THE END OF THE OLD AND THE BEGINNING OF THE NEW, COMMENTS ON REVELATION 12+

📗 This is a commentary on Revelation, an apocalyptic book given for the called-out communities in 1st century AD Asia Minor. It is based upon the author’s translation of the Greek text. Its purpose is to reveal light that this expanded translation (with multiple renderings) will shed upon our understanding of what John was telling his listeners. In this work we consider the views of a variety of scholars, but this endeavor is to provide a fresh interpretation of the text. It is intended to reveal both immediate and underlying messages, as we currently perceive them. With an approach to the text in its historical context, a non-literal, metaphorical methodology is followed that allows the Scriptures that the first century author would have drawn upon (the Hebrew Bible, or OT) to supply the meanings of the apocalyptic symbolism. We have turned to the writings of other 1st century authors to inform our understanding of the text. Apocalyptic literature was popular in Second Temple Judaism from around 200 BC to approximately AD 100. About a third of the verses in Revelation reflect passages from the Hebrew Bible. We will present a primarily preterist, or, “already fulfilled,” interpretation which views the text as speaking of events that were fulfilled, or inaugurated, in the generation in which John lived. Added to this are comments on what this means to us in our day. We see this book as an apocalyptic Gospel. It is filled with good news. It begins with a vision of the resurrected...