Posted by Georg S. Adamsen on July 10, 2008
Backus, Irena Dorota. Reformation Readings of the Apocalypse: Geneva, Zurich, and Wittenberg. Oxford Studies in Historical TheologyOxford; New York: Oxford University Press, 2000. xx + 182 pp.
About the book
Backus, Professor at the Université de Genève, Institute of Reformation History, shows that most important sixteenth-century reformed commentators of Revelation”remained heavily indebted to their patristic and medievas sources and were conservative in their estimation of the text’s eschatological significance.”
“… reformed commentators paid much greater attention to the trials and tribulations of the church, past and present, than to the imminence of the Last Judgment. Lutheran commentators, on the other hand, were more overtly future-oriented and emphasized the importance of the text for their era.”
“Backus also offers new and significant information about methods of commenting on [Revelation] …”
Backus focuses on the commentaries of
- Antoine du Pinet
- Leo Jud
- Theodore Bibliander
- Heinrich Bullinger
- Nicolas Colladon
- David Chytraeus
- Nicolaus Selnecker
Table of Contents
The Problem of Canonicity 3
Antoine du Pinet and His Models 37
Augustin Marlorat and Nicolas Colladon 61
The Apocalypse and the Zurich Reformers 87
The Lutheran Counterpoint: David Chytraeus and Nikolaus Selnecker 113
Conclusion 135
Notes 139
Bibliography 169
Index 175
Significance
This book is, so says the publisher, “essential reading for scholars of theology, Reformation history, the history of biblical exegesis, and anyone interested in the Apocalypse of John and its reception in the West.” Indeed.
The author
Irena Backus is D.Phil. from Oxford University (1976) and Dr.theol. Hab. from Bern (1988). She was awarded a honorary Doctory of Divinity-degree from Edinburgh (2001) and a Doctor of Divinity from Oxford.
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Posted by Georg S. Adamsen on
Alexander, Charles David. Revelation Spiritually Understood. [New ed.] Trelawnyd [UK]: K&M Books, 2001. 565 pp. Distributed by Tentmaker Publications
The commentary is a one-volume edition of twenty-five pamphlets, lightly edited.
K and M Books:
Charles David Alexander was born in Liverpool on january 1 1904, of Scottish parentage. he grew up in the city and was saved by God’s grace on 7th March 1921 at the age of 17, although he often related in his later life how that he did not know but that he had possibly been converted at his mother’s knee.
Perhaps his greatest contribution was the work, which has been published here, ‘Revelation Spiritually Understood’, originally published in pamphlet form in 25 parts it has been of tremendous blessing to many of God’s saints. It is a powerful attack on the twin errors of Dispensationalism and Post-millennialism, and is a compulsive and compelling defence of the Amillennialist position.
HT: Nicholas T. Batzig
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Posted by Georg S. Adamsen on
In 2009 Baker will publish a commentary by James L. Resseguie, the author of Revelation Unsealed and Narrative Criticism of the New Testament: An Introduction.
Unlike many recent commentaries, Resseguie’s The Revelation of John: A Narrative Commentary is neither very long (about 300 pages) nor very expensive (RRP $24.99, but you can order it now for only $19.99 at BakerBooks or $16.49 at Amazon).
In his commentary “James Resseguie applies the easily understandable tools introduced in his primer on narrative criticism to this challenging book. He shows how Revelation uses such features as rhetoric, setting, character, point of view, plot, symbolism, style, and repertoire to construct its meaning. This literary approach draws out the theological and homiletical message of the book and highlights its major unifying themes: the need to listen well, an overwhelmingly God-centered perspective, and the exodus to a new promised land. Here is a valuable aid for pastor and serious lay reader alike.”
James L. Resseguie (PhD, Fuller Theological Seminary) is the J. Russell Bucher Professor of New Testament at Winebrenner Theological Seminary in Findlay, Ohio. See more on Reseguie here.
More information at BakerBooks.
HT: Otto N.
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Posted by Georg S. Adamsen on July 3, 2008
Drobner, Hubertus R. Lehrbuch der Patrologie. 2nd revised and expaned ed. Frankfurt am Main; New York: P. Lang, 2004. 532 pp.
