Epic Fantasy!

3 Apr 2023 · 1 min

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A reading of Revelation 12 that treats the biblical text as high fantasy. The passage describes a serpent spewing water to chase a woman, subverting the expected dragon-fire trope. The speaker explores why the text uses water instead of fire and argues that Revelation itself reads like epic fantasy.

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From his mouth the serpent spewed water like a river flowing after the woman to sweep her away with a flood. I think that is the coolest little bit of, uh, you know, people— some people say, you know, the Bible— not the Bible, they say Christians, Christians shouldn't read fantasy, they should only read true stories. Well, don't let Christians find Revelation 12 because this is epic fantasy, it's high fantasy, and even so much that it plays with the fantastic ideas. What do dragons shoot out of their mouth? Why would it say water? Well, because it makes you sit forward, just like every kid in every, um, audience that I've ever told this story to. When I say, and then it shot out of its mouth came— they all shout, fire! And you say, no, water! And the water— and, and everyone wants to know why. What's going on with water?