Abstract
This second edition comes seventeen years after the first, and reflects some of the academic and popular developments in approaches to Revelation since 2001. In a new Preface, Koester notes three ways in which the new edition has updated the earlier one. First, recent scholarship has been included, drawing on his own major commentary on Revelation for the Anchor Yale Bible series (2014). Second, developments in the Middle East and other world events have generated new speculation about the vision of the end-times described in Revelation, and these are considered in the first chapter, on the history of interpretation of the book. Third, discussion questions have been added to focus the reading of students and study groups. All three additions strengthen the value and appeal of an already well-regarded resource on the troubling yet alluring book of Revelation for a non-specialist readership.
Written from a confessional perspective, the book integrates and interrogates the complexities of competing scholarly views with the clarity of a preacher. The cracks in many of the totalising and sensational interpretations of recent times are prised open, but with generosity rather than derision. Few of the intended readers would want to read the book from cover to cover, I imagine, but it offers manageable, self-contained chapters on three-to-four chapter sections of Revelation, which would be ideal for Bible study or undergraduate use.
The book is peppered with Dürer woodcuts throughout. With so many illustrations of the Apocalypse available, some variety might have been welcome, but issues of copyright may have constrained the range of options.
Overall, this remains a very valuable volume for its intended market and beyond, summarising as it does the informed scholarship of a Revelation expert in an attractive and accessible way.