Pate, C. Marvin, ed. Four Views on the Book of Revelation. Counterpoints: Exploring TheologyGrand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan Publishing House, 1998. 252 pp.
This volume presents what is called “the four main views” of Revelation:
The preterist (Kenneth L. Gentry Jr.)
The idealist (Sam Hamstra Jr.)
Progressive dispensationalist (C. Marvin Pate)
Classical dispensationalist (Robert L. Thomas)
The format of the series, the interactive Counterpoints forum, allows each author not only to present his view, but also to offer brief commentary on other views presented. This evenhanded approach is ideal for comparing and contrasting stances in order to form a personal conclusion about the interpretation and meaning of Revelation.
The four authors show how they interpret Revelation as they do, and why they do so.
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.
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.
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.
Revelation Resources » » Forthcoming
This page features a list of forthcoming commentaries and other books on Revelation, as far as I am (made) aware of them.
You are welcome to give me a hint if you know of a work that should be included.
Cruz, Virgil Ambrose. The Mark of the Beast: A Study of the ΧΑΡΑΓΜΑ [CHARAGMA] in the Apocalypse. Amsterdam: Academische Pers N. V., 1973. 153 pp.
This thesis is a very important, but also quite neglected study. Cruz carefully surveys how the mark of the beast is used in Revelation.
One of the most debated issues is the earth beast’s mark, to charagma (Rev 13:16-17; 14:9, 11; 15:2; 16:2; 19:20; 20:4). The number of its name is given as six hundred and sixty-six (Rev 13:18). The interest in the imagery of the mark has not been comparable to the interest in the number. The only extensive investigation seems to be Virgil Ambrose Cruz’s The Mark of the Beast from 1973.
Cruz analyses four aspects, namely the question of who gives the mark, the issues of the bestowal and the reception or rejection of it, the facet of the place of the mark, and, finally, the parallels to the mark. He completes his study with a discussion of all the passages in which the charagma imagery occurs.
Cruz concludes that the mark constitutes a magnitude of threat, and that it is “the mark of God’s arch adversary, the anti-God force”, wherefore the recipients are “stigmatized as [the adversary’s] followers, hence, similarly as opponents of God”. He asserts that it “becomes in its own right an enemy to be conquered by God’s people (15:2)” and “a symbol of evil” (p. 131).The mark should be understood as symbols, which nevertheless point to realities in the world (p. 132).
Cruz concludes that the charagma is “whatever decisively indicates that a man is allied with the anti-God force” and that it earns its bearers the wrath of God (p. 132).
Cruz’s analysis is a major achievement in that he pays attention to the narrative use of this motif. The mark is clearly described as a contrasting parallel to the seal of God, as is shown by the location of the seal and the mark, by the agents of this act, by the behaviour, and by the final outcome (cf. also pp. 86-100).
As regards the location, both the seal of God and the mark of the beast are to be placed on the forehead (7:3; 13:16), although the latter may also be put on the (right) hand (13:16; 14:9; 20:4) (p. 79).[1] V. A. Cruz argues that the wearing of the charagma on the forehead or the right hand is “tantamount to making a fully public confession of faith in and acceptance of the authority of the forces which are diametrically opposed to God”.[2]
With regard to the agents, the servants of God are marked by angels (7:3), probably indicating that they are approved as servants.[3]
As regards the force behind, it is explicitly said that the beast is behind the marking with the charagma (cf. kai poiei in 13:16) (pp. 7f), while it is only implied that it is God who gave order to the sealing of his servants (7:2f).[4]
As far as the behaviour is concerned, there is a clear distinction between those who dwell on the earth and the servants of God.[5] On the one hand, the whole earth follows the beast (13:3) and worships the dragon and the beast (13:4 cf. 13:8), prompted by the second beast (13:12).[6] Their names are not written in the book of life (13:8). On the other hand, the saints against whom the beast makes war (13:7) even let themselves be killed rather than worship the beast (13:15) (cf. also pp. 58-63).
As for the outcome, the two groups are quite contrastive. Those who are killed will be raised and reign together with Christ for ‘a thousand years’ (20:4) indeed forever (22:5), while those who worship the beast and receive its mark will suffer the wrath and torment of God (14:10), in fact also forever (14:11).[7]
[1] See also pp. 72-3.[2] Cruz also calls attention to the parallel use of onoma in Rev 14:1 and 22:4. This name motif is introduced already in 3:12 (cf. 2:17). The name of God, of the New Jerusalem (which perhaps includes the name of the Lord as in Ez 48:35), and of Christ may thus be the mark of the seal of God and therefore the contrast to the mark of the beast and its number. Such a contrast is also implied in the ‘blasphemous names’ and the blaspheming of God’s name in Rev 13:1 and 6. The 144,000 have the name of the Lamb and his Father written on their foreheads, where the seal of God should be placed according to 7:2f.[3] Cruz convincingly rejects the view that the bearers have marked themselves (cf. e.g. DNT-1948 and DBI). The reason is that the Greek of Rev 13:16 reads not epi tês cheiros heautôn, but epi tês cheiros autôn and the parallel passages in Rev 14:9, 11; 19:20 and 20:4 use the verb lambanô (pp. 6-7).
[4] Cruz argues, however, that “the words sphragida theou zôntos explicitly point to God as the authority behind its bestowal” (p. 87).
[5] See pp. 56-8 for a description of the recipients of the mark of the beast.
[6] Cruz argues that the reason why the bearers worship and receive the mark was not that it was imposed “irresistibly”, but that they were prompted to do so by the great signs, the threat of death sentence and by economic sanctions. He therefore concludes that “the bestowal of the ca,ragma is not to be taken for granted in every individual case but depends rather upon the success of the variously expressed enticements and pressures to conform” (V. A. Cruz 1973, 56).
[7] Cf. also pp. 58. However, Cruz interprets Revelation 13 as a description of non-parousian circumstances and claims that the recipients of the mark of the beast receives “approval, membership in the cult (13:12) and exemption from economic and political sanctions applied against recalcitrants” from the dragon and the two beasts (ibid.).
Pate, C. Marvin, ed. Four Views on the Book of Revelation. Counterpoints: Exploring TheologyGrand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan Publishing House, 1998. 252 pp.
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