Drobner, Hubertus R. The Fathers of the Church: A Comprehensive Introduction: With Bibliographies Updated and Expanded for the English Edition by William Harmless, and Hubertus R. Drobner. Translated by Siegfried S. Schatzmann. English ed. ed. Originally published as Lehrbuch der Patrologie. Freiburg im Breisgau: Herder, 1994. Repr. Peabody, Massachusetts: Hendrickson Publishers, 2007. lvi + 632 pp.
Drobner’s textbook is not a comprehensive dictionary, perhaps not even a comprensive introduction. It is a textbook as the German title indicates. Drobner provides very helpful introductions to the first eight centuries and to the most important Church fathers. A number of those who have written on Revelation are not included, however, e.g., Victorinus of Petovio and Caesarius of Arles.
The English edition is more than a translation, as the subtitle states. A helpful review by Vilhelm Pratscher (pdf) is published by Review of Biblical Literature. The Table of Contents of the English edition is provided by the Library of Congress.
In his amazon.com review, Dr. William Varner, the author of The Way of the Didache: The First Christian Handbook, questions whether it is really “a comprehensive introduction,” as most entries on the church fathers are covered in only one or two pages.
Nevertheless, Varner concludes:
This volume will become THE source to be consulted for “further reading” about the Fathers. But if the reader is looking for an introduction to the thought of the fathers, he can be better served by the old classic, Patrology by Johannes Quasten, or even better by the recent two volume work by Moreschini and Norelli, Early Christian Greek and Latin Literature.
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Posted by Georg S. Adamsen on April 26, 2008
Johann Albrecht Bengel, who is also known by the English rendering: John Albert Bengel, was born in Württemberg i Germany in 1687. He died in 1752. He was contemporary with Johann Sebastian Bach who lived from 1685 to 1750. While Bach was a North German, Bengel was from the South of Germany.
Bengel served as a pastor and an ecclesiastical leader in the beginning and in the end of his career. For twenty-eight years, however, he lived at Denkendorf where he headed the cloister school that prepared young men for an education for Lutheran ministry as the University of Tübingen (1714-1741).
Bengel became “the father of textual criticism” (K. Aland, cited in Weborg, p. 185). Bengel was very proficient at languages and prepared critical editions of Latin and Greek texts, including the New Testament.
Influenced perhaps by Spinoza and certainly by Francke of Leipzig, Bengel explored “the role of the feelings in interpretation” (John Weborg, p. 186, citing Bengel’s New Testament Word Studies [The Gnomon]. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Kregel, 1978, nos. 12 and 15). Bengel “developed Cocceius’s exegesis of biblical prophecies and his chiliastic orientation” (Willem J. van Asselt, in: Trevor A. Hart, The Dictionary of Historical Theology, p. 133 [Carlisle, Cumbria, U.K.: Paternoster Press, 2000]).
Bengel’s influence was enormous. His Gnomon was republished many times, and through John Wesley, “Bengel became part of the the confessional corpus of the Methodist church” (Weborg, p. 186). Indeed, the Lutheran Jaroslav Pelikan says that Bengel’s Gnomon “was commonplace in the libraries of evangelical pastors” (Weborg, p. 186).
Apocalyptic interests
Of most interest at this site is Bengel’s apocalyptic interests:
Bengel is noted for his apocalyptic interests. He calculated a date for the beginning of the thousand-year reign of Christ: 1836. He wrote two major books on the Book of Revelation and two works specifically coordinating time, nature and astronomy with the prophetic material. His Ordo temporum (1741) attempted to be a history of the divine economy [one of the major interests of Bengel] and a proper accounting of prophecy and how parts and whole form one story. The Cyclus (1945) especially tried to link astronomy with prophetic material, and the Explained Revelation (1740), a massive commentary on the text, concludes with six excurses detailing the history of the exegesis of Revelation. (Weborg, p. 187).
Bengel’s Explained Revelation, i.e. Erklärte Offenbarung Johannis, is now accessible at Google Books in its 3rd, 1758 edition. Bengel also published sixty devotional speeches on Revelation: “Sechzig erbauliche Reden über die Offenbarung Johannis” (1747). According to Weborg, this work has a strong “theocentric character” and “a strong emphasis on God’s glory and holiness” (p. 187).
