This rule of succession by the sword was observed down to imperial times where Caligula, thinking that the priest of Nemi had held office too long, hired a killer to slay him. A Greek traveller, who visited Italy in the age of the Antonines  (96 – 180 AD), remarks that down to his time the priesthood was  still the prize of victory in a single combat.

In regards to the worship of Diana at Nemi, some offerings found at the site shows that she was conceived as a hunter, blessing men and women with offspring, and granting expectant mothers a healthy delivery.

                                                                 Shrine of Diana

Also, fire seems to have played a part in her ritual. During her annual festival, held on the thirteenth of August, at the hottest time of the year, her grove shone with a multitude of torches, whose ruddy glare was reflected by the lake; and throughout Italy the day was kept with holy rites at every domestic hearth. Bronze statuettes found in her precinct represent the goddess herself holding a torch in her raised right hand; and a woman, whose prayers had been herd by her came crowned with wreaths and bearing lighted torches to the sanctuary in fulfilment of their vows.

An unknown person dedicated a perpetually burning lamp in a little shrine at Nemi for the safety of the Emperor Claudius and his family.

The terra-cotta lamps which have been discovered in the grove may perhaps have served a like purpose for humbler persons. If so, the analogy of the custom to the Catholic practice of dedicating holy candles in churches would be obvious. 

                                                     Ancient terra cotta candle holder 

Creation and Mythology

In 1642 the Vice-Chancellor of Cambridge University, Dr. Lightfoot, proclaimed that the world was created at 9 a.m., on October 23, 4004 BC.  This refined dating was based upon the slightly earlier work of Archbishop Ussher of Armagh, who had already decided upon the year 4004BC, though his studies and calculations were based upon the Old Testament. Such authoritarian statements had heralded in the Age of Reason.

The urge to reduce an enigma or the power of mystery by labelling and filing it from a dogmatic or pre-contrived system, is one of the most dangerous and inherently weakening of western consciousness.

The mystery of creation is not a problem to be solved either through dogma or logical and evolutionary systems. It may only be approached through levels found in mythology, which speak directly to the imagination in a language of timeless imagery and powerful, potentially transformative, narrative. A question like who was the first man, or who was the first woman is answered by mythology which comes from deep levels of consciousness, in which universal symbolic patterns are grasped.  The recounting of myth at its deepest and most powerful level is a reverberation of the event which it originally characterized Myths are not allegories but manifestations at the heart of our nature. Intuitively, if we lose contact with the key images within myth, or with mythic patterns, we will lose contact with a reality that both underpins and transcends the superficiality of our civilization.

A myth is a story embodying and declaring a pattern of relationship between humanity, other forms of life, and the environment. It has many implications extending far beyond a materialistic or psychological definition and interpretation. The definition of myth is divided into three parts.

1.      A myth is a story. Myths are found initially in oral tradition: this means they are tales handed down by word of mouth and preserved collectively and anonymously, though specific story-tellers or creative poets and writers often work with them. The earliest known literary use of the word myth is in the works of Plato where mythologia is used to mean the telling of tales customarily legendary characters such as gods, goddesses, heroes and revered ancestors. Most traditional myths come to us in a literary form from an early cultural period, as texts     forming a critical turning point between oral tradition and written dogma or history. True myth can express many truths in an emblematic, poetic manner which is most efficient and effective, and often more communicative than many thousands of highly reasoned words. Myths reveal their content to other levels of awareness than the merely logical or reasoning mental processes; in some cases they can leap beyond these processes to convey truth.

2.      A myth embodies and declares a pattern of relationships. This aspect of myth should be given very careful attention. The content of myth, and its relationship to collective tradition (from which popular ideas are generated) is often far more subtle than that of a mere narrative.

The unfolding of any myth includes sequences, structures and relationships, which form very specific patterns often called mythic patterns. The pattern with a relationship in myth, if it is part of a sequence deriving from an enduring tradition with roots deep in early human history, is often a visual exposition of specific concepts. These concepts are expressed as tales or verses concerning magic, metaphysics, energies of life and death, or of creation and termination.

