Moving caused me to put aside her book. I decided to return to it today during the train ride home. Unfortunately, I still have not read in detail the portion where she argues that John argues against Pauline theology. She states that John of Patmos is a later very Jewish aposcalyptic Christian.
The chapter where I picked up deals with how Revelation became part of the canon of the New Testament. We were never taught this material in the WT - not that I recall. It makes so much sense. According to Pagels, Constantine favored certain clergy who called themselves Catholic before their faith was universal in any sense. They suppressed those Christianites they considered heretical. Constantine's politcal power conveyed theological definiton. The rule started out embracing all Chrstians and soon narrowed the categories of Christians that could receive tax benefits and other privileges. The role of the Nicene Creed in defining orthodoxy is addressed.
She reminds the reader that Constantine's power base was Egypt more than Rome. Egypt had many Christians which fell into two broad groups. A so-called Catholic group comprisiing bishops and clergy situated in towns and cities that conformed to the orthodox Nicene crowd and more rural monastic communities of monks. Thousands of monks were outside the scope of the urban clergy. Athanasious, I suspect of St. Athanasisus Creed fame, decided to eliminate the independence of the monks.
John's revelation was key to Athansius' scheme. According to Pagels, a reader coming upon Revelation during this time period when find John's prophecy an utter failure, similar to Armageddon dates by the WTBTS. The once persecuted group is now the state religion. Clergy are now wealthy and are elites. Everything John predicted turned out to be false. After writing a biography of one of the founders of the monastic movement, St. Anthony, which recast Anthony falsely as an uneducated, deferntial fool, Anthansius turned to including Revelation in the officail canon. Only A. included Revelation in a closed canon. Other leaders argued that it was silly and false. Authoritiess noted that the Apostle John of Gospel of John fame and the author of Revelation could not be the same person.
Yet Revelation became the closing theme of the canon. Anthansius used the book to attack Christian adversaries as heretics and apostates. The book was tainted. To be honest, until Pagels pointed out what a failure the prophecy was, I did not notice.
So the WTBTS is only one high control group using Revelation to attack other Christians. The list is a long one. I feel this history is worth noting. When one looks at the Vatican, the church, does one see a persecuted church? I don't. Rather, the orthodox church became the political authority for Europe and beyond. Wordly princes paid allegiance. It plays a powerful role today. Reading religous history is fascinating. I would cite "inconvenient facts" but the reference may be too political.
I had no idea that events hapepned until this evening.