Essays on Revelation: Appropriating Yesterday's Apocalypse in Today's World

Description: The book of Revelation perennially provokes outlandish futurist predictions proven patently false over time. Such prophecy failures leave the inquiring mind with a strong sense that the book of Revelation is nothing but a hoax safely ignored and without contemporary relevance. The inevitable practical result not only for church members but for their ministers as well is a canonical book stripped bare of canonical authority. In this volume six contributors collectively attempt to provide a path toward recanonizing Revelation reclaiming its authority and relevance through christological foundations. The result is a book not only useful in the collegiate and seminary classroom but also for serious small-group Bible studies wanting to glean from Revelation something deeper than a fear of being left behind. Endorsements: This work is a valuable guide to understanding the meaning of Revelation for the contemporary believer. Informed by the historical social and literary contexts of the first-century these essays succeed in bridging the gap between the world of John of Patmos and the situation of modern readers of Revelation. Teachers pastors and individual readers will appreciate the many thought-provoking insights provided by these scholars who write with one foot in the academy and the other in the church. --Mitchell G. Reddish Professor and Chair of Religious Studies Stetson University The Book of Revelation is one of the most complex and puzzling books in the Bible. It demands clear knowledgeable insight in order to make sense of it. These twelve Essays on Revelation provide just that clarity for the serious reader. These are must-read articles that will turn study of the book into an exceptional feast for every student. --Grant R. Osborne Professor of New Testament Trinity Evangelical Divinity School About the Contributor(s): Gerald L. Stevens is Professor of New Testament and Greek at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and author of several highly regarded textbooks on the Greek language with Cascade Books: New Testament Greek Intermediate (2008) New Testament Greek Primer (3rd ed. 2010) and New Testament Greek Syntax (forthcoming).