Bengel’s interpretation of Revelation was of the historicist type, as was, e.g., Luthers. Bengel, however, lacked Luther’s reservations about the validity of this approach.
The exegete of Pietism
Bengel was “the exegete of Pietism” (J. Weborg, DMBI, p. 184). Weborg is right in mentioning the Lutheran Johann Brenz as part of Bengel’s context. One may question, however, whether Brenz would have approved of Bengel’s pietism. In fact, Bengel was criticised by Lutherans for his eschatological and apocalyptic views. When Weborg states that the critics of Bengel based “their criticism on Article 17 of the Augsburg Confession,” one may add that they did so because they were certain that this article was based on the clear teachings of the Bible. Thus, “many Lutheran scholars accused him of being either Judaistic or Anabaptistic because of his defense of an earthly millennium and literal fulfillment of prophecy” (Weborg, p. 187).
As to the significance of Bengel, see John Weborg’s concluding section.
Select online sources
More on Bengel in Wikipedia and Wikisource, and, especially, in Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon.
Select bibliography:
Bengel, Johann Albrecht. 60 erbauliche Reden über die Offenbarung Johannis oder vielmehr Jesu Christi …. Stuttgardt, 1748.
________. Bengel’s New Testament Commentary. Translated by Charlton Thomas Lewis, and Marvin Richardson Vincent. [1864]. Repr. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Kregel Publications, 1981.
________. Erbauliche Reden über die Offenbarung Johannis. [Berlin-Dahlem]: Der Christliche Zeitschriftenverlag, 1946.
________. Gnomon. Translated by C. F. Werner. 8. Aufl. Mit einem Vorwort von Egon W. Gerdes; und dem Vorwort von Johann Albrecht Bengel ed. Stuttgart: Steinkopf, 1970.
________. Die Offenbarung des Johannes: Nach d. Auslegung von Johann Albrecht Bengel. Translated by Berthold Burgbacher. Metzingen, Württemberg: Franz, 1975.
Posted by Georg S. Adamsen on February 9, 2008
Seiss, Joseph Augustus. The Apocalypse: A Series of Special Lectures on the Revelation of Jesus Christ, with revised text. Repr. ed. s.l.: C. C. Cook, 1900. 536 pp.
The Apocalypse was reprinted many times and at various locations for decades. Most recently reprinted under the title The Apocalypse: Exposition of the Book of Revelation. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Kregel Publications, 1987. 536 pp. Repr. New York, Cosimo, 2007.
The commentary
Apart from being premillenial and a so-called partial pre-tribulationist (i.e. the entire church participates in the millennial reign, according to Seiss; see on Rev 4:1 and Rev 20:6; see more here and here) resurrected, which gave rise to controversy between Lutherans, Seiss argues from Revelation 1:1-3 that “is a book of which Christ is the great subject and centre, particularly in that period of his administrations and glory designated as the day of his uncovering, the day of his appearing” and it is “a book of the revelation of Christ, in his own person, offices, and future administrations, when he shall be seen coming from heaven, as he was once seen going into heaven” (on Rev 1:1). Indeed, Revelation is “an account of the revelation of Christ in his personal forthcoming from his present invisible estate, to receive his Bride, judge the wicked, and set up his eternal kingdom on the earth” (ibid.).
Seiss also argues that “the Lord’s day” refer to the eschatological Day of the Lord (on Rev 1:1). This is, according to Seiss, what the actual contents of the book are all about. In this respect, I agree with Seiss, but we do not agree as to what it means, as I reject the premillennial interpretation myself (cf. here).
Seiss argues that Revelation is very valuable and precious:
If we are interested in the story of the manger and the cross; if we can draw strength for our prayers and hopes by invoking Christ by the mystery of his incarnation, fasting, temptation, agony, and bloody sweat; if we find it such a precious treasure to our souls to come into undoubting sympathy with the scenes of his humiliation and grief; what should be our appreciation of this book, which treats of the fruits of those sufferings, and tells only of that wronged Saviour’s glory and triumphs, and shows us our Lord enthroned in majesty, riding prosperously, and scattering to his ransomed ones the crowns and regencies of empire which shall never perish, and celestial blessednesses without number and above all thought!
