Review: "Revelation Through Old Testament Eyes"

 

Revelation Through Old Testament Eyes (A Background and Application Commentary) by Tremper Longman III is a new volume in a series of commentaries that seek to work from the fact that the Bible of the New Testament authors was the Old Testament, and, as they write, they write with the Old Testament Scripture, history, and symbols of what we call the Old Testament in mind.  Thus, it is difficult to understand the New Testament fully without seeing it “through Old Testament Eyes.”

This is a commentary I was specifically looking forward to and plan to work through diligently.  I am working on understanding the book of Revelation for myself – not based on theories that lack nay basis in Scripture – but by looking at how the authors of the time would have understood what John wrote.

As commentaries do, this commentary goes through the text of the Gospel and explains it – though not every verse.  The original languages are used sparsely, so this is not a barrier to ministers or teachers using this commentary.

In addition to the running commentary, there are shaded blocks of several types: “what the structure means,” “through Old Testament Eyes,” and “going deeper.” The first looks at significant structural issues that make a difference in interpreting the text, the second shows the connection of the texts between the testaments, and the third explores the issue or term in the text and invites personal reflection on what this means practically.

The commentary ends with a list of the locations of the three shaded types of blocks, of the abbreviations, of the three types of shaded blocks (as above), and a selected bibliography, endnotes, and a Scripture index.

 This commentary, and the others in the series should prove very useful for preachers and teachers to help them understand the fulness of the text better – especially as the two testaments relate to each other.  I certainly look forward to using this commentary – with others – to gai a better understanding of Revelation.

[This review appears on my blog, Amazon.com, Kregel.com, and Goodreads.com.]