but elaine pagels, a professor of religion at princeton university, supports the view that the man behind revelation was another john, crying out against the tyranny of the roman empire. pagels has written a new book called "revelations" -- plural. she tells correspondent bob faw how other books of revelation were left out of the bible, and how the one that made it in has been interpreted in very different ways. >> and another sign appeared in heaven. a great red dragon with ten horns and seven diadems on his head. his tail swept down a third of the stars in heaven and cast them to earth. and the dragon stood before -- >> reporter: for almost 2000 years, that fantastic, sometimes nightmarish language of the book of revelation has confused and inspired, it was the inspiration for paintings by william blake, for the poetry of john milton. lyrics like "he hath loosed the fateful lightning of his terrible swift sword," that too came from revelation. despite its profound impact, noted biblical scholar elaine pagels says revelation remains "the strangest book in the bible" and "the least unders