{"id":32909,"date":"2015-12-29T09:06:55","date_gmt":"2015-12-29T14:06:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/?p=32909"},"modified":"2015-12-29T09:06:55","modified_gmt":"2015-12-29T14:06:55","slug":"merely-a-remake","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2015\/12\/merely-a-remake.html","title":{"rendered":"Merely a Remake"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Thom Stark wrote the following on Facebook:<\/p>\n

The book of Revelation is just a retread of the apocalyptic portions of Daniel and Ezekiel, almost to the point of plagiarism. And it\u2019s full of plot holes. Just goes to show the creative bankruptcy of the whole covenantal reboot. But no offense to all your zealot followers and don\u2019t let me stand in the way of all that bank you\u2019re making. Bible is the biggest-selling book of all time. Just pure commercialism; indicative of the moral decay of the Bible Belt.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I asked for permission to share it, since it manages to do two excellent things at once. One is to\u00a0poke fun at those who complain that Star Wars Episode VII is \u201cmerely a remake\u201d of Episode IV. The other is\u00a0to highlight the way that other\u00a0stories and literature are highly derivative, including in the Bible.<\/p>\n

Sure, it is possible to simply copy what someone else has done, and so\u00a0a lot depends on\u00a0why<\/em> that is done, and with what result. The Book of Revelation borrows imagery from\u00a0throughout the Jewish Scriptures, to a much greater extent than any other work in the New Testament. Does that ruin it for you? Why or why not?<\/p>\n

For those in the Indianapolis area, I\u2019ve had a request to revisit the Book of Revelation and do an overview of major themes in my Sunday school class, and so we\u2019ll be doing that in the new year i.e starting next week. If you\u2019re not in the area, here are some links to blog posts<\/a> about the subject:<\/p>\n

Revelation 17: The Key to Interpreting the Book of Revelation?<\/a><\/p>\n

Christian Fundamentalism Views Revelation as a Mean Joke<\/a><\/p>\n

Lecture on the Book of Revelation<\/a><\/p>\n

The Book of Revelation: How It Should Have Ended<\/a><\/p>\n

Revelation 8-9: A Bitter Pill to Swallow<\/a><\/p>\n

Spiritual Warfare in Revelation<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Daniel<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Thom Stark wrote the following on Facebook: The book of Revelation is just a retread of the apocalyptic portions of Daniel and Ezekiel, almost to the point of plagiarism. And it\u2019s full of plot holes. Just goes to show the creative bankruptcy of the whole covenantal reboot. But no offense to all your zealot followers […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":136,"featured_media":32912,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,81,91],"tags":[2414,2621,10195,10293,11822],"class_list":["post-32909","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-daniel","category-revelation-bible","category-star-wars-science-fiction","tag-daniel","tag-derivative","tag-remake","tag-revelation","tag-star-wars"],"yoast_head":"\nMerely a Remake<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Thom Stark wrote the following on Facebook: The book of Revelation is just a retread of the apocalyptic portions of Daniel and Ezekiel, almost to the\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2015\/12\/merely-a-remake.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Merely a Remake\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Thom Stark wrote the following on Facebook: The book of Revelation is just a retread of the apocalyptic portions of Daniel and Ezekiel, almost to the\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2015\/12\/merely-a-remake.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Religion Prof: The Blog of James F. 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