More than Conquerors (1939)
The single best commentary on Revelation I know of would be this book, by William Hendriksen (originally pub. 1939). One of the pastors I’ve known has said it’s the one commentary he would recommend on the book without qualification.
Revelation is probably not best approached with some ambition to “figure it out” or “nail it down” once-and-for-all, as if it weren’t simply a sincere description of realities that are themselves beyond our vantage point. That doesn’t mean striving to understand Revelation is not worthwhile (it’s quite rewarding). And, it turns out, the helpful framework is actually pretty simple: Revelation can be considered “the real philosophy of history” (Hendriksen, p. 34); it is a series of visions depicting - in various ways, from various vantage points, with various particular intentions – the time and events, or, rather, the realities and conditions between the first and second comings of Christ.
Too often the attention given to Revelation either, on one hand, obsesses with decoding it in terms of contemporary events or, on the other hand, tries to avoid it as much as possible with blanket summary statements. Even for those who hold a generally reliable framework for the rest of the Bible, it is simply hard to hold together in one’s mind all that the different visions in Revelation tell. But when (at least for a while) one can grasp it accurately, one cannot help but marvel at how beautifully it all fits together. I say “at least for a while” because I have found that when I first re-open to one of the middle visions in the book it still takes me a few minutes to refresh how it fits in the whole, and I have a little work to do before I can see clearly again how it all fits together. I expect that clarity will be easier and easier to maintain with practice.
It seems to me that one reason Revelation carries the reputation of being difficult or inaccessible is that a proper introduction to it might require a full book the size and weight of Hendriksen’s. However, for those willing to make patient and sustained investments, sources like More than Conquerors can provide a helpfully unifying vision of Revelation. This particular commentary also offers deeply devotional reading, as the author walks through the pastoral intentions of each section.
In More than Conquerors, Hendriksen first excellently explains the book’s format and themes (particularly chapters 1-6, p. 7-50). These chapters give tremendous benefit to understanding Revelation, thinking clearly about it and benefiting from it. Then, in chapters 7 through 14, Hendriksen proceed to guide us in considering the texts as they are, highlighting the themes and urging us toward responses of devotion and application. If you want a good statement of the themes of Revelation and their import for us, you’d be better served by Hendriksen’s book itself than any summary of it I could provide now.
On general reading or study of Revelation – We should seek to learn and become more and more familiar with the interpretative framework (whichever one(s) are most faithful to the rest of Scripture). But beyond that, we should not be disproportionately obsessed with interpreting Revelation. Instead, with that framework in mind, we should regularly read and reflect on the book for its guiding philosophy.
We do not need to interpret Revelation perhaps so much as we need to interpret our times by it.
