The Revelation of Saint John (Black's New Testament Commentary) (Hardcover)

~ (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

Replacing George B. Caird’s earlier volume, fellow Oxford scholar Ian Boxall’s new edition in this popular series offers a clear and lucid study of St. John’s apocalypse. Arising out of a critical awareness of the historical and theological issues surrounding the interpretation of Revelation, Boxall’s exposition opens with an enlightening introduction to the first-century context of this difficult book.

Introducing the background to the Apocalypse, Boxall leads the reader on a pericope-by-pericope exposition of the book. As with other volumes in the series, remarks are based on the author’s own translation. Key terms and phrases from the translation are highlighted where they are discussed, while explanations of special Greek or foreign terms are provided.

References to important primary and secondary literature are included for further research, and a Scripture index saves pastors and student valuable time.

From the Author

Ian Boxall is Senior Tutor in New Testament and Greek at St. Stephen’s House, Oxford University. He is the author of Revelation: Vision and Insight.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 347 pages
• Publisher: Hendrickson Publishers (June 6, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1565632028
• ISBN-13: 978-1565632028
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.7 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,216,587 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A good replacement for Caird's commentary, December 26, 2006

By	rossuk (London, UK) - See all my reviews

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First, I would say that I found this commentary immensely enjoyable and readable. Ian Boxall is a young scholar at Oxford university as was the late G B Caird, whose commentary he is replacing in the Black's New Testament series. I used G B Caird's commentary some ten or more years ago. I would have to say that I was far more able to interact with Ian's commentary than Caird's. Caird's commentary was a far more reflective commentary than Ian's and Caird sometimes offers almost no comment at all. In Ian's commentary I can see a young scholar struggling with the difficulties that Revelation presents to all scholars as they grapple with the many difficulties that this book brings, and as a result I found it a delight to read. He does deal with most of the alternative views and in most cases he comes to a pretty orthodox solution at least to scholars, but not the popular world. The book of Revelation is about the Church, in all its imperfection, and about its enemies, persecution from the outside and seduction from the inside.

The books format is very good, key texts are in bold. He does use his own translation of the Greek text (he calls the lampstands "menorahs"). There is a good bibliography and three indexes. He also provides 8 very useful tables. There are no footnotes, and the Greek text is not transliterated (an oversight of the editor I think, although there is not much of it). The introduction is pretty short but he covers the key points.

Ian does get the plot wrong when he says that the olive branch in Ch 11 is an emblem of peace (surely it symbolises the Holy Spirit in the witness of God's people as in Acts 1:8). But, to his credit, he says that the mighty angel of Ch 10 is not Jesus but his angel, based on Rev 1:1 and 22:16, unlike Beale who insists on calling this angel Christ, and Beale is clearly wrong here because he relies too much on Daniel and not on the text of Revelation itself. The Ch 10 angel is clearly Christ's angel.

Here are some of his other conclusions. The rider on the first horse represents false Christ's, even the antichrist. The 144,000 is the church (those in allegiance to the slaughtered Lamb). The great multitude is a vision of the 144,000 after the great tribulation. (I think it was Brighton who summarised Ch 7 so well by saying it represents the "Militant church on earth and the church triumphant in heaven). The two witnesses are the church. Babylon is not Rome; rather Rome represents the latest incarnation of the oppressive and idolatrous city. He is somewhat agnostic on the millennium, but so was Caird (I also think the millennium is highly overrated). He also uses the liturgical motif and the exodus motif as did Caird. He also recognises the influence of Ezekiel in the book and he recognises some degree of recapitulation (as did Hendriksen). He also understands the symbolism of numbers in Revelation. He can also contrast the whore Babylon with the Bride the New Jerusalem.

As an evangelical I wish that he had gone a bit further on the missionary meaning of the four-fold message of the "great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages", which is one of the keys to evangelism and the great commission today.

So who should buy this? This volume is far more useful to the student than Caird was because it covers almost every important topic and gives the various arguments for different interpretations which Caird never did. While not so detailed as Osborne, I think that this would make a very useful starter for students, especially as he is so readable and students studying Revelation for the first time will not get bogged down with unnecessary detail. Scholars will like it because he interacts with a lot of the recent secondary literature. It is more difficult to decide if the preacher will find it useful, he does not really have the space in this volume to go into application, but suffice it to say that he does recognise that Revelation was written to complacent Christians as well as persecuted ones. From a preacher's perspective, I just wish he had gone a little bit further. Overall, another useful contribution, given its size, that will give students a good introduction to Revelation.

He has also published "Revelation Vision and Insight: An Introduction to the Apocalypse" (176 pp 2002)

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Revelation Comes to Life, July 3, 2006

By	Commentary Surveyor (Stoughton MA) - See all my reviews

Replacing George B. Caird's earlier volume, moderately conservative Oxford scholar Ian Boxall's has delivered a straightforward commentary of moderate length on The Revelation of Saint John* in the Black's New Testament Commentary series (Hendrickson). Far more learned than the usual non-technicality of most expositions, the introduction features an analysis of Revelation's first-century context (esp. Patmos). Boxall takes seriously the authorship of the apostle John and Revelation as prophetic-apocalyptic literature. Though mainly preterist in perspective (attaching key figures to first-century events), readers will be richly rewarded by Boxall's assertion that the apocalyptic genre is largely devoted to revealing heaven's mysteries rather than predicting future events (I consider myself a progressive dispensationalist, but the richness of symbolism evoked by Boxall enlarges my own understanding). Had I received this prior to submitting the revision of my commentary survey, I would have heartily endorsed its use; particularly together with the commentaries of Grant Osborne (evangelical, semi-technical), Stephen Smalley (moderate, technical), and Craig Keener (evangelical, expositional) until D. A. Carson's Pillar New Testament Commentary entry appears (Eerdmans). Other suggested conservative commentaries are: Greg Beale (technical), Robert Mounce (semi-technical), Alan Johnson (expositional), and Dennis Johnson (expositional).