John, under divine inspiration, deliberately wrote the Apocalypse rife with symbols and subtleties, so that the book would not be a breeze of a read for anybody.  He understood that the symbols and subtleties constituted a major problem, one that would occasion many a pounding on pate and tearing of hair, and, perhaps, even splitting of wits and spitting of his name--none of which, may I point out, deterred him from his task; yet, it ought not to be thought that the Seer, a man whose mansuetude pervades every page of his epistles, had even one mean bone in his body.