You know what’s frustrating? Having a wild imagination but zero artistic skill to depict what shows up in your mind’s eye. Maybe my lack of painting prowess is for the best, though, as oftentimes what I imagine is way scarier than real life. I hope that’s also the case when it comes to the book of Revelation.
Ever since I was a young child, I’ve been fascinated by this book in the back of the Bible. It’s like the wildest parts of the Lord of the Rings series truncated into 22 edge-of-your-seat chapters of symbolism, prophesy, and (at times) almost incomprehensible descriptions – even for a vivid imagination like mine.
Fast forward from my childhood to present day, and there’s a good deal of hand wringing over AI’s emergence as a sure sign that humanity is coming to a swift end. I still have my doubts, at least over the current state of AI, but it’s evolving so quickly that the fearful could be proven wiser than I’ve given them credit for.
Enough with the rambling, let’s get into the goal of this article: to bring the descriptive text of the Revelation of Jesus Christ into something more visually digestible!
The Style of ChatGPT’s Depictions
I’ve found that just feeding ChatGPT a description and telling it to turn it into an image produces really inconsistent, often ugly results. Here’s an example of its free-for-all depiction of Goliath based solely on a description from 1 Samuel 17 with no stylistic prompt:
A little underwhelming, huh?
So I decided to pay homage to an artist who created some of the most compelling Biblically-derived paintings I’ve ever seen: Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio. And to my untrained eye, ChatGPT did a pretty darned good job at capturing that Caravaggio je ne sais quoi. See for yourself and tell me what you think:
Son of Man
One of the first interesting descriptions in the book comes from chapter 1, verses 12-14: “Then I turned to see the voice that was speaking to me, and on turning I saw seven golden lampstands, and in the midst of the lampstands one like a son of man, clothed with a long robe and with a golden sash around his chest. The hairs of his head were white, like white wool, like snow. His eyes were like a flame of fire, his feet were like burnished bronze, refined in a furnace, and his voice was like the roar of many waters. In his right hand he held seven stars, from his mouth came a sharp two-edged sword, and his face was like the sun shining in full strength.”
The prompt: Create a 16:9 painting in the style of Caravaggio. It should depict a man standing amongst 7 gold candlesticks. The man is wearing a long robe with a golden sash. He has white, wooly hair, a powerful voice, fiery eyes, and a powerful glow about his face. The man should be holding 7 stars in his right hand and a double-edged sword coming out of his mouth.
First try: sucked
Updated prompt: You neglected to include the 7 stars in his right hand, and the double edged sword coming from his mouth
Second Try: sucked
Updated prompt: You still did not include the sword or the stars. Try again.
Third try: getting somewhere!
Updated prompt: Better, but where’s the double-edged sword coming from his mouth?
4th try: close enough
I decided to let it up off the mat after this many tries. Eventually, it got the gist of the prompt: stars, a sword, candlesticks, gold sash, white hair – you get the idea.
Beasts Before The Throne
The Prompt: Create a 16:9 painting in the style of Caravaggio. It should depict 4 angelic, winged creatures covered in eyeballs: one similar to a lion, the next similar to a calf, the third one should look more like a human man, and the forth one should look more like an eagle. Again, all of these creatures are covered in eyes and each one should have 6 wings. All 4 creatures should be in front of a crystal throne.
This came from Revelation 4:6-8, which says: “And before the throne there was a sea of glass like unto crystal: and in the midst of the throne, and round about the throne, were four beasts full of eyes before and behind. And the first beast was like a lion, and the second beast like a calf, and the third beast had a face as a man, and the fourth beast was like a flying eagle. And the four beasts had each of them six wings about him; and they were full of eyes within: and they rest not day and night, saying, Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come.”
Absolutely terrifying, but I think it’s close enough. Clearly, ChatGPT isn’t great at counting. The wing count is wrong, there are 5 creatures instead of 4, and there’s a Baphomet-like goat demon that was in no way described (maybe it counts as the Eagle-beast since it has wings?), but a lot of the components are included.
I have to believe heaven is better than this.
Book of 7 Seals
The Prompt: Create a 16:9 painting in the style of Caravaggio. It should depict a man weeping with sorrow over a book with 7 seals keeping it shut. The man is weeping because a strong angelic creature is unable to find someone worthy enough to break the seals and open the book.
