Thorough and comprehensive commentary on Revelation. Not one to be read straight through unless you like that to get the most out of it. Will be useful for students studying Scripture and busy Pastors looking to delve into verses and passages as required. One to have on your shelf for reference.

This is a new addition to the Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament (BECNT) series and will eventually end up replacing Osborne’s 2002 contribution. It weighs in at a hefty 896 pages; although less that Osborne’s commentary of 1536 pages, it still represent approximately 30 pages or so of commentary for each page in the Book of Revelation. By design, this is supposed to be a serious exegesis for “busy” pastors and in general keeps it short enough to accomplish that. Given the extensive amount of symbolism and other literary devices within Revelations, it is not surprising that they can be a lot more that what is covered here, so as expected, there is not a lot of exploration of heterodox positions or interpretations.

There are ten (10) parts that each over a small section of Revelation, with the extensive opening Introduction providing a solid look at the history and perspective of Revelation to give a good context to what follows. Each Part represents a topical transition; although many Bibles may be organized slightly differently (generally combining some of the Parts provided here and using a more general title). At the beginning of each part is a quick recap of the contents with a pointer should where you are in Revelation, followed by a quick summary of the part. Each sub-part does the same before adding the Exegesis and Exposition that walks through each verse/pericope ending with additional notes that has more information on translations aspects. The commentaries are generally clear and fairly detailed with references to others books of the Bible as well as external academic works; a few times I would have likes a more thorough contextual discussion in addition to the more concise interpretive comments and concerns. Finally the author is a self-professed premillennialist, so you also get a couple of Excursus that goes into that idea a little. Over all this is a very solid reference book.

Really breaks down every part of Revelation. I also liked how the translation of each word was defined. Great study guide for this book of the bible.

The book of Revelation is a complicated text. Some commentators have even claimed that its writer must have been on drugs. The author of this commentary takes a very different view. He suggests that the book is deliberately subtle and designed to make readers think about their faith.

The chapters of this commentary give helpful summaries and detailed line by line explanations of the text. It also contained some very helpful historical notes, setting the text in its context and including comments from ancient exegetes, such as the Church Fathers. That was particularly welcome, as it would be the heights of hubris to think that no previous generation has had anything of value to say about this 2000 year old text.

I appreciated the way that the commentary linked comments to the original Greek text, but I was a little surprised by the policy of transliterating Greek in the body of the text but not in the footnotes. Surely a reader needing transliteration would need it in both contexts?

The book of Revelation raises some issues of sensitivity, especially as regarding Judaism. I thought those issues were generally handled well in the book. The author carefully explained the context in which Jews and Christians were falling out at the end of the First Century, occasioning some heated language about lying and the ‘synagogue of Satan.’

That language is understandable in its context, but over the centuries it has also been ripped out of its context and used Antisemitically. In an age where we are all far more aware of the risks of misusing religious texts, perhaps it would have been helpful to remind readers about the importance of avoiding demonising misreadings?

The book was generally comprehensive in its coverage of differing interpretations of the text, but there was an occasional bias towards its Evangelical readership, by omitting or downplaying Catholic and Orthodox readings of the text. For example, Chapter 12 of Revelation includes the vision of the woman giving birth and escaping from the Satanic dragon. That vision often features in Mariological explanations of the role of Mary in those faiths. But the book dismissed that reading as ‘not fitting the context’ and then just moved on to explain the woman as a symbol for the ‘people of God’ (47%). That was a lost Ecumenical opportunity to ensure that Evangelical readers understand differing perspectives in Catholic and Orthodox contexts.

Overall this was a well written and scholarly exposition of a complicated text. The author did well to condense an enormous body of literature and research into this very readable book. It is a already a ‘big’ book, at almost 900 pages, so it would be unfair to criticise it for not doing more. On the contrary, it is a detailed exposition, which will prove invaluable to pastors and teachers!

(This is a review of a free ARC copy of the text).