Why the Quest for a Name Is the Wrong Quest Revelation 13:18 encourages the wise to calculate or decode the number of the Beast. Many translations mislead the reader to search for a specific person whose name fits with 666.…
Revelation 2:17: “The one who has an ear let him hear what the Spirit is saying to the churches. To the one who conquers, I will give him some of the hidden manna and I will give him a white…
Pergamum as Satan’s Throne and Dwelling Place (Rev. 2:12) First-century Pergamum has two characteristics that might qualify her to be the place of Satan’s throne and his dwelling place. She has many temples associated with pagan deities, with temples to…
Introduction to the Pergamum Letter The letter to Pergamum is quite different from the letter to Smyrna. Although they are under similar pressures, the church at Pergamum is beginning to give in to the pressures of its pagan environment and…
A Church in a Time of Tribulation The letter to Smyrna differs from the letter to Ephesus in that Jesus does not cite any weaknesses for this church. The church of Smyrna is in the midst of “tribulation,” which is…
There are a few points in each of the seven letters that are mysterious or deserve special attention. In order to teach on each letter, it helps to give special attention to such points. I have selected out a few…
Last week, I was given the opportunity to preach on Revelation in chapel. I chose to preach on something other than the common passages that one commonly hears in church, like the seven letters to the seven churches (Rev. 2-3).…
Revelation. Craig Keener. NIV Application Commentary. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2000. 576 pp. Craig Keener is a prolific author with some common emphases in his works. He is well-known, for example, for his emphasis upon the value of parallels in Greco-Roman…
The Book of the Revelation, Philip E. Hughes. Pillar New Testament Commentary. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1990. 242 pp. Hughes’s commentary on Revelation is not widely known, probably because it has gone out of print. I have found his commentary on…
Mathewson’s Handbook on the Greek Text of Revelation
Revelation: A Handbook on the Greek Text. By David L. Mathewson. Baylor Handbook on the Greek New Testament. Waco: Baylor University Press, 2016. Paperback, $34.95. David Mathewson, Associate Professor of New Testament at Denver Seminary, has written important works on…