Armageddon

What the Bible Really Says About the End

By: Bart D. Ehrman

Narrated by: Robert Petkoff, Bart D. Ehrman

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.

©2023 Bart D. Ehrman. All rights reserved. (P)2023 Simon & Schuster, Inc. All rights reserved.

Critic reviews

"“Vigilantly persuasive.” —The Washington Post

“Ambitious.” —Publishers Weekly

“Lucid and compelling.” —Library Journal (Starred Review)

One of Ehrman’s best.

A rational, unbiased and clear analysis of the last book in the Bible. I didn’t feel that I was being preached to or talked down to. Highly recommended.

An insightful analysis of Revelation

I was reared as an evangelical, but am now attend a mainline church. My switch came from reading the Bible frequently and thoroughly. One thing that doing so did was to make me realize that the end times teachings I grew up with were not consistent with what I was reading. In this book, Dr. Ehrman has done the best job of exposing those problems and the inconsistencies of the Jesus of Revelation with the Jesus of the Gospels that I have ever read. Kudos!

Bart’s Best

I really enjoy Bart D. Ehrman! I’ve never read any of his books, but I have several of his Audiobooks, and a couple of his lectures from The Great Courses catalogue, and without a doubt this is the most well performed, written, and engaging of all of these works!

Great insight

Loved this book! So much good information. Gets better and better as you reach the final chapters.

Couldn’t stop listening

There is a lot of information in here, but Bart writes in such a way that makes it very digestible. This is a great and thorough study on the book and revelation that I highly recommend. Especially if you think or were told that the events in Israel today were predicted in the Bible.

Insightful and enlightening

Thorough and fresh analysis of the book of revelation. Scholarly and informative, definitely not for fundamentalists or political Christians.

good information. I t was an eye opener.

the narrative was easy to follow. the reader was a good guy. why can't I just leave what I want to say?

Best book by ermine yet

The book by Bart Ehrman was one of his best yet. I’ve read all his other books and really enjoyed them and learned a lot. But this one he had some thing that he never added before. It is since he’s adding a sermon about Christianity at the very end. Challenging the ideas and understanding is that we have or don’t have concerning what Christianity is or is not. This book appears very personal for him. It’s a message that he’s trying to get out to everyone who will listen and in that message is not the atheist he purports to be he’s someone who sees the truth, and what the truth is always meant to be not what it’s been corrupted into it says, though he threw bread crumbs out for all of those who have the same understanding and called him out to let us know we’re not alone. You have to read this book. It’s well worth your time. Well done fart

Eye opening

Great thorough insights into the book of revelations. Made me want to know more about the Bible and the way people interpret it.

Great book

it’s nice to hear a scholarly opinion of the book of revelations, and not to look at some kind of future prediction source. so many people are manipulated by phony televangelist and their like predicting insane horror stories