Apocalypse Postponed

In this provocative, rigorous but highly readable work of scholarship, Dr Paul McGrane provides fresh insights and textual evidence that together forge a new understanding of the roots of Judaism and early Christianity. Adopting an entirely rationalistic approach, a close reading of the texts, not only the Bible but other contemporaneous sources, show how the historical truth has had meaning endlessly imposed on it, clouding the intentions of the original authors who were writing with very different historical criteria and for an audience of their time. There has never been anything like this in scope, in approach, and in its findings. A stunning, often riveting account of the foundations of the religion that preoccupies a third of the worlds population, it will leave the reader staggered that so much has been, wilfully or otherwise, misunderstood and misrepresented for generations. Early Christians believed that God was about to call an end to Time, and for more than two millennia, later Christians too have lived in both hopeful and fearful expectation of the imminent, apocalyptic return of Jesus Christ. Yet that fateful event seems to have been continuously postponed an embarrassment to the Apostle Paul, and to every preacher and prophet since who has encouraged the faithful to seek salvation. This volume argues that it is never going to happen; that apocalyptic prophecies in the Old and New Testaments are just plain wrong; and that modern interpretations of the symbolic language to be found in those prophecies and particularly in the Book of Revelation miss the point entirely. It analyses all these prophetic texts to identify the two dozen key themes and then, both describes modern fundamentalist interpretations, and provides the real historical truth behind them. In particular, one man Simon the Sorcerer emerges as the contemporary reality behind many of the bogeymen of the Book of Revelation. It may be possible to continue in Jewish or Christian belief in the light of this trilogy, but it would be a very different kind of religious faith from the one normally espoused. Each volume has been written to stand alone, but there is a natural sequence to the arguments developed which is facilitated if they are read in order. Volume One, Ancestral Tales, analyses the Books of Moses in the Old Testament in conjunction with non-Biblical records, and separates history from myth. It traces the true ancestral and religious history of the Israelites and in particular, it identifies among much else, the Pharaoh of the Exodus, and the historical figures behind Joseph and Moses. Volume Two, Mistaken Messiahs, traces how Jewish messianic belief finds its way into the New Testament and Christianity and identifies historical figures behind Jesus and the Apostles.