CenSAMM
  • About
  • Blog
  • News & Events
  • Conferences
  • Resources
  • Contact
  • Home
  • Blog

'Who Wants to be a Millionaire?' and the Apocalypse, by Alastair Lockhart

Category: Discussion, News

Tagged:

February 24, 2021


On 22nd February 2021, the Scottish Sun newspaper carried a report on the UK version of the TV gameshow "Who Wants to be a Millionaire?" under the headline: "Scots contestant STUNNED as sis gets tough Bible question - leaving Clarkson in hysterics".



The report described how the contestant, former taxi driver Ray Mann, was asked "in what book the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse appear in holy scripture on his way to picking up £125,000". The answer options were A: Revelation, B: Judges, C: Exodus, D: Matthew - and how difficult the question is depends, of course, on how familiar viewers are with the Bible. In the event, the contestant used a lifeline to phone his sister, Monica, who chose the correct answer; "A: Revelation”. However, the answer may have been somewhat more present than Ray Mann and the host, Jeremy Clarkson, might have guessed.



The next day, CenSAMM tweeted: "Is the answer in the question?" with an image of the report. As the Critical Dictionary of Apocalyptic and Millenarian Movements (CDAMM) points out, "the book of Revelation (late first century CE) [is] otherwise known as the Apocalypse of John (or the Apocalypse to John". Of course, it is not clear whether or not the question-setters recognized that "apocalypse" has its origins in the Greek word "apokalypsis” - which means 'revelation', 'disclosure' or 'appearance'. This reflects a linguistic and conceptual shift in the meaning of "apocalypse" that is also noted in the CDAMM article: "the term ‘apocalypse’ has taken on different (albeit related) meanings from its associations or possible associations with otherworldly revelation [...] and now regularly refers to some great cataclysmic event" reflecting a "separation from ideas of the revelation of transcendent or divine truth and its increasing use as a term for general and cataclysmic change in human life and culture". The shift is identified as early as 1894 in the CDAMM article. In effect, it appears that the question-setters were using "apocalypse" in the phrase "four horsemen of the Apocalypse" to refer only to some great cataclysmic event - a common-enough contemporary usage - and the word "Revelation" only as the title of a book of the Bible.

While we do not know what was in the mind of the Who Wants to be a Millionaire question-setters, the way the question was presented suggests how far the separation between the once identical terms "Revelation" and "Apocalypse" has gone in popular English outside the realm of biblical studies, theology, and religious studies.


  • Share Share
  • Print Print

Categories

  • Reviews (8)
  • Discussion (38)
  • Artist in Residence (1)
  • Podcast (23)
  • Conference (25)
  • News (6)
  • Video (4)
  • CDAMM (1)

Tags

1381 Uprising, Adam and Eve, All things in common, Andrew Perrin, anthropocene, Antichrist, Antisemitism, apocalypse, Apocalyptic language, Ariel Hessayon, artificial intelligence, Bar, Barack Obama, Beth Singler, Bible, Bill McGuire, Black Hebrew Israelites, Blake, Blake, William, Bob Crow Brigade, Book of Daniel, Brahma Kumaris, Branch Davidians, Britta Gullin, Caligula, capitalism, Cargo Cults, children, Children of God, Christian, Christian origins, Christian Zionism, Christians United for Israel, Christina Petterson, Christopher Rowland, climate change, climate changs, Conspiracy, Coronavirus, COVID-19, Damian Cyrocki, Damien Cyrocki, David G. Robertson, Demonology, Dictionary, Diggers, DK International, Donald Trump, Doukhobors, early modern history, Early C, Ecoovie, ecophobia, Encyclopedia, English politics, English Revolution, envi, environmentalism, Erin Roberts, extinction, Family International, Felicja Kozłowska, Four Kingdoms, George W. Bush, Gerrard Winstanley, Gordon Brown, Gospel of Matthew, Gospels, Herb Berg, Historical Jesus, Home Office, Immigration, indigenous, indiginous, James Crossley, Jan Maria Kowalski, jason king, Jeremy Corbyn, Jesus, JFK, John Bale, John Ball, John Ball,, John F. Kennedy Jr, John Foxe, John Gray, John Hagee, Judaizing, Justin Meggitt, Kanye West, Labour, Leon Festinger, Levellers, Loren Stuckenbruck, Mariavite, Martyrdom, Mateczka, Millenarian, Millenarianism, Mister Rogers

