Rev Background
{BACKGROUND AND STRUCTURE}
[Click on the title below to open an article]
- Introduction to Revelation - {PDF Copy} - (An introduction to and overview of the book of Revelation)
- Fourfold Structure - {PDF Copy} - (The four major literary divisions of the book are each marked off by John finding himself "in the spirit")
- Provided Interpretations - {PDF Copy} - (Revelation communicates symbolically, and it provides the reader with many key interpretations of its images)
- Revelation's Recipients - {PDF Copy} - (Revelation was addressed to seven actual churches in the province of Asia in the first century A.D.)
- New Testament Language - (Was the New Testament originally composed in Greek or Hebrew? Overwhelmingly, the evidence points to the former) - {PDF Copy}
- Isle of Patmos - {PDF Copy} - (John was exiled to Patmos for his testimony – A fellow participant in the Tribulation and Perseverance in Jesus)
{INTERPRETATION}
- Unlocking Prophecy - (Jesus, the Word become flesh, is the interpretive key that opens the Hebrew scriptures and the book of Revelation) - {PDF Copy}
- The Mark of the Beast - Considerations - {PDF Copy} - (When we imbibe the values of the existing world order, we begin to take the "mark of the Beast")
- The Missing Seventy Weeks - {PDF Copy} - (The book of Revelation does not apply the Seventy Weeks prophecy to any of its visions)
- Literal vs Nonliteral Language - {PDF Copy} - (It is an error to insist on interpreting symbolic images "literally")
- Chronological Sequence? - {PDF Copy} - (Are Revelation’s visions presented in chronological sequence? If so, how do we explain the many parallel descriptions that link them?)
- Common Errors of Interpretation - {PDF Copy} - (The real-life relevance of Revelation is easily lost if we approach the book with incorrect presuppositions)
- Unsealing the Scroll - {PDF Copy} - (Daniel was commanded to seal the scroll, but the angel sent by Jesus commanded John NOT to do so since the season was now at hand)
{ONLINE COMMENTARIES}
- The Epistles to the Seven Churches, (By Richard Trench. PDF - Read online or download [public domain]).
- Letters to the Seven Churches of Asia, (By William Ramsay. Read online or download PDF [Christian Classics Ethereal Library - ccel.org]).