Re: 25 Classic Books That Have Been Banned

On Mon, 21 Jul 2025 20:00:40 -0700, The Horny Goat <lcraver@home.ca>
wrote:

On Sun, 20 Jul 2025 08:27:09 -0700, Paul S Person
<psperson@old.netcom.invalid> wrote:
>

One of the commentaries (a modernist one, IIRC) actually asserted
that, when the Seven Churches read the book, they believed the results
of the various seals, trumpets, and bowls were something God Himself
was sending them right then. Most commentators, of course, believe
these are more generally applicable.
>
He never did get around to explaining what they thought the New
Jerusalem represented.=20

>
Any idea which commentator said that? Because I've never heard any
such claim of the book of Revelation was intended to come about
immediately.

Sadly, even digging through the box containing them helped.

I /think/ this is the same as the one who, having heard/read that the
Romans had "censors" [1], decided that John wrote in imaginative
language to get his message past them. Although, by his own claim, we
have no idea at all what most of the symbols meant to members of the
Seven Churches (or the church as a whole), he has no trouble imagining
what they might of thought they meant.

Actually, there are plenty of verses (in Paul, say) which clearly
presuppose that Jesus was coming sooner rather than later. Paul's
assurance that those who had died in Christ would be resurrected, for
example, seems to be directed at people who thought only those alive
when Jesus returned would be saved. So I would say that the belief
that Jesus was coming soon was present and probably fairly common in
the 1st Century AD.

Some commentaries have expanded on this theme, asserting that (say)
the story of the Wise and Foolish Bridesmaids is about what happens to
those who expect Jesus to return at any time (and so quite soon) and
those who take a more ... relaxed view.

This isn't "immediately", I suppose, but it isn't "someday, perhaps"
either. Perhaps the desired state is more one of immediacy.

[1] They had exactly two Censors (it was one of the public offices,
like Consul), but they did not censor letters. They censored public
behavior to make sure it did not get out of hand. IIRC.
--
"Here lies the Tuscan poet Aretino,
Who evil spoke of everyone but God,
Giving as his excuse, 'I never knew him.'"