Archive

  • February 2023 (1)
  • January 2023 (2)
  • December 2022 (1)
  • November 2022 (1)
  • October 2022 (1)
  • September 2022 (1)
  • June 2022 (2)
  • May 2022 (2)
  • April 2022 (2)
  • March 2022 (4)
  • February 2022 (4)
  • January 2022 (2)
  • December 2021 (3)
  • November 2021 (1)
  • October 2021 (1)
  • August 2021 (1)
  • July 2021 (2)
  • June 2021 (1)
  • May 2021 (1)
  • April 2021 (3)
  • March 2021 (2)
  • February 2021 (3)
  • January 2021 (1)
  • December 2020 (3)
  • October 2020 (1)
  • September 2020 (3)
  • August 2020 (1)
  • July 2020 (2)
  • June 2020 (1)
  • May 2020 (1)
  • April 2020 (3)
  • March 2020 (4)
  • February 2020 (1)
  • January 2020 (2)
  • December 2019 (2)
  • November 2019 (1)
  • October 2019 (1)
  • September 2019 (2)
  • August 2019 (1)
  • July 2019 (1)
  • June 2019 (1)
  • May 2019 (1)
  • April 2019 (1)
  • March 2019 (2)
  • February 2019 (1)
  • January 2019 (1)
  • December 2018 (2)
  • November 2018 (1)
  • September 2018 (1)
  • August 2018 (1)
  • May 2018 (1)
  • February 2018 (3)
  • December 2017 (1)
  • November 2017 (1)
  • October 2017 (1)
  • August 2017 (2)
  • July 2017 (2)
  • June 2017 (1)
  • May 2017 (1)
  • March 2017 (1)
CenSAMM

© CenSAMM
All rights reserved.

  • Sitemap
  • Terms of Use
  • Cookies & Privacy Policy
  • Web Design by Chameleon
Contact Details

CenSAMM
14 Albany Road
Bedford
MK40 3PH

Tel: 01234 359737
info@censamm.org

Explore CenSAMM
  • Conferences
  • Events
  • About
  • Blog
  • Resources
  • Contact
  • The Panacea Charitable Trust
  • The Panacea Museum
Newsletter Signup

Stay up to date with CenSAMM News and Information

  • Homepage
  • About
    • People
      • James Crossley
      • Alastair Lockhart
    • MF Norwegian School of Theology
    • The Panacea Museum
    • The Panacea Charitable Trust
    • FAQs
  • Blog
  • News & Events
  • Conferences
    • Apocalyptic Nostalgia? Cold War Imagery in Popular Culture
    • The Next Quest for the Historical Jesus
    • The Study of Apocalyptic and Millenarian Movements Conference 2022
    • The Study of Apocalyptic and Millenarian Movements Conference 2021
    • Apocalypse and Utopia, 1914-1945
    • Video Games and Religion: Apocalypse and Utopia
    • Apocalypticism and Millenarian Movements in the Ancient World
    • Virtual Symposium: The Cold War and the End Times
    • The Study of Apocalyptic and Millenarian Movements Conference 2020
    • The Study of Apocalyptic and Millenarian Movements Conference 2019
    • Natural Disasters and the Apocalypse (1500 to Present) Sept 13, 2018
    • Apocalypse in Art: The Creative Unveiling (June 28 and 29, 2018)
      • Apocalypse in Art: The Creative Unveiling (June 2018) media archive
    • AI and Apocalypse (April 5 and 6, 2018)
      • AI and Apocalypse conference (April 2018) media archive
    • Archive 2017
  • Resources
    • Critical Dictionary of Apocalyptic and Millenarian Movements (CDAMM)
    • Online resources (open-access videos and podcasts)
      • General themes and topics
      • Biblical, early Christian, and early Jewish millenarian and apocalpytic movements
        • Apocalypticism and related ideas in the Bible, early Judaism and early Christianity
        • Jesus and the Gospels
        • Paul
        • Book of Revelation
        • Gnosticism
      • Medieval
      • Reformation, early modern and nineteenth century
      • Twentieth century and contemporary
        • Waco, David Koresh and the Branch Davidians
      • Culture
      • AI
      • Environmental issues
    • Profiles of Millenarian & Apocalyptic Movements
      • Brahma Kumaris
      • Branch Davidians
      • Christian Zionism
      • Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
      • Environmental Millenarianism
      • ISIS
      • Neturei Karta
      • Peoples Temple
      • Plymouth Brethren Christian Church
      • Rastafari
      • Sadrist Movement
      • Standing Rock Sioux
      • Strauss-Howe Generational Theory
      • Survivalists
      • Technological Millenarianism
    • CenSAMM Videos
    • Movies & Books
    • Links to external resources about apocalyticism and millenarianism
  • Contact
    • Leila Johnston: CenSAMM Artist in Residence for 'AI and Apocalypse'
    • Michael Takeo Magruder: CenSAMM Artist in Residence for 'Apocalypse in Art: The Creative Unveiling'

Share

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Email
Copy