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The battle ensues and ends in victory, and order is both restored and confirmed, but the dragon still has his reign. Thus, since scholars call this narrative a combat myth, it is because John unites several themes from ancient sources to develop this story about the dragon that produces chaos and disorder and then attacks the child, the ruler who dies but recovers. What the pagans longed for in their myths has now become true in Jesus! Thus, the form is both deliberate and brilliant, using what scholars call a redemptive analogy to present the gospel in such a way as to capture the interest and hearts of the non–Christian reader. In other words, the New Testament demythologizes Greco–Roman myth by historicizing it. Thus, the purpose of this is evangelistic, that what the Greeks have known only as myth has now been actualized in history. For example, titles of other gods are applied to God in the Old Testament, in order to say that God has conquered the other gods and taken their names. The main question is: why would John tell the story in mythical form? Yet this is not unusual in a biblical context. However, the defeated god conquers the dragon and reasserts the sovereignty of the appropriate ruling people. The dragon achieves a temporary victory, which results in a period of chaos. The basic plot line describes a dragon, often under the influence of another beast, elevating itself above the ruling god or gods. In other words, John draws from the combat myth motif, a story form that has many parallels in the literature of Israel’s neighbors. Scholars who research this section label it as an international myth, because stories resembling this can be found in virtually every religion of the ancient world.
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In other words, the birth of Jesus would have alerted literate 1st century Jews that the Messiah’s arrival would reverse the sin of the “ watchers”.įirst, an extensive review of preliminary observations are needed, because we are now at the heart of this book, since it establishes and summarizes the core theme of the biblical epic: the war between God/his people and the dragon/his people, and between the Lamb and the beast. The birth of Jesus is conceptually and theologically linked to Genesis 6:1–4 and the sin of the “ watchers”. The book of Revelation was written by an astral prophet: John the Apostle.