Gordon Fee on Revelation

Gordon Fee’s newest commentary, and the newest one in the New Covenant Commentary Series, is on the Book of Revelation: Revelation (New Covenant Commentary). Anyone who opens with the following statement has my attention:

The unfortunate reality is that almost all of the popular stuff on the Revelation, which tends to be well known by many of these [his] students, has scarcely a shred of exegetical basis to it.

And Fee knows Revelation uses prophetic images in the Bible and from the Jewish world, but the genius of apocalyptic literature and prophetic language is the re-use of old language to say (and see) new things. Some images are constant and stock — beasts are empires; some are fluid and some are very specific — and we are called to focus through the lens of how John interprets images.

Like Son of man, golden lampstands, seven stars, a numberless multitude, the great dragon, seven heads of the beast, and the great harlot. John interprets these and sketches the landscape in clarity for us by doing so.

Here are some of the inside secrets to this new series: responsible; done by excellent scholars; exegetically grounded and theologically sensitive; accessible, accessible, accessible.

If I were teaching a course on Revelation, this is the book I’d use.

The problem any reader of Revelation faces today is the utter nonsense that has filled the minds with many Christians today. I’ll stop right there.