Armageddon: What the Bible Really Says about the End

Bart D. Ehrman

Mar 2023 · Sold by Simon and Schuster

About this ebook

A “humane, thoughtful, and intelligent” (The New York Times Book Review) bestselling Biblical scholar reveals why our popular understanding of the Apocalypse is all wrong—and why that matters.

You’ll find nearly everything the Bible says about the end in the Book of Revelation: a mystifying prophecy filled with bizarre symbolism, violent imagery, mangled syntax, confounding contradictions, and very firm ideas about the horrors that await us all. But no matter what you think Revelation reveals—whether you read it as a literal description of what will soon come to pass, interpret it as a metaphorical expression of hope for those suffering now, or only recognize its highlights from pop culture—you’re almost certainly wrong.

In Armageddon, acclaimed New Testament authority Bart D. Ehrman delves into the most misunderstood—and possibly most dangerous—book of the Bible, on a “vigilantly persuasive” (The Washington Post) tour through three millennia of Judeo-Christian thinking about how our world will end. With wit and verve, he explores the alarming social and political consequences of expecting an imminent apocalypse, considers whether the message of Revelation may be at odds with the teachings of Jesus, and offers inspiring insight into how to live in the face of an uncertain future.

By turns hilarious, moving, troubling, and provocative, Armageddon is nothing short of revelatory in its account of what the Bible really says about the end.

Ratings and reviews

Pretty good. Ehrman presents some useful background material and makes a compelling case that John of Patmos's idea of Christianity was quite, quite different from what is going on in the gospels. It's especially interesting digging up ancient Christian doubts & objections to Revelation. While condemning the Roman Empire, doesn't really condemn the *idea* of Empire. It just wants their "side" to be the ones in charge, hence the very materialistic metaphors: gold, treasure, & power for the "true" Christians, horrible suffering and deprivation for everyone else. You can see why early educated Christians - many of whom were ascetics, to a degree we aren't in modern times, but certainly fits with some of the gospel messages - were nervous about a book that essentially accepts the logic of human empire, rather than the more radical rejection of it seen elsewhere.

About the author

Bart D. Ehrman is a leading authority on the New Testament and the history of early Christianity and a distinguished professor of religious studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The author of six New York Times bestsellers, he has written or edited more than thirty books, including Misquoting Jesus, How Jesus Became God, The Triumph of Christianity, and Heaven and Hell. Ehrman has also created nine popular audio and video courses for The Great Courses. His books have been translated into twenty-seven languages, with over two million copies and courses sold.