Revelation for Everyone
and over one million other books are available for Amazon Kindle .
Learn more
| |||||||||||||||
 Trade In this Item for up to £0.25
Get an extra £5 when you trade in books worth £10 or more until June 30, 2012. Trade in Revelation for Everyone (New Testament for Everyone) for an Amazon.co.uk gift card of up to £0.25, which you can then spend on millions of items across the site. Trade-in values may vary (terms apply). Find more products eligible for trade-in.
|
Frequently Bought Together
Product details
|
Product Description
Product Description
Many people today regard Revelation as the hardest book in the New Testament. (Many, if it comes to that, can't even get its name right: it's Revelation, singular, not 'Revelations', plural!) It is full of strange, lurid and sometimes bizarre and violent imagery. You might have thought that in a world of clever movies and DVDs, stuffed full of complex imaginative imagery, we would take to Revelation like ducks to water; but it doesn't always seem to work that way. As a result, many people who are quite at home in the Gospels, Acts and Paul find themselves tiptoeing around Revelation with a sense that they don t really belong there. But they do! This book in fact offers one of the clearest and sharpest visions of God's ultimate purpose for the whole creation, and of the way in which the powerful forces of evil, at work in a thousand ways but not least in idolatrous and tyrannous political systems, can be and are being overthrown through the victory of Jesus the Messiah and the consequent costly victory of his followers. The world we live in today is no less complex and dangerous than the world of the late first century when this book was written, and we owe it to ourselves to get our heads and our hearts around John's glorious pictures as we attempt to be faithful witnesses to God's love in a world of violence, hatred and suspicion.
About the Author
Tom Wright resigned last year as Bishop of Durham to take up a new appointment as Research Professor of New Testament and Early Christianity at the University of St Andrews. He is a regular broadcaster on radio and television. Tom Wright is the author of over forty books, including the other For Everyone guides to the New Testament, the best-selling Simply Christian, Surprised by Hope, and Virtue Reborn; and the magisterial series entitled Christian Origins and the Question of God.
Inside This Book
(Learn More)
Tags Customers Associate with This Product(What's this?)Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
|
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
27 of 28 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I have many commentaries about Revelation. Many of these are big books and quite difficult to read. I have read many more thoughts on line. I have also listened to sermons and series of sermons on the book. Often the various options presented can seem more confusing than the actual text or alternatively the presenter of the commentary explains only the easier imagery, symbolism and illusions whilst leaving significant gaps, which are often the bits you most would most like to understand! You can end up more frustrated regarding what the book is about after the commentary than you were before!
None of this with Tom Wright's version, which is concise and easy to read (and very cheap too!).
He continues the 'for Everyone' format with this book, using his own translation of the original Greek of a set of verses at at time, followed by commentary including relevant items in his own experience.
Tom Wright goes through each chapter with his usual simple 'no nonsense' approach to what it must have meant to the original readers and what lessons should be taken on board by those of us coming now much later in history, although he does not shy away from stating where passages are difficult to interpret. Throughout, Tom Wright's great scholarship in theology and biblical history shines through the explanations.
This is very refreshing after the many wild flights of fantasy which are quite inappropriate (and often just simply factually wrong!) which purport to explain this first century Middle Eastern book and which seem to fill so much space on the web.
Having bought the book, I had got as far as chapter 17 in Revelation in less than one day, so easy is it to read and understand.
For everyone who has had difficulty with working out the meaning of the Book of Revelation through the imagery and symbolism, I cannot recommend this book of Tom Wright's too highly.
None of this with Tom Wright's version, which is concise and easy to read (and very cheap too!).
He continues the 'for Everyone' format with this book, using his own translation of the original Greek of a set of verses at at time, followed by commentary including relevant items in his own experience.
Tom Wright goes through each chapter with his usual simple 'no nonsense' approach to what it must have meant to the original readers and what lessons should be taken on board by those of us coming now much later in history, although he does not shy away from stating where passages are difficult to interpret. Throughout, Tom Wright's great scholarship in theology and biblical history shines through the explanations.
This is very refreshing after the many wild flights of fantasy which are quite inappropriate (and often just simply factually wrong!) which purport to explain this first century Middle Eastern book and which seem to fill so much space on the web.
Having bought the book, I had got as far as chapter 17 in Revelation in less than one day, so easy is it to read and understand.
For everyone who has had difficulty with working out the meaning of the Book of Revelation through the imagery and symbolism, I cannot recommend this book of Tom Wright's too highly.
16 of 17 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
I have two of N T Wright's more academic books and this book is the first I bought in the `Everyone' series. I have a large number of commentaries on Revelation and I wrote a commentary on Revelation myself (in the 1990's), so I was eager to see what Tom Wright had to say on the book.
