Revelation 1-5 (Word Biblical Commentary 52a) [Hardcover]

Davie E. Aune (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 9, 1997 | Series: Word Biblical Commentary (Book 52)

The Word Biblical Commentary delivers the best in biblical scholarship, from the leading scholars of our day who share a commitment to Scripture as divine revelation. This series emphasizes a thorough analysis of textual, linguistic, structural, and theological evidence. The result is judicious and balanced insight into the meanings of the text in the framework of biblical theology. These widely acclaimed commentaries serve as exceptional resources for the professional theologian and instructor, the seminary or university student, the working minister, and everyone concerned with building theological understanding from a solid base of biblical scholarship.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 374 pages
• Publisher: Thomas Nelson (September 9, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0849902517
• ISBN-13: 978-0849902512
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.2 x 2.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #466,630 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

26 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A Database for Specialists, August 16, 2001

By 

Alan Garrow (Oxford, UK) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Revelation 1-5 (Word Biblical Commentary 52a) (Hardcover)

Aune's commentary sometimes has the feel of trying to drink from a fire hose. The full bibliographies and extensive notes on textual variants are comprehensive, navigable and useful. Aune's knowledge of ancient literature is also certainly impressive but of doubtful usefulness. This is perhaps best illustrated by the fact that forty-seven pages of 'comment' on Revelation 5:1-14, including twenty-nine pages of grammatical notes, statistics and references to ancient literature, lead to a single page of 'explanation', (where the rubber hits the road in a commentary you might think), fully half of which is merely a recitation of the events described in these verses. Under the weight of so much preparatory material you might expect that the 'explanation' would have formed some jewel of great price. At the risk of being unkind, probably the most profound insight that he, and we, get for the trouble is, 'The striking contrast between the two images [Lion and Lamb 5:6] suggests the contrast between the type of warrior messiah expected by first-cenury Judaism and the earthly ministry of Jesus as a suffering servant of God (see Mat 1:2-6=Luke 7:18-23).'

The aspect of Aune's commentary that deserves to excite the most scholarly debate is his espousal of a multi-source theory of composition. This view has been generally out of favour for some time and so Aune deserves to be commended for taking on this difficult question. In short, Aune suggests three stages of composition. First, the composition of twelve discreet sections of the text in the course of the early prophetic career of the author (a sort of John's greatest hits?). Second, these units are embedded in a longer narrative - the so-called 'First Edition'. Third, further material is added at the beginning and end of the text, with further additions to the body of the text, to arrive at the 'Second Edition'.

The original twelve discreet sections (the early 'hits') 7:1-17; 10:1-11; 11:1-13; 12:1-18; 13:1-18; 14:1-20; 17:1-18; 18:1-24; 19:11-16; 20:1-10; 20:11-15; 21:9-22:5 are initially identified by the presence of 'little if any continuity of the dramatis personae' (p.cxix). This is simply untrue. I was able to find at least twelve characters who were not confined to only one of these sections.

At the second compositional step, according to Aune, John wrote, 'an overall sequential scheme to make the composition comprehensible' (!) (p.cxxix). The extent of Aune's 'First Edition' is difficult to pin down. On p.cxx it is said to run approximately from 1:7-12a; 4:1-22:5. Meanwhile on p.cxxx it is said to have a redactional link (4.1) that connects 1:9-20 and 4:2-22:9. By further contrast, on p.74, we are told that 'Revelaton 1:9-11 looks very much like the original beginning of Revelation (which immediately followed the title in 1:1-3), which was probably followed by Revelation 4:1-6:17.

Aune's views on the extent of the additions used to create the 'Second Edition' are also variable. On p.cxx these consist of 1:1-3,4-6; 1:12b-3:22; 22:6-21. On p.cxxxiv they are instead 1:1-6; 1:12b-3:22; 22:6-21. On p.cxxxii they are 1:1-3; 1:12b-3:22; 22:6-21, or, on the same page, 22:5-21. On p.74-5 it is claimed that Revelation 1:12-20 was inserted together with 2:1-3:22 to form the Second Edition.

These variations almost suggest a two or three stage composition for Aune's commentary. However, the case for multiple source for Revelation does not, so far as I can see, hold up. In his introduction Aune recognises various verses that 'homogenise the text'. He has to account for these as interpolations by an editor, or expansions by the author. In all Aune cites forty instances of additions, expansions, glosses, interpolations, etc., in the introduction. Not satisfied with this Aune appeals to further later additions when he encounters difficulties in his commentary e.g. on pp.36, 58-9, 74.

Aune's overstatement of the distinctive character of his twelve separate 'oracles'; his uncertainty regarding the precise shape of the 'First' and 'Second Edition'; and his appeal to numerous later additions in order to sustain his theory, means that his source proposal hasn't convinced me. Richard Bauckham's contention that Revelation is perhaps the most unified text in the New Testament has, I think, easier to defend.

The sheer size of this project inspires awe. Such reverence is justified when it comes to the bibliographies, analyses of textual variants, and extensive references to ancient literature. However, I was left feeling that the text was more like a database than a commentary.

20 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Aune provides up-to-date Revelation commentary, June 30, 1999

By 

Andrew T. Dolan, Core Adjunct Professor of Re... (Philadelphia, PA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Revelation 1-5 (Word Biblical Commentary 52a) (Hardcover)

Not since R. H. Charles's two-volume 1920 International Critical Commentary has there been a commentary of this quality in English. For years Aune has been a leader in studies of Revelation and apocalyptic. His commentary is a masterpiece. Aune and, more recently, G. K. Beale are to late 20th-century Revelation scholarship what Swete and Charles were at the start of the century. This commentary is for NT scholars and other historians, not for the merely curious lay reader and not implicitly for pastors, though these readers could profit from at least some of this thoroughly documented 3-volume commentary.

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Encyclopedic in Scope, March 22, 2000

By 

A Graduate Student (New York) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Revelation 1-5 (Word Biblical Commentary 52a) (Hardcover)

I was a part of a graduate (post seminary) seminar on Revelation and found Aune's three volumes to be extra-ordinarily valuable. Between all of the students, we used about all the major commentaries on Revelation, and while others were certainly profitable (including Beale's volume in the New International Greek Testament Commentary, Murphy's "Fallen Is Babylon," and Fiorenza's work)Aune's is encyclopedic and covers almost everything else that other commentators address. If you are looking for a less technical work, though, I recommend David Barr's excellent "Tales of the End."