Hey Bible readers, I'm Tara Lee Cobble and I'm your host for the Bible recap.

John, maybe the Apostle, wrote the book of Revelation on the Island of Patmos.

It was a tiny prison island, kind of like Alcatraz.

The church was still undergoing lots of persecution at the time, and in fact, church history

tells us Rome first tried to burn John alive in oil, but he survived.

And since they couldn't figure out how to kill him, they exiled him to Patmos.

This letter he wrote is a singular revelation, not plural, not revelations.

John tells us in verse 1 that this is the revelation of Jesus.

Some believe that means the book is revealing Jesus to us, and others believe that means

Jesus is the one doing the revealing.

While some others think it could actually be both, because if Jesus is revealing something

to his people, his body, then that also tells us more about Jesus himself.

So as we read this book, just like with all our books from day one and Genesis 1, we're

going to look for Jesus and what we learn about him.

And by the way, verse 3 says, we'll be blessed if we read this book aloud and pay attention

to it.

That is the first of seven blessed are statements in this book.

Be on the lookout for them.

They're called the seven Beatitudes of Revelation.

John wrote this letter to seven churches, some of whom we've met already, and his message

is first and foremost to them in their immediate context.

Jewish teaching and culture love numbers and symbols.

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