3.      The mythic relationship is between humanity, other forms of life, and the environment. The involvement of myth with natural history or cultural history is a later expansion stretched out upon the foundations of creation mythology. We must consider that ‘the environment’ ranges from the immediate locality of a story-teller, through the land, the continent, the planet, the solar system, and ultimately the universe. Myths deal precisely with both. A local and a universal environment. It’s often difficult to separate the two because the local environment mirrors a universal one, and myth leaps instantaneously from what appear to be localized occurrences to what are, universal or cosmic events often using the same characters, symbols, and relationships to define both.

The astrological content of mythology often works in this way; one moment a character is human involved in some drama, the next he or she is a heavenly entity  related to a pattern of stars or planets found in the night sky at a certain time of year. This paradoxical role of myth was rationalized by the ancient Greeks, when they stated that their heroes were placed among the stars by the gods as reward for their valour. On the deepest level of all, the environment is not only one of space, energy and time, but of consciousness, which unifies those three into one, and from which, according to ancient tradition, all other forces were generated. To imagine, therefore, is to echo the original creation of the universe. A concept which only the human mind can create.   

The Book of Revelation, 666, and the 144,000

The Revelation opens with what is believed to be the original title: “The revelation of Jesus Christ, Which God gave him…” The word “revelation” is translated from the original Greek word “apocalypse.” It’s believed Revelation was the earliest writing to employ this word. As a title, apocalyptic or revelation literature had long been familiar to both Jews and Christians. Similarly, at early stages of its development nearly every religion had some doctrine that leans in the direction of apocalyptic ideas. There are passages in Amos, Micah, Isaiah, and Jeremiah, by which the prophets reflected popular speculation about the coming “day of Yahweh.” This apocalyptic tendency in the literature of the Old Testament was heightened in post-exile times.

According to the authenticity of Revelation, the author calls himself John (The Revelation of St. John the Divine).

                                                                     Justin Martyr

                                                               

Justin Martyr A.D. 139-161, an early Christian apologist, quotes from the Apocalypse, as John the apostle’s work, the prophecy of the millennium of the saints, to be followed by the general resurrection and judgment.

This testimony of Justin is referred to also by Eusebius. In the early part of the second century, Justin, held his controversy with Trypho, a learned Jew, at Epheaus, where John had been living about thirty-five years before. According to Trypho, “the Revelation had been given to John, one of the twelve apostles of Christ.”

                                                                      Irenaeus

Melito, bishop of Sardis (about 171 A.D.), is said to have a written treatises on the Apocalypse of John, and, Irenaeus (about 180 A.D.), the disciple of John, and supposed by Archbishop Usher to be the Angel of the Church of Smyrna, “is most decided again and again in quoting the Apocalypse as the work of the apostle John.”

The number of the beast did not appear in the vision of the original Apocalypse. According to Archbishop Usher in alluding to the mystical number of the beast, 666, found in all old copies of the Apocalypse, “we do not hazard a confident theory as to the name of Antichrist; for if it had been necessary that his name should be proclaimed openly at the present time, it would have been declared by him who saw the apocalyptic vision.

The Jewish apocalyptic was the consequence of alien influence. The literature of Babylonia and Iran reveals an earlier date than does the Old Testament. Apocalyptic ideas of a resurrection and a final judgment, and an imagery of the catastrophic events that will mark the end of the present age, became naturalized within Judaism after the exile period. It was then that the Jews became vassals of the Persians, and as Judaism’s political overlord, it left its mark on post-exile Jewish writing.

Revelation 7:1-8, shows a pause in the fearful succession of plagues. All that has gone on before is

the preparatory to the breaking of the 7^th seal, the event that will precipitate the dreadful drama of the world’s history. 

                                                                     The 7th seal

During this frightful interlude the 144,000 of the spiritual people of Israel are secured for their protection against demonic powers. It’s believed the 144,000 is drawn in equal numbers from every tribe of the sons of Israel, which is believed to be the core of the Jewish faithful of all the ideal tribes. However, John interprets it to refer to Christians of every racial origin.

The 2^nd vision of this interlude, the 144,000 symbolizes the Church as the true Israel. The great multitude which no man could number from all people of the world is the church triumphant in heaven, the company of the glorified and victorious faithful awaiting the final consummation of God’s purpose. The vision is recounted by the prophet to inspire the communities to which he is writing. The vast throng in heaven are those who will remain loyal despite the pressures of persecution and the threats of death.