This section completes the analysis of the Book of Revelation, dealing with its Parts A and B. So far, only Parts C and D, dealing with the time of Nero onwards, have been treated, one of their topics being the careers of the son and grandson of Jesus. The main concern in those parts is to show how the organization that had been founded under Herod the Great was gradually taken over by Christians, and how it eventually abandoned its erroneous beliefs derived from the Essene solar calendar.

Despite its appearances, the Book of Revelation is not describing supernatural events. It is giving a factual, down to earth history. All its “angels” are men, ministers of a powerful religious organization, who wore white vestments. They ministered in “Heaven”, which at Qumran was a platform open to the sky where prayers were offered at the high points of the sun. When the organization moved to Ephesus and Rome, “Heaven” was the upper floor of a cathedral.

An assumption that all events are governed by numbers and systems was a product of the Pythagorean education of Essenes, stated by Josephus (Antiquities 15, 371). Although they were in the process of discovering its fallacy, it gave a useful means of recording events in a disguised way that was understood only by their insiders. The whole book is very cleverly and accurately coded by these means.

Very exact times for all events are supplied from an understanding of the solar calendar and the chronology of years. These are fundamental to all of the history. A list of corresponding dates in our terms is supplied "Julian Dates of 31sts" in Section 3: Chronology. Throughout Revelation, a series of dates is given through the appearances of sets of “angels”, “trumpets”, “seals”, “plagues”, and “bowls”. Once their meaning is recognized, all events are found to be precisely dated. Revelation contains, in fact, a full and accurate historical record of the first century of Christian history up to 114 AD.

This treatment by Parts A and B covers the history of the 50 years from 1 to 51 AD, plus an extension to 53 AD. The most striking feature is that in Part A (i) Jesus is left out, and the crucifixion omitted. It becomes quite clear that the organization that came to be called Christian was not the creation of Jesus. It was the product of social forces in the Diaspora well before his time. It did not adopt the name Christian until 44 AD, and it was only after 100 AD that it emerged finally and solely as a new religion, having overcome all its competitors.

It becomes apparent that the writer of Part A represents a faction in the early history of Christianity, one that initially rejected Jesus, preferring a more traditional ascetic Judaism closer to its founding form under Herod the Great. This faction prevailed in Asia Minor and the East, producing the Book of Revelation, while Roman Christianity was responsible for the gospels and Acts.

The gospels and Acts cover the years from 29 AD onwards, allowing parables to deal with the earlier history, but the record of Parts A and B of the Book of Revelation, starting 1 AD, is fully detailed, and admits facts that are not admitted in the gospels. It is a priceless lost record, available when the pesher technique is applied, and it should rank among the major histories of our civilization.

The Book of Revelation, written according to the pesher theory of scripture, consists of a series of conundrums which, when solved, give the actual facts of the Christian history as it was experienced by the writers of Revelation from 1 AD onwards. As is usual with riddles, there was only one solution; no guesswork would be effective. Many of the riddles were supplied by the fact that when people were initiated as Christians their name was changed, to express the fact that they were now “born again” into a new symbolic family. Much of the work of solution is done through a process of recognition of the individuals behind the names. All available sources give the necessary information. They include Josephus’ Jewish histories – a primary source - and apocryphal books such as the Clementines, which may be shown to be as valuable as Josephus. The Dead Sea Scrolls are the starting point of knowledge of the pesher technique, and supply much of the information. The Nag Hammadi codices come next to them in value. But the major source for Revelation is in the gospels and Acts of the New Testament. Once their pesher has been discovered, as in Jesus the Man and previous entries on this site, the information flows directly on to Revelation, showing only a difference of emphasis due to political differences.

The recorder of Part A (i) and (ii), introducing himself as “I”, was James Niceta, one of the Gentile twin brothers whose history is given in the Clementines in Section 4: The Other Gospels. The brothers were born in 3 AD. In Part A (i) James Niceta shared a common opinion that Jesus was not necessary to the ascetic organization he belonged to, and the crucifixion was irrelevant. In Part A (ii) he had changed his opinion under the influence of Matthew Annas. He went back to 6 AD to record the history of Jesus from the age of 12.

The recorder of Part B was his brother John Aquila. He was the Aquila who with his wife Priscilla were fellow-workers with Paul (Acts 18:18). His adopted Roman name Aquila meaning “eagle” in Latin meant that he was a citizen of Rome, the province for the Roman Eagle.