The Revelation of St. John the Divine

by George Bradford Caird

From the dust This commentary has been written in the conviction that the Revelation is not only a great work of art but a profoundly Christian book which can speak as eloquently to the world of today as it did to the world of John's own time. The untutored reader of the Apocalypse is often puzzled by the diverse array of interpretations available to him. Symbolically the Revelation describes visions for the benefit of seven a throne and a scroll; seals, trumpets, and bowls; horsemen, locusts, and scorpions; a dragon and a monster; two women and two cities. Do these symbols correspond to anything past, present, or future in our experience? Professor Caird stresses that John was a pastor, writing with a passionate concern for ordinary men and women to understand what he had been charged to tell them. If only we could put our- selves in the place of those early Christians, we would find that John said exactly what he meant and that he is his own best interpreter. The purpose of this commentary is to carry the reader back to the end of the first century A.D. to hear what the Spirit was saying to the churches then, so that, returning to the present, he may be better able to hear what the Spirit is saying to the churches of our own day. Accompanied by Dr. Cairds own fresh translation from the original Greek, this work provides a wealth of historical and linguistic information as the author examines the nature of John's experience, the structure of the book, and its theological message. THE G. B. Caird, an eminent New Testament scholar, is senior tutor at Mansfield College, Oxford University. He is the author of several books and articles on New Testament interpretation.

Genres: New Testament, Reference, Theology

316 pages, Hardcover

First published June 1, 1993

Reviews

[James Curtis · Rating 5 out of 5]

IMHO the best commentary available on the Book of Revelation. Caird does an outstanding job of tracing the Hebrew Bible's antecedents that inform much of Revelation's text and does a consistently excellent job of exegeting the material in relation to its original context. It is an academic book though it's neither pedantic or tedious. If you want to understand Revelation then this is the book to read. My highest recommendation.