The New Revelation scripture

The New Revelation scripture is the sacred text associated with Fosterism, and its place in the novel is defined by a tension between its unremarkable, sometimes troubling language and its practical religious appeal. Jill dismisses it as insubstantial and morally objectionable; Jubal answers that sacred writings across traditions contain contradictions and disturbing material, and that the scripture’s invitation to happiness is part of what makes Fosterism effective. The text appears not only as doctrine but as a printed object circulated through a church-linked gambling room, where even a losing player can take a verse away.

Circulation as a Religious Object

In a gambling room, a machine stops with the words GOD-WATCHES-YOU displayed in its windows. The player receives a payout in tokens, along with a printed text that Jill glances at before putting it in her purse: “But the sinner's belly is filled with filth - N.R. XXII 17”. The verse is identified by chapter and number, making the small paper tab a portable fragment of the New Revelation scripture rather than merely a machine’s decoration.

Senator Tom Boone explains that the tokens, unlike coins, must be taken to a cashier beyond the bar. The route gives players an opportunity to make charitable offerings, and he reasons that some will put their winnings back into the machine, receiving another text with each play. In his account, the mechanism converts gambling into a recurring cycle of play, payment, and scriptural distribution. He says that some of the church’s most diligent members began in that room. The scripture thus reaches its audience through a material system that joins entertainment, money, and religious language.

Jill’s Criticism and Jubal’s Reply

Jill calls the machine’s verse fake scripture and says that the New Revelation is dressed in biblical language. Her judgment is sharply divided: some passages strike her as saccharine and empty, others as nonsense or hateful, and she finds neither coherent meaning nor good morals in the text. Her objection is not simply to its presence in a gambling venue; she challenges the scripture’s literary quality and ethical authority.

Jubal does not claim that Jill’s criticisms are baseless. Instead, he broadens the comparison to sacred writings generally, citing the disturbing episode of Elisha and the children in the Bible as an example of material that can be presented as divinely ordered or condoned. He also acknowledges that scripture can contain practical social rules and common sense alongside morally troubling stories. His argument is comparative rather than devotional: if sacred traditions are judged by consistency, literary quality, or morality, their texts often contain contradictions and difficult material.

He therefore resists treating the New Revelation as uniquely discreditable. Jubal calls its literary standing average, describes it as drawing on earlier scriptures, and says it fares comparatively well in internal consistency. He characterizes Fosterism’s moral teaching as a psychological ethic softened for popular consumption, while suggesting that its founder spoke to the fears, guilt, and loss of faith of his period. These are Jubal’s evaluations, not claims that the text itself is free of derivation or limitation.

Happiness as Doctrine and Appeal

Jubal’s defense turns on the kind of religious promise the scripture supports. As he presents it, the New Revelation offers happiness in earthly life as well as the assurance of bliss after death; it does not require people to deny ordinary pleasures now in exchange for later rewards. Fosterite worship gives drinking, gambling, dancing, and sexual pleasure religious sanction, while relieving adherents of guilt about enjoying them. In Jubal’s reading, the scripture’s appeal lies partly in making pleasure compatible with religious belonging.

That offer is not unconditional. Jubal says that the god of Fosterite teaching expects acknowledgment, and that those who refuse happiness on the prescribed terms are treated as sinners who deserve whatever happens to them. He regards this demand as a recurring feature of religions rather than an invention peculiar to Foster and Digby. The text’s promise of freedom from guilt therefore has a boundary: happiness is encouraged, but it is framed by submission to the faith’s terms.

Meaning Within the Novel

The printed verse in Jill’s purse and Jubal’s extended defense present the New Revelation scripture from two complementary angles. The tab makes the text tangible and repeatable, part of a system that can draw a casual player toward further participation. The conversation, meanwhile, separates criticism of the scripture’s style and morals from criticism of its religious function. Jubal can reject its pleasures for himself and still argue that Jill has chosen the wrong grounds for condemning it.

The scripture’s significance in these passages rests on that unresolved contrast. Jill sees language that is sweetened, incoherent, or hateful; Jubal sees a comparatively ordinary sacred text whose promise of happiness answers a recognizable cultural need. Its circulation through tokens, charity, and take-home verses gives those ideas a practical route into everyday life, while the conversation exposes the difference between declaring a scripture bad and understanding why people might find it persuasive.