The Theology of the Book of Revelation (New Testament Theology) [Paperback]

Not coincidentally, there are seven chapters to his book which at once begins to shape the way Bauckham will treat this book. He begins by addressing what he sees as the root issue behind many people's misunderstanding of Revelation - a misunderstanding of what kind of document it is. Most seem to treat Revelation as a code to be deciphered but Bauckham corrects this tendency by showing that Revelation is at once a letter (to the seven churches in Asia), a prophecy (not just of predictive events but of discernment for the present) and an apocalypse (literature which is characterized by the its view of the inbreaking of God's power into history).

Through this Bauckham shows that Revelation is a response to the situation of his readers' worldview. Many at the time were wooed and awed by the prosperity that Rome brought through its peace and worshipped its power and unequalled strength and Revelation is a critique of both. To combat the illusion that Rome propagates the seer John contrasts it with the image of the throne - the rule of God. Thus, the book is precisely so theocentric because at its core it is attempting to redirect the thought and attitudes of his readers from what they perceive to what is real.

This John does by presenting an alternative vision of reality through his imagery of beasts, angels, scrolls, martyrs and thrones. The imagery is meant to provide a way of viewing the truth of reality in a different way, to symbolize the truth behind the appearence of how things seem in the world.

This is Bauckham's thesis and he exposits it very well. From his introduction and discussion about the centrality of God he goes on to look at the triune aspects of God's activity. A chapter is devoted to the work of God, two to the Son (for both his person and his activities) and one to the Spirit. While this is done very well, my only reservation about this set up is its presupposing such a tangible view of the trinity by John, which is a bit anachronistic. But in spite of this the material is covered very well.

At the end the relevance of Revelation is expounded more forcefully than any other book in this series and it is here that Bauckham really shines in his book as he seems superb at exhorting and creating subjects for discussion.

Overall, this book is very well written. One thing of interest is to note that Bauckham uses far fewer citations in his book than most other authors in this series which is refreshing since I feel that more of his own thought and analysis is coming through and that the book is less a pastiche of all modern scholars on any given subject. This is of a piece with Bauckham's natural and inviting way of writing and this makes his book very enjoyable and highly recommended.

This book is not a line by line exegesis of the Book of Revelation; instead Bauckham approaches Revelation thematically. Because of this thematic approach, the theology of Revelation becomes clear.

Bauckham also supports shows how Revelation is firmly connected to the Hebrew bible. After reading The Theology of the Book of Revelation, I finally decided to read Ezekiel for the first time. Bauckham clearly shows that the theology of Revelation is intimately tied to imagery and theology contained in the Hebrew bible (e.g. Ezekiel).

As to a prior reviewer's comment that Bauckham's book "spiritualizes the millenium into irrelevance," the reviewer is correct. The parousia really is irrelevant to Baukham's understanding of Revelation. Bauckham makes a very good argument that Revelation is not about Christ's second coming.

Read this book if you want to read a very good commentary on Revelation which goes against the current popular way of understanding. This is definately not an end times book.