He has divided Revelation into 46 passages; each passage starts off with his own translation of the Greek, followed by his discussion. The discussion begins with an anecdote. Having gone through the book he has written a very sound commentary, as I expected, that would suite his target audience. It would suit those who have not studied Revelation before, e.g. young Christians; it could be used for daily reading, one passage a day or for group study.
The book includes a glossary of terms at the back. He also includes some fascinating facts, especially on the seven churches, but I was a bit frustrated that he does not list his sources. I have to say that I was sufficiently intrigued by this book that I will probably buy another in the series to see what he has to say. I commend this book to you, and Christian leaders
NB. Wright, is quite correct when he says "it's Revelation, singular, not 'Revelations', plural!".
He has divided Revelation into 46 passages; each passage starts off with his own translation of the Greek, followed by his discussion. The discussion begins with an anecdote. Having gone through the book he has written a very sound commentary, as I expected, that would suite his target audience. It would suit those who have not studied Revelation before, e.g. young Christians; it could be used for daily reading, one passage a day or for group study.
The book includes a glossary of terms at the back. He also includes some fascinating facts, especially on the seven churches, but I was a bit frustrated that he does not list his sources. I have to say that I was sufficiently intrigued by this book that I will probably buy another in the series to see what he has to say. I commend this book to you, and Christian leaders
NB. Wright, is quite correct when he says "it's Revelation, singular, not 'Revelations', plural!".
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Revelation is one of the hardest books of the bible to read if you are trying to make sure you get the right end of the stick. What Wright does (as in the rest of the series) is to provide his own modern translation broken up into small sections and then he provides a commentary on each section.
One of the great benefits of having this as a study book is that it effectively forces you to read the whole thing from start to finish, which is very difficult to do in a church or housegroup. Personally, I think this is a very good approach in general, but it is especially useful with Revelation, given how any sections taken out of context could be very easily misunderstood.
The early part of the book with the letters to the seven churches is generally OK for most people, but once the book gets into the more esoteric aspects of the vision then it gets a lot harder to try and get a handle on it.
What Wright doesn't attempt to do is to say to the reader: "Look at this particular metaphor; it means x,y,z." While there is some context provided, particularly with regard to what John's original readers would have understood by some of the references, Wright constantly tries to being attention to the big picture.
Since this is "for everyone" this could never be a complete exegesis of the book. As such, there are still a lot of things that I felt Wright skipped over, which may have been quite tricky to discuss, though this is openly acknowledged.
Though Revelation contains some very unsettling imagery, this shouldn't be a reason to avoid it. This guide is one that I would recommend to anyone who's struggled with it and wants to try and get the first glimpses of an understanding of John's Revelation.
One of the great benefits of having this as a study book is that it effectively forces you to read the whole thing from start to finish, which is very difficult to do in a church or housegroup. Personally, I think this is a very good approach in general, but it is especially useful with Revelation, given how any sections taken out of context could be very easily misunderstood.
The early part of the book with the letters to the seven churches is generally OK for most people, but once the book gets into the more esoteric aspects of the vision then it gets a lot harder to try and get a handle on it.
What Wright doesn't attempt to do is to say to the reader: "Look at this particular metaphor; it means x,y,z." While there is some context provided, particularly with regard to what John's original readers would have understood by some of the references, Wright constantly tries to being attention to the big picture.
Since this is "for everyone" this could never be a complete exegesis of the book. As such, there are still a lot of things that I felt Wright skipped over, which may have been quite tricky to discuss, though this is openly acknowledged.
Though Revelation contains some very unsettling imagery, this shouldn't be a reason to avoid it. This guide is one that I would recommend to anyone who's struggled with it and wants to try and get the first glimpses of an understanding of John's Revelation.
Would you like to see more reviews about this item?
Were these reviews helpful?
Let us know
Most Recent Customer Reviews
Revelation for Everyone
I have found this book very useful in opening up the writing of John and explaining the symbolism used. Read more
Published 9 days ago by Tricia
Revelation for Everyone
As with anything written by Tom Wright this is a useful study resource for those without a degree in theology! Understandable informative and enjoyable.
Published 1 month ago by Lakelander
Interesting and Informative
This book by Tom Wright as well as giving you a small amount of a difficult epistle is the best explaination of the Book of Revelation I have ever come across
Published 2 months ago by David Chandler
Simply brilliant
I really rate Tom Wright's "For Everyone" series. I've probably read about seven so far in the series and this one is as brilliant as the others - highly readable,... Read more
Published 3 months ago by Zekiel
Great introductory commentary series
Although I have been aware of this series for some time, I had not ever looked more closely at any of these commentaries and was very pleased to have the opportunity to do so... Read more
Published 3 months ago by The Art of Steering
Thoughtful and readable
Tom Wright has the rare gift of being very intelligent, but able to communicate his knowledge in a way ordinary people can understand. Read more
Published 6 months ago by S. PURBRICK
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
Listmania!
|
|
Look for similar items by category
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
|