Seiss argues that the author is the apostle John (on Rev 1:1), but does apparently not date Revelation. His view on the book makes it unnecessary.
Seiss’s commentary is cited some 18 times in Gregg, Four Views. C. I. Scofield claimed that it was the best of more than fifty books that he has read about Revelation (see here). In Denmark a lay interpreter, K. M. Schmidt [link follows], found it the best interpretation know to him.
The author
According to FamousAmericans.net, Joseph Augustus Seiss (1823-1904) was born and confirmed a Moravian. Having studied theology in private, he was ordained as a Lutheran pastor. 1858-1904 Seiss served in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He published more than 100 writings, including this commentary. According to FamousAmericans.net, Seiss published this commentary in 1869-1881 in three volumes, but several Americans libraries gives the year of publication as 1865.
Seiss was Doctor of Divinity, but so far I have not been able to determine where and for what.
Seiss was praised as a “confessionalist,” i.e. as one who adhered to the Lutheran confessions. However, his premillennial view gave rise to controversy (Dictionary of Christianity in America, s.v.). Dr. C. F. W. Walther refuted Seiss’s view that the early church was (crass) chiliastic, according to Francis Pieper, Christian Dogmatics, vol. 3, p. 532 n 53b.
Among his other publications is The Last Times and the Great Consummation (1863), available through Google Book.
For biography of Seiss, see Lawrence R. Rast Jr., “Joseph A. Seiss and the American Lutheran Church,” Ph.D. dissertation, Vanderbilt University, 2003, and Samuel Robert Zeiser, “Joseph Augustus Seiss: Popular Nineteenth-Century Lutheran Pastor and Premillennialist,” Ph.D. dissertaton, Drew University, 2001.
The Apocalypse is available for WordSearch (see the image of the book above) and as part of the Free Bible Explorer. It is also available via MBooks - Michigan Digitization Project.
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Posted by Georg S. Adamsen on February 7, 2008
The commentaries included in the category Scholarly commentaries are either scholarly (i.e., written for scholars and serious students) or written by scholars and with a specific, valuable view on Revelation or one of the topics discussed on Revelation Resources.
Although it is hardly possible to rank commentaries objectively, I would suggest that some commentaries should be consulted more unhesitatingly than others. Comments are welcome!
Of the most recent commentaries I would mention:
Two commentaries with a focus on the history of interpretation are recommended (in chronological order):
I would also suggest the following commentaries (in chronological order):
- Peder Madsen, Johannes’ Aabenbaring (1894-1896)
- Henry Barclay Swete, The Apocalypse (1906)
- Wilhelm, Bousset, Die Offenbarung Johannis (1906)
- I. T. Beckwith, The Apocalypse of John (1919)
- R. H. Charles, Revelation (1920)
- Theodor Zahn, Die Offenbarung des Johannes (1924-1926)
- Ernst Lohmeyer, Die Offenbarung des Johannes (1926)
- William Hendriksen, More Than Conquerors (1940)
- Holger Mosbech, Johannes’ Aabenbaring (see also his history of interpretation) (1943; 1934)
- G. B. Caird, The Revelation of St. John the Divine (1966; 1983)
- Robert L. Thomas, Revelation 1-7; Revelation 8-22 (1992; 1995)
- Heinz Giesen, Die Offenbarung des Johannes (1997)
- Grant R. Osborne, Revelation (2002)
Many - especially German - scholars were and are Lutherans. Some seem to be more distinctively Lutheran than others. I would mention the following:
- R. C. H. Lenski, The Interpretation of St. John’s Revelation (1935; repr. 2001)
- Eduard Lohse, Die Offenbarung des Johannes (1960; 8th ed. 1993)
- Martin H. Franzmann, The Revelation to John (1968; 2nd. 1978; repr. 1986)
- Siegbert W. Becker, Revelation: The Distant Triumph Song (1985)
- Gerhard A. Krodel, Revelation (1989)
- Louis A. Brighton, Revelation (1999)
Any comments?
Backus, Irena Dorota. Reformation Readings of the Apocalypse: Geneva, Zurich, and Wittenberg. Oxford Studies in Historical TheologyOxford; New York: Oxford University Press, 2000. xx + 182 pp.