This came from Revelation 5:1-4 which says: “And I saw in the right hand of him that sat on the throne a book written within and on the backside, sealed with seven seals. And I saw a strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice, Who is worthy to open the book, and to loose the seals thereof? And no man in heaven, nor in earth, neither under the earth, was able to open the book, neither to look thereon. And I wept much, because no man was found worthy to open and to read the book, neither to look thereon.”
I’m going to accept this depiction on the first try. I wish the angel looked a little stronger (he’s got some pretty solid delts, though), and there’s at least 2x as many seals on this version. Still, it’s solid on the whole. Plus, you can make the argument that there are 7 seals – we just have a couple extras that John maybe missed? After all, the poor guy has melted candle wax in his eyes – how do you expect him to see clearly?
The Dragon
The Prompt: Create a 16:9 painting in the style of Caravaggio. It should be a portrait of a large, 10-horned, red dragon with 7 heads. Each of the 7 heads should have a king’s crown. The dragon’s tail is being used to slap stars out of the sky and toward the earth.
This came from Revelation 12:3-4 which says: “And there appeared another wonder in heaven; and behold a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads. And his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven, and did cast them to the earth: and the dragon stood before the woman which was ready to be delivered, for to devour her child as soon as it was born.”
Sort of like we saw with the 7 seals, we’ve got way too many heads. I tried a few times to get it to reduce the head count, and it kept getting worse. Finally, I got it to give me an 8 headed, 9 crowned dragon, but it had to sacrifice the tail to get there:
What I liked most about the final image is the way ChatGPT served it up. Here’s the message it provided alongside the image: “Here is the corrected painting with the dragon having exactly 7 heads and 10 horns.” I guess maybe one of what I’m interpreting as a head is actually just an elaborate, crowned birthmark.
I actually like the first version better despite the millions of heads. Here’s hoping I never encounter either version IRL.
The New Heaven & Earth
The Prompt: Create a 16:9 painting in the style of Caravaggio. It should depict a man gazing upon a new heaven with a holy city coming down out of God, and a new earth with no oceans or seas.
This prompt came from Revelation 21:1-2, which says “And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea. And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.”
So, here’s the deal: Caravaggio wasn’t really known for landscape portraits. I honestly don’t even know if he ever painted one. I guess that’s why this came out a little more like something you would see on the side of a Chevy van in the 80’s. Still, it’s an interesting representation of the text.
Not sure exactly why there are two individuals on the hillside – maybe one is John and the other is God (even though He’s supposed to be in heaven with the new Jerusalem coming out of him)?
Another interesting inclusion: I imagine that the snake-like lake is likely the river of the water of life described in Revelation 22. But here’s the thing about that: I never told ChatGPT that I was feeding it prompts from Revelation, let alone which chapter. It must have figured it out based on context, and started pulling in peripheral intel from the rest of the book.
Bonus Round: Grok’s Interpretations
I thought it might be interesting to see what Grok could do with the exact same prompts. Overarchingly, I think Grok actually did a slightly better job following detailed instructions, but I don’t think it got as close as ChatGPT at consistently replicating Caravaggio’s style. See what you think:
Son of Man
The components are all there! But it doesn’t have that Caravaggio depth of color, and no one wants to put the sword in His mouth.
4 Creatures
Yikes.
7 Seals
Pretty solid, BUT THE BOOK IS OPEN! It looks like John’s getting in trouble for having opened the book despite not being worthy. Also, this angel feels like he would put ChatGPT’s “strong” angel in the dirt.
Red Dragon
Again, doesn’t feel like Caravaggio one bit. The head count was definitely a lot closer on the first try (8, if you don’t count those weird eye-less, horned footballs near the main head’s mouth). No, the extra heads aren’t attached to the dragon’s body, but the Bible doesn’t specifically say that those heads have necks. Maybe the dragon just keeps them in orbit around its main head.
New Heaven & Earth
Less of a Chevy van vibe, and probably the more faithful depiction based on the prompt itself.
The End Is Near
Of this article, anyway. I skipped a lot of really wild descriptions for the sake of time, but you should 100% give Revelation a read and stop to ask AI for help envisioning any weird descriptions you come across.
But what about AI’s connection to the end of the world? Well, I think I proved that AI sucks at following directions. So if we’re relying heavily on AI to do important things, there’s a good chance it misapplies direction and destroys everything.
And with that, the end (of this article) is here.
