Customer Reviews

Revelation (New Cambridge Bible Commentary)

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Ben does a great job on this exposition of Revelation. He sees the book as a call through His servant job for the church to persevere in its worship of the one true Emperor, the one true God.Dr. Witherington contends that the books was written near the close of the first century in the days of the emperor Domitian. He acknowledges that the imagery of Revelation is symbolic and is applicable to a wide variety of situations.

But he also stresses that John sees the events of Revelation as working toward the end of human history as we know it. Ben notes that the seventh seal, the seventh trumpet, and the pouring out of the seventh bowl all climax with the close of the age. Yet he also notes that each series of seven judgments are increasingly intense and affect a larger proportion of the population.

Ben observes that John is thoroughly familiar with the Hebrew Scriptures and with the noncanonical writings, and that he uses and reworks these images freely.

Ben sees the mighty angel of Revelation 10 as a powerful representative of the Messiah. The two lampstands of Revelation 11 represent either the evangelistic witness of the churches of Smyrna and Philadelphia, or the collective church's prophetic witness.

Dr. Witherington sees the woman of Revelation 12 as a portrait of the people of God (I think of this woman as Israel - see Joseph's dream details in Genesis 37). he is undecided about whether the defeat of Satan in Revelation 12 happens at the time of the crucifixion and resurrection or at a later time.

Ben does a good job of contrasting the godly woman of Revelation 12 with the wicked whore of Revelation 17-18. He also takes a premillennial interpretation of chapter 20, though acknowledging that 1000 years is figurative for a long period of time and not necessarily a literal 1000 year period.

He also points out that Revelation 21-22 is a description of the character of that city and should not be taken as a literal portrayal of the city's geography.

Ben sees the book of Revelation as insider information for Christians who are living in perilous times. I like how he is able to apply the text to our lives in the bridging the horizon sections.

The commentary is engagingly written, and the interpretations are sound. Ben takes dispensational interpretations to task at Revelation 3:10 and at 4:1, noting that these are not rapture texts.

Buy this commentary for a simple yet profound take on the book of Revelation. I enjoyed it more than any other commentary on Revelation, although Craig Koester's book is great, too.

Though I have thoroughly enjoyed the other books that I've read by Witherington, I had real trouble getting through this one.

His other books provided great insight into contemporary writing styles and, thus, insight into what the original text would have meant to the original hearers. Obviously, this is critical to an understanding of what Scripture means to us.

However, in Revelation, Witherington has not done a good job of connecting us with what the hearers of Revelation would have understood. Part of this is the difficulty of Revelation itself. With all its symbolic language, visions of the future, and pictographic explanations of the past, there is much to stumble over. Determining how the original hearers would have understood all this can be an intimidating venture.

Unfortunately, Witherington stumbles in a number of areas. Because of the generality of some of the images, Witherington suggests several meanings but then leaves us hanging as to what he thinks could be the accurate depiction. Though this is not problematic if done occasionally, there are so many pictures that Witherington is unwilling to definitively state his ideas on that we are left wondering what he believes. Though an interesting read to find out the `what could it mean' perspective, Witherington gives no consistent explanation of his take on the whole book.

Overall, although not a bad commentary, I did not find that it sparked my interest enough to be expectantly turning each page to see what other truths he could illuminate for me. Though I'm not unconvinced by his propositions, I'm not sure he's made the best case for those propositions.

For the full review, go to the blog listed in my nickname and click on the Readings category.

This is probably the best all-around commentary on Revelation that I have read. I am a college student and have only read a handful, but this particular one was required for a course and it was one of my favorites to read. Witherington opens up so clearly and well what is happening in the book of Revelation based on historical and social situations of the time in which it was written. This is not an overly large commentary and is quite easy to read. Another nice feature is that after the verse-by-verse commentary of each chapter, he has little break-out sidenotes to explain in a little more basic language what this all means for us today. He also quotes from Eugene Peterson's "Reversed Thunder" commentary on Revelation, so if you have read and enjoyed that book, or any other by Peterson, you will most likely enjoy this commentary by Witherington as well.

I promised a review of my favorite Witherington book today; you should have guessed it would be about Revelation. Whether you're a scholar of Revelation, a believer in future fulfillment, or just curious about early Christian eschatology (the study of the end times), this book is a gem. It's a New Cambridge Bible Commentary, which is a well-respected series. I think a quote from the back cover expresses my opinion blandly but accurately:

"Without sacrificing scholarly perspective or academic rigor, it is written to be accessible for pastors, scholars, teachers, seminarians, and interested laypeople."

As research for a book I completed a few months ago, I collected a stack of books about Revelation that would rival most any library. This one was probably the most fun to read. Witherington writes respectfully and from a Christian viewpoint but still dives deeply into the historical roots of Revelation. He jumps often into sidebars which he titles "Bridging the horizons" and "A closer look." (He alternates between the two sidebar titles, and it took me most of the book to recognize this; what's up with that, Ben?) Anyway, these sidebars alone are worth the price of the book. Here are a few topics from them:

God and Christ as the Alpha and Omega
The mythological background of Revelation 12
666, Nero, and the ancient art of Gematria
Fallen angels in early Judaism and Christianity
Heavenly Jerusalem or Sky City?

What a Bible geek I am! I get giddy just paging back through the book to write this review. I'm gonna read it again.

There are dozens of commentaries on Revelation, and this is at least as helpful as any other. What prompted my purchase, however, was the extensive introduction, which includes much more than the usual background information. The only shortfall in it was a lack of detail on the debates over whether to include Revelation in the NT canon, but still, it's very good.